Free Notch Apps for Mac: 5 Real Options (2026)

Short answer: yes, you can get a free notch island app for Mac. Five real options cost $0: Notchy (the broadest, donation-supported), Boring Notch and Atoll (both open source), Sapphire’s free core, and FavTray’s FavShelf glance. NotchNook, Alcove and DynamicLake are paid. The catches: macOS can’t verify Boring Notch, Atoll needs a notch, and Sapphire charges monthly for its AI extras.

Disclosure: FavShelf is our app. This post is strictly about the free angle: what each free option actually includes and where the paywall starts. If you want the full feature comparison including paid apps, that lives in the Mac notch app comparison. If you just want one working in two minutes, follow how to get a notch island on Mac.

Is there a free notch island app for Mac?

A free notch app gives a MacBook an island like the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. macOS does nothing with the notch on its own (even macOS 27 only added a » button for hidden menu bar icons), so any island behavior comes from third-party apps. The category has split into three pricing camps: free, one-time purchase, and subscription. Several “free download” notch apps are really trials. As of September 2026, these are the honest free options:

• Notchy: every feature is free; donations optional.
• Boring Notch: free and open source, no paywall anywhere.
• Atoll: free and open source, for MacBooks with a notch.
• Sapphire: the core app is free and open source; AI and live-data features are monthly subscriptions.
• FavTray FavShelf: the island glance is free forever; the deeper tools (calendar, clipboard, file shelf, camera check, Claude Code approvals) are a one-time purchase.

And the paid ones people often assume are free: NotchNook (regularly $25 once or $3/month), Alcove ($14.99 once) and DynamicLake Pro (one-time, on Gumroad). Each has a trial or refund window, not a free tier.

Let’s go through what “free” actually buys you in each.

Notchy: the broadest free option

Notchy is free, donation-supported, and runs on macOS 13 Ventura and later, so it’s the pick for older Macs too. It isn’t open source, but it is signed and notarized (we checked version 1.0.179 on 26 September 2026), so it opens without a Gatekeeper workaround. The feature list is long: now playing with synced lyrics, a file shelf, clipboard history, a calendar, weather, a Pomodoro timer, HUDs, and AI usage limits for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Copilot. It counts functions rather than tools, which is why its number looks big next to everyone else’s (more on that). If you want the most notch for $0, start here. Full side-by-side: FavTray vs Notchy.

Boring Notch: free and open source

Boring Notch is the community option: free, open source under GPL-3.0, code you can read on GitHub. Its README lists media controls with a visualizer, calendar and Reminders integration, a file shelf with AirDrop, a camera mirror, a charging indicator, and replacements for the volume and brightness HUDs. That’s more than its reputation for “just media” suggests.

The honest limits: no weather yet (it’s on the roadmap), no AI, and some rough edges on multi-display setups. macOS also can’t verify it, so the first launch needs System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway; only do that for a copy from its official GitHub releases. Our Boring Notch review covers whether it’s safe and whether it drains battery.

Atoll: open source, for notched MacBooks

Atoll is free under GPL-3.0 and goes further than Boring Notch in one direction: system insight. It puts CPU, GPU, memory, network and disk stats in the notch, alongside media controls, timers, clipboard history, a color picker, calendar previews, a file shelf and Lock Screen widgets. It’s signed and notarized (we checked version 2.3.3), which makes it the easiest open-source option to install.

The catch is hardware: Atoll’s README requires a MacBook with a notch. On a Mac mini, an external display, or the notchless MacBook Neo, pick one of the others.

Is Sapphire free?

Partly. Sapphire’s core app is free and open source (AGPL-3.0) and runs on macOS 14.6 or later. The free version includes now playing in the notch, what it calls Face ID on Mac, a brightness boost, per-app audio controls with an EQ, Snap Zones window snapping, a file shelf, Android Nearby Share and a caffeinate toggle. The headline AI and live-data features are subscriptions, per Sapphire’s own pricing page (checked 26 September 2026):

• Basic: $15.99/month (Blip Live)
• Pro: $25.99/month (Blip Agent, Circle to Search, sports Live Activity)
• Ultra: $30.99/month (adds finance and live markets)

To set it up, download the latest release from the Sapphire GitHub page (v3.0 shipped on 15 September 2026), open it, then grant Accessibility and Screen Recording in System Settings → Privacy & Security, which its FAQ says it needs. If a feature stays blank after granting them, quit and reopen Sapphire so macOS applies the new permissions.

The free core is generous. Just don’t mistake Sapphire for a free app end to end: its AI features cost more per month than most one-time notch apps cost outright.

Is NotchNook free, and can you still buy it?

