Guides/htop for Mac
htop for Mac: how to install it, and the 5 best alternatives
Quick answer
htop runs on a Mac. Install Homebrew from brew.sh, run brew install htop, then type htop. The built-in top needs no install: top -o cpu sorts by CPU. btop is the better-looking terminal monitor, with graphs, GPU and temperature. If the question is which app is busy, not which process, Vitals, a system monitor for the Mac, shows about 60 apps in place of 1,000 processes, each with its helpers counted in, and keeps 30 days of history, or up to a year.
How to install htop on a Mac
- 01 Open Terminal: press ⌘Space, type Terminal and press Return.
- 02 If you do not have Homebrew, install it with the one line on brew.sh.
- 03 Run
brew install htop. - 04 Type
htopand press Return. Press F6 to choose the sort column, F5 for the tree, F3 to search, F9 to end a process and Q to leave.
If figures for some system processes are missing, run sudo htop. With nothing installed, top -o cpu lists processes by CPU and top -o mem by memory; press Q to leave.
htop is a process list for the terminal: every process on its own row, sorted live, with the keyboard doing the work. On a Mac it shows the same thousand processes Activity Monitor does, so a browser is still dozens of rows. The tools below are the ones worth knowing besides it. Four live in the terminal, and one answers the question htop cannot: which app do all these processes belong to? Each is labeled with the job it does best.
| # | App | Best for | Price | Runs in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vitals Best overall | Apps instead of processes, in a window, with history | $9 during the launch | A window and the menu bar |
| 2 | btop | The best-looking monitor in the terminal | Free (Apache 2.0) | The terminal |
| 3 | Glances | Watching a Mac from a browser or another machine | Free (LGPLv3) | The terminal, or a web page |
| 4 | bottom | Graphs over time, in a layout you arrange | Free (MIT) | The terminal |
| 5 | mactop | Apple silicon power, GPU and every sensor | Free (MIT) | The terminal, with a menu bar mode |
- 01
Vitals
Best for: Apps instead of processes, in a window, with history
- Price
- $9 during the launch, then $39, once
- Runs in
- A window and the menu bar
htop answers which process. Vitals answers which app. It adds every helper process to the app that launched it, so a Mac with 1,000 processes shows about 60 apps, each with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network. Open an app and its processes are there, each with its PID, CPU and memory, and any of them can be quit or force quit after a confirmation. It keeps 30 days of history for every app, or up to a year, tells you when an app keeps the CPU busy or keeps growing in memory, and lists dev servers with the ports they hold. It is a window and a menu bar item, not a terminal tool, but Claude Code, Codex and Cursor can ask it what is running through its MCP server.
Good
- One row and one figure per app, helpers included
- Open an app to see each process, with its PID
- History for every app: 30 days, or up to a year
- Alerts when an app misbehaves
- Dev servers and the ports they hold, by project
- An MCP server, so an assistant in your terminal can ask it
Good to know
- Not a terminal tool: it does not run over SSH
- No parent and child process tree
- Paid, where every terminal tool here is free
- 02
btop
by aristocratos (open source)Best for: The best-looking 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
- 03
Glances
by nicolargo (open source)Best for: Watching a Mac from a browser or another machine
- Price
- Free (LGPLv3),
brew install glances - Runs in
- The terminal, or a web page
Glances fits CPU, memory, load, disks, network, sensors, containers and the process list on one terminal screen, and does what the others here do not: it can serve the same figures as a web page and a REST API, so you can watch one Mac from another, export them to CSV or a time-series database, and answer AI assistants through its own MCP server. Version 4.5.8, released on October 11, 2026.
Good
- A web page and REST API for watching from another machine
- Exports to CSV and time-series databases
- Its own MCP server
- Free and open source
Not so good
- Installed with pip, the web page, sensors and GPU are optional extras
- Processes, not apps
- 04
bottom
by ClementTsang (open source)Best for: Graphs over time, in a layout you arrange
- Price
- Free (MIT),
brew install bottom - Runs in
- The terminal
bottom draws CPU, memory, network, temperature and disk activity as graphs over time, beside tables for disks, temperature sensors and the battery. Its process list sorts and searches, has a tree mode and can send a kill signal, and any one widget can be expanded to fill the screen. The layout is yours to arrange in a config file. It runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs. Version 0.14.9, released in August 2026.
Good
- Graphs over time for CPU, memory, network, temperature and disk
- A layout you arrange yourself
- Search, tree mode and kill in the process list
- Free and open source
Not so good
- No history beyond the session, no alerts
- Processes, not apps
- 05
mactop
by Carsen Klock (open source)Best for: Apple silicon power, GPU and every sensor
- Price
- Free (MIT),
brew install mactop - Runs in
- The terminal, with a menu bar mode
mactop is written for Apple silicon and nothing else. It shows efficiency and performance cores apart, GPU use and frequency, the power drawn by the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine in watts, the thermal state, fan speeds, and every temperature sensor the Mac reports, without needing sudo. Its process list filters by name and can kill a process after a confirmation, and it can also run as a menu bar item. Version 2.1.6, released on September 30, 2026.
Good
- Every temperature sensor the Mac reports, with readable names
- Power in watts for the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine
- No sudo needed
- Free and open source
Not so good
- Apple silicon only
- No history beyond the session, no alerts
- Processes, not apps
Tools that do one job well
These are not process lists, so they are not ranked against the tools 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 htop or top is enough
If you are logged into a server, or you want to end one runaway process and get back to work, htop is the right tool, and top is already there when you cannot install anything. Both are free and start in a second.
They fall short when the question is about the whole app or about earlier. A browser is dozens of rows that you add up in your head, nothing is kept once you close the terminal, and nothing tells you when a process starts misbehaving while you are looking elsewhere. What the 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 October 12, 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 answers the question most people on a Mac open htop with, which app is doing this, and keeps the answer for 30 days or more. If you want to stay in the terminal, btop is the pick, and the entry says so. Every other tool is ranked for how well it replaces htop on a Mac, and where one does a job better, the entry says so. If something here is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
Questions people ask
Does htop work on a Mac?
Yes. Install it with Homebrew: brew install htop, then type htop in Terminal. It runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs.
What is the Mac equivalent of htop?
Built in, it is top in Terminal and Activity Monitor as an app. top -o cpu sorts by CPU. htop itself also runs on a Mac once installed with Homebrew.
Is btop better than htop on a Mac?
For looking at a Mac, usually. btop adds graphs for network and disk, CPU temperature, battery and Apple silicon GPU figures. htop is plainer and is on almost every Unix machine, which is the reason to know it.
Does htop show GPU or temperature on a Mac?
No. btop shows CPU temperature and Apple silicon GPU use. mactop shows every temperature sensor and the power drawn by the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine, on Apple silicon only.
Is there an app like htop for Mac with a window?
Vitals. It lists apps instead of processes, with each app's helpers counted in, and opens an app to show its processes with their PIDs. It keeps 30 days of history, or up to a year, and sits in the menu bar.