FavTray Alternatives (2026): Notchy, NotchNook, Boring Notch, Alcove, Atoll — Compared by the People Who Make FavTray

Short answer: if you only want a notch island, Notchy is the free alternative to pick; if you want open source, Boring Notch or Atoll; if you want polish and are happy to pay, NotchNook or Alcove. None of them is a FavTray alternative in the sense of doing what FavTray does — because most of FavTray isn’t in the notch. This post is written by the person who builds FavTray, and it says so in every section where that matters. The aim is that you leave with the right app, even if it isn’t ours.

Last updated 7 October 2026 for NotchNook’s status and FavTray 2.0.8. Other prices and features are as published on each app’s site on 10 September 2026; tell us if something’s changed and we’ll fix it.

The five real alternatives at a glance

App	Price	macOS	What it is	Pick it when
Notchy	Free, donations	13 Ventura+	The broadest free notch app: media, lyrics, shelf, clipboard, timers, HUDs, widgets — “71 features”	You want the most notch for $0, or you’re on Ventura
Boring Notch	Free, open source	14+	Media controls, simple shelf, camera mirror	You want to read the code and keep it minimal
Atoll	Free, GPL-3.0	14+	Media, stats, timers, clipboard, lock-screen widgets	Open source with more than Boring Notch
NotchNook	Regularly $25 once or $3/mo	14.6+	Media island, file tray, calendar peek, weather; the most polished feel. Offline in Sep 2026, relaunched in Oct (status)	You value design and the relaunch checks out
Alcove	$14.99 once	15+	Music HUD with lock-screen support	Music is the whole job
FavTray (ours)	Free tier · one-time Lifetime licence	14+	The island plus eye rest, Hydrate, Posture, a desk buddy, AI costs, meetings, ports, cloud costs, GitHub, agent approvals…	You want one icon for the whole desk, and a notch that talks back

What “FavTray alternative” usually means

People search this for one of three reasons, and the right answer differs:

1. “I want the notch island part without paying.” Then you want Notchy, Boring Notch, or Atoll. FavTray’s island glance — media, weather, Claude/Codex usage bars, volume and charging HUDs — is free on every install too, but the full island (calendar, clipboard, file shelf, camera check, Claude Code approvals) is paid.
2. “I’m on macOS 13 and FavTray won’t install.” Notchy is your answer. FavTray needs Sonoma because of the APIs behind the island and the side dock.
3. “I want everything FavTray does, but cheaper.” There isn’t one app that does. You’d assemble it: a notch app, a break timer (Time Out, Stretchly), a window manager (Rectangle), a system monitor (Stats), a keep-awake (Amphetamine), a port tool, a GitHub notifier, and a meeting reminder — seven or eight icons, several subscriptions. We wrote up what that stack costs.

Notchy vs FavTray, honestly

Notchy is the one most people mean, so it gets the long section. Notchy’s own comparison page describes FavTray as “fifteen developer tools” on a monthly plan. Both are out of date: FavTray has grown well past fifteen tools, and it has no subscription: a free tier and a one-time Lifetime licence. We keep a full side-by-side at FavTray vs Notchy.

Where Notchy wins. It’s free. It runs on Ventura. In the notch specifically it lists things FavTray doesn’t do: synced lyrics, a teleprompter, an image converter, OCR, an audio switcher, a color eyedropper, a keystroke HUD, Zip/Unzip, drive eject. If those are on your list, that’s your answer.

Where FavTray wins. Almost everything outside the notch, and a different idea of what the notch is for:

• The notch as a notification surface. FavTray’s moments put its own alerts in one card under the camera (with FavTray Pro): Claude at 95 % as a line and a bar; “Time for water” as an orange ask with two buttons; your water goal as a flood that fills the island; a stand-up as a shrimp that hops; a streak as candles; rain in your city as rain. Click through them here.
• Desk health as a system. Eye Rest (20-20-20 with meeting and typing detection, Pomodoro, body-break exercises with Pro), Hydrate (a water tank on a side dock, drag to pour, 12-week grid) and Posture (a shrimp that curls the longer you sit) share office hours and stay out of your meetings.
• The developer half. AI Usage across 30 providers with 56 days of usage history, Agent Sessions that approve Claude Code from the island, Ports, cloud billing for AWS and GCP, GitHub notifications, Meetings with one-click join, Snap, System.
• Support and a lifetime price. A public changelog, a person to email, a 7-day full trial, and a one-time Lifetime licence, no subscription.

The count. “71 features” vs a list of tools is a counting convention. Counted the way Notchy counts — every function as a feature — FavTray 1.11 came to 179, and the list is public: every FavTray function.

Boring Notch and Atoll: the open-source picks

If reading the code matters, these are the two. Boring Notch is the minimal one — media, a simple shelf, a camera mirror — and it’s been the community default for a while. Atoll goes further (media, stats, timers, clipboard, lock-screen widgets) under GPL-3.0. Neither has a calendar lens, weather scenes, AI, or notifications, and neither is trying to. Both are free with no catch.

FavTray is not open source. If that’s a hard requirement, stop here and install one of these.

NotchNook and Alcove: paid, polished, narrow

NotchNook is the most design-forward notch app — media, a file tray, calendar peek, weather — at regularly $25 once or $3 a month. It went offline in September 2026 during an ownership dispute at its developer and relaunched at getnotchnook.com in October; check its status before you buy. Alcove is a music HUD with lock-screen support for $14.99 once. Both are excellent at their one thing. Neither does anything at your desk beyond the notch, so if you also run a break timer and a window manager you’re back to a stack of icons.

How to choose in one minute

• Ventura → Notchy.
• Open source, minimal → Boring Notch. Open source, fuller → Atoll.
• Notch only, free, most features → Notchy.
• Notch only, willing to pay, want it beautiful → NotchNook, once you’ve checked its status.
• Music only → Alcove.
• One icon for the whole desk, a notch that reports in, a lifetime price → FavTray. Try it for 7 days, no card.

We’d rather you pick the right one than pick us and churn. If we’re missing an app that belongs on this list, tell us.