7 Best Bartender Alternatives for Mac (2026)
Bartender defined the menu bar manager category for a decade. Then in June 2024 it was sold to Applause Group without any announcement — users discovered the sale from a changed code-signing certificate — and trust — the one thing an app with screen-recording permission cannot lose — evaporated overnight. Search interest in “Bartender alternative” has stayed high ever since.
This is an honest comparison of the seven managers worth considering in 2026, including where each one falls short.
Quick comparison
| App | Price | Open source | Approach | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice | Free | Yes | Hide/show sections | Most Bartender-like, free |
| FavTray Menu Bar Manager | Free (part of 14-tool suite) | No | One-click collapse/expand + reorder | Developers who want one app for many jobs |
| Hidden Bar | Free | Yes | Simple hide toggle | Minimalists |
| Barbee | ~$18 | No | Hide + search | Polished single-purpose |
| iBar | Free tier | No | Grouping | Casual users |
| Vanilla | Free / $10 Pro | No | Hide toggle | Simplicity |
| Bartender 5 | $20 | No | Everything | Users who accept the new ownership |
1. Ice — the community favorite
Ice is free, open source, and actively developed. It recreates most of Bartender’s hide/show behavior: a secondary bar, hotkeys, and per-icon visibility rules.
Strengths: transparent code, no cost, frequent updates. Weaknesses: it fights the same macOS constraints as everyone (icons can jump after display changes), and it is one more single-purpose app running in your bar.
2. FavTray Menu Bar Manager — free, and it brings friends
FavTray’s Menu Bar Manager — full disclosure: FavTray is our app — takes a deliberately simpler approach after testing every hiding technique against macOS 15: one-click collapse and expand with a chevron that can never be hidden, plus keyboard-shortcut toggling, pinned favorites that always stay visible, and automatic collapse when you start screen sharing — so meeting attendees never see your icon clutter.
Strengths: free forever, no screen-recording permission required for reordering, and it replaces several other menu bar utilities at once — eye-rest breaks, port killing, a clipboard, meeting join buttons, and GitHub notifications live in the same icon. Weaknesses: fewer per-icon rules than Bartender; hiding is collapse-based rather than a configurable secondary bar.
The honest pitch: if your menu bar is crowded because you run six utility apps, the fix might not be hiding their icons — it might be needing fewer apps. That is FavTray’s whole thesis.
3. Hidden Bar — the minimalist
Free and open source. One divider, one toggle. If your need is “tuck these eight icons away,” Hidden Bar does exactly that and nothing else. Development is sporadic, and macOS updates occasionally break it for weeks.
4. Barbee
A polished paid option (~$18) with search across menu bar items and scheduled hiding. Good design, small developer, responsive support. You are paying Bartender money without Bartender history — which may be exactly the point.
5. iBar
Freemium, focused on grouping icons into expandable clusters. Popular with non-technical users; less precise for keyboard-driven workflows.
6. Vanilla
The oldest simple hider still maintained. Free tier hides; the $10 Pro adds auto-hide. It has not meaningfully changed in years — which is either reliability or stagnation depending on your taste.
7. Bartender 5 — the incumbent, with an asterisk
Bartender still has the deepest feature set: triggers, presets, per-app rules, a search palette. The new owners (Applause Group) have kept it updated. If the ownership change does not bother you, it remains the most capable tool. For many users, the permission model is the dealbreaker: screen recording access means the app can see everything on your display, and that requires absolute trust.
The notch problem nobody solves
A note on physics: no manager can put icons under the MacBook notch. macOS does not render that strip. If your real problem is icons vanishing behind the notch on a 14” MacBook, the fix is reducing what is in the bar — collapse what you rarely use (guide here) — or getting more from each icon you keep.
FavTray goes one step further and makes the notch itself useful: its Dynamic Island turns the dead space into media controls, a calendar, and an AI assistant.
Which Bartender alternative should you pick?
- Want free + open source: Ice.
- Want the menu bar fixed AND fewer apps overall: FavTray — the manager is free forever, and it retires the need for half the icons it manages.
- Want maximum configurability and accept the new owners: Bartender 5.
Whatever you choose, prefer apps that state their permissions plainly. A menu bar manager sees your screen; you should know exactly who is behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are people looking for Bartender alternatives?
In 2024, Bartender was quietly sold to a new owner without notifying users, and the app requests sensitive permissions (screen recording and accessibility). Many users decided that level of access requires more trust than an anonymous acquisition allows, and began migrating to open-source or transparent alternatives.
What is the best free Bartender alternative?
Ice is the most popular free, open-source Bartender alternative for hiding icons. If you mainly need to reorder icons and keep the menu bar tidy alongside other developer utilities, FavTray's Menu Bar Manager is free forever and comes bundled with 13 other tools.
Do Bartender alternatives work with the MacBook notch?
Partially. No app can place icons under the physical notch — macOS simply does not draw that region. Managers like Ice and FavTray mitigate the notch by letting you collapse rarely-used icons so the important ones stay visible in the space that remains.
Does macOS have a built-in way to hide menu bar icons?
macOS Sonoma and later let you remove some system items (Spotlight, Siri) via System Settings, and you can Cmd-drag icons to reorder or remove certain ones. But there is no built-in collapse/expand for third-party icons — that still requires an app.