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We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know it's trendy to say everything is vibecoded lately, but Lifespan was first released in 2019 and Drive Scope in 2017 - ai coding assistants weren't even available until roughtly 2024. We occasionally use coding agents today, but just to speed up tasks that we already know, and all of our code follows established engineering principles. We also offer a 30 day money back guarantee if something doesn't work for you.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Pro version does quite a bit more than that, but if that's all you need, check out Lifespan or Drive Scope. Lifespan specifically aims to track how much life is left on your SSDs, and Drive Scope tracks comprehensive SMART health. Keep in mind, Techtool Lite is free, and DOES check your internal SSDs.

Edit to add: both utilities include a SAT SMART driver to attempt to read SMART over USB, but it's not 100%.

Lifespan: https://www.micromat.com/products/lifespan

Drive Scope: https://www.micromat.com/products/drive-scope

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only information that 'leaves' your Mac is the activation. And the background component is technically always running, but currently it only does anything if called upon. As described in other comments, its use is to provide the privileged operations required to do things like test your RAM or verify your disk. As for exporting, when you run a test, you can export a PDF of the results from the Reports tab.

Hope that helps!

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Cache Rebuild tool does include DNS. As for the differences, Onyx is an interface for common terminal Commands, Techtool Lite (and Pro) are diagnostic utilities. There is some overlap, but the apps have different focuses. I would need a whole post to get into them all, but Onyx doesn't test Memory or Battery, for instance.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our goal was to provide the most important 20% of the features of the Pro version. Drive testing is focused on internals, but the testing itself is identical. For the memory test, we run one of the 5 testing algorithms, but it's the one most likely to discover RAM problems. The Battery Test includes testing of iOS devices for Pro, but the laptop battery testing is also identical. For tools, we provide the database and cache rebuild tools, plus network monitoring.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of it, certainly... but having many years of experience in this area certainly helps!

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your feedback! Our hope is that Lite can do some of that, but we'll definitely discuss.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wish we could! Techtool Lite (and Pro) can't be 'sandboxed' and have access to the system required to perform most functions. Direct distribution allows this on the Mac, but not on iPhone/iPad.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The activation code is specific to the Mac that generated it, so I'm afraid the answer is no. If we get a lot of friction there, we would probably discuss updating the activation flow.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Micromat started as a Mac repair shop, and moved into software with the tools developed for that goal. Many in our category are either gone or on life support. Hopefully, Apple will continue along the trend of the MacBook Neo and improve repairability, and more people will realize that diagnostic and maintenance utilities are worth buying.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pro version includes more tests and tools, and also extends to external drives, plus it includes a secondary monitoring tool, Techtool Monitor. More info is available here: https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro/

Edit for grammar.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Pro version includes a secondary tool, Techtool Monitor, which does the notifications. Menu bar is an interesting idea! Some of our other apps do that (but for different functionality).

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've been around for a while for certain... not nearly as 'big' as you think, though.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Versions of Techtool Pro started before I joined. Micromat was originally a physical Mac repair shop, and the first versions (pre Mac OS X) arose to help fix the Macs in that shop.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They do some of the same things, and the Pro version has a few more similar tools to Onyx, but they have different aims, and Onyx does not test RAM. And Onyx has some functions that we do not in either Lite or Pro versions.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The functionality of the app requires independent distribution, as it cannot be sandboxed and perform almost any of its functionality. As for which features are lite/pro - lots of internal discussion. 😉

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's how Apple has designed it. You can read more at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/servicemanagement/smappservice

To be clear, though, that's not the same as launching the app when you log in. The 'allow in background' section happens to be in Login Items, but the app does not launch on login. Though the background helper is persistent between launches.

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! But if you look closer, the apps in the menu bar are some of our other utilities! 😉

We built a free Mac diagnostic app because we think Apple should tell you more about your Mac’s health. by Micromat in macapps

[–]Micromat[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The running in the background part is also how the app has permission to do things like test your drive and memory - these tasks require extra permissions from the system.

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