Guides/Vitals vs MacPulse
Vitals vs MacPulse
Quick answer
MacPulse and Vitals both keep 30 days of history, and they read the past differently. MacPulse turns 30 days of system-wide readings into plain-English insights, with fan control and CSV export. Vitals keeps 30 days for every app, with its helper processes counted in, and adds dev servers and the ports they hold. Choose MacPulse for the narrative, or for macOS 14; choose Vitals to know which app did it.
VitalsMacPulse Choose Vitals if
- You want every app on the Mac listed, not only the top five processes
- You want the helpers of Chrome or Xcode counted under the app
- You run dev servers and lose track of what is holding a port
- You want to quit an app or a stuck process from the same window
Choose MacPulse if
- You want plain-English explanations of how your Mac has been
- You want a custom fan curve or CSV export
- You are on macOS 14
- You want to try it before you pay
Where Vitals pulls ahead
Every app, not the top five
MacPulse lists the five biggest users of CPU and memory. Vitals lists every app, with its helper processes folded in, so the eleventh app is as easy to find as the first.
Projects and ports
MacPulse's site does not mention dev servers or ports. Vitals groups processes by the project folder they run in, shows the ports they hold, and points out the server that has done nothing for three days.
One version, with everything
MacPulse's Mac App Store build leaves out sensors, fan control and top processes, and keeps per-process history for the direct build only. Vitals is one full version, sold direct, with 30 days of history for every app in it.
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
Does Vitals explain things in plain English like MacPulse?
Its alerts and its Worth a Look panel do: "two dev servers are running but idle" or "the Mac is running short of memory, the biggest users are Chrome and Xcode". It does not write a daily report the way MacPulse does.
Does Vitals control fans the way MacPulse does?
Partly. Vitals shows fan speed and CPU and GPU temperatures, and can hold each fan at a speed you choose. MacPulse's direct version can set the fan curve, which Vitals does not.
Is there a trial?
No. Vitals has a 14-day refund instead: buy it, and if it is not for you, email and the money comes back.
Get Vitals for $9 while the launch price lasts
One-time paymentLifetime updates14-day refund
Get Vitals for $9How we compared
The MacPulse 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.