Guides/Vitals vs Stats
Vitals vs Stats
Quick answer
Stats and Vitals answer different questions. Stats is a free, open-source menu bar monitor for CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery and sensors, and tells you how busy the Mac is. Vitals tells you which app, and since when: every app with its helpers counted in, 30 days of history and alerts, with a menu bar item on top. If free menu bar figures are all you need, Stats is the right pick. If you want the name behind the figure, Vitals.
VitalsStats Choose Vitals if
- You want to know which app is responsible, not just the total
- You want 30 days of history and alerts
- You want a window that replaces Activity Monitor, not only the menu bar
Choose Stats if
- You want menu bar figures and do not want to pay
- You want open source you can read and build yourself
- You are on macOS 12 to 14
Where Vitals pulls ahead
A name on every figure
Stats tells you the CPU is at 80%. Vitals tells you it is Chrome, with its 48 helper processes counted in, and the same for memory, energy, disk and network.
It remembers
The Stats README describes no history. Vitals keeps 30 days for every app, so a Mac that was slow at lunchtime can still be explained at dinner.
It tells you
Stats describes no alerts. Vitals sends a notification when an app keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network, and says which 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, 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 I run Vitals and Stats together?
Yes. Both are ordinary apps, and the Vitals menu bar item can be reduced to a single icon if you want to keep the Stats modules in the menu bar.
Is Vitals open source?
No. Vitals is a paid app, $9 during the launch and $29 after, once, with a 14-day refund. What you run stays on your Mac: no account, no analytics.
Why pay when Stats is free?
Stats answers one question: how busy is the Mac? Vitals answers two: which app, and since when? If the first question is all you have, Stats is the right pick, and the card above says so.
Get Vitals for $9 while the launch price lasts
One-time paymentLifetime updates14-day refund
Get Vitals for $9How we compared
The Stats column comes from its README and release notes on GitHub on September 22, 2026. Where the README does not say whether it does something, the cell says "Not in its README". If a cell is out of date, email us and we will fix it.
More comparisons
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- Vitals vs Sensei
- Vitals vs CleanMyMac Menu
- Vitals vs TK-mac
- Vitals vs ProcessSpy
- All 12 Activity Monitor alternatives
- iStat Menus alternatives
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Wondering why apps show so many rows in Activity Monitor? Read about helper processes.