Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Barstool
I really hate the way the macOS menu bar looks, and how crowded it gets with all my apps' Menubar menus. Barstool lets me still see the time/date and other useful info while hiding the menubar. I can see wifi connectivity, date, time, and battery all the time. The app also observes system notifications to surface now playing state, (Apple) calendar events, and volume/brightness changes. I've had to do a lot of finking with mac PrivateFrameworks as apple loves to make all the interesting data unavailable through official sources/APIs. Happy to get any feedback/questions!
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
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NotchNook▲338Access media, calendar, files & more from the Mac's notch
2024 · lo.cafe · its alternatives →
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Howdy, gang; After almost two weeks of sitting in Apple's approval queue, my new app Timebar is finally available. I think it has a pretty innovative UI feature, so I wanted to float it by Hacker News. It's a timer app that turns your Mac's menu bar into a sort of virtual hourglass. Your menu bar starts out tinted blue (or whatever colour you pick) and it slowly drains from right-to-left until your time is up. It works very well for situations where you want to keep track of time, but don't need to be super precise. The menu bar is easy to glance up at, and it doesn't take long to happen…
2013 · whimsicalifornia.com · its alternatives →
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Bartender▲616Organize and hide menu bar items on your Mac
2014 · macbartender.com · its alternatives →
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MenubarX▲474A powerful menu bar browser. Pin websites like Native Apps.
2022 · menubarx.app · its alternatives →
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TyCal▲205A peek at your Apple Calendar right from the menu bar
2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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ExtraBar▲152Hey Hacker News The ones that know me here know that I am a productivity geek. After DockFlow to manage my Dock and ExtraDock, which gives me more space to manage my apps and files, I decided to tackle the macOS big boss: the menu bar. I spend ~40% of my day context-switching between apps — Zoom meetings, Slack channels, Code projects, and Figma designs. My macOS menu bar has too many useless icons I almost never use. So I thought to myself, how can I use this area to improve my workflows? Most solutions (Bartender, Ice) require screen recording permissions, and did not really solve my…
Dec 2025 · extrabar.app · its alternatives →
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Bartender 2▲301Organize and hide menu bar items on your Mac
2015 · macbartender.com · its alternatives →
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🇺🇦 Your meetings at your fingertips in the macOS menu bar - GitHub - leits/MeetingBar: 🇺🇦 Your meetings at your fingertips in the macOS menu bar
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
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NightOwl▲320Easily toggle your Macs Dark Mode with this menubar app.
2019 · nightowlapp.co · its alternatives →
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Chunk▲298Hi HN Dudley here, tech lead on Chunk. Chunk is a macOS menu bar app for time-blocking. It opens with Cmd + / and slides down over whatever you're doing - including fullscreen apps. There's also a live countdown in the tray for the current block. Click-and-drag to create blocks, day/week views, Google/Outlook/Apple Calendar sync, Apple Reminders integration, and a Todo mode where tasks can be dragged onto the timeline. Templates and Routines let you build an ideal day once and auto-apply it on chosen weekdays. There's a local MCP server, so you can ask Claude Desktop to…
2025 · chunkapp.net · its alternatives →
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mectrics▲268Your Mac's vitals in the menu bar. Free and open source.
Jul 2026 · mectrics.app · its alternatives →
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Breaks▲118A quiet Pomodoro that lives in your menu bar.
May 2026 · gjinprelvukaj.github.io · its alternatives →
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Bartender 4▲247Award-winning app for macOS that superpowers your menu bar
2021 · macbartender.com · its alternatives →
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MenuBar Stats▲173Advanced Mac system monitor right from the menu bar
2017 · seense.com · its alternatives →
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Instant for Mac▲132A menu bar app to track the daily time spent on your Mac
2015 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
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Get instant notifications from Messages, Mail, Slack, and more directly in your menu bar. Perfect for Mac users who hide their Dock or want better notification management.
2025 · badgeify.app · its alternatives →
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Loading▲205See when apps are using your network in your Mac menubar
2015 · bonzaiapps.com · its alternatives →
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Day-O▲131Simple menu bar clock replacement w/ calendar for your Mac
2014 · shauninman.com · its alternatives →
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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →