The full feature set
Everything WebDonkey does
This page follows the app from top to bottom. The dashboard first, then the groups Hosting, Work, Operate and Account, and finally Settings. Where a page has tabs, you will find them here in the same order, left to right.
Features
Chapter 1 of 25
Top bar 01
An interface that stays out of your way
Free
The sidebar on the left holds everything the app can do. The top bar holds what you need all the time. And ⌘K opens a search that takes you anywhere in two keystrokes, more on that in the very next chapter.
- Start, stop or restart every service with one click in the top bar.
- Search and shortcuts take you to any page, site or action at the press of a key, no mouse needed.
- Collapse the sidebar, switch the theme, see Free or Premium at a glance.
The sidebar
The sidebar is sorted into four groups: Hosting, Work, Operate, and Account & Help. The dashboard sits above them, Settings at the very bottom. This page walks through the app in exactly that order. Collapsed, only the icon column remains, leaving more room for work.
The top bar
Far left, you switch between the app and the integrated browser. Next to it: Start all, Stop all, Restart and New site. On the right, a badge tells you whether you are on Free or Premium, and a dot with a counter shows how many services are running.
Theme switch
At the bottom of the sidebar you switch between Aurora Dark, Arctic Light, System and your own themes. Try it on this page: the switch in the bar on the left swaps every screenshot instantly.
Top bar 02
Search and shortcuts: your things, one keystroke away
Free
⌘K finds everything. Pages, sites, services, actions, tools, settings, docs, themes. The search learns what you use most, and any action can get a shortcut of its own. That is how you switch between your things without taking your hands off the keyboard.
- Recent and Popular on top, then every category with two suggestions drawn from your own usage, the rest one click away.
- Your own shortcuts, from a single key to a key sequence. The shortcut sits right next to the action in the search.
- Mistyped? ⌘Z takes a shortcut back for five seconds. Nothing ever fires while you are typing in a field.
The search
Press ⌘K. With nothing typed you first see what you did last and what you use most. Below that, every category with its two most-used entries: actions, sites, services, sidebar, toolbox, settings, documentation, themes, containers, tools. One click unfolds a category. The order comes from your usage, not from a fixed list.
Type and hit
A few letters are enough, and the search understands intent: "ssl" lands on certificates, "uptime" on the monitor, "jwt" on the toolbox decoder. Open a site in the browser or jump to its details; start, stop or restart a service. An entry that only opens a dialog says so. If an action has a shortcut, its keys are shown right on the row.
Your own shortcuts
Under Settings › Keyboard shortcuts you pick an action from the same list as the search, record the keys and save. A single letter, a combination with ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ or a sequence like G, then S: all of it works. Reserved system shortcuts and duplicate bindings are caught, and the app tells you who already has that shortcut. Nothing fires while you are typing in fields, editors or the terminal.
Undo within five seconds
After a shortcut, a banner at the bottom shows what just happened and which keys did it. A bar drains over five seconds, and for that long ⌘Z takes the action back: navigation returns to where you were, start becomes stop, the theme jumps back. Hide the banner once or turn it off for good; ⌘Z keeps working either way.
Overview 03
A dashboard you assemble yourself
Free
The state of your environment at a glance: running services, your sites, new mail, subscriptions coming due, the next backups. Which tiles go where is your call, by drag and drop.
- 18 widgets, from status and services to monitor, notes and sandbox size.
- Arrange tiles in three columns, resize them, filter them.
- The layout stays the way you left it, restart included.
Widgets
Status, services, sites, quick actions, monitor, subscriptions, scheduled tasks, DDEV and Docker, toolbox, databases, certificates, project backups, notes, mail inbox, updates, PHP version, SSH hosts and sandbox. Every widget has an arrow to its page, and many can be filtered: only certain sites, only problems in the monitor, only your favourite tools.
Edit mode
One click on Edit, then drag the tiles where you want them. The grid has a fixed three columns, so nothing reshuffles when the window is resized. Six sizes per tile, a catalogue for adding, a reset to the default.
macOS widgets
The most important tiles also exist as real macOS widgets for the desktop and Notification Centre: services, sites, monitor, subscriptions and more. Tapping a widget opens the matching page in the app.
