Leaving Image2icon on Mac: which alternative fits your reason?

Image2icon is free with in-app unlocks ($9.99 for everything, US store) and was last updated on 14 February 2023 (checked 29 October 2026). For your own picture on a file or folder, Get Info needs no app; folderify and fileicon script it; Folder Designer and Tintd 2 add libraries.

If all you want is your own picture on a folder or file, you do not need Image2icon: Finder’s Get Info window does it for free, and macOS 26 or later adds colors, symbols and emoji to folders. An app is worth it for icon files, batches, a library or app icons. Prices, versions and labels below were checked on 29 October 2026. We make Mac+, so this is not an independent review; it comes last, with its limits.

Updated 2026-10-29 · 8 min read

Why do people look for an Image2icon alternative?

Mostly because of its age and its price model. Image2icon, by Shiny Frog Ltd., is listed as free on the Mac App Store with in-app purchases: in the US store “Unlock everything” costs $9.99, “Unlock all exports” $5.99 and “Unlock all templates” $5.99. Its latest version is 2.18, released on 14 February 2023, with the note “Corrected issue with macOS Ventura and the app localisations.” Neither the listing nor the vendor’s site names macOS Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe 26 or macOS 27 Golden Gate, and the store shows no rating summary: “This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.” Searches such as “image2icon tahoe” show people asking. None of this proves the app fails on a current Mac; nobody quoted here tested it.

Before you leave, know what you would give up. The listing says the free version already exports ICNS, folder icons, iOS app icon sets, iconsets and favicons; Windows ICO, JPG and PNG exports are the paid part. It applies icons to files as well as folders, restores an original icon “with just one drop”, batch-exports images and has Shortcuts actions added in March 2022. Few alternatives do all of that in one window, so pick by the reason you are leaving.

What does macOS already do without Image2icon?

More than most Image2icon users need. Apple’s Mac User Guide for macOS 27 says you can “choose a custom icon for any file or folder using your own pictures, icons downloaded from the web, or the icon from another file or folder.” The route is the Info window: copy the image in Preview with Edit > Copy, select the item, choose File > Get Info, click the small icon at the top of the window, below the title bar, then choose Edit > Paste. Apple’s guides for macOS 11 to 15 document the same Get Info route, so it also covers Macs that cannot run the newest system.

Undoing is just as native, which replaces Image2icon’s “wash” feature: open Get Info again, select the small icon and choose Edit > Cut. The full walkthrough, with the reasons a paste sometimes fails, is in how to change a folder icon on Mac, and the reset is covered in restoring the default folder icon.

On macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27, folders get a second tool. Select a folder, click the Action button in the Finder and choose Customize Folder: click a colored circle, pick a symbol from the list or click Emoji. Apple’s guide for macOS 15 and earlier has no such control. Two limits stay: Apple says you can’t customize the folders that come with your Mac, “such as Applications, Library, System, and Users”, and the native tools never produce an icon file you could send to someone or use in a project.

How do you put your own image on a file or folder without Image2icon?

1. Double-click the image to open it in Preview, then choose Edit > Copy.
2. In the Finder, select the file or folder whose icon you want to replace.
3. Choose File > Get Info, then click the small icon at the top of the Info window, below the title bar.
4. Choose Edit > Paste. If Paste is unavailable, you probably clicked the large preview icon instead of the small one.
5. To go back to the original icon, select that small icon again and choose Edit > Cut.

I need icon files, not just a new look: what replaces the exporter?

Check first whether you need to leave at all. According to its App Store description, Image2icon’s free version exports ICNS, folder icons, iOS sets, iconsets and favicons. If that list covers you and the app still opens on your Mac, there is nothing to replace.

folderify is the closest free substitute for folder-style icon files. The open-source project (MIT licence, version 4.1.4 of 2 October 2026) generates “pixel-perfect macOS folder icons in the native style” and says it supports macOS 26 Tahoe. Run folderify mask.png and it writes mask.icns and a mask.iconset folder; add a folder path and it applies the icon directly. It installs with Homebrew, pulls in ImageMagick, wants “a solid black design over a transparent background”, and can assign only one version of an icon to a folder, so no automatic light and dark switch.

For any other artwork, Apple’s archived developer guide High Resolution Guidelines for OS X documents iconutil -c icns, a command that “converts iconset folders to deployment-ready, high-resolution icns files.” You prepare the PNG sizes yourself; the document is archived and we have not re-tested it on macOS 27.

App developers who used Image2icon’s iOS exporter now have Apple’s own Icon Composer. Apple says it lets you “create layered icons out of Liquid Glass from a single design for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch” and can export a flattened version for marketing. It requires macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later. Nothing in this list replaces Windows ICO export; for that, Image2icon’s paid unlock remains the option checked here.

I style lots of folders: which app handles batches or a library?

Choose by how much you want decided for you. Folder Designer by FIPLAB is the plain, maintained folder app: $4.99 on the US App Store with no in-app purchases listed, version 1.93 of 8 April 2026, and the version 1.92 note reads “Updated for macOS Tahoe”. Its Icon mode places an image on the folder, its Pattern mode “wraps an entire photo around it”, you can scale the image, and it has a restore button. The store says macOS 11.5 or later; FIPLAB’s own page says macOS 12 or later. Neither page documents changing several folders in one action.

