Guides/Activity Monitor alternatives
The 12 best Activity Monitor alternatives for Mac
Quick answer
Vitals is the best Activity Monitor alternative for Mac. It shows the 60 apps on your Mac instead of 1,000 processes, counts every helper process under its app, keeps up to a year of history and tells you when an app misbehaves. If you only want figures in the menu bar, iStat Menus is the most complete and Stats is free.
Activity Monitor shows what is running right now, one row per process, so a single app can be dozens of helper processes. It does not answer the questions people open it with: which app is slowing the Mac down, what drained the battery this afternoon, and what is holding port 3000. The apps below answer them better. They are ranked as replacements for Activity Monitor, and each is labeled with the job it does best.
| # | App | Best for | Price | Runs in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitals Best overall | Replacing Activity Monitor | $9 during the launch | A window and the menu bar |
| 2 | iStat Menus | Every figure in the menu bar | $11.99 once | The menu bar |
| 3 | Stats | A free, open-source menu bar monitor | Free (MIT license) | The menu bar |
| 4 | MacPulse | Plain-English history of how your Mac has been | €14.99 once | A window and the menu bar |
| 5 | iStatistica Pro | A low-cost Mac App Store monitor with widgets | $5.99 on the Mac App Store | A window, widgets and the menu bar |
| 6 | TK-mac | Windows switchers who miss Task Manager | $7.99 once during its launch offer | A window and the menu bar |
| 7 | ProcXray | Inspecting a single process in depth | Free basic tier | A window |
| 8 | ProcessSpy | A Process Explorer for Mac, for developers | Free version; $34.99 once for everything | A window and the menu bar |
| 9 | btop | A monitor in the terminal | Free (Apache 2.0) | The terminal |
| 10 | htop | The classic terminal process list | Free (GPLv2) | The terminal |
| 11 | Sensei | Monitoring and Mac maintenance in one app | $29 a year or $59 lifetime | A window and the menu bar |
| 12 | CleanMyMac Menu | People who already have CleanMyMac | Part of CleanMyMac | The menu bar |
- 01
Vitals
Best for: Replacing Activity Monitor
- Price
- $9 during the launch, then $39, once
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
Vitals is the best Activity Monitor alternative for Mac. Activity Monitor shows about 1,000 processes. Vitals shows the 60 apps they belong to, with every helper process counted under the app that launched it, so Chrome is one row with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network. It keeps up to a year of history for every app, tells you when an app keeps the CPU busy or keeps growing in memory, finds dev servers left running and the ports they hold, puts every metric in the menu bar, each as its own item if you like, shows your coding agents and what is left of your AI plans, and answers Claude, Codex and Cursor over MCP. It is the only app on this list built around apps instead of processes, which is the question people open Activity Monitor to answer: which app is doing this?
Good
- One row and one figure per app, helpers included
- Up to a year of history for every metric, per app
- Alerts when an app misbehaves
- Dev servers and open ports, by project
- Every metric in the menu bar, one item each, arranged as you like
- An MCP server for Claude, Codex and Cursor
- An Agents tab: your coding agents, and what is left of your AI plans
- One payment, every update for life
Good to know
- Needs macOS 15 or later
- Sold direct, not on the Mac App Store, because its sandbox blocks reading other apps' processes
- 03
Stats
by exelban (open source)Best for: A free, open-source menu bar monitor
- Price
- Free (MIT license), also
brew install stats - Runs in
- The menu bar
The most popular free option, with over 42,000 stars on GitHub and releases most weeks (the latest on September 20, 2026). It adds menu bar modules for CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors (temperature, voltage, power), Bluetooth devices and a clock. Its README does not describe a process list, history length or alerts, and its fan control is marked as legacy and unmaintained. If you want menu bar figures and do not want to pay, start here.
Good
- Free and open source
- Very actively maintained
- Broad sensor coverage
Not so good
- Fan control no longer maintained
- Open source, but not open to contributions
- 04
MacPulse
by MacPulseBest for: Plain-English history of how your Mac has been
- Price
- €14.99 once, €49.99 for 5 Macs, 14-day trial
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
The other app here built around history: 30 days of it, downsampled, with plain-English insights about what happened, temperatures and fan curves, menu bar sparklines and CSV export. Its FAQ notes that the Mac App Store version leaves out sensors, fan control and top processes, so buy it direct if you want those.