Top bar 04
A browser with an inspector, right in the window
Free
Page and tool side by side, no window switching. The integrated browser has tabs, tab groups and device sizes to try. The inspector next to it shows elements, console, network, cookies, storage, tags, SEO and Lighthouse.
- Check your local site in a phone, tablet or desktop viewport.
- Network requests with timing and sizes, a console with filters.
- See which tag managers, events and consent states a page really loads.
Elements
DOM tree, styles and computed values for the element you clicked. Right-click on the page, Inspect element, and the inspector jumps there. Handy for checking a theme's spacing or the classes on a CMS block.
Console
Everything the page logs, filtered by level and searchable. Errors and warnings are colour-coded, objects expand.
Network
Every request with method, status, type, size and duration. Click a row for headers, payload and response. Clear and reload to measure a page load cleanly.
Cookies
All cookies of the page with domain, path, expiry and flags. Useful when a login will not stick or the consent banner keeps coming back.
Storage
The page's localStorage and sessionStorage, key by key. Read and delete values without opening the system browser's dev tools.
Tags
The tag manager view: which containers are loaded, which events go into the dataLayer, what the consent status is and which tracking requests actually leave. For anyone who signs off consent setups or conversion tracking.
SEO
Title, description, canonical, hreflang, heading order, images without alt text and structured data of the current page. A quick check before the monitor crawls the whole site.
Lighthouse
Google's audit on demand for the open page, mobile and desktop. Uses your installed Chrome and the Lighthouse package, which the app installs itself when needed.
Hosting 05
Unlimited local sites, each with its own domain
Free & Premium
Pick a folder, type a domain, choose a PHP or Node version, done. HTTPS and name resolution are set up by WebDonkey itself. DDEV projects and Docker containers sit right next to them.
- Any domain, such as clientshop.test, with aliases and a valid certificate.
- nginx or Apache, a PHP version per site, a Node version per site.
- Diagnose, open the folder, open in the browser, regenerate the certificate.
WebDonkey
Your own sites. The create dialog asks for name, domain, folder, web server, PHP and Node version, SSL, and optionally environment variables, a custom config snippet and a database. With Premium you install a site package such as Shopware, WordPress or Laravel in the same step. Free allows unlimited sites, three of them with SSL at a time.
DDEV
All DDEV projects on your Mac, with status and type. Start, stop, open in the browser, jump to the project folder, open a shell in the container. A detail area shows configuration, snapshots, logs, add-ons and a field for any ddev command. New projects are created right here.
Docker
Containers, images, volumes, networks and Compose projects in five tabs. Start and stop containers, open the web port, open a shell, prune. WebDonkey only talks to your own docker CLI and never touches your configuration.
Hosting 06
HTTPS locally, without warnings
Free & Premium
WebDonkey has its own root CA and issues a certificate for every site. Trust the CA once and every .test domain is green in the browser.
- All certificates with days left, domains and status on one page.
- Renew, view details, spot orphaned certificates.
- Set up CA trust with one click; the app asks for your password once.
Hosting 07
Every service in one place
Free & Premium
Web servers, PHP, Node, databases, cache, mail, search, queue, storage, apps and AI tools. Install, start, stop, switch versions. Everything in a sandbox, nothing touches your system.
- Several versions in parallel, say PHP 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4 side by side.
- Pin favourites, set versions active, check for updates.
- Free runs up to six services at once, Premium all of them.
Categories
Services are sorted into tabs: Favourites, Web servers, Runtimes, Tools, Databases, Cache, Mail, Search, Queue, Storage, Apps and AI CLIs. Empty categories stay hidden. The search at the top shows matches from all tabs at once.
Versions and shims
Every version is installed separately and runs on its own. PHP shows it best: 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4 side by side, and you set one active. That is the one your terminal gets, because WebDonkey puts small launchers for php, composer and the rest in your path. Individual sites can still pin a different one.