Tintd 2 is built for volume. Its site lists more than 11,000 icons, a tool to “apply one icon across many folders”, and a Folder Watcher that styles new folders from their names. The watcher needs Full Disk Access, and the current download, version 2.0.0, requires macOS 14 or later. On 29 October 2026 the price endpoint returned $9.99 with an original price of $49.99, sold as “Pay once. Access forever. No subscription.” Treat the $9.99 as that day’s offer, not a permanent price.

fileicon suits people who would rather script it. The MIT-licensed command-line tool (version 0.3.5 on Homebrew) sets, removes, extracts and tests custom icons on files and folders, from “any image file whose format is recognized by the system”, so one loop restyles a whole tree. Its README warns that icons on volumes “often fails in practice” since macOS 13.1. For the native shortcuts and app options side by side, see changing several folder icons at once.

I want to change app icons: what still works?

Here the field is thin. IconChanger, an MIT-licensed open-source app whose description reads “Simply change your app's icon on macOS. Just a click.”, is the one most often cited. Its latest release, 1.2.7, dates from 22 December 2022 and the repository was last updated on 3 January 2024, so it is older than Image2icon’s last update. Its README says it cannot change the icon of system apps because of System Integrity Protection, and the Homebrew cask requires macOS 12 or later.

Apple’s guide documents custom icons for files and folders; it does not say anything specific about apps, so we do not promise that the Get Info paste works on every app. Image2icon’s templates include a “macOS App Icon” style, and its site says the icon can be applied “to any file”. Mac+ does not change app icons at all.

How do the Image2icon alternatives compare at a glance?

How this list was built: a Mac tool that applies or generates icons, can still be downloaded, and has a primary page we could read on 29 October 2026. Left out: LiteIcon, whose developer says it “has been discontinued” since macOS Big Sur; FastIcns, for which we found no primary page; web converters, which make files but do not apply them on the Mac; and the Folder Colorizer editions, compared in Folder Colorizer and its alternatives. For a method-by-method view (Get Info, icon packs, apps), see the Mac folder icon comparison.

Where do the vendors’ own pages disagree?

The cheap test settles all three: install the free Image2icon, or read the requirement in the store on your own Mac, before paying for any unlock.

Who should keep Image2icon, or pick none of these?

Keep Image2icon if you export Windows ICO files, favicons or iOS and Android icon sets: no other option checked here covers those formats in one app, and part of it is free. Keep it too if your Mac runs macOS 10.13 to 10.15, below the floor of Folder Designer, Tintd 2 and Mac+. Pick none of the apps if you colour or label a handful of folders on macOS 26 or later: Customize Folder does it for free, and Get Info handles your own pictures on any recent version.

Where does Mac+ fit, and where does it not?

Mac+ is made by the publisher of this site, so the limits come first, because for an Image2icon user they decide. Mac+ produces no icon file at all: no .icns, iconset, PNG, favicon or iOS and Android sets. It styles folders only, not files, drives or apps, and it does not change app icons. It has no emoji or symbol library. The free tier includes 6 folder icons; the full set of 52 icons, importing your own image and styling several folders at once are listed under Pro, which costs €9.99 once or €1.99 a month after a 7-day free trial. It is a direct download from macplus.pro, not the Mac App Store, and needs macOS 13 or later, macOS 27 Golden Gate included, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

What it does instead: 52 patterns in 24 families mapped onto the real macOS folder shape, 44 palettes plus a color creator, a PNG or JPEG fitted inside the folder outline, a whole selection styled in one action and a one-click reset to Apple’s blue folder. The site says the icon is stored the way macOS stores any custom icon, in a hidden Icon file inside the folder. The same app runs animated wallpapers and desktop widgets; if you need neither, a folder-only tool or the Finder will serve you just as well. More on the Mac folder icons page.

How was this page checked?

On 29 October 2026 we read each product’s own pages: the App Store listings in the US, French, Spanish and German stores, Apple’s public lookup service, the vendors’ sites, the GitHub repositories and Homebrew’s public catalogue. Quoted strings were copied from those pages, and each price is the one shown that day, in that store’s currency. Apple’s labels come from the macOS 27 Mac User Guide in each language; its guides for macOS 11 to 15 and 26, used for the version notes, were read on 7 October 2026, because Apple’s server limited our requests on the 29th. AlternativeTo refused our request (HTTP 403), so nothing from it is used. Nothing on this page was tested on a Mac, and none of the vendors was contacted.

This page is not an independent review: we make Mac+, which appears last. If a fact is wrong or out of date, write to support@macplus.pro; vendors can ask for a correction the same way, and we fix checked errors the same week. Changelog: 29 October 2026, first version.

macOS 13 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. Free download with 6 folder icons; Pro €9.99 once or €1.99/month.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

Sources

• Customize the look of folders and files on Mac — Apple Mac User Guide, macOS 27 (checked 29 October 2026)
• Image2icon — Mac App Store, US (prices, version history, requirement; checked 29 October 2026)
• Image2icon — Shiny Frog (features and price paragraph; checked 29 October 2026)
• Folder Designer: Custom Icons — Mac App Store, US (checked 29 October 2026)
• Folder Designer — FIPLAB (checked 29 October 2026)
• folderify — GitHub repository and README (checked 29 October 2026)
• fileicon — GitHub repository and README (checked 29 October 2026)
• IconChanger — GitHub repository and releases (checked 29 October 2026)
• Tintd 2 — product page and download requirements (checked 29 October 2026)
• Icon Composer — Apple Developer (checked 29 October 2026)
• High Resolution Guidelines for OS X: Use iconutil to create an icns file — Apple Developer archive (checked 29 October 2026)

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