Good
- 30 days of history
- Session recording and CSV export
Not so good
- The App Store version leaves out sensors, fan control and top processes
- Top processes only, no full list
- 05
iStatistica Pro
by ImagetasksBest for: A low-cost Mac App Store monitor with widgets
- Price
- $5.99 on the Mac App Store, $9.99 for Pro
- Runs in
- A window, widgets and the menu bar
A system monitor sold on the Mac App Store, with menu bar monitors, widgets and alerts for CPU, memory, disk, network, GPU and sensors. The Pro version adds app activity with CPU history, force quit, a web dashboard, a REST API and CSV export. Temperatures and fans need a separate Sensors plug-in.
Good
- Low price, on the Mac App Store
- Alerts, a REST API and a web dashboard
Not so good
- Temperatures need a separate plug-in
- Force quit needs the plug-in too
- 06
TK-mac
by TK-macBest for: Windows switchers who miss Task Manager
- Price
- $7.99 once during its launch offer, $13.99 after; two Macs $13.99; 7-day trial (checked September 27, 2026)
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
A Task Manager for people who came from Windows, laid out the way they remember it. It splits your apps from background tasks, shows live CPU, memory and disk dashboards, tracks upload and download speed per process, and puts the top ten consumers in a menu bar dropdown with pause, restart and force quit, plus a one-click quit-all for a frozen Mac. It also reads system, app and security logs with search, timelines and CSV export, and can sample one app for up to 60 seconds. Its site does not describe counting helper processes under their app, alerts, or any history beyond that sample. Version 1.5; the site counts 100+ downloads.
Good
- The Windows Task Manager layout, on a Mac
- Upload and download speed per process
- A log viewer with search, timelines and CSV export
- Low price, with a 7-day trial
Not so good
- No history beyond a 60-second sample of one app
- Helper processes not counted under their app, as far as its site says
- No alerts stated
- 07
ProcXray
by ProcXrayBest for: Inspecting a single process in depth
- Price
- Free basic tier, $15 once for everything, 3 Macs
- Runs in
- A window
A process explorer for developers: a process tree with each process's open ports, connections, files, environment variables and code signature, the ability to suspend, terminate or signal a process, and capture of processes that only live for a moment. It answers "what exactly is this process doing" better than anything else here.
Good
- Open ports, files and environment per process
- Catches short-lived processes
Not so good
- A tree of processes, not a list of apps
- No temperatures or fans
- 08
ProcessSpy
by Robert (@rob3rth)Best for: A Process Explorer for Mac, for developers
- Price
- Free version; $34.99 once for everything, unlimited Macs; also on Setapp (checked September 27, 2026)
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
The Mac answer to Windows Process Explorer, built by a developer who could not tell his Java processes apart in Activity Monitor. It shows the full command line, path, version, environment and code signature of every process, tells same-named processes apart, and remembers processes after they finish. Its tree view groups helpers under the process that launched them, with rolled-up totals for CPU, memory and threads. Filters take regular expressions and JavaScript. The paid version adds CPU and memory history with timelines and CSV export, a menu bar dashboard, and Shortcuts that run on process events. Version 1.15.2, macOS 14 or later.
Good
- Full command line, path, environment and signature per process
- Remembers finished processes
- Regular-expression and JavaScript filters
- A free version, and unlimited Macs on the paid one
Not so good
- A tree of processes, not a list of apps
- History, the menu bar and process recall are paid features
- No temperatures or fans
- 09
btop
by aristocratos (open source)Best for: A monitor in the terminal
- Price
- Free (Apache 2.0),
brew install btop - Runs in
- The terminal
A full-screen terminal monitor with a process tree, filtering and sorting, kill and renice, network and disk graphs, CPU temperature and battery, and Apple silicon GPU figures since version 1.4.7. If you already live in a terminal, it is the best-looking way to see what is running.
Good
- Free, fast, keyboard-driven
- Kill and renice from the list
Not so good
- No history beyond the session, no alerts
- Processes, not apps
- 10
htop
by htop-dev (open source)Best for: The classic terminal process list
- Price
- Free (GPLv2),
brew install htop - Runs in
- The terminal
The long-running interactive process viewer, still maintained (3.5.3, August 2026). Plainer than btop and available on almost every Unix machine you will ever log into, which is the reason to know it.
