Sapphire for Mac: free core, $15.99–$30.99 a month on top
Sapphire 3.0 is a genuinely ambitious notch app — open source under AGPL-3.0, with Face ID on Mac and Android Nearby Share in its free tier. The part the feature list does not lead with: Blip AI, Circle to Search, sports and live markets sit behind monthly subscriptions from $15.99 to $30.99, and the whole app needs macOS 14.6. Notchy is free with no tiers, runs back to macOS 13 Ventura, and puts the design first — one island, spring motion, nothing upsold.
| Sapphire | Notchy | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier, then $15.99 / $25.99 / $30.99 a month | Free — every feature, no tiers |
| Extra Macs | +$11.00 to $15.99 a month per device | Free on every Mac you own |
| Face unlock | Yes — Face ID on Mac, free tier | Yes — Face Unlock, free |
| Stock ticker in the notch | Ultra only ($30.99/mo) | Free, with price alerts |
| AI agent | Blip Agent, Pro ($25.99/mo) | No agent — AI clipboard rewrite and AI usage tracking |
| Android file transfer | Yes — Nearby Share | No |
| macOS | 14.6 Sonoma or later | 13 Ventura or later |
| Macs with no notch | Yes | Yes — floating island, external displays too |
| Licence | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | Free, closed source |
Sapphire’s official pricing and FAQ, checked October 4, 2026. Comparison by Vishva Variya, Notchy’s developer.
How to install Sapphire on Mac
- Check that your Mac runs macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later.
- Get Sapphire.pkg from the official Sapphire website and run the installer.
- Open Sapphire from Applications and grant the Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions it requests.
Follow Sapphire's setup FAQ for activation details; its pricing page lists what each tier includes. Notchy includes Face Unlock and a stock ticker for free. For Android Nearby Share or Blip Agent, consider Sapphire.
Where the two actually differ
- One price, and it is nothing
Sapphire's core is free, but Blip Live starts at $15.99 a month, Blip Agent and Circle to Search at $25.99, and the stock and full sports widgets at $30.99 — plus up to $15.99 a month for each extra Mac. Notchy has no tiers, no licence key and no trial clock: face unlock, the stock ticker, window snapping and the file shelf are all in the free download.
- Runs on Macs Sapphire will not
Sapphire requires macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later. Notchy supports macOS 13 Ventura and later, so a MacBook that cannot or will not move past Ventura still gets a full island.
- Both work without a notch
Worth saying plainly, because most comparisons get it wrong: Sapphire supports notchless Macs and so does Notchy. Neither is limited to a notched MacBook Pro, and both render on an external display or a Mac mini.
- Credit where it is due
Sapphire's Android Nearby Share is the real thing and Notchy has no equivalent. If moving files between a Mac and an Android phone is your daily problem, that feature alone may decide it — and the core app is free, so trying it costs nothing.
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
Sapphire for Mac — FAQ
Is Sapphire free?
The core app is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, and the free tier is generous: Face ID on Mac, the brightness boost, Snap Zones, the file shelf and Android Nearby Share are all in it. The headline AI and live-data features are not. Basic is $15.99/month (Blip Live), Pro is $25.99/month (Blip Agent, Circle to Search, sports Live Activity) and Ultra is $30.99/month (finance widget and live markets, the full sports widget). Each extra Mac costs $11–$15.99/month more.
How much does Sapphire cost?
$0 for the free tier, then $15.99, $25.99 or $30.99 a month for Basic, Pro and Ultra, per Sapphire’s own subscription page. A second Mac adds $11.00, $13.99 or $15.99 a month depending on tier. Over a year, Pro on one Mac is about $312. Notchy has no tiers — everything it does is in the free download.
What macOS does Sapphire need?
macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later, on Intel or Apple silicon. If your Mac is on Ventura you cannot run it at all. Notchy supports macOS 13 Ventura and later, which is usually the deciding factor on an older MacBook.
Does Sapphire need a notch?
No. Sapphire supports notchless Macs, and so does Notchy — both render the island on the screen edge where there is no cutout. A Mac mini or an external display is fine for either.
Is Sapphire safe?
It is open source under AGPL-3.0 with a named author, so the code can be read by anyone who wants to. Like every notch app it asks for accessibility and related permissions on first launch, which is expected for something drawing over the menu bar. The usual advice applies: install from the official site or its GitHub releases rather than a mirror.
Does Sapphire have Face ID on Mac?
Yes, in the free tier — webcam face recognition with an anti-spoof model, keys kept in the Keychain. Notchy has the same idea as Face Unlock: look at your locked Mac and it opens, on-device with a liveness check, also free. The difference is reach: Notchy’s Face Unlock runs from macOS 13 Ventura, Sapphire’s needs 14.6.
How is Notchy different from Sapphire?
Where the paywall sits. Sapphire is free at the core with $15.99–$30.99/month tiers above it; Notchy is free outright, with no tiers, licence keys or trial, funded by optional donations. A live stock ticker is Ultra-only in Sapphire and free in Notchy. Sapphire needs macOS 14.6, Notchy goes back to macOS 13 Ventura. The two overlap on file shelf, media, window snapping, face unlock and HUDs; Sapphire’s genuine extras are the Blip AI agent, sports scores and Android Nearby Share.
Can I run both?
Technically yes, but you should not want to. Two apps drawing the same notch fight over the same space and the same Now Playing data, and you get flicker. Pick one.
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