The Brow Alternative with no subscription
Brow packs a remarkable number of tools into the notch for free — a launcher, clipboard history, window management, screenshots with OCR, a focus timer, calculator, unit converter, notes, snippets, file search, a PDF editor, battery and fan control and more. Its AI features — grammar fixes, AI dictation, AI translation and an agent — are Brow Pro at $4.99 a month or $49 a year, and it needs macOS 14. Notchy covers much of the same ground, AI included, for a one-time $24.99 from macOS 13.
Looking for Brow itself? It lives at brow-app.com.
- Brow price
- Free; Brow Pro $4.99/month or $49/year
- Brow requires
- macOS 14 or later
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of Brow?
- No Pro plan
Brow's AI tools are a subscription. Notchy's on-device dictation, AI clipboard proofreading and translation come with the one $24.99 purchase, with no monthly fee.
- Face Unlock and a real Dynamic Island
Notchy unlocks a locked Mac when you look at it, and is built around live activities — Now Playing with synced lyrics, calls, timers and HUDs that replace the macOS ones.
- Developer tools
AI usage limits across 35+ providers, Claude Code and Codex permission approvals from the notch, a real terminal and a listening-port killer.
- Where Brow does more
A PDF editor, system cleanup, network diagnostics and contacts — Notchy has none of those. Fan control, unit conversion and uninstalling Notchy now covers too: fan control arrived in 1.0.172 as a beta, the calculator converts units and currencies, and 1.0.178 added an app uninstaller.
How Notchy stacks up
Honest, feature-by-feature comparison of every major macOS notch app — no affiliates.
Swipe the table sideways to see every app.
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 Brow
Brow is an impressively broad free toolkit, and if a PDF editor or system cleanup is the draw, it's the pick. If you want AI features without a subscription, Face Unlock, and a Mac on Ventura, Notchy is one $24.99 purchase all the way down.
Brow alternative — FAQ
Is Brow free?
Brow Free is $0 forever. Brow Pro, which adds the AI features, is $4.99 a month or $49 a year, per brow-app.com.
What macOS does Brow need?
macOS 14 or later. Notchy runs on macOS 13 Ventura and later.
Does Notchy have Face Unlock like Brow?
Brow doesn't list face unlock. Notchy does: look at your locked Mac and it unlocks, with recognition on-device and your password in the Keychain.
Can Notchy control fans?
Yes, since 1.0.172, as a beta: a manual speed or a temperature curve per fan, on Macs whose firmware allows it. Most Apple silicon laptops don't, and Notchy says so rather than showing dead controls.
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.