The software purchase and sale system is as old as computers' own invention. For decades, we have become accustomed to paying a fixed price to use such a program or, as it has become more common for some time now, to pay a monthly fee for a subscription to an application or a series of them, whether Office 365 or Creative Cloud, from Adobe.
The desktop app store model, however, did not stick the way it should, especially the Mac App Store, which suffers from an undeniable impatience by Apple, stemming directly from its relative disregard for the Mac line itself. To fill this gap from a modern, safe and reliable application source, MacPaw, producer of popular apps like CleanMyMac is launching the Setapp.
What is Setapp? Basically, we can classify it as a kind of Netflix for Mac applications. You pay a monthly fee of US $ 10, currently and install a small application on your Mac, which will put a “Setapp” folder in your Finder favorites. Within this folder, the menu of applications available to install anyone appears, just double-click and in a few moments it will be running, even without an internet connection.
For now, Setapp has about 45 high-quality applications, including MacPaw's own, such as CleanMyMac, Gemini and Hider, but also other renowned titles such as CodeRunner, Blogo, RapidWeaver and Ulysses. All are updated automatically as updates are released by their producers and work as long as the user pays for the subscription. In addition, they all have advanced systems of protection against piracy in their own source code, preventing illegal copies of the software from spreading over the web.
The idea of ​​the producer reaching a number of around 300 applications, at most their focus is to offer quality above all, instead of the quantity that is characteristic of MAS. According to Oleksandr Kosovan (founder of MacPaw), in an interview for the The Next Web, the problem of the official macOS app store is precisely the excess of options; many applications have been abandoned without updates for years, a number of others do not present a satisfactory level of quality and, worse, a good amount cannot even be sold in the store because of Apple's strict rules related to sandbox.
Setapp comes, theoretically, to solve these problems and, still, to offer a fairer way of passing on profits to the developers. Of all the revenue generated by the service, 70% was passed on to them directly, as usual. The other 30% will be from MacPaw, but the company will distribute a portion of this slice as a “bonus” to the developers who attract the most subscribers to the service, encouraging partners to always offer the best products possible.
For the time being, Setapp is in a closed testing phase, with invitations released gradually it is possible to request an invitation on the official website of the service. Soon the public beta phase will begin, for a general launch at the beginning of next year. The intention is excellent and, depending on the players who buy the idea, it could be the future of the software distribution that Apple missed. Let's see.
Update · 12/06/2016 at 16:00
Setapp today announced the beginning of its public beta phase, initially releasing invitations to readers of some foreign sites about the Apple universe such as MacRumors. I, however, sent my email address and received the invitation immediately without resorting to these benefits, so it is quite possible that you will also be able to, if you are interested; just go to their website and click "Join beta".
It is good to remember that the beta phase of Setapp is free and the testers will earn an extra month after the launch of the final version of the service, in January after that, we will all have to pay the US $ 10 previously announced if we want to continue enjoying the programs.
