“Stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦 We need your help,” was the subject of Unclutter’s newsletter back in March, in which brutal images of the destruction of residential buildings due to the Russian invasion of the country were shown.
Unclutter is one of a number of software companies from Ukraine, and, like MacPaw (CleanMyMac) they are based in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Another Ukrainian company, Nektony, has confirmed to us that its programming team, who are located in Odesa, are in “a safe place” and will continue to work.
Many of these services use based outside the country (such as Amazon Web Services) which ensures the maintenance of services such as MacPaw’s Setapp, despite these turbulent times. We’ve updated this story to reflect the fact that as of May 2022 MacPaw is showcasing more than 20 Ukrainian apps inside SetApp.
With the terrible events happening in Ukraine, the details of development and software fade into the background. Support is urgently needed in Ukraine and also for the people fleeing the attack on their country. You can help through donations (Red Cross, Choose Love, Project Hope, Unicef, Nova Ukraine, Doctors Without Borders, the UN Refugee Agency for Ukraine and International Rescue Committee) and also by donating various goods at a checkpoint near you. You can also Donate to the Ukrainian army through the National Bank of Ukraine or through Come Back Alive NGO.
If you want to do your bit to support these software developers too, here’s a run through of the various apps they make:
Unclutter
With a team of developers based in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Unclutter is an app that can bring order to your desktop. You can use it to store notes, files and pasteboard clips. It costs £17.99/$19.99 at the Mac App Store. Or visit the website.
MacPaw
MacPaw is also based in Ukrainian capital Kyiv and are the well known as the developer of CleanMyMacX, which can be used to speed up your Mac by removing junk files and checking for malware. You can get CleanMyMac X here. It costs £29.95/$34.95 right now. CleanMyMacX is our top choice Best Mac Cleaner.
MacPaw also offers SetApp, which is a bundle of 200 different apps that you can get on subscription ($9.99 a month here). Read more about Setapp here. MacPaw is currently showcasing a ‘Made in Ukraine” app collection to support local developers. The Made in Ukraine collection features 21 tools and programs from the country including:
- CleanMyMacX – for hard drive maintenance
- Gemini II – to detect duplicates on the drive or within Apple Photos
- Get Backup Pro – for targeted data backups
- Swift Publisher – layout program
- Elmedia Player – for watching different video formats
- Unclutter – clipboard manager and sticky notes
- Luminar – enhance your photos with AI
You’ll find the Made in Ukraine bundle inside Set App, if you want to take a look there is a free 7-day trial.
Nektony
The developer of MacCleaner Pro is based on Odessa in Ukraine. MacCleaner Pro is an app that can be used to remove unnecessary files and thereby speed up your Mac or make space if required. You can download MacCleaner Pro for £42.95/$44.95 here.
Readdle
Also based in Ukraine is Readdle, headquartered in Odessa on the south coast of the country. The company makes popular Mac apps including PDF Expert and Scanner Pro. PDF Expert is one of our top choices of PDF editors for Mac, while Scanner Pro is included in our round up of Best OCR Apps.
Readdle also makes Spark, which is a great email app that we discuss here. It is a free download here.
BeLight
BeLight Software is also a Ukrainian company based in Odessa and their Get Backup Pro is one of our top choices in our round up of the Best Backup Software for Mac. It costs $19.99 here.
BeLight sums up the situation quite neatly in this tweet:
Skylum – previously Macphun
Another Ukrainian company, now known as Skylum and based in the US (Washington), was founded in 2008 as Macphun in Ukraine. Skylum makes Luminar, an AI powered photo editor that costs $47 here. Read our review of Luminar.
Additional reporting by Thomas Hartmann on Macwelt.
Author: Karen Haslam, Managing Editor
Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld more than two decades ago. Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Having edited the U.K. print and online editions of Macworld for many years, more recently her focus has been on SEO and evergreen content as well product recommendations and buying advice on Macworld.com.