# Vitals vs ProcXray

Canonical page: https://vitalsmac.com/vs/procxray

By Atta Ur Rehman Shah, maker of Vitals. ProcXray checked on its maker's site September 22, 2026.

**Short answer:** Vitals is the better choice for the everyday question of which app is using your Mac. It counts every helper process under its app, keeps 30 days of history and shows temperatures and fan speed. ProcXray is a process explorer for developers, and the better pick when you need to inspect one process in depth: its files, environment, code signature and connections.

| | Vitals | ProcXray |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An Activity Monitor replacement with a menu bar item | A process explorer for developers |
| List of what is running | Every app, with its helper processes counted in | A process tree or a flat list of processes |
| Helper processes counted under their app | Yes | Not stated |
| History | 30 days for every metric, per app | Per-process CPU, GPU, memory and power, length not stated |
| Alerts | When an app keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network | Watches on a process, app or executable: start, exit and thresholds |
| Temperatures and fans | Temperatures and fan speed | No |
| Open ports | Grouped by project, idle dev servers pointed out | Per process, with its connections |
| Process detail | Memory, CPU, energy, disk and network for each process, under its app | Files, environment, libraries, code signature and entitlements |
| Quit and force quit | An app or a single process, after a confirmation | Terminate, force kill, suspend and send signals |
| Processes that exit quickly | No | Kept in the list after they exit |
| Price | $5 during the launch, $29 after, once | Free basic tier; $15 once for everything, 3 Macs |
| Trial | None, a 14-day refund | 14 days of every feature |
| Requirements | macOS 15 or later | macOS 14 or later |

## Choose Vitals if

- You want to know which app is using the Mac, helpers counted in
- You want 30 days of history and alerts for every app
- You want temperatures, fans and battery in the same app
- You want dev servers grouped by the project they belong to

Vitals website: [vitalsmac.com](https://vitalsmac.com/)

## Choose ProcXray if

- You debug processes and need their files, environment or signature
- You want to catch processes that exit within a second
- You want to suspend a process or send it a signal
- You want a free tier

ProcXray website: https://procxray.com/

## How we compared

The ProcXray 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 hi@vitalsmac.com and we will fix it.

See [all 10 Activity Monitor alternatives](https://vitalsmac.com/best-activity-monitor-alternatives), [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 Sensei](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/sensei), [Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu](https://vitalsmac.com/vs/cleanmymac).