Is macupdate.com Safe?

This was a decent site, however excessive advertising with pop-up screens and deceptive links that trick the user into downloading an installer for their own software PLUS the upgrade the user wanted makes this site a no-no to use. They tried this with an update to "dropbox", which was clearly a deceptive tactic. They are also spamming the hell out of one of my mail accounts with notices for software since I used that address in an update link. You can find updates herein but be aware that this site has serious problems now.

So far so good, I purchased two items on discount from MacUpdate. I hope the license keep working well. I never contacted the original owner of the software that's why I am little concerned about it's legit operations. Please post if you find anything wrong with your purchases. I trust the website based on it's content only, basically looks legit to me. Regarding "Adware" .. I purchased two items in March' 2016. No ADWAREs found. Seems very real.

i am very sad at having to rate MacUpdate as untrusted. Unfortunately, MacUpdate has changed their business model - and now bundles adware and other programs into some of their installers. Their defense is that a user can "skip" the installs at any time. But that's not the point. As a business, you maintain a position of trust by doing what you say you are going to do - and not by changing the rules midway through the game. So, for example - if one chooses to download Firefox from MacUpdate, what they get is a 1.8MB file named "Firefox Installer.dmg" which when opened, calls itself MacUpdate installer. From there, the installer is "cobranded" between Firefox and MacUpdate - and it's here that the "monetizing" apps are "offered." MacUpdate's defense is that their paying customers can opt out of the augmented installers. But - in my case, I went to gift an app via MacUpdate. Normally this is ideal when you want to gift someone an app and they are in a different geographical region, since Apple doesn't have a mechanism for doing this inside their own ecosystem. But there's no way I would ever foist crapware on a person as a byproduct of buying software as a gift for them. And if I can't trust my reseller to deliver the software "as-is" then I can't do business with them.

Used to be an excellent site for keeping up to date with Mac applications, however apparently they are now wrapping some applications in their own installer which is installed adware/bloatware and other crap you do NOT want. All they have done is destroy their own reputation and push more people to only using the AppStore as the safest software repository.

Just this morning (10/31/15) for the first time ever I found that MacUpdate is packaging other software inside the installer for the actual app I wanted to update. At first it wanted me to change my search engine to Yahoo and I had to decline or skip that option. Then the default was to also install MacBooster in addition to the actual app I wanted. I'm very, very disappointed in MacUpdate!! I also believe that kids will not look too closely at what they are doing when installing an app from MacUpdate and may unwittingly change settings or install software they don't want or need.

I bought some software and the experience of purchasing was excellent. Great site keep updated on new versions of the software. Ho comprato alcuni software e l'esperienza di acquista è stata ottima. Ottimo sito sempre aggiornato sulle nuove versioni dei software. "