Free Vanilla Alternative for Mac
Vanilla does one thing cleanly: it tucks menu bar icons out of sight. The catch on a notched MacBook is that hiding is only half the problem — the icons the notch eats are hidden whether you like it or not, and you still need a way to click them. Notchy hides the clutter and gives you a Menu Bar card inside the notch that reaches every icon, including the ones behind the camera cutout, for nothing.
- Vanilla price
- Free; Pro $10 one-time
- Vanilla requires
- macOS Catalina and above
- Notchy price
- Free — donations optional
Why use Notchy instead of Vanilla?
- Reaches the icons the notch swallows
On a notched Mac, a long menu bar pushes items under the camera cutout where nothing can click them. Notchy's Menu Bar card lists every extra — hidden, visible or eaten by the notch — and clicks it for you from inside the panel.
- Hiding is free, not a $10 Pro tier
Vanilla's free build hides icons; the keyboard shortcut, the auto-hide-after-five-seconds behaviour, start-at-login and the Completely Remove section are the $10 Pro purchase. Notchy's hider, its hotkey and its auto-hide are all in the free app, because there is no paid tier.
- It is not only a menu bar tool
The reason to reclaim the menu bar is usually that too much lives there. Notchy moves the readouts into the notch instead — battery, CPU, weather, calendar, now playing, timers — so there is less to hide in the first place.
- It stopped pinning a CPU core
Menu Bar Hider had a bug where a settings write re-triggered its own handler and Notchy re-applied every service in a loop. That was fixed in 1.0.116; the hider now costs nothing measurable to leave on.
How Notchy stacks up
Honest, feature-by-feature comparison of every major macOS notch app — no affiliates.
Swipe the table sideways to see every app.
| Feature | Notchy | Alcove | NotchNook | Boring Notch | DynamicLake | MediaMate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 100% Free | $17 one-time | $25 (or $3/mo) | Free (Open Source) | Paid | Paid |
| Minimum macOS | macOS 13 Ventura+ | macOS 14 Sonoma+ | macOS 14 Sonoma+ | macOS 14 Sonoma+ | macOS 14 Sonoma+ | macOS 14 Sonoma+ |
| Architecture | Pure SwiftUI (Native) | Swift (Native) | Swift (Native) | Swift (Open Source) | Swift (Native) | Swift (Native) |
| Now Playing Controls | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI Usage Tracker (Claude / Codex / Cursor) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Command Palette (⌃⌥K) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Localized (134 languages) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Clipboard History | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pomodoro Focus Timer | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| File Stash / Drop Shelf | Yes | — | Yes | — | — | — |
| System HUDs (Volume/Brightness) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AirPods Connected Reveal | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |
| Lock Screen Widgets | Yes | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Quick Notes | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Calendar Widget | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | — |
| Caffeine Toggle | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Synced Lyrics | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Image Converter (HEIC/JPG/PDF) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Apple Reminders Capture | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Audio Output Switcher | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Device Battery (Mouse/Keyboard) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Download Finished Alerts | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Run Apple Shortcuts | Yes | — | Yes | — | — | — |
| Camera Mirror / Webcam Preview | Yes | — | Yes | — | — | — |
| Zip & Unzip Files | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hide the Notch | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Window Snapping (drag to notch) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| App Launcher Tab | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| OCR + Searchable Clipboard | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Text Snippets / Expander | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Menu-Bar Icon Hiding | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| System-Wide Mic Mute | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Live System Stats (CPU/RAM) | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| iPhone-Style Call Island | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Built-In Terminal | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
| Camera/Mic Privacy Indicator | Yes | — | — | — | — | — |
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
The honest verdict on Vanilla
Vanilla is a tidy, focused, cheap utility and there is nothing wrong with it. But on a MacBook with a notch, hiding icons is the smaller half of the problem — the icons you cannot reach are the annoying half — and Notchy solves both without the Pro upgrade.
Vanilla alternative — FAQ
Is Vanilla free?
The basic hider is free. Vanilla Pro is $10 as a one-time purchase with a 30-day money-back guarantee and covers up to 10 Macs; it adds custom keyboard shortcuts, auto-hide after five seconds, start at login, and a Completely Remove Icons section.
What does Notchy do that Vanilla doesn't?
It clicks the icons the notch is covering. Vanilla organises the menu bar but cannot help with items that have been pushed under the camera cutout — Notchy lists them in a card inside the panel and activates them from there.
Does Notchy replace Bartender too?
For hiding and reaching menu bar extras, yes — there is a full comparison on the Bartender alternative page. Bartender's deeper rules (per-app show/hide, triggers based on menu bar item content) go further than Notchy does.
What macOS does each need?
Vanilla's site notes compatibility from macOS Catalina upward. Notchy requires macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Intel or Apple Silicon.
Can I run both?
Yes. They do not conflict — Vanilla manages the bar, Notchy manages the notch — but you would be paying for an overlap.
Does hiding icons hurt battery life?
It should not. Notchy's hider is event-driven, and the measured idle CPU and battery figures for the whole app are published on the CPU and battery page.