We sell Multimeter, so treat our view of it with care. Every competitor fact links to its source below.
The short version
- Want it free? Stats. Open source, active, reads more sensors than most paid apps.
- Want every sensor? iStat Menus. $11.99 one-time, temperatures, GPU, per-app usage, fan control, weather.
- Want your own numbers, drawn your way? Multimeter. $19.99 one-time, 13 faces plus ones you build, and numbers from scripts, web addresses, files and multimeter:// links.
- Want a script to own a whole menu? SwiftBar, free.
- Want to protect the battery? AlDente limits charging. No monitor on this page does that.
All of them side by side
| Multimeter | iStat Menus | Stats | MenuMeters | SwiftBar | xbar | coconutBattery | AlDente | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 one-time | $11.99 one-time | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free, Plus one-time | Free, Pro paid |
| Open source | No | No | Yes, MIT | Yes, GPL 2.0 | Yes, MIT | Yes, MIT | No | No |
| CPU, memory, disk, network | Yes (no per-app lists) | Yes, with per-app CPU, memory and bandwidth | Yes, with per-process lists | CPU, disk activity, memory, network | Through plugins | Through plugins | No | No |
| Temperature sensors and GPU | Thermal pressure only, no temperatures or GPU | Yes, temperatures, voltages, GPU | Yes, temperature, voltage, power, GPU | No | Through plugins | Through plugins | No | Not on its pricing page |
| Fan speed | Speed (read only) | Speed and fan control | Fan control, marked not maintained | No | Through plugins | Through plugins | No | No |
| Battery and Bluetooth accessory batteries | Yes, keyboards, mice and trackpads | Yes, AirPods and Magic accessories | Battery and Bluetooth devices | No | Through plugins | Through plugins | Mac, iPhone and iPad battery health | Charge limits |
| Power draw in watts | Yes, on laptops | Yes (sensors: power) | Yes (sensors: power) | No | Through plugins | Through plugins | Not listed on its page | Not on its pricing page |
| Timers, countdowns, day progress | Yes | Clocks, world clocks, calendar | Multiple time zone clock | No | Through plugins | Through plugins | No | No |
| Your own numbers (script, web address, file, link) | All four | Not on its feature page | Not in its README | No | Scripts in any language | Scripts in any language | No | No |
| Custom looks you can build (HTML/CSS/JS) | 13 built in, build your own | Colors, layouts, combined item | Built-in widget styles | Its own meter styles | Text and menus a script prints | Text and menus a script prints | No | No |
| Runs on | macOS 13+ | macOS 13.5+ | macOS 12+ | macOS 10.11+ | macOS 12+ | macOS 10.15+ | macOS 12+ | macOS 12 to 27 |
| Latest release | 1.0.0, October 2026 | 7.5 | v3.0.23, Oct 2026 | 2.1.6.1, Nov 2021 | v2.1.1, Aug 2026 | v2.1.7-beta, Oct 2021 | 4.4, Sep 2026 | 1.40, Oct 2026 |
Each app
Multimeter
Live meters for anything in the Mac menu bar, each drawn by a face you pick or build with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Built-in meters for battery, Bluetooth accessory batteries, power draw, CPU, memory, disk space, thermal pressure, fan speed, network, timers, countdowns and day progress, plus four ways to bring your own numbers. Five live meters use about 2% to 3% CPU in our tests.
Price: $19.99 one-time, 30-day refund. Runs on: macOS 13 Ventura or later. Falls short on: temperatures, GPU, per-app lists and fan control, which it doesn’t have. See the faces.
iStat Menus
The long-running, very deep system monitor for the Mac menu bar: CPU, GPU, memory, disks, network, sensors, fans, battery, clocks and weather.
Best for: The most hardware detail in one paid app. Price: $11.99 one-time (Family Pack of 5: $14.99; upgrade from 6: $9.99, or $12.99 for the family pack), 14-day trial. Also on Setapp and the Mac App Store.. License: Commercial. Runs on: macOS 13.5 or later (bjango.com). Latest release: 7.5.
Where it beats Multimeter: Far more sensors: temperatures, voltages, GPU, S.M.A.R.T. disk status and per-app CPU, memory and bandwidth. Multimeter has none of those.
Pick it if you want the most complete hardware picture of your Mac: temperatures, GPU, per-app usage, fan control and weather. For that, iStat Menus is the better tool and the cheaper one. Full comparison with Multimeter.
Stats
A free, open-source system monitor for the menu bar with modules for CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors, Bluetooth devices and clocks.
Best for: A free, open-source system monitor. Price: Free. License: MIT, open source. Runs on: macOS 12 Monterey or later. Latest release: v3.0.23 (October 25, 2026).
