# Task Manager for Mac: the built‑in one, and the 7 best apps Canonical page: https://vitalsmac.com/task-manager-for-mac By Atta Ur Rehman Shah, maker of Vitals. Prices and features checked September 27, 2026. **Short answer:** The Mac's Task Manager is Activity Monitor: press ⌘Space, type Activity Monitor and press Return. To force quit a frozen app, press ⌥⌘Esc, the Mac's Ctrl+Alt+Delete. If you miss Task Manager's one row per app, Vitals is the closest match: every app with its helper processes counted in, 30 days of history and alerts when an app misbehaves. TK-mac is the one that looks most like Windows. ## How to open Task Manager on a Mac 1. Press ⌘Space to open Spotlight. 2. Type Activity Monitor and press Return. 3. To keep it one click away, Control-click its Dock icon and choose Options → Keep in Dock. For a frozen app, press ⌥⌘Esc (Option-Command-Escape). The Force Quit window lists your open apps, the way Ctrl+Alt+Delete leads to Task Manager on Windows. Activity Monitor also lives in Applications → Utilities. Windows Task Manager folds each app's processes under the app, so Chrome is one row you can open up. Activity Monitor lists every process on its own, about 1,000 on a working Mac, so the same Chrome is dozens of rows called Google Chrome Helper. It also has no Startup tab, no alerts, and no history beyond 12 hours of energy on a laptop. The apps below fill that gap. They are ranked for someone coming from Task Manager, and each is labeled with the job it does best. ## At a glance | # | App | Best for | Price | Runs in | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Vitals | One row per app, as Task Manager shows it, with 30 days of history | $9 during the launch | A window and the menu bar | | 2 | TK-mac | The Windows Task Manager layout, on a Mac | $7.99 once during its launch offer | A window and the menu bar | | 3 | ProcessSpy | Process Explorer, for developers | Free version; $34.99 once for everything | A window and the menu bar | | 4 | iStatistica Pro | App activity and force quit, from the Mac App Store | $5.99 on the Mac App Store | A window, widgets and the menu bar | | 5 | ProcXray | Taking one stuck process apart | Free basic tier | A window | | 6 | btop | Task Manager in the terminal | Free (Apache 2.0) | The terminal | | 7 | htop | The same tool on every Mac and Linux machine | Free (GPLv2) | The terminal | ## 1. Vitals Maker: Atta Ur Rehman Shah. Best for: One row per app, as Task Manager shows it, with 30 days of history. Price: $9 during the launch, then $29, once. Runs in: A window and the menu bar. The closest thing on a Mac to the Processes tab in Windows Task Manager. Activity Monitor shows about 1,000 processes; Vitals shows the 60 apps they belong to, each with its helper processes counted in, so Chrome is one row with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network. Quit or force quit an app or a single process, always after a confirmation. It also does what Task Manager never did: 30 days of history for every app, and a notification when an app keeps the CPU busy or keeps growing in memory. **Good:** One row and one figure per app, helpers included; 30 days 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; 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. Website: [vitalsmac.com](https://vitalsmac.com/). $9 during the launch, $29 after it, once. ## 2. TK-mac Maker: TK-mac. Best for: The Windows Task Manager layout, on a Mac. 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. Website: https://www.tk-mac.com/. Compared head to head: [Vitals vs TK-mac](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/tk-mac) ## 3. ProcessSpy Maker: Robert (@rob3rth). Best for: Process Explorer, 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. Website: https://process-spy.app/. Compared head to head: [Vitals vs ProcessSpy](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/processspy) ## 4. iStatistica Pro Maker: Imagetasks. Best for: App activity and force quit, from the Mac App Store. 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. Website: https://www.imagetasks.com/istatistica/. Compared head to head: [Vitals vs iStatistica Pro](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/istatistica) ## 5. ProcXray Maker: ProcXray. Best for: Taking one stuck process apart. 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. Website: https://procxray.com/. Compared head to head: [Vitals vs ProcXray](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/procxray) ## 6. btop Maker: aristocratos (open source). Best for: Task Manager 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. Website: https://github.com/aristocratos/btop ## 7. htop Maker: htop-dev (open source). Best for: The same tool on every Mac and Linux machine. 