The free Crest Alternative that still runs on Ventura
Crest describes Crest Pro as a notch control room — music, calendar, todos, system stats, SSH hosts and a Claude co-pilot — at $24.99 one-time with its two sibling apps included, or $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year, on macOS 14 or later. A free tier needs no account. It is a genuinely ambitious take on the notch. Notchy aims at the same control-room idea without the price and without the Sonoma floor: it runs on macOS 13 Ventura on Intel and Apple silicon, and the AI, stats and terminal pieces are all present.
- Crest price
- Crest Pro $24.99 one-time, or $2.99/month or $14.99/year
- Crest requires
- macOS 14 or later
- Notchy price
- Free — donations optional
Why use Notchy instead of Crest?
- $24.99 versus nothing
Crest Pro is $24.99 one-time with the Take and Minutes apps included, or $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year. Notchy has no purchase, no subscription and no tier — it is funded by optional donations.
- Two more years of Macs can run it
Crest sets its floor at macOS 14 Sonoma, so a Mac left on Ventura cannot install it at all. Notchy supports macOS 13 Ventura and later, on one universal build that is native on Intel and Apple silicon.
- The control-room parts are covered
Now Playing with artwork and scrubbing, calendar and Apple Reminders, CPU, GPU, memory and network monitoring, CPU temperature, disk space, and a real VT100 terminal in the island. Claude Code and Codex permission approvals arrive as an island you can answer without leaving the app you were in.
- Where Crest does something Notchy doesn't
Crest carries an SSH host manager in the notch, and Notchy has no equivalent — its terminal is a shell, not a saved-hosts list. If jumping between servers from the cutout is the specific job, that is Crest's feature.
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, for free
- 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
- Open GitHub PR count in the notch (Keychain-stored token)
- 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 Crest
Crest is a serious piece of work and the SSH host list is a real differentiator. But $24.99 buys a notch hub that will not install on Ventura, and Notchy covers the music, calendar, stats, terminal and AI-approval ground for free on two more years of Macs.
Crest alternative — FAQ
How much does Crest cost?
Crest has a free tier that needs no account. Crest Pro is $24.99 as a one-time payment and includes its sibling apps Take and Minutes, or it is $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year.
What macOS does Crest need?
macOS 14 or later for Crest Pro. Notchy requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, so a Mac that cannot move past Ventura still has an option.
Does Notchy have an AI co-pilot in the notch?
Partly: AI usage and spend across providers, Claude Code and Codex permission approvals you answer from the notch while the agent waits, and an opt-in Ask AI tab that chats with Claude using your own Anthropic API key.
Does Notchy show system stats like Crest?
Yes — CPU, GPU, memory and network live, plus CPU temperature from the sensor macOS does not expose, GPU utilisation, disk space for the boot drive and every external, battery health and USB devices.
What does Notchy have that Crest doesn't?
Synced lyrics, a clipboard history with OCR search, an image converter, compressor and PDF merge, HUD replacements for volume, brightness and keyboard backlight, external display brightness over DDC, dictation, window snapping and a stocks watchlist.
Is Notchy really free?
Yes — no trial, licence key or subscription, on macOS 13 Ventura and later.