The AlDente Alternative that lives in your notch
AlDente is the app that taught Mac owners to stop charging at 80%, and it is very good at that one job: a charge limiter with Heat Protection, Calibration Mode, clamshell discharge, MagSafe LED control and Shortcuts support, sold as AlDente Pro at €11.49 a year or €23.99 for life. Notchy added charge control in v1.0.169 — limit anywhere from 50 to 100%, Sailing Mode, Automatic Discharge and a one-tap Top Up — and includes it, for a one-time $24.99, inside an app that is also a Dynamic Island, a clipboard manager, a music controller and Face Unlock.
Looking for AlDente itself? It lives at apphousekitchen.com/aldente-overview.
- AlDente price
- AlDente Pro €11.49/year or €23.99 lifetime (up to 3 Macs); also on Setapp at €9.99/month
- AlDente requires
- macOS 12 Monterey or later (from AlDente 1.38)
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of AlDente?
- The limit, with no subscription
Hold the battery anywhere between 50 and 100% — no subscription, just one $24.99 licence with updates included. Sailing Mode lets it drift down up to 20 points before charging resumes, so the cycle counter stops ticking on micro-charges.
- Discharge and top up, both one tap
Plug in above your limit and Automatic Discharge runs the Mac off the battery until it falls back. Flying tomorrow? Top Up charges to 100% once and returns to the limit by itself.
- It is not only a battery app
AlDente is a menu bar charge limiter. The same $24.99 app gives you notch widgets, a Dynamic Island, per-app volume, Face Unlock, a clipboard manager and AI usage tracking — so the charge limit is not a second app to buy and babysit.
- Where AlDente does more
Heat Protection, Calibration Mode, discharge in clamshell mode, MagSafe LED colour control and Apple Shortcuts support are AlDente's, not Notchy's. If you want charge control tuned to that depth, AlDente is the specialist and worth its price.
Everything Notchy does, in one app
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
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- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Custom islands through the local developer API (off by default)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Camera Guard — alert (or block) when any app opens your camera
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 134 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple silicon
The honest verdict on AlDente
AlDente is a better charge limiter, and if battery chemistry is your hobby its Heat Protection and Calibration Mode earn the €23.99. If you want the 80% rule enforced properly, without a subscription, in an app that is already doing ten other things in your notch, Notchy now covers it.
AlDente alternative — FAQ
How much does AlDente cost?
AlDente Pro is €11.49 for a year or €23.99 for a lifetime licence, each covering up to three Macs, and it is also bundled with Setapp at €9.99/month. AppHouseKitchen also publishes a free version of AlDente.
Can Notchy limit charging like AlDente?
Yes, since v1.0.169. Set any limit from 50 to 100%, with Sailing Mode, Automatic Discharge when you plug in above the limit, and a one-shot Top Up to 100%.
What can AlDente do that Notchy cannot?
Heat Protection, Calibration Mode, discharging in clamshell mode, controlling the MagSafe LED colour and Apple Shortcuts support. Notchy has none of those.
Does Notchy need my admin password?
Once, the first time you turn Limit Charging on — charge control needs a root helper to reach the SMC. Turning the feature off or uninstalling Notchy removes the helper and restores normal charging.
Which macOS versions are supported?
AlDente 1.38 and later support macOS 12 Monterey through macOS 26. Notchy runs from macOS 13 Ventura, as one universal build for Intel and Apple silicon.
Can I run both?
Not for charging. Two apps writing the SMC's charge state will fight each other — pick one to own the limit and leave the other's charge control switched off.
Is Notchy free?
No. Notchy is a one-time $24.99 purchase for one Mac with a 7-day free trial — no subscription or in-app purchase.