Updatest is a Mac app that unifies updates from Homebrew, Mac App Store, Sparkle, Electron, and GitHub Releases into one clean dashboard. Discover outdated apps, adopt manual installs into Homebrew, get security details, and bulk‑update with confidence—no sketchy update databases, your data stays local.
I’m Jared, an indie macOS developer and the creator of Updatest.
Updatest is your new home for Mac updates. It unifies updates from Homebrew, Mac App Store, Sparkle, Electron, and GitHub Releases into one clean dashboard.
Updatest started as a small tool I built for myself to bring manually installed apps under Homebrew, making it easier to keep everything up to date without spending time in the terminal. Over time it grew into a single place to keep all my apps updated, regardless of how they update.
The response showed this was a problem a lot of macOS users were running into, which helped drive the direction of the app. I’m excited to finally share it here now that it’s officially out of beta.
How it fits together macOS apps update through many different systems, and some apps you install manually can also be managed by Homebrew later on. Updatest was the first updater to surface this capability in a clear, guided way, long before it became a common pattern.
What’s included? - Automatic detection of supported update sources per app - Clear, guided Homebrew adoption for apps installed outside of Homebrew - Homebrew formulae updates alongside app updates - Source aware update checks that reflect how each app updates - A fully native macOS experience with no tracking and no telemetry
The goal is simple: make macOS updates understandable without compromising privacy.
Would love to hear what you think, especially now that it’s out of beta.
Unifying updates without sacrificing trust is harder than it looks.
What update source caused the most complexity when you brought everything together?
Have you considered Tauri apps? Electron apps are always 500mb because they ember chrome. Tauri is like Bun Is to NPM. Faster, Better, Stronger. And apps are super tiny, 10mb+++ Because they use native browser engines. TBH. Having used Tauri for a week now. Super impressed. It also has auto updates, so i recon its possible to pipe into somehow? Or just check app version with release tag in github or smth. Might be worth looking into. Curious, how do you know if electron apps are outdated or not?
But Updatest handles all of those sources and helps me migrate random apps I've installed to be managed by Homebrew, which is much more reliable and convenient.
@hugeirl has been cranking on Updatest to get to this launch, and the quality of his work shows.
If you use Mac apps and want to keep them up-to-date, you owe it to yourself to give Updatest a try.
I bought a license within minutes of downloading the app — and it's improved by leaps and bounds since then!
For a user with a messy Mac (manual installs, Homebrew casks/formulae, App Store apps), what’s the ideal first-week workflow you designed for—especially around adopting existing apps into Homebrew—and what are the failure modes you built guardrails for?
This is basically a dashboard for people who hate juggling updates as I do. Can it also handle apps I installed years ago and forgot about?
Love the thought. But some updates may be unnecessary, while some may include major new features that totally upgrade the experience. Will you also include such info?
how does the app handle Homebrew conflicts or dependencies that usually require manual terminal intervention, does that surface in the UI?
Congrats on the launch! Love how Updatest unifies Homebrew, MAS, Sparkle, Electron, and GitHub updates into one trusted, local-first dashboard.
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I’m Jared, an indie macOS developer and the creator of Updatest.
Updatest is your new home for Mac updates. It unifies updates from Homebrew, Mac App Store, Sparkle, Electron, and GitHub Releases into one clean dashboard.
Updatest started as a small tool I built for myself to bring manually installed apps under Homebrew, making it easier to keep everything up to date without spending time in the terminal. Over time it grew into a single place to keep all my apps updated, regardless of how they update.
I shared the first version of Reddit, got more feedback, and most recently felt I really hit a nerve. We can even go all the way back in time to when Updatest was called Caskly.
The response showed this was a problem a lot of macOS users were running into, which helped drive the direction of the app. I’m excited to finally share it here now that it’s officially out of beta.
How it fits together
macOS apps update through many different systems, and some apps you install manually can also be managed by Homebrew later on. Updatest was the first updater to surface this capability in a clear, guided way, long before it became a common pattern.
What’s included?
- Automatic detection of supported update sources per app
- Clear, guided Homebrew adoption for apps installed outside of Homebrew
- Homebrew formulae updates alongside app updates
- Source aware update checks that reflect how each app updates
- A fully native macOS experience with no tracking and no telemetry
The goal is simple: make macOS updates understandable without compromising privacy.
Would love to hear what you think, especially now that it’s out of beta.