Kitsmith / Color Pickers
MacColor Pickers
5 hand-verified color pickers for Mac.
Sip and ColorSlurp are the two most full-featured picks, and both add a contrast checker on top of basic picking. Sip keeps a Color Dock pinned to a screen edge and detects the app you’re picking from to apply the right format automatically — a $29.99 one-time purchase (per seat) including a year of updates, with a 15-day free trial and also available through Setapp. ColorSlurp centers on a precision magnifier for pixel-perfect picks and supports modern color spaces (OKLCH, LAB, Display P3) — free for core picking, with a $19.99/yr ColorSlurp Pro unlocking the camera picker, palette export, and color harmonies, over 10,000 five-star App Store ratings.
ColorSnapper 2, System Color Picker, and Aquarelo each solve a narrower problem. ColorSnapper 2, the original Retina-precision magnifying-glass picker (introduced 2010, since copied widely per the developer), is now direct-download only — Apple stopped allowing Mac App Store updates — a one-time $14.99 purchase with 30+ export formats. System Color Picker, from prolific indie developer Sindre Sorhus, is free with no in-app purchases at all, simply wrapping macOS’s own color sampler with palettes and a global shortcut. Aquarelo is the odd one out: rather than sampling pixels off your screen, it generates a harmonious palette of in-between shades from one or two colors you supply, a one-time $12.99 Mac App Store purchase meant to pair with a screen picker like Sip or ColorSlurp, not replace one.
All 5 apps
No apps match those filters.
Sip
$29.99 one-time (per seat), 1 year of updates included; 15-day free trial; also included with SetappA menu bar color picker with palettes, a contrast checker, and team collaboration — used at Google, Adobe, and Apple, per the developer.
ColorSlurp
Free, with ColorSlurp Pro at $19.99/yr (in-app purchase, per the Mac App Store listing)A free color picker for Mac and iOS with a precision magnifier, palette manager, and OKLCH/LAB/Display P3 support — over 10,000 five-star App Store ratings.
ColorSnapper 2
$14.99 one-time (standalone license via Paddle); free trial download; Pro is a separate one-time in-app upgradeA menu bar magnifying-glass color picker for Mac with Hi-Precision retina picking and 30+ export formats — a one-time purchase sold directly, no longer on the Mac App Store.
System Color Picker
FreeA free, no-frills wrapper around macOS’s built-in color picker, from prolific indie developer Sindre Sorhus — palettes, global shortcuts, and Hex/HSL/RGB/OKLCH/LCH/CMYK copy formats.
Aquarelo
$12.99 one-time (Mac App Store)A Mac utility that generates harmonious color palettes between two colors and converts values across 36 color formats and 46 ICC profiles.
The verdict
We haven't singled out a top pick here yet — every one of the 5 is hand-verified, so start wherever your job description points you. 1 of the 5 is free. Paid options range $12.99–$29.99, one-time or subscription depending on the app.
Mac color pickers — questions people ask
Is there a free color picker for Mac?
System Color Picker is entirely free with no in-app purchases. ColorSlurp’s core picking and organizing features are also free, with an optional $19.99/yr Pro upgrade for the camera picker and palette export.
Are any of these a recurring subscription?
No — Sip, ColorSnapper 2, and Aquarelo are all one-time purchases, and System Color Picker is free. ColorSlurp Pro is the one recurring option, at $19.99/yr.
Which color picker is no longer on the Mac App Store?
ColorSnapper 2 — Apple stopped allowing the developer to ship App Store updates, so it’s sold only as a direct $14.99 download now, with a discount for former App Store buyers.
What’s different about Aquarelo compared to a normal screen color picker?
It doesn’t sample colors off your screen at all — you give it one or two colors and it generates a palette of shades in between, for $12.99 one-time. Use it alongside a picker like Sip or ColorSlurp, not instead of one.