The best per-app volume apps for Mac in 2026, compared

macOS still has no built-in per-app volume mixer, so if you want to set one app louder or quieter than another you need a third-party app. In 2026 the best choices are SoundSource (the deepest, $49 one-time), Background Music (the best free option, open source), and Fader (the fastest, keyboard-driven, $19.99 one-time). Sound Control and eqMac fill middle niches, and BlackHole is a routing building block rather than a volume mixer. Which one is "best" comes down to whether you want depth, price, or speed.

This is the feature Windows shipped in the Volume Mixer back in Vista and macOS still hasn't matched. Apple gives you one master output level: turn it down to take a call and your music ducks with it. There's no native way to say "Spotify at 30%, Zoom at 100%, browser muted." Every app below closes that gap in a different way, and they're honestly not competing on the same thing. Below is the field, what each one is actually good at, and how to pick.

What per-app volume actually requires

All of these apps sit at the system's audio layer so they can catch each app's sound before it reaches your output and scale it independently. That's why they exist as separate downloads: there's no public macOS slider for it. Once you accept that, the real questions are narrow — does it cover apps that have no slider of their own? Can it also route an app to a different output? Does it do EQ? What does it cost, and how many steps does a volume change take? Those last two decide more than the feature list, because a mixer you have to hunt for is a mixer you stop using.

The contenders at a glance

Prices and features below are current as of September 2026, taken from each maker's own site. The free, open-source tools are grouped honestly with the paid ones — cost isn't the only axis that matters.

Fader — keyboard-first, one-time price

Fader's whole bet is that reaching the control is what actually decides whether you use a mixer. It gives every running app its own fader and its own output, but the point is you never open a panel: hit a toggle hotkey and the keyboard becomes the mixer — the Q/A/Z column is one app, W/S/X the next — so you ride levels with letter keys without leaving what you're doing. It doesn't do EQ, and it isn't trying to be a full audio suite. If your day is calls, music, and streams and you're adjusting the balance constantly, that speed is the difference between a mixer you own and one you actually use. It's $19.99 one-time with a 3-day trial and no account, macOS 14.4 or later.

SoundSource — the deepest option

SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba is the most complete app in this category. Version 6 does per-app volume, sends individual apps to different outputs, and layers real-time effects and a full EQ on top, plus output groups, AirPlay control, and saved audio configurations. If you want one app to do everything and you like a rich menu-bar panel, it's the strongest pick — and Rogue Amoeba has been building Mac audio tools for two decades. The tradeoff is price and reach: it's $49 one-time (a $25 upgrade for existing users), and the controls live in a panel you click into rather than keys you press. For a deeper look at where it fits, see our SoundSource alternatives rundown.

Background Music — the best free choice

Background Music is a free, open-source (GPLv2) utility that gives each app its own volume slider in a menu-bar list, and it can auto-pause your music when other audio starts and record system audio. For zero dollars, that's a genuinely useful per-app mixer. The honest caveats: it centers on volume and auto-pause rather than sending each app to a different output device, development is community-paced, and you reach everything through the menu-bar list. If free is the requirement and per-app volume is the need, start here. We compare it directly in Background Music vs Fader.

Sound Control — volume plus EQ at a mid price

Sound Control from Static Z Software adds per-app volume, mute, a system-wide equalizer with up to 31 bands, hotkeys, and an integrated control bar, with separate effects per app and per output device. At $25 one-time it undercuts SoundSource while still offering EQ, which makes it a sensible middle option if you want per-app EQ but don't need SoundSource's full routing and effects depth. It supports macOS 11.4 and later.

eqMac — EQ-first, per-app volume is a Pro feature

eqMac is a free system-wide equalizer, and it's a good one — the free tier gives you bass/mids/treble, a 10-band EQ, and headphone presets. The catch for this list is that its per-app volume mixer sits behind eqMac Pro, which runs $3/month, $30/year, or $40 for a lifetime license. So eqMac is "free" as an EQ but paid as a per-app volume mixer. If EQ is your primary goal and per-app volume is a bonus, it's worth a look; if volume is the point, the lifetime price lands near the others, so weigh it as a volume mixer, not a free one.

BlackHole — not a mixer, a routing driver

BlackHole gets recommended in these threads, so it's worth being clear: it's a free, open-source virtual audio driver that passes audio between apps with zero added latency. It has no per-app volume sliders and no control panel — it's a building block you wire into an Aggregate or Multi-Output Device, or feed into an app like OBS. If you're building a custom routing chain, it's excellent and free. If you just want to turn one app down, it's the wrong tool; you want one of the mixers above.

How to choose

Match the app to what you actually value. Want the most features and don't mind paying once for depth? SoundSource. Want it free? Background Music. Want per-app EQ without SoundSource's price? Sound Control. Living inside an EQ already? eqMac. Building a routing rig? BlackHole. Adjusting levels dozens of times a day and want the change to happen in a keystroke? That's the gap Fader was built for, and the one thing the menu-bar apps can't match no matter how deep they are.

Bottom line

There's no single best per-app volume app for Mac in 2026 — there's a best one for you. SoundSource wins on depth, Background Music wins on price, and each has real, honest strengths. Fader wins on speed: it's the only one where the control is your keyboard, not a panel you click into, at $19.99 one-time. If reaching the control fast is what you care about, try it free for three days and see whether keyboard mixing sticks.