Where it beats Multimeter: It’s free and open source (MIT). You can read every line, build it yourself and install it with brew install stats.
Pick it if you want a free, open-source hardware monitor with sensors and GPU. Most people who only want CPU, memory and network numbers should start with Stats. Full comparison with Multimeter.
MenuMeters
The classic CPU, disk activity, memory and network meters for the menu bar, kept running on newer macOS by Yuji Tachikawa’s fork.
Best for: Four classic meters on an older Mac. Price: Free. License: GPL 2.0, open source. Runs on: El Capitan 10.11 or later (the fork’s README lists through Big Sur). Latest release: 2.1.6.1 (November 2021).
Where it beats Multimeter: Free and open source (GPL 2.0).
Pick it if you run an older Mac or want only the four classic meters, free. Full comparison with Multimeter.
SwiftBar
A free, open-source app that puts the output of any script in the menu bar, compatible with BitBar and xbar plugins.
Best for: Script output and menus, free. Price: Free. License: MIT, open source. Runs on: macOS 12 Monterey or later. Latest release: v2.1.1 (August 2026).
Where it beats Multimeter: Free and open source (MIT), with a plugin repository and every existing BitBar and xbar plugin.
Pick it if you want menus full of text and actions from scripts, for free. If you want your script’s number drawn as a gauge or graph next to built-in system meters, that’s Multimeter. Full comparison with Multimeter.
xbar
The BitBar reboot: put the output from any script or program in the menu bar, with an online plugin directory.
Best for: Existing xbar plugins. Price: Free. License: MIT, open source. Runs on: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. Latest release: v2.1.7-beta (October 2021).
Where it beats Multimeter: Free and open source, with a large browsable plugin directory at xbarapp.com.
Pick it if you already have xbar plugins you like. SwiftBar runs them too and is more recently updated. Compared with SwiftBar and Multimeter.
coconutBattery
Battery health details for your Mac, iPhone and iPad: capacity, health and diagnostics, with a paid Plus edition.
Best for: Battery health reports, including iPhone and iPad. Price: Free standard edition; coconutBattery Plus is a one-time purchase. License: Commercial. Runs on: macOS 12 Monterey or later. Latest release: 4.4 (September 2026).
Where it beats Multimeter: Deeper battery health history and iPhone and iPad battery diagnostics.
Pick it if you want a detailed battery health report, including your iPhone or iPad.
AlDente
A charge limiter: it stops your MacBook charging at a level you pick, to spend less time at 100%.
Best for: Limiting how far your MacBook charges. Price: Free charge limiter; Pro is a yearly subscription or a lifetime license (shown to us as €11.49 a year or €23.99 lifetime). License: Commercial (free version available). Runs on: macOS 12 Monterey to macOS 27. Latest release: 1.40 (October 2026).
Where it beats Multimeter: It changes how your Mac charges (charge limit, discharge, sailing mode). Multimeter only measures; it never changes charging.
Pick it if you want to limit charging to protect the battery. Multimeter does not do that.
What macOS already shows
Before installing anything: macOS can show the battery percentage next to its battery icon (on macOS 26 Tahoe: System Settings, Menu Bar, Battery, Battery Options, Show Percentage; on earlier versions it’s under Control Center), the Bluetooth menu shows accessory batteries when you click it, and Activity Monitor has the most detail of all, in a window. If that covers you, you don’t need any app on this page. See showing battery percentage for the steps.
How we checked
We make Multimeter, so read this with that in mind. Competitor facts come from each maker’s own site, README or store listing, checked on October 25, 2026, and are linked below. "Not on its feature page" means we looked and didn’t find it, not that it can’t be done. Multimeter’s numbers are measured on our own Macs. Spot something out of date? Email hello@greatwork.company and we’ll fix it.
- iStat Menus: bjango.com/mac/istatmenus (features, version, macOS)
- iStat Menus: Bjango’s Paddle checkout prices (US, before tax)
- iStat Menus: Weather data packs help page
- iStat Menus: Mac App Store listing ($11.99 US)
- Stats: github.com/exelban/stats (README, license, stars)
- Stats: Stats releases
- MenuMeters: MenuMeters for El Capitan and later (fork homepage)
- MenuMeters: github.com/yujitach/MenuMeters (README, releases, license)
- MenuMeters: Original MenuMeters page (meter list)
- SwiftBar: github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar (README, license, releases)
- SwiftBar: swiftbar.app
- xbar: github.com/matryer/xbar (README, releases)
- xbar: xbarapp.com
- coconutBattery: coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery
- AlDente: AlDente pricing page
- AlDente: github.com/AppHouseKitchen/AlDente-Charge-Limiter (releases)