Good
- Free, everywhere
- Tree view and kill
Not so good
- No GPU, sensors, history or alerts
- Processes, not apps
- 11
Sensei
by CindoriBest for: Monitoring and Mac maintenance in one app
- Price
- $29 a year or $59 lifetime, 3 Macs
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
A performance suite: a menu bar monitor for CPU, GPU, battery and storage and a thermal dashboard, alongside battery and drive health, a cleaner, an uninstaller and a disk benchmark. Its site does not describe a list of running apps. Monitoring is one part of a larger toolbox, which suits you if you want the toolbox.
Good
- Many tools in one
- A lifetime option
Not so good
- A yearly price, or $59 for lifetime
- Monitoring is not the main job
- 12
CleanMyMac Menu
by MacPawBest for: People who already have CleanMyMac
- Price
- Part of CleanMyMac, from $29.95 a year or $79.95 once
- Runs in
- The menu bar
CleanMyMac's menu shows CPU and memory with the apps using the most, memory pressure and swap, disk, battery and network, with a button to free up memory. It is simple and already there if you pay for CleanMyMac, but on its own it is not a reason to buy.
Good
- Simple
- Included with CleanMyMac
Not so good
- Subscription-first pricing
- Shallow compared with the rest
Tools that do one job well
These do not replace Activity Monitor, so they are not ranked against the list above. Each is the best pick for its one job.
Temperatures and fan control
Per-core temperatures on Apple silicon through M5 Max, fan control with rules, and email alerts. No process list.
Which app talks to which server
Its Network Monitor keeps up to 12 months of per-app traffic, with every connection, port and domain, and blocks with one click. Network only.
Slowing down CPU hogs automatically
Slows or pauses background apps that use too much CPU. Its site lists macOS up to 26.5.
When Activity Monitor is enough
Keep using Activity Monitor when you need to sample a process, take a spindump or run system diagnostics: it does those and none of the apps above copy them. It is also free, already installed, and fine for a quick look at what is using the CPU this second.
It falls short when the question is about an app rather than a process, about the past rather than now, or about something you were not watching. That is the gap the list above fills. The Activity Monitor glossary explains what each of its columns and processes means.
Checked, but not ranked
Still in most roundups, but no longer maintained:
- MenuMeters: last release in November 2021; its own README now points people elsewhere.
- eul: last release in August 2021.
- Hot: last release in July 2024.
- iGlance: last release in October 2020.
- XRG: last release in October 2023.
How we checked
Every price and feature comes from the maker's own site on September 22, 2026: the pricing page, product page or App Store listing, and for open-source tools the README and the release history on GitHub. Where a maker does not say whether their app does something, the entry does not claim it either way. Prices change; check the maker's site before you buy.
Vitals is first because it does what people open Activity Monitor for: it shows which app is using the Mac, with its helpers counted in, now and as far back as a year, and tells you when one misbehaves. No other app here is built around apps instead of processes. Every other tool is ranked for the job it does best. If something here is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
Questions people ask
What is the best alternative to Activity Monitor on Mac?
Vitals. It shows about 60 apps instead of about 1,000 processes, with each app's helper processes counted in, keeps up to a year of history, and tells you when an app misbehaves. If you only want figures in the menu bar, iStat Menus is the most complete and Stats is free.
Is there a free Activity Monitor alternative?
Yes. Stats is a free, open-source menu bar monitor, and btop and htop are free terminal monitors you can install with Homebrew. Activity Monitor itself is free with macOS and is still the right tool for sampling a process or taking a spindump.
Why does Activity Monitor show so many processes?
Modern apps split their work across helper processes. A browser runs one for each tab and extension, so one app can be dozens of rows. Activity Monitor lists each one; Vitals adds them up under the app that launched them.
Can Activity Monitor show history?
Only a little. Its Energy tab has a 12-hour power average on laptops and a view of apps used in the last 12 hours; the rest is live. MacPulse keeps 30 days, and Vitals up to a year.
Which Activity Monitor alternative works in the menu bar?
iStat Menus, Stats, Vitals, MacPulse, iStatistica, Sensei and CleanMyMac all add a menu bar item. iStat Menus and Stats are menu bar apps first; Vitals and MacPulse are full windows with a menu bar item too.