Browsing curated app recommendations in elementary OS AppCenter
AppCenter has always been one of the quiet strengths of elementary OS. Rather than functioning as a sprawling repository where anything can be uploaded, it operates as a curated software shopfront where each title has been reviewed against a published set of design and quality guidelines. The result is a smaller catalogue than what most users would find on generic Linux package managers, but the trade-off is intentional: every app you see has been judged for its adherence to the Pantheon design language, its respect for user privacy, and its overall polish. For newcomers switching from Windows or macOS, this curation can feel reassuring, since it removes the need to evaluate every download yourself.
In Australia, where Linux adoption on the desktop is still a niche pursuit, that reassurance tends to matter a lot. Many Aussie elementary users are running the system on a spare laptop at home, often on a fixed-line NBN connection in suburbs from Parramatta to Footscray, and they value a low-friction experience over endless choice. Curated app picks also tend to reflect software that respects modest bandwidth budgets, which can be a real consideration on FTTN or fixed wireless links where downloading a 200 MB package on top of system updates can be more disruptive than it would be on a fibre-to-the-premises plan.
This guide walks through how the AppCenter's recommended apps are organised, what the curation process actually filters for, and which titles deserve a look when you're filling out a fresh install. Whether you're setting up elementary on a home desktop in Adelaide or deploying it for a small community group in Hobart, the recommendations below should help you build a useful, well-rounded software library without wading through dozens of mediocre alternatives.
How the curated system actually filters apps
Unlike traditional Linux package managers that accept almost any submission as long as it builds correctly, AppCenter treats its catalogue more like a phone app store. Developers have to apply, their app is reviewed, and there's an ongoing expectation that updates will continue to meet the standards set at the time of approval. This is partly why you'll notice a smaller overall count when you open AppCenter compared to, say, the Ubuntu Software centre or a flatpak repository.
The criteria used by the elementary team and community reviewers tend to focus on three things: visual integration with Pantheon, sensible defaults, and respect for the user. Visual integration means following the Granite design widgets, using native system dialogs, and behaving well across HiDPI and standard displays. Sensible defaults cover whether the app launches in a usable state out of the box, asks for permissions it actually needs, and doesn't push aggressive notifications. Respect for the user is the harder, fuzzier category, but it includes things like not bundling trackers, not surfacing paid placements, and giving users a genuine choice when optional services are offered.
The practical effect for someone installing elementary OS in a flat in Surry Hills or a share house in Fortitude Valley is that you can treat the suggested section as a starting point you can mostly trust. If you wander outside it and install a flatpak from Flathub manually, you should still expect a smooth experience, but you'll occasionally encounter apps that ignore elementary's conventions. The curated list exists precisely so that doesn't happen by default.
Browsing the suggested section and categories
When you open AppCenter on a fresh install, the landing page is divided into a few distinct areas. At the top you'll typically find editorial highlights, often with seasonal picks or recently reviewed additions. Beneath that, the Suggested carousel groups together hand-picked titles for common tasks: email, calendar, music, photos, terminal work, and so on. Scrolling further reveals category buttons — Productivity, Graphics, Internet, System — that act as quick filters when you already have something specific in mind.
Search works the same way you'd expect it to on any storefront. Type "mail" and you'll get Geary alongside a couple of alternatives that have passed review. Type "video" and you'll see the editor's choice, plus a small handful of others. If a query returns nothing within the curated catalogue, AppCenter offers to widen the search to cover the system package manager, which is useful but worth using with the awareness that anything pulled from there bypasses the curation rules.
For Australian users on capped NBN plans or those running over mobile broadband in regional areas, sticking to the curated section also has a small bandwidth benefit. The flatpaks and native packages included in AppCenter are usually a sensible size, and the suggested carousel tends to feature lightweight options that don't quietly pull down hundreds of megabytes of cached data. It's not a huge difference day-to-day, but it adds up over a year of installs and updates.