Apps
Install editors, database tools, Git clients, terminals and API tools straight from the app. More than fifty programs are ready, each with a description and its licence. On a fresh Mac this is the shortcut: work down one list instead of visiting fifty download pages.
AI CLIs
The command-line agents of the major providers, eleven of them, installed and kept current with one click. They then run in any terminal, and in the app AI section in the embedded terminal against your local model too.
Health check
One button checks every running service: does nginx answer, is the PHP-FPM socket there, does MySQL accept connections, does Redis say PONG. With latency per service, so you notice when something gets sluggish.
Hosting 08
Edit configuration without hunting for files
Free & Premium
php.ini, vhosts, FPM pools, service configs and your system files such as .zshrc or the SSH config. All in an editor with syntax colours, validation and presets to drop in.
- Save, and the service picks up the change.
- FPM configs are validated before saving; a typo takes nothing down.
- Presets for upload limits, OPcache, time zone, debugging.
Configuration files
The php.ini per version, the web server configurations, FPM pools and the files of the other services. The global php.ini for all versions is a Premium feature; the per-version ones are freely editable on Free.
System files
Shell profiles, SSH and Git configuration and the files of your web tools in a group of their own. Same interface, same editor, no digging through hidden files in your home directory.
Presets
On the right, a searchable list of ready-made snippets: upload size, memory limit, OPcache, Xdebug, time zone, error display. Click, and the lines land in the right place in the editor.
Hosting 09
Create and browse databases
Free & Premium
Manage MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and MongoDB, create databases and users. Adminer is built in and opens right inside the app, with server and user already filled in.
- Start servers, create or drop databases, manage users.
- Adminer embedded for browsing tables, running queries and exporting.
- Free opens Adminer in the browser, Premium right in the window.
Servers and databases
Pick the server at the top; below it you see port, data directory and status. Databases are created with a name and dropped only after confirmation. Every server has its own version management on the Services page.
Users
Create database users with a password and access to a specific database, the way a project expects them in its .env. Removing a user is just as quick.
Adminer embedded
Adminer runs as its own service and starts automatically when opened. Server and user are prefilled on the login. Reload, open externally or jump to the Services page, all from the card header. Adminer does not support MongoDB, so the card stays off there.
Hosting 10
Every mail lands with you, none with the client
Free & Premium
Mailpit catches everything your projects send. Order confirmations, password links, newsletter tests: all in the built-in inbox, with HTML view, source and attachments.
- One SMTP port for all sites, nothing leaves the machine.
- Read mail, search it, check it as HTML or text.
- The dashboard widget shows the latest mail without switching pages.
Work 11
Your terminal, tidied up
Free
Shell aliases, SSH keys, SSH hosts and known_hosts in one place. Plus shims, so php, node and the other tools in your terminal use the version from WebDonkey.
- Create aliases in the interface and import the ones your shell already has.
- Generate SSH keys, copy the public key.
- Maintain SSH hosts, clean out old known_hosts entries.
Aliases
Create aliases with a name and a command, switch them on and off. WebDonkey writes them to its own file and includes it in your .zshrc with a marked block. Whatever your shell already knows is detected and can be adopted with one click.
SSH keys
All keys from ~/.ssh with type, comment and fingerprint. Generate new keys as ed25519 or RSA, copy the public part, delete old ones.
SSH hosts
Host entries with alias, hostname, user, port and key. They go into their own file under ~/.ssh/config.d, included at the top of your SSH config. Your existing configuration is left untouched.
known_hosts
Which server keys your machine knows, as a list. Remove entries when a server has been rebuilt instead of editing the file by hand.
Shims
Optionally, WebDonkey places small launchers for php, composer, node and friends in your path. In the terminal, the version that is active in the app then runs, with the php.ini from the app. Can be switched off in Settings.
Work 12
Onto the client's server, without switching windows
Premium
SSH terminal and SFTP file manager in one tab. Drag files back and forth, edit them right in the editor, change permissions. Credentials live in the macOS keychain, not in a text file.
- Several sessions in tabs; they stay open while you work elsewhere.
- Your Mac on the left, the server on the right, upload and download in between.
- Open and save remote files in the editor, with a warning for unsaved changes.
