Coming soon · optional · £9.99 a year
The apps Floodtide can’t update yet. The Tide goes after them.
Every week the Tide researches the apps people ask for and adds the ones whose developers publish an official update. About 50 new apps a week, each tested for three nights before it reaches you. Every app Floodtide updates today stays free, for good.
Already use Floodtide? The trial includes the Tide, and every licence gets a free week when it opens.
Below the line is free. Above it is the Tide.
Floodtide’s free catalogue holds 1,981 apps today, on top of everything it reads from Sparkle feeds, Homebrew, GitHub and the App Store. None of that will ever need the Tide. From launch day, every app we research and add goes above the line.
What £9.99 a year gets you
New apps, every week
We find the developer’s own update feed, GitHub releases or release page for the apps people request, and add the ones that pass. They update in one click, with the same checks as every other update.
Your requests go first
Ask for an app from inside Floodtide with Request Coverage and it jumps the research queue. If it cannot be done safely, the app tells you why instead of guessing.
A heads-up for apps nobody can check
Some developers publish no update source at all. For those, anonymous reports from other Macs say when a newer version exists: “Newer version reported: 8.2”, with a link to the developer’s page. It never installs anything.
How an app gets in
About 1 in 12 requested apps has an official source we can verify. For the other 11 we say so rather than guess, and Floodtide tells you why.
- Someone asks. Requests from inside Floodtide decide what gets researched first. 6,361 different apps were requested in Floodtide’s first month.
- We find the official source. The developer’s update feed, GitHub releases or release page. Homebrew’s and the Mac admin community’s own rules find most of them, and AI research helps with the rest. It suggests; it never decides.
- Three nights of proof. Floodtide’s own checking code has to read a real version from the source three nights running.
- A person approves it. It is published in a signed catalogue that your copy of Floodtide verifies before trusting a word of it.
- It is watched from then on. Every entry is checked again every night, so a developer changing their website is noticed by the morning.
Why a yearly fee
Most apps Floodtide updates come from sources their developers already run: Sparkle feeds, Homebrew, GitHub, the App Store. Keeping that going costs nothing, and it is yours with the licence you paid for once.
The rest have no such source until someone finds one, tests it and keeps checking it. That work happens every week and never finishes. MacUpdater did it for years; its developer wrote that “around 80% of the work that goes into MacUpdater is actually for the daily maintenance”, and that one-time sales could not pay for it. Its update database is turned off after 2026.
The Tide is how that work gets paid for, without taking anything away from what you already bought.
“I wish they had charged $1 a month or $10 a year sub. I would’ve subscribed easily for the amount of time this app saves me.”
A MacUpdater user, when it was put up for sale. Source · MacUpdater FAQ
What the Tide never does
- Install something because other Macs say it exists. Version reports show a number and a link. The Tide never installs from them.
- Download from a third-party download site. Only the developer’s own server, GitHub project or feed.
- Skip the checks. Every update has to match the installed app’s Apple Team ID, a published checksum or the feed’s own signature, and pass Gatekeeper, exactly like every other Floodtide update.
- Take away what is free. No app Floodtide updates today will ever move behind the fee.
Two prices, one of them optional
Floodtide licence
£10.99once, yours to keep
- Every update source Floodtide reads
- All 1,981 apps in the free catalogue
- One-click Update All, backups and undo
- 3 Macs, every 1.x update included
The Tide · optional
£9.99a year, on top of the licence
- About 50 new apps every week
- Your requests researched first
- Newer-version alerts for apps with no source
- The same safety checks as every update
- In the 14-day trial, and a free week for every licence
Nothing to pay today. Join at launch and £9.99 stays your price.
Questions about the Tide
Is Floodtide becoming a subscription?
No. The licence is still £10.99 once and keeps everything it does today, including all 1,981 apps in the free catalogue. The Tide is a separate add-on. Skip it and nothing changes.
What happens if I stop paying?
Apps the Tide added go back to "not covered" on your Mac, and you can still update them from the developer’s site as you would anyway. Everything else keeps working exactly as before.
Why £9.99 a year and not a one-off price?
Because the work is weekly and never finishes: finding official sources, testing them, and noticing when a developer changes their website. A one-off price is what MacUpdater tried, and its developer wrote that it could not pay for the upkeep.
Will the price go up?
If you join when the Tide opens, £9.99 a year stays your price for as long as you stay subscribed.
What does my Mac share, and can I turn it off?
Version reports need Macs to say which apps and versions they run. Floodtide sends app names, bundle identifiers and version numbers at most once a day, with no name, account or device identifier. Today that is off unless you switch it on. When the Tide opens it will be on by default in every copy of Floodtide, with a notice saying so and a switch in Settings to turn it off. You can use the Tide with it off.
How do you keep betas out of the version reports?
Versions marked beta, alpha, RC, nightly, preview or similar are thrown out. A version only shows once two different Macs report it on the same day, so one Mac cannot put a version in front of everyone. Reports are only used for apps with no official source, so they can never override a real update feed, and they never install anything.
Which apps will it add?
The ones Floodtide users ask for most, as long as the developer publishes an official update source. Ask for yours from inside Floodtide: select the app and choose Request Coverage. Subscribers’ requests are researched first.
When does it open, and what will you email me?
When the first batch of apps has been researched and tested. You get one email on the day the Tide opens, and at most three in all. Then the list is deleted.
Can I try it first?
Yes. The 14-day Floodtide trial includes the Tide, and every Floodtide licence gets a free week of it when it opens. The 14-day refund covers the Tide too.
The tide is coming in.
Leave your email and hear the day it opens. Nothing to pay today.