Free and open source picks worth installing first
A handful of titles show up in the AppCenter suggestions on virtually every install, and for good reason. Geary is the default mail client and handles IMAP and SMTP accounts cleanly, including the sorts of providers common in Australia such as Bigpond, iiNet, and the various smaller ISPs. Calendar, built on the Evolution data server backend, integrates with the wingpanel datetime menu and accepts CalDAV feeds, which makes it easy to keep a single view across work and personal schedules.
For file management, the built-in Files app handles local drives, network shares, and most SFTP locations without complaint. If you regularly back up to an external drive or a NAS, Pika Backup is worth installing — it has become a steady recommendation in the AppCenter over the past couple of years. Pika uses btrfs or rsync under the hood and supports scheduled snapshots, which is genuinely useful if you're tinkering with system configurations and want a quick rollback path.
On the multimedia side, the curated picks tend to lean towards Lollypop for music, Photos for image management, and either the included Videos app or Celluloid for playback. Each of these respects elementary's design conventions enough that they don't feel like foreign objects in the dock. For terminal work, the default Terminal app — built on the same Granite framework as the rest of the system — is a strong starting point, and most users won't need anything else unless they're managing remote servers or running interactive shells.
Paid apps and supporting independent developers
One thing that surprises people new to AppCenter is the presence of paid apps alongside free ones. This is a deliberate choice by the elementary project: the curated model costs time and effort, and paid apps let independent developers offset that work without resorting to ads, telemetry, or subscription models. Prices are usually listed in US dollars, which means Australian users see them converted to AUD at checkout, occasionally with GST displayed depending on the developer's registration.
Whether or not you buy a paid title on principle is a personal call. From a practical standpoint, a few of them fill niches the free catalogue doesn't cover as neatly. Planner, for instance, offers a focused task-management experience that's a touch more refined than the free alternatives, and the LocalSend paid companion builds on the popular LAN transfer tool with extra polish. There are also donations built into some free apps as a one-click option, which is a low-friction way to chip a few dollars towards a maintainer whose work you rely on.
For Australian readers weighing this up, the rough rule of thumb is to support an indie developer when their app replaces something you'd otherwise pay for on another platform. If you're already paying for a note-taking subscription or a cross-platform clipboard manager on Windows, redirecting a similar amount to a small AppCenter developer is a fair trade, and the AUD conversion usually lands within a couple of dollars of comparable paid tools.
Less obvious picks and newcomers to watch
Beyond the headline apps, AppCenter regularly surfaces smaller tools that solve specific annoyances. Calculator is a Pantheon-styled replacement for the default GNOME calculator and supports unit conversions, which is handy for anyone juggling metric and imperial measurements. Font Manager lets you preview and install user fonts without dropping into the terminal. Web Next is a minimalist browser built on the same toolkit as some of the system apps, useful as a lightweight fallback when you don't want to spin up a full browser tab for a single page.
In the past year, a few newer entries have earned their place in the suggested carousel. The Steam client, while not technically part of the curated catalogue, is listed as a sidebar install because of how often it's used by Linux gamers — a category where Australia punches well above its weight thanks to a strong indie and retro-gaming scene in Melbourne and Brisbane. There are also emerging picks around podcasting, vector drawing, and local network discovery that haven't quite hit mainstream visibility yet but are worth keeping an eye on.
If you're keen to track what's coming through the review queue, the elementary OS community maintains a public AppCenter review tracker, and the project's Discourse forum regularly posts call-for-testing threads. Following those is the closest thing to an insider feed for what's likely to appear in the suggested section in the next release cycle, and it's also where new Australian contributors tend to surface when they get involved with the curation process.
Open AppCenter on your next boot, click into the Suggested carousel, and pick one app you wouldn't normally reach for — give it a few days of genuine use before deciding whether it earns a permanent spot in your dock. That single experiment, repeated every couple of months, is a low-effort way to keep a setup sharp without constantly reinstalling from scratch.
