Apple has just made your Mac, iPhone, and iPad a little more useful and a little more affordable to own.
The newest features in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 do more than clean up the interface. They quietly replace popular third-party apps that charge monthly or yearly fees.
If you’ve been spending $3 here, $5 there, it adds up. Here are seven apps you might be able to delete and how much money you’ll save by using Apple’s built-in tools instead.
Raycast or LaunchBar ($96/year)
Power users love Raycast and LaunchBar for searching apps, running commands, and triggering custom actions.
In macOS 26, Spotlight gets a big upgrade: it can now launch apps, start timers, create events, and run Shortcuts all from the keyboard. It’s not as customizable, but it’s built-in, fast, and for most people, it’s enough.
Truecaller or Robokiller ($75/year)
Call screening apps like Robokiller and Truecaller identify spam and block unwanted calls.
Apple’s new Call Assist feature does this natively. It quietly screens calls from unknown numbers, asks the caller to state their name and reason, then lets you respond with a tap.
It’s private, real-time, and doesn’t require another app to monitor your calls.
Flighty ($48/year for Pro)
Flighty gives you real-time flight status, gate changes, and delay alerts. Apple now builds most of that into Wallet and Maps.
Add your flight to Wallet, and you’ll see live departure info, gate location, and arrival updates even in Live Activities on the Lock Screen. For casual travelers, it’s good enough.
Riverside ($288/year)
Riverside lets creators record high-quality remote interviews. In iPadOS 26, Apple added Local Capture, which lets you record video and audio while on a FaceTime, Zoom, or Meet call, without needing any extra software.
It’s not for post-production pros, but for students, podcasters, and YouTubers; it covers the basics.
Bartender ($60/year)
Bartender gives you control over what shows up in your Mac’s menu bar. Now, Apple offers the same option inside System Settings.
You can choose which apps stay visible and which get tucked away, all without needing a third-party utility.
Paste or Pastebot ($15/year)
Clipboard managers, such as Paste, store everything you’ve copied. With macOS 26, Spotlight adds clipboard history.
It saves your recently copied text and images, so you can paste them again later, and it doesn’t ask you to sign up, sync anything, or pay.
Package Tracking Apps ($4.99/year)
Apps like Deliveries scan your inbox for tracking numbers and give you shipment updates. Apple Intelligence now does that inside Mail and Wallet.
It automatically finds tracking emails and displays a summary card in Wallet without requiring any action from you. You just check your phone.
The Bottom Line
You could be spending over $500 a year on apps that now have free, built-in alternatives. You may still want the premium tools. But now, you don’t have to pay for them.
Sometimes the best subscription is no subscription at all.
Tell us what you’re keeping, what you’re deleting, and whether Apple’s built-in features are finally good enough.
