Whirl vs Tangerine, Permute and Dropzone on Mac

An iPhone photo to JPG, a PDF to Word and a screen recording to a smaller MP4 are 3 different jobs. Before installing a file converter, list the formats you need and decide where the conversion should start: a Control-click, a window with a queue, or the drag you are already making.

Quits publishes Whirl. This review compares our catalog with Apple’s and the developers’ documentation, checked 19 October 2026 and, for Tangerine, 20 October 2026. It describes documented capabilities, not hands-on benchmarks of speed or output quality.

Which approach fits?

Choice	Consider it when	Check before choosing
Finder and Preview	You convert an image or make a PDF now and then	The Quick Actions shown depend on the file type and enabled extensions
Whirl	You want pictures, PDFs, documents, movies and sounds converted while you drag	macOS 26 or later; Files and Folders permission
Tangerine	You want the same Shift-drag wheel with more formats, such as MP3, WebM, spreadsheets and archives	Apple silicon with macOS 13 or later; a limited number of free files, then a one-time unlock
Permute	You convert video, audio and images in batches with presets	Permute 4 needs macOS 26 and Apple silicon; the Mac App Store version differs
Dropzone	You want drag targets for moving, sharing and uploading files	Its home page lists resize and compress actions, not format conversion

Start with Finder and Preview

Apple’s Quick Actions guide shows what Finder already does: Control-click a file, then choose Quick Actions. Convert Image changes an image’s format and size, Create PDF makes a PDF, Trim shortens movies and audio, and Remove Background is there too. The list changes with the file type and with the extensions you turn on in Customize.

Apple’s Preview guide covers File > Export, with HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF in the Format pop-up menu, and several images converted at once from the sidebar. For a JPG from an iPhone photo once a week, these built-in tools are probably enough.

Whirl reviewed: the conversion inside the drag

Whirl starts from a drag. Pick up a file in Finder, on the desktop or in any app that drags files, press Shift, and a wheel of formats and tools opens under the pointer. Drop the file on a wedge and the new file appears next to the original; let go anywhere else and nothing happens. Resting on the middle switches from formats to tools.

The range goes past the native menus. For pictures the catalog lists JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, TIFF and PDF, plus text from a picture as TXT or DOCX. PDFs go to Word, RTF, Markdown, text or pictures, with scanned pages read on your Mac. Movies become MP4, MOV, animated GIF or M4A, sounds M4A, WAV, AIFF or FLAC. The ring of tools adds Compress, Crop, Redact, Remove Background and more, and combines, splits or protects PDFs.

Every file is converted on your Mac, never uploaded, and new files never replace old ones. Whirl requires macOS 26 or later, and macOS asks once for Files and Folders access to Desktop, Documents or Downloads the first time Whirl saves a new file there. The catalog doesn’t list MP3, WebM or spreadsheet formats, so check the formats you rely on before choosing it. Whirl is a one-time purchase; its current price and the House Rules are shown below.

Tangerine: the same gesture, a longer format list

Tangerine’s site and its Mac App Store listing, from LEAP STUDIO, describe the closest alternative to Whirl: drag a file, tap Shift, and a wheel of output formats opens under the pointer. Other keys bring up a wheel of file tools and one of file actions such as AirDrop, Copy and Move, and the keys can be changed in Settings. Enter on a selected file opens the same wheels from the keyboard.

Its format list is longer than Whirl’s catalog: MP3, OGG and Opus for sound, MKV, WebM and AVI for video, PDF to PowerPoint, Excel or EPUB, spreadsheets such as XLSX, ODS and CSV, subtitles, and ZIP, TAR and GZIP archives, with RAR opened but not created. The tools include compressing to an exact file size, trimming, splitting and joining videos, normalizing audio, editing metadata, reordering PDF pages and reading QR codes. The developer says files are processed on the Mac and never uploaded.

Tangerine runs on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 13 or later and is distributed through the Mac App Store. The download converts a limited number of files for free; a one-time in-app purchase removes the limit, with no subscription. If you rely on MP3, WebM, spreadsheets or archives, or your Mac can’t run macOS 26, Tangerine is the one to evaluate.

Permute: a media converter with presets

Charlie Monroe Software’s Permute page describes a converter for video, audio and images with a drag-and-drop queue, drop zones for quick conversions and a library of format presets. Its format list includes WebM, AV1, MP3 and ProRes. It can stitch multiple files into one, edit files individually or in bulk, and export PDF pages as images. If your work is mostly video or audio in formats Whirl’s catalog doesn’t list, Permute is the one to evaluate.

Permute 4 requires macOS 26 or later and Apple silicon; the developer points Macs running macOS 11 to 15, and Intel Macs, to Permute 3. It is sold as a permanent license with a free trial, directly or on the Mac App Store, where some features differ because of Apple’s sandbox.

Dropzone: actions for files while you drag

Aptonic’s Dropzone page works at the same moment as Whirl: drag a file and Dropzone appears at the top of the screen, with a grid of actions such as Move Files, AirDrop, SFTP Upload, Resize Images and Compress Images. You can write your own actions in Ruby or Python. Dropzone 5 lists macOS 13 or later, and its Pro features come with a 14-day trial and a lifetime license. Choose it when the job is moving, sharing or uploading files, or when your Mac can’t run macOS 26; its home page doesn’t present it as a format converter.

Choose around your need

For an occasional image conversion or a quick PDF, start with Finder’s Quick Actions and Preview. For the same Shift-drag gesture with more formats, or on macOS 13 to 15 with Apple silicon, look at Tangerine. For video and audio batches with presets, look at Permute. For sending files to folders, apps and servers, Dropzone fits. If you want pictures, PDFs, documents, movies and sounds converted right where you’re already dragging, try Whirl’s Demo.

Tangerine, Permute and Dropzone belong to their respective developers; Quits is not affiliated with them.