This is the Mac edition of the S3 GUI client overview. The Linux edition covers the AppImage, the .deb and davfs2.
One command, or the right disk image
If Homebrew is already how you install things, the whole setup is one line:
sh
brew install --cask kilerd/tap/anystorageThat pulls from the Kilerd/homebrew-tap tap, which is bumped for each release, so brew upgrade keeps the app current alongside everything else you install that way.
Downloading by hand means picking a build, because these are two separate binaries rather than one universal one. Release 0.2.24, published on 23 September 2026, offers an aarch64 .dmg of about 8.9 MB for Apple silicon and an x64 .dmg of about 9.7 MB for Intel Macs. Both sit on the release page at github.com/Kilerd/anystorage-release/releases, and both are signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate under Team ID V9ZRBTHDGR — so Gatekeeper opens the app normally, with no right-click detour. The supported floor is macOS 11 or newer, and updates arrive through a latest.json manifest published with every release.
Connect a bucket
Amazon S3 wants an access key ID, a secret access key, a region and the bucket you care about. Scope the key: the app can do exactly what the key can do, so an IAM user restricted to one bucket and one prefix is the right thing to paste in, not your root credentials.
For anything S3-compatible there are two extra fields, and they are the two that decide whether the connection works at all:
- A custom endpoint URL, which is how MinIO, Wasabi and Ceph RGW are reached.
- Path-style addressing, required by MinIO and several other implementations instead of virtual-host-style bucket URLs. Off for Amazon, on for most self-hosted endpoints.
Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, Alibaba Cloud OSS and Tencent Cloud COS each have their own connection type instead of being S3 with caveats, out of more than 20 types in total, including WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and local folders. Credentials are stored encrypted on the Mac itself, and there is no account to create before you can connect.
The day-to-day view
Buckets open as folders, prefixes behave like directories, and tabs hold several places at once — a project prefix, a backup path, a delivery folder. Uploads and downloads collect in one transfer area with progress and history.
Pro adds the parts that make it a working surface rather than a viewer: search across a connection, preview of images, text and audio without downloading first, bulk operations, drag-and-drop upload, and presigned upload and download links for handing a single object to someone for a fixed window.
Mounting a bucket in Finder
Finder's Connect to Server dialog accepts smb, afp, ftp, http and https. It has never accepted s3, and no version of macOS ships an s3 handler. The traditional workaround is s3fs-fuse or rclone mount on top of macFUSE, which means a kernel extension, reduced security mode on Apple silicon, two reboots, and a small prayer before every OS upgrade.
AnyStorage does it without touching the kernel. The app talks to S3 over the ordinary API and re-serves everything currently connected through a WebDAV server on your own machine, and Finder has spoken WebDAV for years.
- In the sidebar open Services, choose the WebDAV tab, press Start. The endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:3211 by default and the port is editable anywhere in 1–65535.
- HTTP Basic auth is always on: username anystorage, password 24 random characters generated on first use, both editable with copy buttons beside them.
- In Finder choose Go, then Connect to Server, or press Cmd+K. Paste http://127.0.0.1:3211, click Connect, choose Registered User and paste those credentials.
Each connection currently open in the app appears as a folder at the root of that volume, named after the connection, so buckets sit beside an SFTP host or a Drive account under one mount. Reads stream with HTTP range support: scrubbing to the middle of a 4 GB video in QuickTime pulls the bytes around that point instead of downloading the object first.
Two things to expect. Finder's WebDAV client is chatty — a few follow-up PROPFINDs per entry, a probe for the AppleDouble sibling of nearly every file, a .DS_Store read and write per folder — but on loopback each of those round trips costs a fraction of a millisecond instead of tens. Turning off the .DS_Store writes with "defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE" still helps on slower volumes, at the cost of saved view settings.
And the limits: the WebDAV server is read-only on the free tier, there is no TLS in the current version (hence binding to loopback; a LAN mode binding 0.0.0.0 warns you first), a connection reappears under the WebDAV root only after you open it in the app following a restart, and you cannot copy directly between two connection folders through the mount.
Against the rest of the Mac field
Cyberduck is the obvious first stop: free, GPL, around since 2002, on the Mac App Store, and storage vendors submit connection profiles to its registry. If you want a browser for S3 and nothing else, it is a fair answer and it costs nothing. Transmit is the Mac-native craft option from Panic, macOS-only, excellent at transfers, sold as an app rather than a mount layer.
Mountain Duck is Cyberduck's paid sibling and its job is mounting; it runs on macOS and Windows, and all of its topical documentation lives on cyberduck.io. CloudMounter, from Electronic Team, is the other mount-first option on the Mac, and like Mountain Duck it has no Linux build. If your only requirement is a drive icon, both do that well.
ExpanDrive deserves an honest note, because the pricing argument people expect no longer applies: Files.com acquired it in January 2024 and made it free for personal use in April 2025, with paid tiers starting above 10 users. So "cheaper than ExpanDrive" is not a reason to pick anything.
Where AnyStorage differs is narrower and more checkable. It is the same app on macOS, Windows and Linux, so a mixed team gets one set of instructions. It reaches R2, B2, OSS and COS as first-class connection types rather than S3-with-an-endpoint, it mounts through WebDAV rather than a kernel extension, and credentials stay encrypted on your own Mac with no account in the middle.
What the free tier covers
Two storage connections, basic file operations, and commercial use allowed — no personal-use-only clause and no trial timer. The WebDAV server is read-only on free and support is community-based. Pro removes the connection limit, opens all 20-plus connection types, makes WebDAV read-write and adds search, preview, bulk operations, drag-and-drop upload and priority email support.
Questions
Is it native on Apple silicon?
Yes. The aarch64 .dmg is a native arm64 build, not Rosetta; the x64 .dmg is the Intel one. Homebrew picks the correct build for your Mac.
Which macOS versions are supported?
macOS 11 or newer, on both architectures.
Do I need macFUSE or any kernel extension?
No. Browsing is plain S3 API traffic from the app, and the Finder mount uses macOS's own WebDAV client against the local server. Nothing is installed into the kernel, so Apple silicon never has to drop into reduced security mode.
Does the Homebrew cask stay current?
The tap is bumped for each release, so brew upgrade --cask anystorage moves you forward. The app also checks its own latest.json manifest if you installed the .dmg.
Can it connect to Cloudflare R2, MinIO or Backblaze B2?
R2 and B2 have dedicated connection types. MinIO and Wasabi use the S3 type with a custom endpoint URL and path-style addressing.
Why is Finder slow on a network volume, even here?
Because Finder issues several requests per file rather than one per folder. Over the internet that multiplies; over loopback it mostly disappears. For moving thousands of objects, use the app's transfer view rather than the mount.