Download and drag
Download the signed DMG and drag the app to Applications. No Homebrew, macFUSE, or separate driver package.
Installation guideFree & open source · v0.2.0Your Windows drives.
Your Windows drives.
Right at home on Mac.
Free NTFS read/write for macOS.
Mountee lets you read and write NTFS drives on your Mac without installing macFUSE, using kernel extensions, or reducing macOS security settings. Free and open source.
- macOS 26 or later
- Apple Silicon
- No macFUSE
- No kernel extension
- GPL-3.0
Read/write verified on macOS 26.6.2 and macOS 27.0.1.
Mounted read/write
Apple Silicon · macOS 26+
Full Security
Mountee 0.2.0 · concept view
Full Security stays on No reboot to install Native Finder integration Auditable source No account or subscription
How it works
Three steps. No terminal.
Mountee installs like a normal Mac app. The only setup is enabling its file system extension once, then choosing read/write for the volume you want to change.
Enable the extension
Press Enable File System Extension. macOS keeps Full Security — there is no kext approval, Recovery Mode, or reboot.
Security modelMount read/write
Volumes mount read-only by default. Choose Mount Read/Write when you need it; dirty or hibernated volumes stay read-only.
Using MounteeWhy Mountee
NTFS write access without the usual baggage.
No macFUSE dependency chain. No third-party kernel code. No security downgrade. Just a native-feeling utility that mounts your drive and gets out of the way.
No kernel extension
Mountee runs as an FSKit file system extension in user space. Your Mac stays at Full Security — no kext approval, no Recovery Mode, no SIP changes, no reboot.
Read the security modelNo macFUSE, no Homebrew
The ntfs-3g engine is compiled into the app. Install one DMG and you are done. There is no separate driver, package manager, or terminal setup.
How it works without macFUSERead-only by default
Every volume mounts read-only until you explicitly choose Mount Read/Write. Dirty or Windows-hibernated volumes are never mounted read/write.
Safety modelNative where it matters
Mounted drives appear under /Volumes and in Finder like any other disk. The menu bar app handles mount, unmount, eject, reveal, and diagnostics.
See all featuresFree and open source
GPL-3.0, with a pinned and SHA-256 verified ntfs-3g build. Read the source, audit the safety gates, or build it yourself. No account or subscription.
About the projectHonest about limits
Unsupported operations return ENOTSUP; nothing reports a false success. Known limitations are documented instead of hidden. Mountee never formats, repairs, or erases.
Known limitationsThe menu bar app
A small app that stays out of the way.
Mountee lives in the menu bar. It lists the NTFS volumes macOS can see and gives you mount, unmount, eject, reveal, and diagnostics actions without a full window.
MounteeNTFS volumes
Windows SSDread-write
UnmountEjectRevealDetails
Backup Drivenot mounted
Mount Read-OnlyMount Read/WriteEject
Under the hood
User-space NTFS, without the usual compromises.
Mountee is built on Apple's FSKit framework, the same user-space file system architecture Apple uses for modern file system extensions. The ntfs-3g engine is compiled into the app as a static library, with the FUSE driver disabled at build time.
That means the file system code never runs in the kernel, there is no third-party kext to approve, and there is nothing left behind after you uninstall. The trade-off is a narrow platform target: macOS 26+ on Apple Silicon.
Data pathUser space
Finder and applicationsNormal file access through macOS
Apple FSKitUser-space file system framework
no kextMountee NTFS moduleSafety gates and volume operations
sandboxedntfs-3g engineBundled static library, no FUSE linked
GPLNTFS volumeUSB, Thunderbolt, SATA, NVMe
read-only defaultexplicit per-volumeENOTSUP on unsupported ops
The macOS problem
Why can macOS read NTFS but not write to it?
Windows uses NTFS as its primary filesystem. Apple ships a driver that can read NTFS so you can open Windows drives, but it does not provide general-purpose write support. That is why Finder lets you copy files off a Windows drive but refuses to copy new files onto it.
Before Ventura, some tools exploited an undocumented remount behavior. That path is gone on modern macOS, and it never applied to Apple Silicon. The supported route today is a third-party filesystem driver — either a kernel extension, macFUSE, a commercial system driver, or an FSKit extension like Mountee.
How to write to NTFS on MacBuilt-in macOS driver
Read files
Copy photos, documents, backups Yes
Copy photos, documents, backups Yes
Write files
Create, edit, rename, delete No
Create, edit, rename, delete No
Mountee adds the write path through FSKit, with read-only still the default and an explicit per-volume opt-in for writes.
Compare
How Mountee compares.
