WebCatalog on a Mac: what it is good at

WebCatalog for Mac turns websites into separate desktop apps, keeps several accounts for the same service signed in at once, and groups apps into spaces. It is a free download for macOS 13 or later on both Apple silicon and Intel. The free Basic plan allows 2 desktop apps, 2 profiles and 1 space. Unlimited apps require Pro, at $6 a month billed monthly or $5 a month billed yearly, plus local taxes. Whether that is the right buy depends on how many sites need their own window and how much the extras beyond the window matter. The facts below were checked on WebCatalog's own pages and MacUpdate on October 18, 2026.

This site is published by the developer of Kagemusha, a tool in the same category. The comparisons below stick to published prices and documented features so the reader can weigh them directly.

What WebCatalog is on a Mac

WebCatalog's desktop page describes the product as a way to "turn any website into a desktop app, keep multiple accounts signed in, organize them into spaces," with a built-in home screen and widgets. In practice that breaks down into four parts.

• Desktop apps. A website gets its own window, its own icon, and its own place in the Dock. Native notifications and badges are part of the pitch.
• Multiple accounts. The same service, such as Slack or WhatsApp, can be signed in several times over, each session kept separate by default.
• Spaces. Apps are grouped by context, such as Work, Personal or Clients, and switching between spaces does not close anything.
• A home screen with widgets. To-dos, a focus mode, weather, a world clock, a currency converter and more sit on WebCatalog's own start page.

The catalog behind it is large. The desktop page advertises more than 65,000 apps ready to install, plus the option to add any website by URL.

MacUpdate's listing gives the technical details for the current build: version 81.2.0, updated October 7, 2026, a 255.1 MB download, support for Intel 64 and Apple Silicon, and macOS 13 or later. The MacUpdate listing for WebCatalog shows the same specs under App Specs. The same company also publishes versions for Windows and Linux, which matters for anyone who moves between a Mac and a PC and wants the same setup on both.

Installing it on macOS

WebCatalog's own install page for macOS lists three steps, and they match what any downloaded Mac app asks for:

1. Double-click WebCatalog.dmg in the Downloads folder.
2. Drag the WebCatalog icon onto the Applications folder.
3. Open it from Applications, and click Open when macOS asks "WebCatalog is an app downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?"

That confirmation dialog is the standard macOS prompt for apps downloaded outside the App Store. It appears once.

A recurring question in Apple's community forums is whether WebCatalog is safe for a Mac. The useful way to answer that for any tool in this category is to look at where sign-ins live. Every app created this way holds cookies and saved sessions for the sites inside it, often for email, banking or work accounts. The questions to ask are the same for any vendor: who publishes it, how it is distributed, and whether its session data is kept per app. WebCatalog states that each app keeps its own session, separate by default, and its site names the publisher as WebCatalog, Inc.

After the first launch, creating an app is a matter of searching the catalog or pasting a URL. Each app then appears as its own entry in the Dock and in Command + Tab.

What the free plan covers, and where Pro starts

The WebCatalog pricing page splits into three plans. The figures below are the published prices on October 18, 2026, before local taxes.

	Basic	Pro	Business
Price, billed monthly	Free	$6 per month	$10 per user per month
Price, billed yearly	Free	$5 per month	$8 per user per month
Desktop apps	2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Profiles	2	Unlimited	Unlimited
Spaces	1	Unlimited	Unlimited
Ads and tracker blocker	No	Yes	Yes
App lock	No	Yes	Yes
Ad-free experience	No	Yes	Yes
Cloud sync	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shared spaces, team management, SAML SSO	No	No	Yes

The limit that decides most purchases is the 2 desktop apps on Basic. Two is enough to test the idea with a mail client and a chat tool, but most people who go looking for a tool like this have five or more sites in mind. Paid plans start with a 7-day free trial.

Over time, the yearly Pro price works out to $60 a year, or $180 across three years. The pricing FAQ says plans can be upgraded, downgraded or cancelled at any time, with access continuing to the end of the billing cycle after cancellation. It also says a subscription is tied to the account, so it works on every supported device signed in with that account. A refund can be requested within 14 days of purchase if a paid plan was started by mistake, with the note that refunds are not guaranteed.

The account-based license is a real advantage for someone with a Mac at work, a Mac at home and a Windows laptop. One subscription covers all three.

How the Basic limits play out in daily use

The three numbers on the free plan interact in a way that is easy to miss on the pricing page.

Desktop apps are the windows themselves. Two means, for example, Gmail and Slack, and nothing else.

