How to keep Mac apps from outside the App Store up to date
By Arvind Kumar ยท
Apps from the Mac App Store update themselves. Apps you downloaded elsewhere are on their own, and an old version can mean missing fixes, including security fixes. There are four common ways they stay current.
The app's own updater
Many Mac apps include an updater, very often the open source Sparkle framework. The app checks its developer's site now and then and offers the new version. It works well, but each app does it separately, and an app you rarely open rarely checks.
Homebrew
If you installed an app with Homebrew, one command updates everything Homebrew installed:
brew upgradeThis suits people who are comfortable in Terminal. Apps that update themselves are skipped unless you ask for them with the --greedy option.
An update checker
Some apps exist only to look at what you have installed and tell you what is out of date. Latest, which is open source and in the OpenDMG catalog, is one of them.
OpenDMG
OpenDMG checks every app in its catalog against GitHub each hour. Apps you installed through it show an Update button when a new release is out, your settings are kept, and OpenDMG updates itself the same way.
Install them in one click
OpenDMG is a free, open source app store for open source Mac apps. It downloads each app from its developer's own GitHub release, checks it, and keeps it up to date. No account is needed.
