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Free — v0.4.0

Your apps start
before your Wi-Fi does

On recent versions of macOS, Wi-Fi connects after your login items start. Cloud drives, mail clients, and anything that signs in at launch come up offline and throw errors. The usual fix is to log out and log back in — every single boot.

Download for macOSUniversal · Apple Silicon & Intel · macOS 13+

Signed and notarized by Apple. No account, no telemetry, no tracking.

It waits for a real connection

A fixed delay does not solve this. Too short and your apps still start offline; too long and you are waiting for nothing. LaunchGate instead checks whether a real host answers, then launches.

That distinction matters: a joined Wi-Fi network with no DHCP lease, or one sitting behind a captive portal, reports itself as "connected" while nothing can actually be reached. That is precisely the window your apps were starting in.

What you get

Pick apps any way you like

Browse everything installed — including Setapp — or drag any bundle in from Finder.

Stagger the start

Give each app its own delay so a row of heavy sync clients does not all hit the connection at once.

Tune the wait

Set how often it re-checks, how long it keeps trying, and which URL it tests against.

See exactly what happened

An activity log records every app it launched, skipped, or could not find — and why.

Stay out of the way

Run from the menu bar with no Dock icon. Closing the window keeps the gate armed for next login.

Never leaves you stranded

If the network never comes up, it launches anyway. An app you can retry beats an app that silently never starts.

It talks to one URL

LaunchGate makes a single unauthenticated request to the connection-test URL you choose — by default Apple's own captive-portal endpoint. No account, no analytics, no data leaves your Mac. It is free, and it always will be.

Get LaunchGate

Download v0.4.0 for macOS

Requires macOS 13 or later.