48 jobs · both directions

What replaces it on the other side.

Switching breaks on software, not hardware. Search what you use and find out whether there's a replacement, an identical version, or nothing at all — 22 of these jobs have the same answer on both machines.

HouseNaming what replaces a thing is the scoreboard; saying which one you should want is us, and that only ever appears in amber.

Windows answers are ringed

48 jobs · Enter copies a link

Creative work

Final Cut is Mac-only and always will be. Resolve runs on both and has a free tier.
Logic is Mac-only. Ableton and Reaper are identical on both sides.
Windows bundles nothing like GarageBand. Cakewalk by BandLab, which used to be the free answer, was retired for the paid Cakewalk Sonar.
Sketch is Mac-only. Figma runs in a browser; Penpot is the open-source one you can self-host. Adobe XD has been maintenance-only since 2023.
HouseFigma ended most of this argument before either side could win it.
Several industrial CAD packages — SolidWorks and 3ds Max among them — are Windows-only.
HouseIf your job is CAD, the argument is over before it starts.

Everyday work

Microsoft 365 runs on both. The Mac build ships the same file formats and a smaller set of add-ins.
HouseExcel's macro and add-in ecosystem is still noticeably richer on Windows.
OneNote has a Mac app, so this is a genuine both-ways answer.
Microsoft To Do runs on macOS too.
Preview has no single Windows equivalent — viewing, annotating and page-shuffling are split across three apps.
Apple's Passwords app has a Windows client through iCloud for Windows; Credential Manager has no Mac equivalent.

Utilities

HouseEverything is faster at filename search than anything on macOS, and it's a 2 MB download.
macOS only shipped built-in tiling in Sequoia (15).
HouseBuilt into Windows for years, and it shows in the defaults.
File History versions your user folders and Windows Backup syncs to OneDrive; neither restores a whole machine, and Macrium Reflect's free tier ended in 2024.
HouseTime Machine is the one utility switchers miss most. Nothing built into Windows matches it for set-and-forget.
Windows has this out of the box. macOS needs a third-party app.
Not built into Windows. PowerToys Peek is Microsoft's own (Ctrl+Space); the Store app QuickLook copies macOS more closely.

Development

winget ships with Windows now. Scoop is the closest in spirit to Homebrew.
Xcode is macOS-only. There is no workaround for App Store submission.

Messages, media and cloud

iMessage has no Windows client. Phone Link relays an iPhone's texts and calls, but not iMessage threads.
iCloud Drive has a Windows client and OneDrive has a Mac one — both work either way, neither is native.
IINA and VLC play the containers and codecs QuickTime and Media Player refuse.
Apple Silicon runs only ARM builds of Windows, Hyper-V needs Windows Pro, and macOS cannot be legally virtualised off Apple hardware.
Both remap at the system level. PowerToys ships from Microsoft; Karabiner is third-party but the de facto standard.
A Mac app is mostly one bundle you drag to the trash and AppCleaner sweeps up after it; Windows installers spread into the registry, which is Revo's job.
Hosting a Remote Desktop session needs Windows Pro; Home can only connect out. Screen Sharing is built into every Mac.

System interface

Apps move faster than keyboards. Everything named here was shipping on both platforms as listed when this page was last checked, and anything described as free still has a free tier — a recommendation that has quietly gone paid is a wrong answer, not a stale one. Names in a brighter pill are the same application on both machines.