Guides/Vitals vs Activity Monitor
Vitals vs Activity Monitor
Quick answer
Activity Monitor and Vitals answer different questions. Activity Monitor shows what is happening this second, one row per process, and it is the right tool for sampling a process or taking a spindump. Vitals shows which app is responsible, with every helper process counted under it, keeps up to a year of history for every app, and tells you when one misbehaves. Keep Activity Monitor for diagnostics; use Vitals for the everyday question.
VitalsActivity Monitor Choose Vitals if
- You want to know which app is using memory, CPU or battery, helpers included
- You want to look back as far as a year, not just now
- You want to be told when an app misbehaves
- You run dev servers and lose track of what is holding a port
Choose Activity Monitor if
- You need to sample a process, take a spindump or run diagnostics
- You want a quick look at what is using the CPU this second, for free
- You are on a macOS older than 15
Where Vitals pulls ahead
One row per app, not forty
On a working Mac, Activity Monitor lists about 1,000 processes, dozens of them called Google Chrome Helper. Vitals adds each helper to the app that launched it, so Chrome is one row with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network.
It remembers
Activity Monitor shows this second, plus 12 hours of energy on a laptop. Vitals keeps up to a year for every app, so what drained the battery this afternoon still has an answer tomorrow.
It tells you
Activity Monitor waits to be opened. Vitals sends a notification when an app keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network, and names the app.
See it for yourself
The same Mac, listed the way Activity Monitor lists it and the way Vitals does. Tap Vitals to watch about 900 processes become eight apps.
Everything Vitals does
One app, one payment, every update for life.
- Processes grouped by app. Every helper process is added to the app that launched it, so a working Mac shows about 60 apps instead of about 1,000 processes, each with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network.
- A tab per subsystem. Overview, CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, GPU, Neural Engine, Battery, Sound, Bluetooth and Projects, plus Containers while Docker runs, each with its live figures and the apps behind them.
- Your coding agents, and what is left of your plans. An Agents tab with every running coding agent, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and the rest: its project, what it is doing right now, and everything it started, with Quit for the session and all of it together. For Claude, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Antigravity, Grok, Ollama and OpenCode, how much of each plan is left, when it resets and whether you are on pace, for every account signed in on the Mac, and the tokens Claude Code and Codex used today and this week.
- An MCP server for Claude, Codex and Cursor. Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and any assistant that speaks MCP can ask what is running, which app is behind a number, what is on a port, and what the last 30 days looked like. It cannot quit anything by itself: Vitals asks you first. Off until you turn it on.
- A Neural Engine tab. How hard the Neural Engine is working, which apps are using it, and a chart of the last minutes, in the window, the menu bar and on the Overview. On Macs with Apple silicon.
- Inside your browser. Click Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Arc or Dia to see its memory and CPU split into tabs, extensions, graphics and the browser itself. Slack, VS Code and similar apps are split by window.
- Up to a year of history. CPU, memory, energy, disk and network from the last hour to the last year, with the apps that used the most, ranked hour by hour for the last two days. Keep 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year.
- What keeps the Mac awake, and the fans on. The Battery tab lists the apps holding sleep off, what each said it is doing and for how long. When the Mac runs hot, Vitals names the apps behind it, with Quit beside each.
- Alerts for misbehaving apps. A notification when an app keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network.
- Dev servers and open ports, by project. Processes grouped by the project folder they run in, with their listening ports, and dev servers left idle for days pointed out and offered to stop.
- A menu bar you arrange. Every readout can be its own menu bar item: CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, temperature or battery, as a value, a graph or both, ⌘-dragged into any order. Behind it, a dropdown with every metric, the busiest apps, and a tab for each metric.
- Make it yours. Vitals’ own colors, Monochrome, or a set made for color blindness. The numbers in Rounded, San Francisco, SF Mono, New York or any font on the Mac, light to bold. Comfortable or compact spacing, charts of the last 5, 15 or 30 minutes, light or dark, and exported pictures in the same look.
- Arrange the window and the dropdown. Choose the window’s tabs and their order, and show, hide or reorder the sections, cards and lists on every tab. The dropdown has its own tiles and a List layout with one line per metric. Reset puts everything back.
- Docker containers. A Containers tab with every Docker container’s memory, CPU, network and ports, in the window and the dropdown, and Stop on each, after a confirmation.
- Sound and Bluetooth tabs. The Mac’s output device and level with a slider for every app playing sound, the microphone and the apps using it, and every connected Bluetooth device with its battery, lowest first.
- Units you choose. Celsius or Fahrenheit, bytes or bits for network speed, and CPU per core or per Mac, each with a live example in Settings.
- Temperatures and fans. CPU and GPU temperature on Intel and Apple silicon, M5 included, and fan speed. Hold any fan at a speed you choose, and hand it back to the Mac in one click. The menu bar temperature can follow the CPU, the GPU or the hottest sensor.
- Quit and force quit. Quit an app or a single process, always after a confirmation.
- Keyboard shortcuts and Shortcuts actions. Open the dropdown or the window from any app, and get a reading or the busiest app from the Shortcuts app.
- Export as an image. Save or copy a snapshot of the Mac as a 1200 × 630 share card or a dashboard image.
- In the Dock, if you like. Show in Dock keeps Vitals in the Dock like Activity Monitor. Opened by hand it shows its window; at login it stays in the menu bar.
What Mac users say
Now I find myself stealing quick glances at the menu bar, instead of taking another sip of coffee.
Ed Wiseman Emmy-winning director and producer macOS Activity Monitor is horrible when I’m juggling dev projects and local AI. Vitals is so much better.
Knowix Developer and AI builder cant keep vibecoding everything for $5, i get a finished product, clean ui, and bug fixes
Sai Krishna Founder of Superblog Common questions
Does Vitals replace Activity Monitor completely?
For the everyday question, which app is doing this, yes. For sampling a process, spindumps and system diagnostics, no: Activity Monitor does those and Vitals does not try to. Keep both: Activity Monitor stays in Utilities for the rare day you need it.
Is Activity Monitor free?
Yes. It comes with every Mac, in Applications → Utilities. Vitals costs $9 during the launch and $39 after, once, with a 14-day refund.
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. Activity Monitor lists each one; Vitals adds them up under the app that launched them.
Get Vitals for $9 while the launch price lasts
One-time paymentLifetime updates14-day refund
Get Vitals for $9How we compared
Every cell about Activity Monitor is something you can check by opening it: Applications → Utilities → Activity Monitor. If a cell is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
More comparisons
- Vitals vs iStat Menus
- Vitals vs Stats
- Vitals vs MacPulse
- Vitals vs iStatistica Pro
- Vitals vs ProcXray
- Vitals vs Sensei
- Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu
- Vitals vs TK-mac
- Vitals vs ProcessSpy
- All 12 Activity Monitor alternatives
- iStat Menus alternatives
- Stats alternatives
- Task Manager for Mac
- Best system monitors for Mac
- Best menu bar monitors for Mac
- Best volume mixers for Mac
- htop for Mac
- Process Explorer for Mac
- Best temperature monitors for Mac
Wondering why apps show so many rows in Activity Monitor? Read about helper processes.