Profiles are the separate sign-in containers. Two profiles on Basic is what makes the multiple accounts feature usable at all on the free plan: one personal and one work session for the same service. A third account, such as a client workspace, already needs Pro.

Spaces are the groups. With one space, everything lives together, and the Work, Personal and Clients split shown on WebCatalog's marketing page is a Pro feature.

So the free plan is a realistic trial of one idea at a time: either two different services, or one service with two accounts. It is not a realistic trial of the full setup most people picture when they read the product page. Anyone evaluating WebCatalog properly will spend part of the evaluation inside the 7-day Pro trial, and it is worth lining up the list of sites and accounts before starting that trial so the seven days are spent testing rather than setting up.

The home screen widgets follow the same pattern. Basic includes to-dos, a focus mode, curated wallpapers and live weather. The Pomodoro timer, world clock, currency converter, calculator and unit converter are listed as Pro features.

Where WebCatalog does more than the built-in options

macOS and Chrome both have free ways to give a site its own window, so it is worth being clear about what a paid tool adds.

Safari's Add to Dock

Since macOS Sonoma 14, Safari can save any page as a web app. Apple's Safari web apps guide explains the route: File, then Add to Dock. The resulting app lives in the Applications folder in the home folder, does not share history or cookies with Safari, can show a notification badge, and can be added as a login item. It costs nothing. It runs on WebKit, so Chrome extensions do not apply.

Chrome's Install page as app

Chrome offers the same idea for Chromium. Google's help article on web apps gives the path: More, then Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app. The help article also covers uninstalling from the app's own More menu, with an option to delete its data from Chrome, and managing installed apps at chrome://apps.

What WebCatalog adds on top

Against those two, WebCatalog's strengths are concrete:

• Multiple accounts for one service as a headline feature, rather than something assembled from browser profiles.
• Spaces that group apps and switch the whole set at once.
• A searchable catalog, so finding the right URL and icon is not a manual step.
• The same tool and subscription on Windows and Linux.
• Cloud sync, included even on Basic.

For someone managing client accounts across several messaging services, this combination is the reason WebCatalog exists, and the built-in routes do not replace it.

Where other routes fit better

The trade-offs run the other way in a few situations.

Fewer than three sites, and no need for multiple accounts. Safari's Add to Dock or Chrome's Install page as app does the job without a subscription.

A dependency on Chrome extensions. WebCatalog's pricing comparison lists its desktop app features as profiles, spaces, an ads and tracker blocker, app lock, theme colors and location services. Browser extensions are not among them. Readers who rely on a password manager extension or a translation extension inside these windows should confirm extension support before committing.

A preference for paying once. Some tools in this category sell a one-time license instead of a subscription. One example is the tool from the developer of this site. It builds each app on a Chromium browser that is already installed on the Mac, such as Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi or Opera, by linking to that browser rather than bundling an engine, so browser updates carry over to every app. Each app gets an isolated profile, and Chrome Web Store extensions can be switched on per app. It runs on macOS 12 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. Three apps are free and an unlimited license is a one-time $24.99, as listed in the pricing section. It does not run on Windows or Linux and has no cloud sync, which are the areas where WebCatalog leads.

Here are the published numbers side by side:

	WebCatalog	Safari Add to Dock	Chrome Install page as app	One-time Chromium tool
Free tier	2 apps	Unlimited	Unlimited	3 apps
Paid	$5 to $6 per month	None	None	$24.99 once
Minimum macOS	13	14	Any version that runs current Chrome	12
Multiple accounts per service	Built in	Not a listed feature	Not a listed feature	One account per app, several apps per service
Platforms	macOS, Windows, Linux	macOS	macOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS	macOS

Three questions that settle it

How many sites need their own window? One or two points to Safari or Chrome, which cost nothing. Three to ten points to a dedicated tool. The free tiers of WebCatalog and the one-time tool are both small enough to make this count the first thing to establish.

Does the work cross machines? If the same apps are needed on a Mac and a Windows PC, WebCatalog's account-based subscription is the only option here that covers both.

How is the money better spent? At $60 a year for WebCatalog Pro, a two-year horizon is $120. A one-time license costs less than that, but without cloud sync, the widget home screen or the cross-platform support. Readers who value those features are paying for something real.

What to change first

Write down the sites that are open every working day, and count the ones that need more than one account. If the list is two or shorter, start with Safari's Add to Dock. If it is longer and includes a Windows PC, try WebCatalog's 7-day Pro trial. If it is longer and stays on Macs, compare the FAQ and the free tier of a one-time tool against WebCatalog's free plan before subscribing.