An Easydict Alternative in the notch
Easydict is a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) dictionary and translation app for macOS 13 and later. It queries more than twenty services at once — Apple Dictionary and Translate, DeepL, Google, Bing, OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Ollama and more — and translates selected text, typed input or screenshots with offline OCR. Notchy's Translate tab, added in 1.0.141, is deliberately smaller: paste something foreign into the notch and read it in your language.
Looking for Easydict itself? It lives on GitHub as tisfeng/Easydict.
- Easydict price
- Free
- Easydict requires
- macOS 13.0 or later
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of Easydict?
- Translate without another app
If you already run Notchy, the Translate tab is one hover away. It detects the source language, translates as you type, and Copy puts the result on the clipboard.
- Next to search and a calculator
Translate sits with Quick Search — nine engines, custom engines and bangs — and a typed calculator with history, all on the same macOS 13 floor as Easydict.
- Where Easydict is far deeper
Twenty-plus services side by side, LLM translation, dictionaries, text-to-speech, select-to-translate and screenshot OCR translation. Notchy uses Google Translate only and has none of those. For heavy translation work, Easydict is the better tool.
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 Easydict
Easydict is the stronger translator by a wide margin and costs nothing. Notchy's Translate tab is for the quick paste-and-read moment, living in the notch beside search and a calculator — useful if you'd rather not run another app for that.
Easydict alternative — FAQ
Is Easydict free?
Yes. Easydict is free and open source under GPL-3.0, per its GitHub repository.
Which translation service does Notchy use?
Google Translate's public endpoints, so it needs an internet connection. Easydict can use Apple's on-device Translate and many other services.
Can Notchy translate text in a screenshot?
Not in one step. Notchy can extract text from a copied screenshot with on-device OCR, which you can then paste into Translate. Easydict does screenshot translation directly.
What macOS do they need?
Both run on macOS 13 Ventura or later. Easydict notes an older 2.7.2 build for earlier systems.
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.