The MacUpdater Alternative after the shutdown
MacUpdater is over. CoreCode says MacUpdater 3's promised lifetime “until 2026-01-01” has ended, there will be no MacUpdater 4, and its daily maintenance has stopped — so it no longer verifies the updates it reports. Version 3.5 is now free to use, but an update checker nobody maintains is exactly the tool that goes quietly wrong. Notchy's Packages tab, new in 1.0.172, takes over the core job: one list of what's out of date, from the App Store, Homebrew and every Sparkle-updated app.
Looking for MacUpdater itself? It lives at corecode.io/macupdater.
- MacUpdater price
- Free
- MacUpdater requires
- macOS 13 Ventura or later (MacUpdater 3.5, now unsupported)
- Notchy price
- $24.99 one-time, 7-day free trial
Why use Notchy instead of MacUpdater?
- Maintained, updates included
Notchy ships frequent updates, and updates are included in one $24.99 licence — no subscription. The update checker is one tab of an app you'd keep for other reasons.
- Homebrew included
Outdated casks and formulae come from your own brew and upgrade in the panel, one at a time or all at once.
- Nothing runs in the background
Notchy checks only when you open the tab or press Refresh. Updates are never installed without a click.
- Where MacUpdater did more
MacUpdater kept its own database — CoreCode cites real-time updates for 6,800 apps and version info for 100,000 more — and updated apps itself with one click. Notchy only knows what the App Store (via mas), Homebrew and Sparkle feeds report, and hands App Store and Sparkle updates to the owning updater.
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 MacUpdater
MacUpdater's database was genuinely hard to replace, and nothing free matches it app-for-app. But an unmaintained update checker is a liability. For most Macs — App Store apps, Homebrew, and the Sparkle apps that make up most direct downloads — Notchy's Packages tab covers the job, and it's maintained.
MacUpdater alternative — FAQ
Is MacUpdater discontinued?
Yes. CoreCode states MacUpdater 3's lifetime ended on 1 January 2026, there will be no MacUpdater 4, and daily maintenance — including verifying updates — has stopped. MacUpdater 3.5 is now free to use, unsupported.
Can I keep using MacUpdater?
It still runs on macOS 13 or later, but its update data is no longer checked by anyone, so results may be wrong or missing. Treat it as unsupported software.
What's the best MacUpdater alternative?
Latest is free and open source and covers App Store and Sparkle apps. Notchy covers those plus Homebrew, inside a notch app you may already use, for a one-time $24.99 after a 7-day free trial. Neither has MacUpdater's curated database.
How does Notchy find App Store updates?
Through the mas command-line tool, because the App Store has no public outdated-apps API. Install it with brew install mas and App Store rows appear.
What macOS does Notchy need?
macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Intel and Apple silicon — the same floor as MacUpdater 3.5.
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.