Notchy Alternatives for Mac (2026): Free and Paid

Short answer: Notchy is a good free notch app, and most people who search for an alternative aren’t unhappy with the notch part. They want one of four things Notchy doesn’t offer: open source, a lifetime purchase with support behind it, tools that live outside the notch, or notifications that carry meaning instead of a HUD. This post sorts the alternatives by those four reasons.

Written by the maker of FavTray, which appears in the later sections. Prices and features are as published on each site on 10 September 2026; Notchy and NotchNook were re-checked on 7 October 2026.

This post is about Notchy from notchy.dev, not notchy.io (a Claude Code and Cursor notch app in private beta) or the open-source Claude Code terminal app also called Notchy.

Notchy in one paragraph

Notchy is a native SwiftUI notch app for the Mac that runs back to macOS 13 Ventura. It’s free, closed source, and supported by donations. It lists 74 features — now playing, synced lyrics, a file shelf, clipboard history, a Pomodoro timer, HUDs, a command palette, an AI usage tracker, window snapping, and a long tail of utilities like Zip/Unzip, drive eject and a keystroke HUD. It also lists listening ports with kill, GitHub PRs, Claude Code Allow/Deny and a Notification Mirror that needs Full Disk Access (notchy.dev, 7 Oct 2026). It states 0.1 % idle CPU. As a free island it is the most complete one available.

Reason 1: you want open source

Boring Notch and Atoll are the two. Boring Notch has media with a visualizer, calendar and Reminders, an AirDrop shelf, a camera mirror and HUDs. Atoll (GPL-3.0) adds stats, timers, a clipboard and lock-screen widgets. Both are free, both are readable, neither is trying to be a 70-feature app. If auditability is why you’re moving, these are the only honest answers; FavTray is closed source too.

Reason 2: you want to pay once and have someone to email

Donations don’t come with a roadmap or a support address. If you’d rather pay for a product than tip for one:

• NotchNook — a design-first island (media, file tray, calendar peek, weather), paid once or monthly; it went offline in September 2026 and relaunched at getnotchnook.com in October (status).
• Alcove — a music HUD with lock-screen support, one-time.
• FavTray — a one-time Lifetime licence for everything; email support, a public changelog, and a 7-day trial that unlocks all of it without a card.

Reason 3: you want tools that aren’t in the notch

This is the big one, and it’s where the comparison stops being notch-vs-notch. Notchy’s list is long, but it’s a list of things you do in the island. If your day also involves a break timer, a water bottle you forget, a chair you don’t leave, meetings you join late, ports you kill from the terminal, and a Claude bill you check in a browser tab — no notch app covers it, and you end up with eight icons.

FavTray’s answer is a whole toolkit behind one icon, and the island is one part of it:

• Eye Rest — 20-20-20 with six presets, Pomodoro, body-break exercises (Pro), and it pauses when you’re on a call or typing.
• Hydrate — a water tank on a thin side dock. Drag the water to pour. A pace line for the hour. A 12-week grid.
• Posture — a shrimp that curls the longer you sit and asks you to unshrimp at the hour. No camera; it reads keyboard and mouse idle time.
• AI Usage — 30 providers in all, Claude and Codex included, with session and weekly limits, the signed-in account shown, cost from local logs over the last 30 days, and 56 days of usage history.
• Agent Sessions — watch Claude Code and Codex; approve or deny Claude Code from the island (Pro).
• Meetings, Reminders, Ports, Cloud Costs (AWS + GCP), GitHub, Snap, System, Keep Alive, Menu Bar, AI Writer, Screenshot.

Reason 4: you want the notch to say something

A HUD tells you the volume changed. A moment tells you something you’d act on. FavTray’s notch shows one card shape for the alerts it sends there (with FavTray Pro; on Free they appear in a corner panel) — and for the cheers, the island becomes the thing:

• Claude at 95 % — a line, “back at 6:15 PM”, and a thin bar. Red at the limit. No buttons; nothing to decide.
• Time for water — orange, a drop, today’s bar, +250 ml or 15 min.
• 2,000 ml. Done. — the island floods; glasses clink; bubbles rise.
• Unshrimped. — the shrimp hops; confetti. A record turns the island into sea.
• 7 days running — a row of candles lights along the floor.
• 26° Mumbai, thunderstorm — dark clouds drift, rain slants, lightning forks.

You can click through every one on the FavShelf page — it’s a live recreation, not a video.

The honest table

	Notchy	Boring Notch	Atoll	NotchNook	Alcove	FavTray
Price	Free (donations)	Free	Free	Once or monthly	One-time	Free tier · a one-time Lifetime licence
Open source	No	Yes	Yes (GPL-3.0)	No	No	No
macOS	13+	14+	14+	14.6+	15+	14+
Notch scope	Very wide	Media, calendar, shelf, mirror, HUDs	Medium	Polished, medium	Music	Media, day calendar, clipboard, shelf + AirDrop, weather, camera, Claude Code approvals
Beyond the notch	Some utilities	—	—	—	—	A full developer toolkit
Meaningful notifications	HUDs, call/message islands, Notification Mirror (Full Disk Access)	—	—	—	—	Moments (limits, asks, cheers, weather; Pro)
Support	Community	Community	Community	Paid	Paid	Paid, changelog, 7-day trial

Which one

• Staying free and in the notch → keep Notchy, honestly.
• Open source → Boring Notch or Atoll.
• Paid, island only, beautiful → NotchNook, which went offline in September 2026 and relaunched at getnotchnook.com in October (status).
• One icon for the whole desk, notifications that mean something, a lifetime price → FavTray. Full comparison: FavTray vs Notchy.

Sources (checked 7 October 2026): notchy.dev, getnotchnook.com, MacMagazine on NotchNook, Alcove. Other details as published on 10 September 2026.