No, it has no free tier: getnotchnook.com lists it at regularly $25 once or $3 a month, with a 48-hour trial (checked 7 October 2026). It went offline in September 2026 during an ownership dispute at its developer, lo.cafe, and went back on sale at that new site in October; we couldn’t confirm who runs the site or whether licences bought before September still work. Full status: FavTray vs NotchNook.

What does FavShelf’s free tier include?

The FavShelf island glance is free on every install of FavTray: free forever, no account required. The free glance covers:

• Now-playing media with transport controls and a seek bar for Spotify and Apple Music, and artwork for Spotify.
• Live weather for your saved places, rotating through them each time the island opens.
• AI usage bars for Claude and Codex: your remaining quota, visible at a hover, without opening anything.
• Volume and power HUDs: the system moments that make the notch feel alive.

It lives in the same app as FavTray’s menu bar tools (a system monitor, a port killer, an eye-rest timer), so if you’d install those anyway, the notch comes along for free.

What’s paid: clipboard history, the file shelf with AirDrop, the TimeLens day calendar, the camera check (including iPhone Continuity Camera), the Agents page with Claude Code approvals, and island notifications from FavTray’s other tools. Those come with FavTray Pro, a one-time Lifetime licence that also unlocks FavTray’s other Pro tools. Every new install also gets a 7-day trial of everything, and the island glance never expires.

Practical details: macOS 14+, works on Macs without a notch (it draws a small glass pill at the top of the main display instead), and the island is event-driven with no perpetual animations; we measured the whole app at 0.3–0.5% idle CPU on FavTray 1.11.0. Download it here.

Free notch apps compared

Checked 26 September 2026 against each app’s site, README or release. “Notarized” is what macOS Gatekeeper reported for the current download.

App	Free tier highlights	Paid upgrade	Open source	Notarized	Works without a notch	macOS
Notchy	Everything: media + lyrics, shelf, clipboard, calendar, weather, HUDs, AI limits	None (donations)	No	✅	✅	13+
Boring Notch	Everything: media, calendar + Reminders, AirDrop shelf, mirror, HUDs	None	✅ GPL-3.0	❌ one-time bypass	✅	14+
Atoll	Everything: media, system stats, clipboard, timers, calendar, shelf	None	✅ GPL-3.0	✅	❌ needs a notch	14+
Sapphire	Core: media, shelf, window snapping, audio controls, Nearby Share	$15.99–$30.99/month	✅ AGPL-3.0	Developer ID signed	✅ (its FAQ)	14.6+
FavTray FavShelf	Glance: media, weather, Claude/Codex usage, HUDs	One-time (pricing)	No	Developer ID signed	✅ glass pill	14+

Read the table honestly and three things stand out. Notchy gives the most for $0 and is notarized. Boring Notch and Atoll are the fully open-source picks, split by whether you mind a Gatekeeper workaround (Boring Notch) or need notchless support (Atoll can’t). FavShelf’s free glance is narrower, and its paid upgrade is a one-time Lifetime licence rather than a monthly bill.

Free vs one-time vs subscription: which pricing model makes sense for a notch app?

A notch app is a small utility. It shows your music and your calendar in a nicer place. That’s worth something, but it’s exactly the kind of app where subscription fatigue bites hardest. NotchNook’s $3/month plan is $36 a year; its $25 one-time price is the better deal after eight months. Sapphire’s AI tiers start at $15.99 a month. Against that, Alcove at $14.99 once, DynamicLake Pro (one-time), or FavShelf with FavTray’s one-time Lifetime licence (which also unlocks body-break stretches, Keep Alive, Cloud Costs and more tools) are paid exactly once.

The sane way to decide:

• $0, most features: Notchy.
• $0, open source: Boring Notch, or Atoll if you have a notched MacBook and want system stats.
• $0, glance next to your menu bar tools: FavShelf free. Media, weather, AI quota, HUDs, and a 7-day window to try everything else.
• Pay once, never again: Alcove ($14.99) for HUDs, NotchNook ($25 regular price; check its status first) for polish, or FavShelf with FavTray Pro for the notch as a full control surface.
• Subscription: only if Sapphire’s AI features are worth a recurring line item to you.

Which free option should you actually install?

If you want the most complete free notch app today, install Notchy. If you want open source, install Boring Notch (and budget one Open Anyway click in System Settings) or Atoll on a notched MacBook. If you want a free glance that covers media, weather and AI usage, and the option of going deeper later without ever subscribing, download FavTray and use FavShelf’s free tier as long as you like. They’re all free, so try two for a week and keep the one you reach for.

And if at some point the question stops being “what’s free” and becomes “what’s the best notch app overall,” the full comparison of Mac notch apps, paid tiers included, is the next read.

Sources (checked 7 October 2026): MacMagazine on NotchNook, Homebrew’s notchnook cask, getnotchnook.com. Other apps as checked on 26 September 2026 above.