Guides/Best process monitors for Mac
The 6 best process monitors for Mac
Quick answer
Vitals is the best process monitor for Mac. It counts every helper process under the app it belongs to, so about 1,000 processes become about 60 apps, and a click on any process opens the Process Inspector: who signed it, what started it, its command line and environment, its ports and open files, and the CPU time and memory it has used since it started. Right-click any process to suspend it, resume it or send it a signal, and filter the list with words such as cpu>10, user:root or port:3000. It keeps up to a year of history for every app, alerts you when one misbehaves, and shows temperatures and fans beside it. ProcessSpy is the pick for JavaScript filters, and btop is the best free one in the terminal.
How to monitor processes on a Mac without an app
- 01 Open Activity Monitor: press ⌘Space, type Activity Monitor and press Return. Choose View → All Processes, then click % CPU or Memory to sort.
- 02 Double-click a process for its parent process and user. The Open Files and Ports tab lists everything it holds.
- 03 In Terminal,
top -o cpulists processes by CPU, updating every second. Press q to stop. - 04 For what started a process and when, run
ps -o ppid=,lstart=,command= -p 1234, with the process ID from the PID column. - 05 For who signed it, run
codesign -dv --verbose=4followed by the path to the app. For its ports, runlsof -a -nP -p 1234 -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN.
Activity Monitor and these commands show what is running now. None of them say which app a helper process belongs to, or keep anything once a process ends.
A process monitor answers three questions about what is running: which process is busy, what it is, and which app it belongs to. Activity Monitor answers the first and leaves the other two to Terminal, one command at a time. The apps below are ranked on all three, and on whether they remember what happened while you were not looking. Each is labeled with the job it does best.
| # | App | Best for | Price | Runs in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitals Best overall | Every process under its app, an inspector for each, and a year of history | $15 once | A window, the menu bar and the terminal |
| 2 | ProcessSpy | JavaScript filters, and finished processes remembered | Free version; $34.99 once for everything | A window and the menu bar |
| 3 | ProcXray | Taking one process apart: files, ports, environment | Free basic tier | A window |
| 4 | TK-mac | A Windows-style Task Manager | $7.99 once during its launch offer | A window and the menu bar |
| 5 | btop | A monitor in the terminal, with graphs | Free (Apache 2.0) | The terminal |
| 6 | htop | The process tree, in the terminal | Free (GPLv2) | The terminal |
Which should you choose?
| Your priority | Pick |
|---|---|
| Which app a process belongs to | Vitals |
| What a process is: who signed it, what started it, its command line and ports | Vitals |
| Up to a year of history, and alerts when an app misbehaves | Vitals |
| Processes, temperatures and fans in one app | Vitals |
| Suspending a process or sending it a signal | Vitals |
| Filtering by CPU, memory, user or port | Vitals |
| JavaScript filters, and Shortcuts that run on process events | ProcessSpy |
| A Windows-style Task Manager | TK-mac |
| Free, in the terminal | btop |
- 01
Vitals
Best for: Every process under its app, an inspector for each, and a year of history
- Price
- $15 once, for life, during the launch; $39 after
- Runs in
- A window, the menu bar and the terminal
Vitals is the complete process monitor for Mac. It starts from the question most people have first, which app is this process part of, and adds every helper to the app that launched it, so about 1,000 processes become about 60 apps. Open an app and it splits into its processes, each with its PID, CPU and memory, and a process that just started is marked New. Click any process for the Process Inspector: its code signature and Team ID, the hardened runtime and sandbox, its entitlements, its parent process and the launch agent behind it, its command line and environment, its open files and listening ports, its child processes, and the CPU time, memory peak and bytes read and written since it started. It keeps up to a year of history for every app, alerts you when one keeps the CPU busy or keeps growing in memory, and keeps what ended in the last ten minutes under Ended Recently. Right-click any app or process to suspend it until you resume it, or a process to send it a signal, with the signals named as Activity Monitor names them. The filter takes regular expressions and filter words such as cpu>10, memory>1GB, user:root, port:3000 and is:suspended, any drawer can be copied or saved as CSV, and its vitals command gives the same details in the terminal, as JSON too. Temperatures, fans, battery and the menu bar are in the same app.
Good
- One row per app, opening into its processes
- The Process Inspector: signature, entitlements, launcher, command line, environment, open files and ports
- CPU time, memory peak and bytes written since a process started
- History for every app: 30 days, or up to a year
- Alerts when an app misbehaves
- Suspend, Resume and Send Signal, as Activity Monitor names the signals
- Filter words: cpu>10, memory>1GB, user:root, port:3000
- A vitals command and an MCP server: the same details in the terminal and for AI assistants
- Temperatures, fans, battery and the menu bar in the same app
Good to know
- No JavaScript filters
- A process that ended is kept for ten minutes, not for good
- 02
ProcessSpy
by Robert (@rob3rth)Best for: JavaScript filters, and finished processes remembered
- Price
- Free version; $34.99 once for everything, unlimited Macs; also on Setapp (checked November 6, 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
- 03
ProcXray
by ProcXrayBest for: Taking one process apart: files, ports, environment
- 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
- 04
TK-mac
by TK-macBest for: A Windows-style 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
- 05
btop
by aristocratos (open source)Best for: A monitor in the terminal, with graphs
- 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
- 06
htop
by htop-dev (open source)Best for: The process tree, in the terminal
- 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
Tools that do one job well
These are not process monitors, so they are not ranked against the list above. Each is the best pick for its one job.
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
For a quick look at what is using the CPU this second, or to force quit one process, Activity Monitor is free and already installed. It is also the tool to sample a process or take a spindump.
It falls short when a process has a name you do not recognise: it does not say which app it belongs to, who signed it or what started it, it forgets a process the moment it ends, and it keeps no history. Those are the gaps the apps above fill. What its columns and process names mean is in the Activity Monitor glossary.
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.
ProcessSpy was checked again on November 6, 2026, and TK-mac on September 27, 2026. Vitals is first because it is the only one that does the whole job: every process under the app it belongs to, an inspector for any of them, Suspend and Send Signal, filter words, up to a year of history with alerts, and temperatures and fans beside them. ProcessSpy is second because it has JavaScript filters and remembers finished processes for longer. Every other tool is ranked for how well it does the whole job, and if something here is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
Questions people ask
What is the best process monitor for Mac?
Vitals. It shows every process under the app it belongs to, an inspector for any process with its signature, launcher, command line and ports, Suspend, Resume and Send Signal, filter words such as cpu>10, and up to a year of history with alerts. ProcessSpy is the pick if you want JavaScript filters.
What is the best free process monitor for Mac?
Activity Monitor, which comes with macOS. In the terminal, btop and htop are free. ProcessSpy and ProcXray have free versions, with more in their paid ones.
How do I see every process running on a Mac?
In Activity Monitor, choose View → All Processes. In Terminal, run ps aux for a list, or top -o cpu for one that updates.
How do I find out what a process is on a Mac?
In Vitals, click the process: the inspector shows the app it belongs to, who signed it, what started it and its command line. In Terminal, ps -o command= -p 1234 gives its command line and codesign -dv followed by its path gives who signed it.
Is there an app that shows which app a process belongs to?
Vitals. It adds every helper process to the app that launched it, so Google Chrome Helper is counted under Chrome. Open the app to see each of its processes with its PID, CPU and memory.
How do I pause a process on a Mac without quitting it?
In Terminal, kill -STOP 1234 pauses it and kill -CONT 1234 resumes it, with the process ID from Activity Monitor. In Vitals, right-click the app or the process and choose Suspend; a Suspended mark shows what is paused, and Vitals resumes it when it quits.