Setapp alternative: Mac apps you pay for once
Published , updated
Quits is an alternative to Setapp for people who’d rather pay once. Setapp is a subscription: you pay every month or every year for a catalog of more than 300 apps, and you use them for as long as you pay. Quits is a store: you buy the Mac apps you need one at a time, pay once for each and keep them, with every update free. Here’s how the 2 compare, with Setapp’s public prices and the day we checked them, and when each one is the better deal.
Setapp and Quits at a glance
| Setapp | Quits | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | A subscription, by the month or by the year | Once per app |
| Price | $14.99 a month or $107.88 a year for the Mac plan, plus tax | 9.99 per app, plus tax. Until 9 November 2026, 4.99, the launch price |
| Currency | US dollars | US dollars |
| Catalog | More than 300 Mac, iOS and web apps, from many developers | 15 Mac apps, all made by us |
| Macs | 1 on the Mac plan, 2 or 4 on the bigger plans | 5 active Macs per license |
| If you stop paying | The apps stay installed but can’t be used | Nothing to stop: the app is yours for good |
| Trying first | A 7-day free trial | A Demo in your browser, then 30 days for a full refund |
| Buying 1 app | Some apps, once or by subscription, with the Setapp app and account | Every app |
Setapp’s column is from its own pages, checked on 6 October 2026: the sources are at the end.
What Setapp costs
Setapp is MacPaw’s subscription to a catalog of apps. On 6 October 2026 its Mac plan cost $14.99 a month, or $107.88 a year, for 1 Mac. The plan for 2 Macs cost $18.99 a month, and the Power User plan, for 4 Macs and 4 iPhones or iPads, $22.99 a month. Prices are in US dollars everywhere and exclude tax. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, and Setapp’s home page counts 300+ Mac, iOS and web apps in the subscription.
If you cancel, Setapp and its apps stay installed on your Mac, but you can’t use them.
Since 3 March 2026 Setapp also sells some apps on their own, by subscription or as a one-time purchase. They need the Setapp app and a Setapp account to work and to get their updates.
What Quits costs
Every app on Quits has the same price: 9.99 US dollars, plus tax. You pay it once. Until 9 November 2026 the launch price is 4.99. These are the apps, by what they do:
Menu bar and windows
- Stow, 9.99: hides menu bar icons until you need them.
- Orario, 9.99: a menu bar calendar with a Join button for your next meeting.
- Dusk, 9.99: dims every window except the one in front.
- Pausa, 9.99: a break for your eyes every 20 minutes.
Your Mac’s health
- Revs, 9.99: CPU, memory, temperature and fans in the menu bar.
- Eighty, 9.99: a charge limit for your MacBook’s battery.
- Vigil, 9.99: keeps your Mac awake, even with the lid closed.
- Freshen, 9.99: finds the apps that need an update.
- Unwind, 9.99: clears what coding with AI agents leaves behind.
Text and clipboard
- Scrap, 9.99: a searchable history of everything you copy.
- QuickMD, 9.99: a Markdown note in 2 keystrokes, saved as a file.
Sound, video and files
- Tone, 9.99: a volume for every app.
- Onda, 9.99: turns a video link into a file on your Mac.
- Squish, 9.99: makes images and videos smaller as soon as they arrive.
- Twofold, 9.99: finds duplicate and look-alike photos.
All 15 cost 149.85, once, plus tax, or 74.85 at the launch price until 9 November 2026. A year of Setapp’s Mac plan is $107.88 plus tax, and it renews. That sets 15 apps against more than 300: it shows how the 2 ways of paying add up, not which catalog is better.
When Setapp is the better deal
- You use a lot of apps, or like trying new ones. More than 300 apps for 1 fee is hard to match app by app.
- You need apps Quits doesn’t make. Our catalog is 15 small utilities. Setapp’s has large apps from many developers.
- You want apps for iPhone and iPad too. Quits only sells Mac apps.
When paying once is the better deal
- You use the same few utilities every day, for years. An app at 9.99 costs less than 1 month of Setapp’s Mac plan, and you pay for it once.
- You don’t want anything to renew. There’s no renewal date and nothing to cancel. The app keeps working whatever you do next.
- You use more than 1 Mac. One license covers 5 active Macs, the Macs where you opened the app in the last 90 days.
- You want to know the whole price first. You pay 9.99 plus tax once, and every update is free, forever.
All of this is written down in the House Rules, which hold for every app.
Can you use Setapp and Quits together?
Yes. They don’t depend on each other: a Setapp subscription and apps bought on Quits work side by side on the same Mac. Paying once makes most sense for the utilities you’d still want on the day you cancel a subscription.
Questions about switching
Is Quits a subscription?
No. Every app is a one-time purchase, and no app has features sold on the side. What a one-time purchase covers has the details.
Is there a free trial, like Setapp’s?
There’s no trial to download. Every app’s page has a Demo that runs in your browser, with nothing to install, and after you buy you have 30 days for a full refund.
Is there a lifetime plan?
There’s nothing extra to buy: every purchase on Quits is already for good. The app is yours, with every update free. If an app ever changes purpose, that’s a new app, and the one you have stays yours.
Do the apps need a launcher or an account?
No launcher: each app runs on its own. You do need a Quits Account, with no password, to hold your licenses. An app activates once through your browser, then works offline too.
Who makes the apps?
On Setapp, many different developers. On Quits, we do: every app is made and published by Federico Infelici, an independent developer in Arezzo, Italy, and the people who write the apps answer support.
Sources
Setapp’s plans, prices and terms come from Setapp Support, Subscription plans, Manage payments and billing, Cancel subscription, FAQ Single apps and setapp.com, all checked 6 October 2026. The day single apps arrived is from 9to5Mac, 3 March 2026.
The comparison is about how you pay, not about the apps: Setapp’s catalog is much bigger than ours. Setapp is a trademark of MacPaw, and Quits isn’t affiliated with Setapp or MacPaw.
See the apps on Quits and try their Demos, or read the FAQ first.
