Guides/Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu
Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu
Quick answer
CleanMyMac Menu and Vitals are not the same size of thing. CleanMyMac Menu is the menu bar part of CleanMyMac: top consumers, temperatures and a one-click memory free-up, and it makes sense if you already pay for CleanMyMac. Vitals is a full monitor: every app with its helpers counted in, 30 days of history per app, and dev servers with their ports, for one payment. Keep CleanMyMac Menu if you have it; choose Vitals for the full picture.
VitalsCleanMyMac Menu Choose Vitals if
- You want every app listed, not only the top consumers
- You want 30 days of history per app
- You want to pay once, and pay less
- You run dev servers and want to see their ports
Choose CleanMyMac Menu if
- You already pay for CleanMyMac
- You want cleanup and malware scanning with your monitor
- You want a one-click memory free-up
- You are on a macOS older than 15
Where Vitals pulls ahead
Every app, not the top consumers
CleanMyMac Menu shows the apps using the most CPU, memory and battery. Vitals shows every app, one row each, with its helper processes folded in, and a tab for each of memory, CPU, disk, network, GPU and battery.
30 days, not a live chart
CleanMyMac Menu has a live CPU chart and its site does not describe history. Vitals keeps 30 days for every app, so a slow morning can be explained in the afternoon.
Pay once
CleanMyMac Menu comes with CleanMyMac, from $29.95 a year or $79.95 once for one Mac. Vitals is $9 during the launch and $29 after, once, with every update for life.
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, Battery, Sound, Bluetooth and Projects, plus Containers while Docker runs, each with its live figures and the apps behind them.
- 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.
- 30 days of history. CPU, memory, energy, disk and network for the last hour, 12 hours, 24 hours, 7 days and 30 days, with the apps that used the most, ranked hour by hour for the last two days.
- 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.
- 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
Can Vitals free up memory?
No, and macOS manages memory well on its own. What Vitals does is show which app is using it and how much pressure the Mac is under, so you quit the right one instead of all of them.
I already pay for CleanMyMac. Do I need Vitals?
Keep CleanMyMac for cleanup and malware scanning. Vitals answers the questions its menu cannot: which app, with helpers counted in, and what happened over the last 30 days.
Does Vitals scan for malware?
No. Vitals only monitors, and it never deletes or changes anything on the Mac.
Get Vitals for $9 while the launch price lasts
One-time paymentLifetime updates14-day refund
Get Vitals for $9How we compared
The CleanMyMac Menu column comes from its maker's own site on September 22, 2026. Where the site does not say whether it does something, the cell says "Not stated". If a cell is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
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Wondering why apps show so many rows in Activity Monitor? Read about helper processes.