Connections
Name, host, port, user and password or key. Passwords and passphrases go into the keychain. On the first connection the server key is remembered; if it changes, the app asks before going on.
Terminal
A full terminal over SSH, with scrollback, resizing and colours. The terminal and the file manager share one connection, so one login covers both.
Files and editor
Two panes: local and remote. Upload, download, rename, move, delete, create folders, set chmod. Clicking a file opens it in the editor with syntax colours. Changes go straight to the server on save.
Work 13
Build requests and check responses
Free & Premium
An API client with everything you expect from one: method, URL, params, headers, body, auth and tests. Environments with variables, saved requests, history. A Postman replacement, but local.
- Send requests with a timeout, read the response with body preview and headers.
- Assertions on status, headers and body fields, green or red.
- Sending and testing is Free, saving and organising is Premium.
Params
Query parameters as a table with key, value and a checkbox to switch them on and off. The URL line stays in sync, either way round.
Headers
Custom headers the same way, with suggestions for the usual names. Content-Type is set to match the body unless you want otherwise.
Body
JSON, form data or raw text, with syntax colours and formatting. Environment variables work here too, for IDs or tokens.
Auth
Bearer token, basic auth or an API key in a header. The token comes from the environment, so the request itself stays free of secrets.
Tests
Assertions without code: status is 200, header contains, JSON field equals, response time below. After sending, every test shows whether it passed. A small test suite for every API you look after.
Environments
Local, staging, production: one set of variables each, such as base_url or token. One click switches the environment and every request uses the new values.
Work 14
The small tools you would otherwise google
Free & Premium
24 tools in ten groups. Format JSON, test regex, generate hashes, manage colours, search icons, run code, build layouts, find components, build animations. All offline, nothing ends up on someone else's server.
- Two keystrokes in the palette and you are in any tool.
- Inputs survive a restart; you pick up where you left off.
- Every tool is Free; only saved items have quotas on Free.
Component finder
Every open UI library in one grid: Magic UI, shadcn/ui, Kibo UI and the uiverse.io collection with more than 3,000 HTML elements, filed under buttons, cards, forms, navigation, loaders, overlays, text effects and backgrounds, in random order so you also find what you were not looking for. Remember it, copy the code or write it straight into one of your sites. Your own registries can be connected too.
Motion studio
An animation workbench for the everyday effects. Easing with a curve editor and a spring mode, keyframes on a timeline, scroll reveal with stagger, text effects, backgrounds, micro-interactions. Live in the preview, in slow motion if you like, and exported as CSS, WAAPI, Motion, GSAP, Vue or Tailwind, with a reduced-motion path in every dialect.
Builder
An HTML builder for Bootstrap and Tailwind. Assemble blocks by drag and drop, tweak them in the inspector, see it live, export clean HTML. For landing pages, mail templates and quick prototypes.
Sandbox
An HTML, CSS and JS playground with live preview and console, plus runners for PHP, Node and SQL. PHP runs with your real php.ini in the version of your choice. Snippets can be saved.
JSON
Tree view, format, minify, convert to CSV, YAML, PHP array or TypeScript type and back. For the API response you are trying to understand right now.
Colours
Create palettes, pick colours from anywhere on screen with the eyedropper, generate shades, check contrast against WCAG and export as CSS, Tailwind or JSON.
Icons
Search more than 200,000 icons from over 200 sets, or browse by category. Copy SVG, JSX or a data URI, keep favourites. The licence is shown alongside, with a ready-made credit line where attribution is required.
Regex
Matches highlighted in real time, groups as a table, replace with preview. JavaScript or PCRE rules, your choice, because PHP and the browser do not always agree.
Diff
Two texts side by side, differences in colour, with inline view and line numbers. For config files, translations and anything that is different somewhere from what you expected.
Encode and decode
Base64, URL encoding, HTML entities, a JWT decoder and hashes from MD5 to bcrypt and Argon2. The JWT decoder shows header and payload readably and warns about expired tokens.
Convert
Timestamps in every direction, cases and slugs, number bases, a chmod calculator. The things you need three times a day and have to think about every time.
