NotchMan vs boring.notch
boring.notch is the best-known notch app: free, GPL-licensed, more than ten thousand GitHub stars, and built around turning the notch into a Dynamic Island. Music with a visualiser, a shelf for files, replacements for the volume and brightness HUDs, battery and Bluetooth activities. NotchMan does none of that. It uses the notch as a place to keep small tools.
Facts about boring.notch are from its own site, read on 2026-09-21. If something is out of date, email hello@notchman.com.
| NotchMan | boring.notch | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $10.99 launch, then $29, one-time | Free, open source (GPL-3.0) |
| Focus | Nine daily tools in a tabbed panel | Dynamic Island: music, shelf, HUDs, live activities |
| Now playing with visualiser | Planned | Yes |
| Shelf and AirDrop | Planned | Yes |
| Volume / brightness HUD replacement | No | Yes |
| Battery and Bluetooth live activities | No | Yes |
| Calendar and Reminders | Calendar planned | Yes |
| Clipboard, scratchpad, timers | Yes | No |
| Screen time and time log | Yes | No |
| Hydration, calories, breathing, habits | Yes | No |
| Signed and notarised | Yes | Unsigned; needs a Gatekeeper bypass on first launch |
| Install | DMG, updates in-app | DMG or Homebrew |
| Requirements | macOS 14+, Apple silicon and Intel | macOS 14+, Apple silicon and Intel |
| Open source | No | Yes |
Planned means on the NotchMan roadmap and included in every license.
Only in boring.notch today
- Music controls and a visualiser in the closed notch
- A shelf to drop files on, with AirDrop
- Replacement HUDs for volume, brightness and backlight
- Charging, battery and Bluetooth live activities
- Calendar, Reminders and weather
- Mirror, gestures, lock screen widgets, an extension system
- Source you can read and change
Only in NotchMan
- Clipboard history and a scratchpad
- Pomodoro, countdown and stopwatch with logging
- Screen time by app and a time log by category
- Hydration, calories, breathing and habits
- A signed, notarised build with automatic updates
On the roadmap. Music, a shelf, calendar and themes are on the NotchMan roadmap and included in every license. HUD replacements and live activities are not planned. Next up: shelf, music, claude and codex usage, calendar, sounds, notes, home, themes.
Choose boring.notch if…
Choose boring.notch if you want the notch to feel like a Dynamic Island: music, files, HUDs, live activities. It is free, and it is very good at that.
Choose NotchMan if…
Choose NotchMan if you don't care about media in the notch and want it to hold the small tools you reach for during the day. It is not a replacement for boring.notch, it is a different use of the same space.
Questions
- Can I run both?
- No. Both draw over the notch and both open on hover, so they fight. Pick the one whose job you want the notch to do.
- Why pay when boring.notch is free?
- Different job. boring.notch has no clipboard, timers, screen time, water, food or habits. If those are what you want, the alternative isn't boring.notch, it's five separate apps. Music and a shelf are coming to NotchMan too.
- Is NotchMan open source?
- No. The releases repo on GitHub is public for downloads and the update feed, but the source is not.
Try NotchMan on your own notch.
One-time purchase, 14-day refund, everything stays on your Mac.
Updated 2026-09-21. boring.notch is a trademark of its owner; this page is an independent comparison.