Name: App Tamer
Price: 14.95 USD
Rating: 3.6 (222 reviews)

App Tamer overview

App Tamer tames your processor-monopolizing apps and keeps them from chewing up excessive CPU time and battery life. Powered by a unique AutoStop feature, App Tamer stops each application when you switch away from it - when you return to that app, it restarts automatically.

App Tamer is built around an attractive and clear user interface, designed for managing all your running applications with minimum distraction or frustration. With helpful displays, you can monitor the average percentage of your processor(s) being used by each app, or access a graphical history or your CPU usage. Easily enable AutoStop for any application, or limit it to a certain amount of CPU time.

Don't waste time trying to manage CPU usage on an app-by-app basis - liberate your Mac with App Tamer.

What’s new in version 2.8.4

Resolved an issue with App Tamer spuriously asking to create a debug log if the Option key is pressed when a CPU usage warning comes up.
When it launches, App Tamer will restart processes that have been stopped by other apps or tools, but will no longer do so once it's running. This allows you to stop processes in Terminal or using other process management apps without interference from App Tamer.
You can both throttle an app in the foreground and stop it in the background by holding down the Option key and turning on both checkboxes, then turning on "Also slow this app when it's in front".
Improved the wording in prompts for using log scale in the CPU graph and launching App Tamer at login.
Fixed the position and labeling of the Priority slider in the process settings popup.

3.6

(94 Reviews of App Tamer)

Comments
User Ratings

Dellu

Jan 26 2023

2.7.6

0.0

Version: 2.7.6

The app is useful for slowing down and killing apps that are consuming a lot of resources. But, the statistics it shows about the CPU is completely wrong. - Right now, Activity Monitor is showing that my CPU is 86% idle (and the other 14% is being used) while this app tells me that 100% of my cpu is being used. It, however, doesn't show which app is consuming it. The information it shows about the CPU usage is simply wrong.

Mickey_Moose

Oct 17 2022

2.7.5

Version: 2.7.5

App Tamer works great! Keep naughty apps from sucking up cycles for no good reason. Keep your computer running cooler, too. The program is a bit complex, but only because taming apps is a complex thing to do. There is no simple way to tame apps. Sure, you can try to prioritize apps on your own using terminal and renice, but doing that is a royal pain in the buttocks. App Tamer should be on every Mac owned by someone who wants it to last.

Chuckb84

Feb 17 2022

2.6.5

Version: 2.6.5

This is an excellent app. Unlike many of the silly mac "optimizers" this works, and works well. It's worth telling everyone about the development release that lets you move apps between performance and efficiency cores on M series macs. I've been using that for a month and it works well. Nice work by the developer. https://www.stclairsoft.com/blog/2022/01/21/app-tamer-experimentation-running-apps-on-m1-efficiency-cores/

Dec 6 2021

2.6.4

Version: 2.6.4

Using an old Mac Mini to store photos, and as an audio/video server, this program is a godsend. Apple Photos can suck up CPU for no good reason, stressing my little box. This program keeps that in check. There is nothing in photos which needs to be done hurriedly. So lowering the related processes keeps things cool. There is a "Detection" setting which can alert the user to processes sucking up CPU cycles. For anything related to Photos or Spotlight, I set those processes to 10-20%. That way they still get the job done, just more slowly. Heat is the worst enemy for electronic equipment, especially computers. Anything which lowers the temperature will extend the lifespan of equipment. Whenever I hear the fan spinning loudly, I check what's going on. After weeks using App Tamer, my little box runs a whole lot happier. (And hopefully, for many more years to come.)