A Cursor Pro Alternative for your pointer
Cursor Pro, from App ahead in Germany, draws a shape around your pointer — you choose shape, size, colours, border and glow — animates it on clicks, hides it when the mouse stops, and adds a magnifier up to 20× on a key press. It's $14.99 on the Mac App Store for macOS 11.5 and up, with Shortcuts support. Notchy's Pointer settings do the highlight part.
Looking for Cursor Pro itself? It lives on the App Store.
- Cursor Pro price
- $14.99 on the Mac App Store
- Cursor Pro requires
- macOS 11.5 or later
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of Cursor Pro?
- Halo and click ripples
A soft ring follows the pointer and squeezes on press; each click sends out a ripple, doubled for right clicks.
- Spotlight when you need it
Hold ⌃⌥ and the rest of the screen dims around the pointer.
- The pointer itself, restyled
Beyond a shape around the cursor, Notchy can recolour the cursor — nine themes, up to 2× size.
- Where Cursor Pro is better
Its 20× magnifier for pixel work, auto-hide when idle, custom highlight shapes and borders, a global toggle shortcut and Shortcuts actions. Notchy has no magnifier.
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 Cursor Pro
Cursor Pro is polished and its magnifier is genuinely useful for design work. For a pointer your audience can follow on a call or recording, Notchy does the job alongside everything else in the notch.
Cursor Pro alternative — FAQ
How much is Cursor Pro?
$14.99 on the Mac App Store in the US, with no in-app purchases listed.
Does Notchy have a magnifier like Cursor Pro?
No. Notchy's colour picker uses macOS's sampler loupe to pick a pixel, but there's no standalone zoom or magnifier.
Can I turn Notchy's cursor highlight on and off quickly?
The halo and ripples are switches in Settings → Pointer. The spotlight is momentary — it's on only while you hold ⌃⌥.
Does it work on external monitors?
Yes. Notchy runs one click-through overlay per connected display.
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.