Retrobatch

Retrobatch is the app you set up once and then stop thinking about. You drag out nodes — a folder to watch, a resize, a crop, a metadata scrub, three writers at different sizes and formats — connect them, and drop files on it. One pass produces @1x, @2x and @3x assets, or a hundred web-ready JPEGs, or a folder of photos with the GPS coordinates removed before they go anywhere public.

The metadata handling is the part people underrate: it can rewrite or wipe EXIF, IPTC and XMP without recompressing the image, which matters if you publish photographs and would rather not publish your home address with them.

Pricing needs care. The $29.99 standard edition does resize, crop, export and metadata. Pro at $49.99 adds the machine-learning nodes, AppleScript and JavaScript nodes, and droplets you can drop files onto from the Finder. If you came here to automate something unusual, you want Pro, so read that as the real price.

Do not buy it for two dozen images a year. A Finder quick action or a five-line sips script handles that, and the node editor has a genuine learning cost — it rewards being set up carefully, which only pays off if you run the same job repeatedly.