Update – Which apps are optimized for Apple M1 chips

Before turning to an Apple silicon Mac, it is better to be sure that your favorite applications are compatible.

Update: Added Edison Mail software and God of War game

The first Apple Silicon chip, the M1, has been integrated into MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13″ and Mac mini since November 2020. It has also been fitted to the iMac 24″ since April 2021. And tests and feedback all point to performance impressive underpinned by Apple’s new in-house component.

To reach the top of their capacities, however, Apple Silicon chips must be used with software and games rewritten for this new platform. Thus, an application compatible with the Intel platform will not be able to run natively to its full potential on a Mac equipped with an M1 chip, for example. In this case, macOS automatically uses a software bridge, a sort of adapter, so that the app in question remains usable on an Apple Silicon Mac. But then performance suffers.

This is why it is important for developers to offer a version of their software or game adapted to the new platform of the Californian company .

Below is a list of major Mac applications that are currently well compatible natively with Apple M1 / M1 Pro / M1 Max and Apple Silicon chips more widely.

Apple M1 and Apple Silicon compatible applications

Internet and office automation

Antidote
AnyDesk
BBEdit
Bear
Brave
Day One
Drafts
Edison Mail
Fantastical
Firefox
GoodNotes
Google : Chrome, Street View
Kaspersky
LibreOffice
Microsoft : Edge, Office, Visual Studio Code
Mole VPN
Newton Mail
Notability
NordVPN
Notion
Opera
PCalc
RealVNC
Screens
Slack
Telegram
Thunderbird
Twitter
Tweetbot
TweetDeck
Ulysses
Vivaldi
VLC
Yahoo Mail
Zoom

Utilities

1Password
1Blocker
Arq
Alfred
AppCleaner de FreeMacSoft
Apple Transporter
Bartender
BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
Buhocleaner
BetterTouchTool
Claris FileMaker Pro
CleanMyMac X :
coconutBattery
CrossOver
Devonthink
Default Folder X
DisplayLink Manager
Docker Desktop
Documents
FastScripts
Geekbench
Hazel
Highland 2
Homebrew
HoudahSpot
iStats Menus
iStatistics Pro
Keyboard Maestro
LaunchBar
MacTracker
Microsoft Remote Desktop
Moom
OmniGraffle
OmniFocus
Onyx
Parallels Desktop et Parallels Toolbox
Pastebot
Path Finder
PopClip
Redshift
Reflector
Secrets
Sensei
SymbolicLinker
SuperDuper
TeamViewer
TechTool Pro 14
Things
medicine
Yojimbo
Yoink

audio & music

Ableton Live 11
Adobe Audition
Algoriddim djay
Apple GarageBand
Apple Logic Pro
Audirvana
Capo
Bitwig
Broadcasts
Deezer
DSP-Quattro
FL Studio
forScore
Fretello
Rogue Amoeba Airfoil, Audio Hijack, Farrago, Fission, Loopback Piezo & Soundsource
Spotify
Tractor Pro
Triode
TunesArt
XLD

Development

FileMaker
Textastic
Textmate
Transporter
Unity
Visual Studio Code

Image, web & video creation

Acorn
Adobe : Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Rush, Premiere Pro
Affinity Photo
Affinity Designer
Affinity Publisher
Apple Final Cut Pro
Apple iWork (Pages, Number et Keynote)
Capture One
Tap
Cinema 4D
CorelDRAW 2021
DaVinci : Resolve et Fusion
Darkroom
Logoist 4
Luminar AI
Pixelmator Pro 2
Sketch
Sparkle
Timebox
Vectonator

Video game

Baldur’s Gate 3
Dolphin
God of War
Myst
Nvidia Geforce Now
World of Warcraft

The goal is not to exhaustively list all the Mac applications compatible with Apple Silicon, but to mention the best known first.

And if you use an Apple M1 compatible app, but it is not present in our list, do not hesitate to let us know in the comments. We will add it later in a future update of the article.

See also the site isapplesiliconready.com which tries to list the compatible software, those in the process of becoming it and those which are not. More than 900 software are currently in the register of this very practical free service.