Setapp Review

What Setapp Is

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Setapp is an app subscription for Mac, offering access to over 240 apps for a flat monthly fee.

All apps are in one place, with no per-app fees.

For investigators, Proxyman is available, a top-notch HTTP proxy tool that makes the subscription worthwhile.

The Investigator's Case for Setapp

Proxyman is the main event. This HTTP/HTTPS proxy intercepts and inspects network traffic from your Mac and iOS devices, making it a top tool for OSINT.

With Proxyman, you analyze API calls, reverse-engineer request handling, understand data sent by mobile apps, and debug custom scrapers or automation scripts. This is the daily value.

Proxyman costs $79.99/year for a standalone license. This is a significant cost.

Setapp offers Proxyman plus over 200 other tools for $9.99/month, which equals $119.88/year. You don't save money. Should you buy Proxyman anyway? Setapp's price is neutral.

Setapp's catalog includes other good tools: Canister for Docker image discovery and management, CleanMyMac X for malware detection and privacy protection, Pockity, Tot, and Lungo for workflow helpers.

Hope this helps.

Proxyman In Depth

Proxyman runs on your Mac, routing all traffic through it. You get a local certificate authority. It decrypts HTTPS, with no extra setup required.

You see everything, with request and response details such as headers, body, timing, and status codes all available.

You can filter by app, domain, IP, to narrow down to what matters. You can also modify requests and responses if needed.

The tool supports JavaScript scripting for automation, allowing you to write the logic and have Proxyman execute it.

Proxyman is useful for investigators building tools or analyzing targets. It extends to iOS traffic via USB or WiFi, with no jailbreak required. Traffic from iOS devices can be inspected.

What's Not Useful for OSINT

Setapp's catalog is mostly productivity tools, creative apps, writing software, and utilities. Not much for investigators.

The subscription is worth it if Proxyman is in your daily workflow and you're on a Mac. If you only need Proxyman sometimes, buy it outright.

Pricing

Annual subscriptions save you around 17%. A free 7-day trial is available to test the full catalog before you commit.

The Math

Proxyman costs $79.99 per year. CleanMyMac X is about $39.95 per year. That's $119.94 per year. Setapp Individual costs $9.99/month. You can get both Proxyman and CleanMyMac X on Setapp. Adding any other app you'd otherwise pay for makes Setapp the better value.

Alternatives

• Proxyman standalone — $79.99/year, just the tool you need
• Charles Proxy — older, more complex HTTP proxy; cross-platform; $50 one-time
• Burp Suite Community — free, more powerful for security testing, much steeper learning curve
• mitmproxy — free, open-source, command-line; high ceiling, high learning curve

Verdict

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Setapp's value hinges on Proxyman. If you have Proxyman in your toolkit and you're on a Mac, the subscription pays for itself. Everything else on Setapp is extra.

If you don't have Proxyman, you're here for productivity, not OSINT. The math changes.

See Also

Best Privacy Tools for Investigators