When I first switched to Mac, I wasn’t sure which applications would be best suited to replace my Windows programs. Most of the programs that I used on my Windows PC didn’t have a Mac version and this led to trying to find the best alternative.
But how do you go about finding the best Windows alternative application when every company says theirs is the best?
What Not to Do
In many cases if you go to Google and type in a search for something like, “convert videos mac” you’ll end up at a products homepage. Once you land on a page like that, you’ll read that this app is the best in the world and nothing else even comes close to comparing to it. Read a little further down and you’ll see a free trial and an option to buy said product. This is the wrong way to search for Windows alternative apps.
Every company that sells software is going to tell you that their software is the best. I mean they wouldn’t make much money if they advertised as being the 5th best product available for purchase. You’d just leave that page and instead go elsewhere.
What You Should be Doing
The best way to discover superior alternatives is to go by what other like-minded people recommend. A company may say they are the best, however 100 people recommending a different app is a superior way to find the best application for your needs.
http://alternativeto.net is an amazing resource that helps you do just that. Before I buy an application I always check here first, just incase there is something better available.
AlternativeTo is a new approach to finding good software. Tell us what application you want to replace and we give you great alternatives, based on user recommendations.
The above is a quote from their website. This is exactly the kind of thing people who are switching to Mac should be using to find alternative software options.
Lets say you used a video converter on Windows, however that same application does not have a Mac alternative. Just type that into the search field and AlternativeTo will get to work on showing you the best user recommended alternatives for your Mac.
Of course this isn’t the only way of finding good alternative applications. If you trust a website, friend or author and they recommend an application there is nothing wrong with following their recommendation over AlternativeTo.
For instance, if you search for the best video converter on Alternative you will probably see that Handbrake is the top dog, and truthfully it’s a great application. However, I still recommend iFlicks 2 over it, simply because it’s what I prefer for my needs and it’s what I use myself.
Basically to sum up what I’m trying to say, it never hurts to spend a minute or two searching for the best and doing a little research before just diving in an downloading any old application to your Mac. AlternativeTo is just a really useful and quick way to do just that.
Do you have any other useful methods that you use to find great applications for you Mac? Let use know in the comments below.
The post New to Mac? How to Find the Best Windows Alternative Software appeared first on AppDucate.