A factual look at the main options. Details verified on November 14, 2026. Vendor policies and prices change; check their official pages before buying.
| Feature | Mountee | macOS built-in | Mounty 2.x | Paragon NTFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Included with macOS | Free | Paid license; 10-day trial |
| App source published | GPL-3.0 | No | Not stated by vendor | No |
| NTFS write | Yes | No | Yes, via ntfs-3g | Yes |
| macFUSE required | No | No | Yes (2.x) | No |
| Third-party kernel extension | No (FSKit, user space) | No | Yes (macFUSE) | See vendor docs |
| Reboot to install | No | — | Usually | Yes, per vendor guide |
| Apple Silicon | Yes (only) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intel Macs | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| macOS range | macOS 26+ | Built in | 10.9–27 | Catalina–27 |
| Format / repair / erase | Never (by design) | Disk Utility can erase | No | Yes |
Mounty 2.4 was released December 29, 2023 and uses macFUSE plus ntfs-3g. Paragon's current trial is version 18 and lists support for macOS Catalina through macOS 27, plus Intel and Apple Silicon. See the detailed comparisons: Mounty and Paragon.
Compatibility
Built for modern Apple Silicon. Honest about the limits.
Mountee is deliberately narrow. It does one job on a well-defined platform instead of claiming support it cannot verify.
Supported
- macOS 26 or later — verified on 26.6.2 and 27.0.1
- Apple Silicon (arm64)
- NTFS volumes macOS can see
- USB, Thunderbolt, SATA, and NVMe connections
- Read-only and explicit read/write mounts
- Finder integration under
/Volumes
Not supported (yet)
- Intel Macs
- macOS 15 or earlier
- Formatting, repairing, or erasing volumes
- POSIX permission mapping from NTFS descriptors
- Symlinks, hard links, and extended attributes
- Crash-consistency testing under fault injection
This is a young 0.2.0 release. The write path is verified with content hashes across remounts on disposable images, but treat a new NTFS driver like any new software that touches your data: keep backups and test on non-critical drives first. Read the full limitations.
Open source
Trust comes from inspectable code.
Mountee is GPL-3.0. The source, build scripts, pinned dependencies, validation notes, and release pipeline are public. There is no account, subscription, or proprietary driver blob.
GPL-3.0
Free to use, study, change, and share. The full source is on GitHub, including the FSKit extension and bridge.
Browse the sourcePinned and signed
ntfs-3g 2026.9.28 is pinned and SHA-256 verified. Releases are Developer ID signed and notarized by the project pipeline.
Security modelOptional support
Mountee stays free. If it saves you time, you can sponsor development or contribute code, docs, and bug reports.
Sponsor on GitHubFAQ
Questions, answered directly.
The short answers are here. The full FAQ covers comparisons, limitations, uninstalling, and support.
Is Mountee really free?
Yes. Mountee is free and open source under GPL-3.0. There is no paid tier, subscription, account, or trial. Voluntary sponsorship is optional and does not unlock any additional features.
Does Mountee require macFUSE or a kernel extension?
No. Mountee is built on Apple's FSKit framework and bundles the ntfs-3g engine in the app. There is no separate macFUSE install, no third-party kernel extension, and no Homebrew dependency at runtime.
Which Macs and macOS versions does Mountee support?
Mountee requires macOS 26 or later on an Apple Silicon Mac. The 0.2.0 release is verified on macOS 26.6.2 and macOS 27.0.1. Intel Macs and macOS 15 or earlier are not supported.
Can Mountee write to NTFS drives?
Yes. Volumes mount read-only by default, and you choose Mount Read/Write per volume. Volumes marked dirty or hibernated by Windows are never mounted read/write; Mountee keeps them read-only and logs the reason.
Is Mountee safe for an important drive?
Mountee is designed around safety gates: read-only by default, no format, repair or erase operations, and unsupported operations fail with ENOTSUP instead of pretending to succeed. It is still a young 0.2.0 release, so keep backups and try read/write on non-critical data first.
Why does the installer still say MacNTFS?
The 0.2.0 DMG was built before the project was renamed. It is named MacNTFS-0.2.0.dmg and installs MacNTFS.app. The app is the same Mountee project; the bundled name is being migrated in a future release.
How do I uninstall Mountee?
Eject all mounted volumes, disable the extension in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → File System Extensions, then delete the app from /Applications and remove ~/Library/MacNTFS. Those identifiers are shared with the 0.2.0 MacNTFS.app build.
Your Windows drive is one install away.
Download Mountee, enable the file system extension once, and mount your NTFS volume read/write. Free, open source, and no macFUSE required.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon · 4.25 MB