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. Website: https://github.com/htop-dev/htop ## Tools that do one job well These are not Task Managers, so they are not ranked against the list above. Each is the best pick for its one job. - **TG Pro** (Temperatures and fan control, $10 once (on sale from $20)): Per-core temperatures on Apple silicon through M5 Max, fan control with rules, and email alerts. No process list. https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/tgpro/ - **Little Snitch** (Which app talks to which server, From €59 once): 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. https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/ - **App Tamer** (Slowing down CPU hogs automatically, $14.95 once, 15-day trial): Slows or pauses background apps that use too much CPU. Its site lists macOS up to 26.5. https://www.stclairsoft.com/AppTamer/ ## When Activity Monitor is enough For a frozen app, ⌥⌘Esc and Force Quit is all you need, and for "what is using the CPU right now", Activity Monitor's CPU tab sorted by % CPU answers it. It is free, already installed, and it can [sample a process](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/sample-process) or take a [spindump](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary/spindump), which none of the apps above copy. It falls short where Task Manager spoiled you: one row per app, a startup list in the same window, and anything about the past. The [Activity Monitor glossary](https://vitalsmac.com/glossary) explains what its columns and processes mean. ## 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 answers the question people open Task Manager with, which app is doing this, one row per app with its helpers counted in, and it keeps 30 days of it. TK-mac is second because it is the closest to Task Manager's look. Every other tool is ranked for how well it stands in for Task Manager, 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 ### What is Task Manager called on a Mac? Activity Monitor. It is in Applications → Utilities, or press ⌘Space and type its name. It shows CPU, memory, energy, disk and network use for every process, and can quit or force quit any of them. ### What is Ctrl+Alt+Delete on a Mac? ⌥⌘Esc (Option-Command-Escape). It opens the Force Quit window, which lists your open apps: pick the frozen one and click Force Quit. For a background process that is not an app, use Activity Monitor. ### Where is the Startup tab on a Mac? In System Settings → General → Login Items (Login Items & Extensions on macOS 15 and later). Apps under Open at Login start when you log in, and background items are switched on and off in the same place. ### Why does Activity Monitor show so many more processes than Task Manager? Both count the same kind of processes. Task Manager folds an app's helpers under the app; Activity Monitor gives each helper its own row, so Chrome alone can be dozens. Vitals adds them back up under the app. ### Is there a free Task Manager for Mac? Activity Monitor is free and built in. btop and htop are free in the terminal. ProcessSpy and ProcXray have free versions, with more in their paid ones. Head-to-head: [Vitals vs Activity Monitor](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/activity-monitor), [Vitals vs iStat Menus](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/istat-menus), [Vitals vs Stats](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/stats), [Vitals vs MacPulse](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/macpulse), [Vitals vs iStatistica Pro](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/istatistica), [Vitals vs ProcXray](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/procxray), [Vitals vs Sensei](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/sensei), [Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/cleanmymac), [Vitals vs TK-mac](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/tk-mac), [Vitals vs ProcessSpy](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/processspy), [Vitals vs SoundSource](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/soundsource), [Vitals vs SoundDial](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/sounddial), [Vitals vs eqMac](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/eqmac). More guides: [Activity Monitor alternatives](https://vitalsmac.com/best-activity-monitor-alternatives), [iStat Menus alternatives](https://vitalsmac.com/best-istat-menus-alternatives), [Stats alternatives](https://vitalsmac.com/best-stats-alternatives), [Best system monitors for Mac](https://vitalsmac.com/best-system-monitor-for-mac), [Best menu bar monitors for Mac](https://vitalsmac.com/best-menu-bar-system-monitor-for-mac), [Best volume mixers for Mac](https://vitalsmac.com/best-volume-mixer-for-mac).