Generate
UUID and ULID, passwords with adjustable rules, lorem ipsum in paragraphs or words. Copy, done.
Work 15
An assistant that stays on your Mac
Free & Premium
Local language models through Ollama, as a managed service. No key, no cloud, no token counter. Attach files, folders or logs to your question and the assistant reads along.
- Models rated for your hardware and loaded with one click.
- Specialists with a fixed context and their own role, say for Shopware or Laravel.
- The Agent tab runs coding agents in the embedded terminal against your local model.
Chats
Conversations with history, model choice and memory budget at the top. Attach files and folders as context; the app shows how much of it fits the context window. Chats are Free.
Specialists
Reusable experts with instructions and fixed paths as context: the Laravel expert knows your project, the SEO reviewer knows your copy. Start a chat and the context is already there. Premium.
Agent
Coding agents such as Aider or Qwen Code run in the embedded terminal against your local model. The app starts them without auto-approve flags; every change remains your decision. Premium.
Models
The catalogue rates every model against your memory: runs well, runs tight, too big. Download with progress, remove, set default. Free.
Work 16
Notes that Obsidian understands
Premium
A Markdown vault with editor, preview and split view. The files sit as .md on your disk; Obsidian and any other editor read them just the same.
- Create, rename and move folders and notes.
- Saved automatically, with a note of when.
- Detects an existing vault, iCloud included.
Work 17
Know what your tools cost
Free & Premium
Hosting, domains, tools, every running cost with amount, cycle, payment method and notice period. At the top the monthly total, the yearly total and what comes due in the next 30 days.
- Grouped by category, with a link to the provider's website.
- Notice periods in view before something renews.
- Free manages up to six subscriptions, Premium unlimited.
Operate 18
Read logs where they happen
Free & Premium
Service logs from nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL and the others, live in the app. Plus your own log files, say a project's Laravel log, registered through a file picker and followed live just the same.
- Pick a stream, read the last lines, keep reading in the file.
- Custom logs with a name, clear them any time.
- Free opens the file externally, Premium shows it embedded.
Service logs
Every service brings its streams: the web server's access and error log, the FPM log, the database log. Pick one and the app tails the file every one and a half seconds. The Open button takes you to the editor for more.
Custom logs
Register any readable file with a name: the shop's deprecation log, the blog's Laravel log. They appear as streams of their own and can be cleared when a run should start fresh.
Add your own log
Pick a file, give it a name, done. It then sits next to the service logs as an entry of its own and is followed live just the same. Handy for a project Laravel log or a file only your deployment writes.
Operate 19
Learn that the client's site is down, before the client
Free & Premium
Uptime, SSL expiry, domain expiry, response times, structured data, Lighthouse and a full SEO audit. Everything runs on your Mac and reports through Notification Centre.
- One project per client, the targets underneath. Problems rise to the top.
- A notification only on a state change, no wall of alerts.
- Free: one project with three targets and the full feature set.
Overview
Projects with their targets; each row shows status, last response time, SSL and domain days left and the Lighthouse scores. Intervals from five minutes to 24 hours, and an optional keyword catches the case a status code does not see: the page answers 200 but shows nothing.
Detail
Response time history as a chart for today, seven or thirty days, uptime, certificate with issuer and expiry, domain with registrar and expiry, structured data with missing required and recommended fields.
Create an SEO audit
A target of the SEO audit kind: address, target keywords, extra pages. The crawl then runs on schedule by itself. It reads the sitemap first, follows internal links, makes one request at a time and obeys robots.txt, so no client site triggers an IP ban.
Overview
Score, key figures and every finding sorted by severity. 44 findings are checked: missing, overlong and duplicate titles, canonical chains, hreflang with return links, images without alt text, broken internal links, mixed content, missing compression and more. Notices cost no points; a correctly set-up shop can reach 100.
Pages
Every address on its own: status, title with character count, description, H1, canonical, language, word count, load time, images without alt text. Searchable, filterable by problems, exportable as CSV with 43 columns or JSON.
Quick audit
After a deployment the short round is usually enough: check only the pages that matter to you. Enter paths, seconds instead of minutes.
