Barbee Alternatives for the Mac Menu Bar (2026)

The best Barbee alternative depends on your macOS version. On macOS 26 or 27, Thaw is the free, open-source pick and Bartender 7 the paid one. Hidden Bar is a simpler free option updated for macOS 27 in September 2026. Ice is no longer a safe choice. For tidy, reordered icons only, FavTray’s Menu Bar tool is free.

Checked on 28 September 2026 against the Mac App Store, each project’s GitHub releases and issues, and the developers’ sites. Sources are at the end.

TL;DR

App	Price	Needs	macOS 27 status (28 Sep 2026)
Barbee 5.0	Free + $12.99 Lifetime or $4.99/yr	macOS 11+	Rewritten for latest macOS; unconfirmed
Thaw 2.0.1	Free, open source	macOS 26+	3.0 alphas target macOS 27
Hidden Bar 1.11.1	Free, open source	macOS 13+	Hiding works on 27, with side effects
Bartender 7	Paid	macOS 27 (Bartender 6 for 26)	Built for macOS 27
Ice 0.11.12	Free, open source	macOS 14+	Open reports of it not working
FavTray Menu Bar	Free	macOS 14+	Tested on macOS 26; reorder and collapse only

What is Barbee, and why look for an alternative?

Barbee is a Mac App Store menu bar manager from an independent developer (listed on the App Store as 翔 何). It hides and shows menu bar items, auto-hides them, supports custom shortcuts, handles notched displays and can tighten the spacing between icons. It’s free to download, with a $12.99 Lifetime unlock or a $4.99 Yearly VIP as in-app purchases.

Version 5.0, released 10 September 2026 after a long gap, starts its notes with “Sorry for the long wait!” and says the codebase was refactored “for better compatibility with the latest macOS”. It needs macOS 11 or later.

People look for an alternative for three reasons:

• macOS 27 broke menu bar managers. In June 2026 BetterTouchTool’s developer wrote that Apple had moved every menu bar item into a single window, and that “Bartender, Barbee, Ice, Thaw… all broke completely” on the beta. Each app has had to catch up in its own way.
• The long gap before 5.0 left some users unsure whether Barbee was still maintained.
• Open source. Barbee is closed source; Thaw, Hidden Bar and Ice aren’t.

Barbee vs Thaw: which should you use?

Thaw describes itself as “the open source menu bar manager”: free under GPL-3.0, “no purchase, no subscription”. Its stable release is 2.0.1 (2 September 2026) and it needs macOS 26 or later. Its 3.0 alphas are labelled “macOS 27 only”, with a beta candidate on 25 September 2026.

• Pick Thaw if you’re on macOS 26 or 27 and want free and open source, and don’t mind running an alpha on macOS 27 for now.
• Pick Barbee if you’re on macOS 11 to 15, which Thaw doesn’t support, or you prefer an App Store app with automatic updates.

Barbee vs Ice: is Ice still worth it?

Ice was the favourite free Bartender replacement. Today it’s hard to recommend: the last stable release is 0.11.12 from October 2024, the last prerelease is from September 2025, and its GitHub has several open issues about it not working on macOS 27, including one where Ice is “always stuck in expanded mode”. If Ice still works on your macOS 14 or 15 Mac, there’s no rush to move, but don’t install it on a new Mac. Thaw is the natural successor if you liked Ice.

Is Hidden Bar a good Barbee alternative?

Hidden Bar is back in active development after a quiet few years: 1.11.1 came out on 18 September 2026 and says “Hiding works on macOS 27 in this download”. It’s free, open source and needs macOS 13 or later. It’s simpler than Barbee: an arrow that hides everything to its left, plus a new Notch Overflow view for icons stuck behind the camera.

Its release notes are candid about the trade-off: the macOS 27 fix “relies on a private Apple framework, so a macOS update could break it”. Open issues on macOS 27 include the clock no longer opening Notification Center while icons are collapsed.

What about Bartender?

Bartender is the original paid menu bar manager. Its site now says “Bartender 7 is built for macOS 27. For macOS 26, grab the latest copy of Bartender 6”, and Bartender 6 licences bought in 2026 get Bartender 7 free. We couldn’t read a confirmed price from its site when we checked, so look at macbartender.com before buying. Our Bartender alternatives post covers its history and the rest of the field.

Where does FavTray fit?

Honestly: FavTray isn’t a like-for-like Barbee replacement. FavTray’s Menu Bar tool does three things, reorder your menu bar icons, Collapse all to clear your apps out of the bar, and Open all to bring them back. It doesn’t hide icons one by one or keep a secondary bar, and it’s tested on macOS 26 (it supports macOS 14 and later).

It makes sense if a tidy, reordered bar is enough and you’d rather not add another app, because it comes with the rest of FavTray: the notch island, system stats, AI usage limits and developer tools in one menu bar icon. The Menu Bar tool is free with no limit. FavTray’s other tools have free daily limits that a one-time Lifetime licence removes.

If you need per-icon hiding, use Barbee, Thaw, Hidden Bar or Bartender, and see how to fix menu bar icons hidden by the notch for notch-specific tricks.

Which Barbee alternative should you pick?

• macOS 27, free, open source: Thaw 3.0 once it leaves alpha; Hidden Bar today if you accept its private-framework caveat.
• macOS 27, paid, most features: Bartender 7.
• macOS 26, free: Thaw 2.0.1.
• macOS 11 to 15: Barbee is still a good choice; Hidden Bar is the free alternative.
• You only want order, not hiding: FavTray Menu Bar, or macOS itself: hold ⌘ and drag icons to rearrange them, and on macOS 26 switch apps’ icons off in System Settings › Menu Bar. Our menu bar customization guide covers the built-in options.

Sources (checked 28 September 2026): Barbee on the Mac App Store; Thaw and its releases; Ice releases and issues; Hidden Bar releases; Bartender and its purchase page; BetterTouchTool community thread on macOS 27 menu bar management.