mac_apt vs wxHexEditor: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, compared head to head.
mac_apt is a free digital forensics tool. wxHexEditor is a free digital forensics tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics fit for your security stack. Independent and vendor-neutral: we never sell rankings.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Forensic examiners and incident responders who need to extract artifacts from Mac and iOS devices will find mac_apt essential because it processes both formats from a single tool, eliminating the friction of context-switching between separate utilities. The tool's 923 GitHub stars and zero-dollar price point reflect genuine adoption among practitioners who've already rejected paid alternatives for this specific job. Skip it if your team needs to automate triage at scale or integrate with SOAR platforms; mac_apt is built for hands-on investigation, not orchestration.
Forensic analysts and incident responders who need to examine raw disk sectors and binary file structures without licensing friction should pick wxHexEditor; its cross-platform availability and zero cost mean you can deploy identical analysis environments across Linux, Windows, and macOS without vendor negotiation. The 611 GitHub stars reflect active maintenance and a community that regularly contributes patches for emerging filesystem formats. Skip this if your team relies on commercial DFIR suites that bundle hex editing with timeline analysis and reporting; wxHexEditor handles the viewing layer only, leaving artifact correlation and case documentation to other tools.
