NotchPrompter alternative: the prompter, plus the rest
NotchPrompter is a good free, open-source teleprompter that hides from screen recording and does nothing else. Notchy scrolls scripts under the notch free as well — and handles media, clipboard, timers and the rest of the day.
| NotchPrompter | Notchy | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — MIT, open source | Free — optional donations |
| Script under the camera | Yes | Yes |
| Hidden from screen recording | Yes | No |
| Voice activation | Yes | No |
| Macs with no notch | Built for the notch | Yes — floating island |
| Anything beyond teleprompting | No | 50+ tools in the same island |
From NotchPrompter’s own repository and site, checked against Notchy’s shipping build.
Invisible to screen recording is a real advantage
If you present with your entire screen shared, NotchPrompter stays out of the capture and Notchy's overlay does not. That is the honest reason to choose it, and no amount of feature counting changes it.
Mind which repository you are on
Several near-identically named projects exist — notchprompt, NotchPrompter, openTeleprompt — by different authors. Check for recent commits and a proper release before you run a build that draws over everything.
A prompter you use once a month
A dedicated app for something occasional is another icon and another thing to update. Notchy's teleprompter is a toggle inside an app you already leave running for music and clipboard.
Comparing everything in the category
Notch prompters, desktop prompters, cloud tools and hardware rigs all suit different jobs. We ranked them in the best Mac teleprompter apps of 2026.
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
- 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
- Privacy Indicator — pill when any app's camera or mic goes live
- 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
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
Notchy vs NotchPrompter — FAQ
Is NotchPrompter free?
Yes — free and open source under the MIT licence, on GitHub. Notchy's teleprompter is free too, so this is not a price comparison. It is a question of whether you want a prompter on its own or a prompter inside a notch toolkit.
Which NotchPrompter is the real one?
There are several similarly-named projects: notchprompt, NotchPrompter and openTeleprompt are separate repositories by different authors, all doing roughly the same thing. That is worth knowing before you download — check the repository you are actually on, and prefer one with recent commits and a signed release.
Does NotchPrompter hide during screen sharing?
Yes, and it is the best reason to use it. NotchPrompter stays above your windows but stays out of screen recordings and conferencing apps, so you can share your whole screen and still read. Notchy's teleprompter does not do this — it is an overlay your audience would see in a full-screen share.
What does Notchy add over NotchPrompter?
Everything besides the prompter. Media controls with synced lyrics, clipboard history, a file drop shelf, Pomodoro and countdown timers, system stats, device battery, OCR, window snapping, an app launcher, AI usage tracking and 133 languages — with the teleprompter as one tool among them.
Do I need a notched MacBook?
NotchPrompter is designed to sit just under the notch. Notchy runs on Macs with no notch too, drawing a floating island that the teleprompter drops from — so a Mac mini or an older Air still gets text near the camera.
Can I run both?
Technically yes, since only one is a full notch app. But both want the strip under the camera, so they will overlap while the prompter is running. Simplest is to pick whichever matches how often you actually record.
Compare Notchy vs 146 Mac Apps
See how Notchy replaces dozens of single-purpose paid Mac utilities for free.