iStat Menus Alternatives for Mac: Free and Paid

Short answer: iStat Menus is still the most detailed system monitor for the Mac menu bar, for $11.99 on the Mac App Store. The best free alternative is Stats, which is open source and covers most of the same readouts. For app-level history, look at Vitals ($29, macOS 15+). For a quick system glance inside a developer toolkit, FavTray’s System screen is free.

TL;DR

• Free, open source, closest to iStat Menus: Stats.
• Which app slowed my Mac, over 30 days: Vitals.
• Already installed: Activity Monitor.
• System glance plus ports, AI limits and GitHub in one icon: FavTray. Free for the glance.
• Sensors, fan control, weather and the most customisation: stay with iStat Menus.

How do the iStat Menus alternatives compare?

Checked on 28 September 2026 on each app’s store listing, site or repository.

App	Price	Runs on	Stays local	Key features	Best at
iStat Menus 7	$11.99 (Mac App Store); weather $0.99/mo or $4.99/yr; 14-day trial direct	macOS 14+ (App Store build)	Yes, no data collected per its listing	CPU, GPU, memory, disks, network, battery, Bluetooth, sensors, fans, weather, clocks, rules	The most detail and customisation
Stats	Free, open source (MIT)	macOS 12+	Yes	CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors, Bluetooth, clock	A free iStat-style menu bar
Vitals	$5 launch, then $29; no trial	macOS 15+	Yes	Processes grouped by app, 30-day history, alerts, per-app volume, dev servers	Finding the app that misbehaved
Activity Monitor	Free, built in	Every Mac	Yes	Every process, energy, sampling	Investigating a problem now
FavTray	Free; Pro $4.99 once at launch	macOS 14+	No FavTray server stores your data	CPU, memory, disk, network, battery, top 5 processes; ports; the rest of FavTray	A developer glance in one icon

What is iStat Menus good at?

iStat Menus from Bjango has been a Mac menu bar staple for close to twenty years. Version 7 covers CPU and GPU, memory, every disk, network, battery and Bluetooth devices, temperature sensors and fan control, weather with hourly and weekly forecasts, world clocks, and rules that notify you when something crosses a threshold. Every readout can be its own menu bar item, styled how you like.

It’s $11.99 on the US Mac App Store, where weather is an optional subscription, and Bjango’s site has a 14-day trial. It’s also included in Setapp.

Why people look elsewhere:

• They want free or open source. Stats covers a lot of it.
• Version 7 reviews are mixed. Recent App Store reviews mention bugs and missing options, such as adding extra clock or weather locations. Others like the new visualisations.
• They only glance at CPU and memory. For that, a full sensor suite is more than they need.

Is Stats as good as iStat Menus?

For most people, close enough. Stats is free, MIT-licensed, has about 42,000 stars on GitHub and ships often (v3.0.18 on 27 September 2026). Each module (CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors, Bluetooth, clock) becomes its own menu bar item with a value, a graph or both, and each popup shows the top processes.

Where it falls short of iStat Menus: fewer layout options, no weather, and fan control that the project itself calls legacy and unmaintained. On macOS 26 you also have to allow its icons under System Settings › Menu Bar before they appear. We compared the two, plus FavTray, in Stats vs iStat Menus vs FavTray.

When is Vitals a better pick?

When the question isn’t “how busy is my Mac?” but “which app made it slow, and when?”. Vitals groups every process under its app, keeps 30 days of history, alerts you when an app misbehaves, and also has per-app volume and a dev server view. It needs macOS 15 and costs $29 after a $5 launch price, with no trial. More in Vitals alternatives.

Is Activity Monitor enough?

For a one-off investigation, yes. It shows every process with CPU, memory, energy, disk and network, and it can sample a process to see what it’s doing. It has no menu bar readout (only its Dock icon graph), no alerts and very little history. It’s what you open after the fan spins up; iStat Menus and Stats are what tell you it’s about to.

Where does FavTray fit?

Full disclosure: FavTray is our app. It’s not a full iStat Menus replacement, and here’s the honest split.

What FavTray’s System screen shows, free:

• CPU usage with user, system and idle, and the core count
• memory: app, wired, compressed, cached and free, plus memory pressure
• capacity and free space for each disk
• live upload and download speeds
• battery charge, cycle count and health
• the top 5 processes by CPU and by memory

That’s free with no limit. Pro adds battery health alerts. Live stats are read only while you’re looking at them, plus light background checks.

What sits next to it: the same menu bar icon holds a port manager for stuck dev servers, AI usage limits for Claude, Codex and Cursor, GitHub PRs and CI, eye-rest breaks, Keep Alive and a menu bar organizer that reorders icons and can collapse them all in one click. For a developer, that’s often the reason to pick it over a dedicated monitor.

What it doesn’t do: temperature sensors, fan control, weather, world clocks, custom alert rules, or a separate menu bar item per metric. If those are why you bought iStat Menus, keep it.

FavTray runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later and needs no account. Pro is $4.99 once during launch ($9.99 after 8 October 2026), and every install gets 7 days of Pro free with no card.

Which iStat Menus alternative should you pick?

If you want	Pick
Every sensor, fans, weather, full customisation	iStat Menus
The same idea, free and open source	Stats
App-level history and alerts	Vitals
A one-off investigation	Activity Monitor
A free system glance plus developer tools, one icon	FavTray

The honest summary: if you already own iStat Menus and it works for you, there’s no reason to switch. If you’re choosing today and want free, install Stats. If you’re a developer trying to cut down on menu bar icons, FavTray covers the glance and a lot more in one.