An alternative to Latest, for the apps it cannot see

Both apps read the Sparkle update feed written inside an app bundle and ask the developer directly what the current version is. That is the best answer available for any app that publishes one, and neither app needs a curated database to get it. For a Mac whose applications all ship appcasts, Latest will tell you the same thing Floodtide does, for nothing, and you should keep using it.

The difference starts with everything that does not publish an appcast.

Homebrew casks, without needing Homebrew

3,316 app bundles can be matched through the Homebrew catalogue, which thousands of contributors maintain continuously. Floodtide matches what you have installed against it and fetches each vendor’s own download, checked against Homebrew’s published checksum, or against the developer signature already on the copy you are replacing. You do not need Homebrew installed for any of that. If you do run it, a separate pane lists every cask, formula and tap and upgrades them through brew rather than around it.

GitHub Releases and Electron feeds

A large number of Mac apps publish neither an appcast nor a cask, and cut releases on GitHub or ship an Electron update feed instead. Floodtide reads both, picks one unambiguous Mac build rather than guessing between several, and verifies the SHA-512 an Electron feed publishes before anything is installed.

The Mac App Store, and the updaters Floodtide leaves alone

Latest can see App Store apps; Floodtide installs them. Press Update on a store row and the app updates in place, with no App Store window and no password, and Update All takes them along with everything else. Floodtide reads what the store is offering on this Mac rather than Apple's public listing, which is why an iPhone or iPad app on Apple silicon does not sit on the list for weeks claiming an update that is not on offer.

Apps another updater genuinely owns are still named as theirs rather than fought over. A Microsoft app says which release ring its version came from, and a Setapp app is listed as managed there, so the row explains itself instead of looking like a gap.

Anything left over

An app no source can resolve is labelled uncovered rather than paired with a guessed download. You can point it at a Sparkle feed or a GitHub repository yourself, and that choice wins over anything Floodtide works out on its own.

Scanning is free in Floodtide, forever and on any number of Macs. The list of what is out of date never goes behind the licence, because an updater that will not tell you what is outdated until you pay is not telling you anything useful. A licence unlocks installing: £10.99 once, 3 Macs, yours to keep, with a 14-day trial that unlocks everything first.

Every install keeps the version it replaced, so Undo Last Update is one click away for seven days, and each replacement is checked against the signature of the app it replaces before the job is called done. A download nothing can vouch for is never installed; the row says so and sends you to the developer instead.