There are a lot of apps and tools out there promising to help us develop amazing apps. Let’s look through some of the really useful ones I use frequently!

1. Xcodes

The easiest way to install and switch between multiple versions of Xcode.

We all know the struggle. Supporting many Xcode versions and keeping up-to-date with betas makes no fun and consumes a lot of disk space. Clicking through Apples developer portal to find the one Xcode version you need is super annoying!

Xcodes makes it a lot easier to download and manage the Xcode versions you need. See which versions are installed and get new ones with just one click.

Price: free

Download: The ready-to-use app can be downloaded from the GitHub page.

2. DevCleaner for Xcode

If you want to reclaim tens of gigabytes of your storage used for various Xcode caches — this tool is for you!

Old Xcode and iOS Versions, Derived Data, Documentation and Logs… a lot of rubbish accumulates on our Macs. DevCleaner wipes through your developer directory and lists all unneeded junk. 🧹

You can select what’s save to remove and delete it with one button press. This way you can save many GB in a short amount of time. Using this tool you’ll think about remaining disk space a lot less.

Price: free

Download: You can download the app from the Mac App Store.

3. ControlRoom

Take charge of your iOS Simulator

This app supercharches your simulator! 🚀

It provides convenience access to the language and location settings and allows changing time, battery level and network state. It can also trigger push notifications and simulate location changes.

Price: free

Download: Clone the GitHub repo and build the project with Xcode. A little bit more difficult than the apps before, but no problem for a developer 😉

4. SwiftAlyzer

Like Google Maps for your Swift code

SwiftAlyzer analyzes and visualizes your project. It’s great for seeing how your app is structured and which classes, structs, protocols and enums communicate with each other.

Because I couldn’t find such a tool, I started to work on this app about two years ago. Now I use it quite often to plan new features and to check, if the app still matches the expected architecture. I hope, you’ll find this app as useful as I do 😁

Price: free

Download: Download the app from this Website.

5. Fireworks

Particles effects with Swift

Have you ever created a particle effect to add a special touch to your app? If so, you’ll know how much try and error are needed to get the CAEmitterLayer and the CAEmitterCells the way you want.

Fireworks is an editor to create particle effects. You can change every aspect of the effect and see the outcome right away. And the best thing: It generates Swift code, so you can use the effect you just configured.

This app is a must have for every one working with particle effects! 🎆

Price: free (website), 4.99$ (Mac App Store)

Download: You can download the app from the website. You can also purchase it from the Mac App Store.

Thanks for reading, i hope you found a new app to try out. If you are using any other amazing tool, drop a link in the comments! I’m looking forward to see what you are using.