Lighthouse
Google's audit for every target, mobile and desktop separately: performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO and the Web Vitals. The report opens as HTML. The app uses your installed Chrome and installs Lighthouse itself when needed.
Operate 20
A backup before the update, one that actually comes back
Premium
Back up files and database together, on schedule, with a retention rule. Every run with size and time. And a restore that shows what it will do before it does it.
- One set per project: folders, exclusions and databases belong together.
- Hourly, daily or weekly; old runs are removed by rule.
- Back up now with progress, restore with a choice.
Create a set
Name, category, destination folder, paths with exclusion patterns, databases, schedule and how many runs to keep. Folders and files are picked in the native dialog.
Runs
Every run as a row with time, size and status. While backing up you see the phases: files, database, finalising. Runs outside the retention are removed automatically; the archives stay until you delete them.
Restore
Pick a run, then decide what comes back and what happens to existing files. The preview shows it before anything is overwritten.
Operate 21
Scheduled tasks with an interface instead of crontab
Free & Premium
Run commands on a cron schedule, with working directory, status, last output and next due time. The Laravel scheduler, a queue worker, a nightly export.
- Run now, pause, resume.
- Last output and exit code right in the list.
- Free: three tasks, Premium unlimited.
Operate 22
Test whole systems without a setup marathon
Free
Virtual machines with QEMU, right in the app. Load an image from the catalogue, enter RAM, cores and disk, start. Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, Fedora and Rocky are included.
- Always the current version, older ones by selection.
- An SSH port per VM, eject the ISO, notes per machine.
- Accelerated on Apple silicon.
Account & Help 23
Your design, your colours
Free & Premium
Aurora Dark and Arctic Light are included. With Premium you build your own themes from base, background and two accent colours, with an icon per theme, and share them in the gallery.
- Four sliders; the app derives the rest in OKLCH.
- Duplicate and adapt presets, import from the clipboard.
- A gallery of community themes; shared ones stay there.
Presets
Aurora Dark and Arctic Light ship with the app, along with System, which follows the macOS setting, and three finished Premium themes. Any of them can be duplicated as a starting point: change the colours and the preview shows it on the whole app straight away.
Gallery
Community themes, loaded straight from the shop. Copy, adapt, submit your own. What you share stays in the gallery, even if you delete it locally.
Your own themes
Save, edit, share and delete as many themes as you like. The app icon follows the theme, in the Dock and in the sidebar.
Account & Help 24
The docs are already in
Free
Complete documentation inside the app, in 16 languages. Groups as in the sidebar, topics with subtopics, full-text search across titles and content.
- Search results expand the matching topic.
- Getting started, every page, Premium, Settings.
- Offline, no browser, always matching the installed version.
Bottom of the sidebar 25
Settings you make once
Free
Language, sites folder, container terminal, site browser, debug mode, shims, sandbox, hosts sync, root CA, app backup, service discovery and licence. All on one page, top to bottom.
- 16 languages, switched instantly.
- See the sandbox size, open it in Finder, reset it.
- Enter the licence key, name the device, release the seat.
Language
German, English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Czech, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and the Belgian variants. On first launch the system language is adopted.
Sandbox
Everything WebDonkey installs lives in one folder under Application Support. Here you see its size, open it in Finder or reset it in two steps. Your system stays clean.
hosts sync
Your domains have to point at localhost. The app shows what is missing from or surplus in /etc/hosts and writes it after a one-time approval, no further password prompts.
Root CA
The local certificate authority that issues every site certificate. Generate once, trust once, and every new site is green immediately.
App backup
Your whole setup as one zip for your next Mac: sites, services, databases, configs, certificates, remote connections, cron, API client, monitor, subscriptions, toolbox, AI, custom themes, shortcuts, browser, VMs, plus dashboard layout and sidebar. You pick the categories, sensitive items such as the remote key are opt-in, and the licence always stays out.
Licence
Paste the key from your customer account, activate, done. A seat travels with you: quit the app on the old Mac and Premium is free on the new one right away. Offline, Premium stays.
