A BongoCat Alternative that moves around
BongoCat is a free, MIT-licensed desktop pet for macOS, Windows and Linux: a cat that mirrors your keyboard, mouse or gamepad input, with custom models you can import. It works offline and collects no data. Notchy's desktop pet, new in 1.0.178, is a different kind of companion — instead of drumming along to your typing, it wanders the desktop and reacts to what your Mac is doing.
Looking for BongoCat itself? It lives on GitHub as ayangweb/BongoCat.
- BongoCat price
- Free
- BongoCat requires
- macOS, Windows and Linux (x11)
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of BongoCat?
- Reacts to the Mac, not the keys
Hot CPU, low battery, plugging in, a focus timer, music and video each get their own pose and a line in a speech bubble.
- Cats and dogs
23 pixel pets, each with its own voice and moves: dogs get zoomies, cats stalk a still cursor, and any of them may hop onto a window and ride along.
- Care and collection
Meters for food, energy and friendship, a care streak, shiny variants and hidden discoveries to share as a card.
- Where BongoCat is better
It runs on Windows and Linux too, accepts custom models, and its type-along animation is exactly what streamers want on screen. Notchy's pet is Mac-only and uses its own sprites.
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
Show all 51Show fewer
- 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 BongoCat
For a type-along cat on a stream overlay, BongoCat is the right, free choice. For a pet that lives on the desktop and tells you when the Mac is hot, flat or playing music, try Notchy's.
BongoCat alternative — FAQ
Is BongoCat available for Mac?
Yes. The open-source BongoCat app supports macOS, Windows and Linux (x11), and is free under the MIT licence.
Does Notchy's pet react to typing?
Not keystroke by keystroke. It reacts to system state — CPU heat, battery, charging, timers, music and video — and to your clicks when you pat it.
Can I use my own model like in BongoCat?
No. Notchy ships eight pixel breeds (plus its Pomodoro mascots, which you can adopt as the pet) and doesn't import models.
Is Notchy free?
No. Notchy is a one-time $24.99 purchase for one Mac, with a 7-day free trial and updates included — no subscription or in-app purchase.
Can I run both?
Yes. BongoCat sits where you put it; Notchy's pet walks along the bottom of the screen and can be pinned out of the way.