Cast your Mac to any screen in one click with CastFree

CastFree is an 8 MB app for macOS 12 and later. There is no sign-up, no setup wizard and no configuration file. Here is the whole flow, start to finish.

1. Download and open

Download the app, drag it to Applications and launch it. macOS will ask once for screen-recording permission — that permission is what lets any app capture your display in order to send it. Approve it, and CastFree appears in your menu bar.

2. Pick a screen

Click the menu bar icon. CastFree scans your local network and lists every Apple TV, AirPlay display, Chromecast and DLNA-capable smart TV it finds, usually within a second or two. Click the one you want.

3. That's it

Your Mac appears on the screen at full native quality, with system audio following along. No watermark crosses the picture and no timer counts down in the corner. To stop, click the menu bar icon again and choose Stop casting.

Casting a video instead of your whole screen

Drag a video file onto the CastFree icon and it hands the file straight to the TV rather than mirroring. The TV does the decoding, so you get a sharper picture, quieter fans, and a Mac you can keep working on while the movie plays.

Handy things to know

• Both devices need to be on the same Wi-Fi network — the 5 GHz band gives the smoothest mirror.
• With an external monitor attached, you can pick which display to cast.
• Nothing leaves your network: the stream goes Mac → router → TV, with no cloud relay.
• No account exists to sign into, so there is nothing to recover, cancel or renew.

If a screen does not show up

• Check that your Mac is not on a guest network or connected to a VPN.
• Wake the TV — many receivers stop advertising themselves in standby.
• Disable AP/client isolation on the router, which blocks device-to-device discovery.

Casting should take one click and cost nothing. That is the entire idea behind CastFree.