The MacBook notch went from an awkward black bar to one of the most useful spots on your Mac. These apps turn it into a Dynamic Island: media controls, a file shelf, widgets, system stats and more. Here's an honest look at the best Mac notch apps, what each does well, where each struggles, and how to choose.
Last updated: 14 October 2026 · prices checked 3 October 2026, NotchNook’s on 9 October 2026, Droppy and the App Store apps on 14 October 2026
Full disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of Crest, one of the apps below. We've tried to keep every other entry fair and accurate, with the real strengths and the real trade‑offs, so it's genuinely useful whichever one you pick. Every price, trial and macOS requirement below was read off each app's own site, store page or GitHub on 3 October 2026, NotchNook's again on 9 October 2026, and Droppy's and the four Mac App Store apps' on 14 October 2026.
What actually matters in a notch app
They all look slick in a screenshot. The differences that bite you later are:
Battery & performance. A notch app runs all day. The most common complaint across the category is battery drain and high CPU, especially after macOS updates.
Stability after sleep. Many notch apps freeze or need a restart after your Mac sleeps and wakes.
Signed & notarized. If an app isn't notarized by Apple, macOS throws a "can't be opened" warning on every install and update.
Features vs. focus. Some are full productivity hubs, others do one thing (like the volume HUD) beautifully.
Price. Free, one‑time, or subscription, and whether there's a real free tier or just a trial.
The short answer
For one notch app that does a bit of everything and has a free tier that never expires, try Crest. For free and open source, The Boring Notch or Atoll. For the deepest customization, NotchNook. For moving files, Droppy. For the most Apple‑like Dynamic Island, Alcove. If you write code with Claude Code, Codex or Copilot CLI, Crest is the one built around that: their permission prompts wait in the notch, and you allow or deny them from there, free.
CrestOur pick$24.99 one‑time or $2.99 a month · free tier
macOS 14+Signed & notarizedClaude in the notch19 widgetsOn‑deviceHomebrew cask
In one sentence: Crest is a notch app for the Mac, on macOS 14 or later, that turns the MacBook notch into pages of widgets: music, a file shelf, a clipboard, window snapping, the Authenticator (your two-factor codes, typed in for you), and the allow and deny prompts of Claude Code, Codex and Copilot CLI. It is made by one independent developer, has a free tier that never expires, and installs from crestnotch.app or with brew install --cask crest.
Crest 6 makes the notch itself the app: one island that grows out of the notch. Hover it for a quick peek. Click and it opens into a row of pages, Now, Home, Work and Code, and you swipe with two fingers, use the arrow keys or click the dots to move between them. Each page holds widgets you arrange yourself. Add them from the gallery, stretch one to resize it, hold to edit and drag to move. There are 19 to pick from: Now Playing, a file Shelf, a Clipboard, notes, to-dos, calendar, system stats, and Claude, which you can ask, or just talk to, on your own Claude subscription.
Crest 6 open on the Home page: music, the weather, the calendar and batteries.
The free tier is real: Now Playing, the Shelf, the Clipboard, window snapping and answering Claude Code, Codex and Copilot CLI, free with no account, and it never expires. One $24.99 purchase unlocks the 14 Pro widgets, the Authenticator among them, and adds Take and Minutes, with updates through Crest 7, or subscribe from $2.99 a month, and signing in starts a 7‑day Pro trial (no card), so you test the lot before deciding.
Where Crest is built differently is the stuff that bites you with other notch apps. It's engineered to be light on your Mac: animations pause on battery and Low Power Mode, and its monitors suspend while your Mac sleeps and re‑pin themselves on wake, directly targeting the battery‑drain and "froze after sleep" complaints that dog the category. It's also a properly signed and notarized Mac app, so there are no Gatekeeper warnings on install or updates, and everything runs on‑device with no tracking. On a Mac without a notch it sits in a small pill at the top of the screen.
Strengths: broad feature set with a genuine free tier, deliberate battery/sleep behavior, notarized, a one‑time price, and a subscription only if you want one. Watch‑outs: it's younger than NotchNook, Alcove or The Boring Notch, so it doesn't have their track record or review count, and it needs macOS 14, where Notchy and MediaMate run on 13.
Best for: anyone who wants the full notch‑hub experience without paying a subscription or babysitting battery and sleep issues. Download Crest free and unlock Pro whenever you like.Free tier, no account · 7-day Pro trial, no card · macOS 14 or later
macOS 14.6+48‑hour trial, no card2 Macs per licence
NotchNook is the best‑known paid notch app and arguably the most full‑featured: an expandable hub with widgets, a files shelf/Tray, an AirDrop drop zone, calendar, clipboard, battery info and deep customization (colors, layouts, haptics). Its file shelf and AirDrop zone are the features reviewers single out most, and Setapp users rated it around 89% positive across 1,400+ reviews while it was there.
Strengths: the deepest feature set and customization, polished animations, frequent updates. Watch‑outs: no free tier, only a 48‑hour trial. In reviews of earlier versions, the most common complaints were stability and battery: crashes or freezes after sleep/wake (notably on recent macOS), high CPU/battery after some updates, and media detection that occasionally needed an app restart. It was never on the Mac App Store, and the Setapp build reportedly had fewer options than the standalone one.
Update, 9 October 2026: NotchNook is on sale again from a new site, getnotchnook.com, at version 1.6.5: $25 once or $3 a month, each licence on two Macs, macOS 14.6 or later, with a 48‑hour trial and no card. Its relaunch offer, $15 once or $2 a month for as long as that subscription stays active, ends on 17 October 2026 (checked 13 October 2026); until then it costs less than Crest. Its old page, lo.cafe/notchnook, still answers “not found”, and lo.cafe’s home page shows a statement from NotchNook’s co-founders about a dispute over control of the company behind the app. We are not taking sides in the dispute. For what else to use, we keep a page on exactly that: NotchNook alternatives for Mac.
Best for: the deepest customization, if you do not need a free tier. Deep dive: Crest vs NotchNook
The Boring Notch (boring.notch) is the standout free, fully open‑source option, built by an active community. It covers a lot of ground: a music center with album art and a live audio visualizer, a file shelf, calendar, an HUD replacement for volume/brightness/keyboard backlight, battery and Bluetooth status, a camera mirror and more. The music visualizer is its signature, genuinely lovely feature.
Strengths: completely free and open source, broad features, fast‑moving community, low CPU on Apple Silicon, easy Homebrew install. Watch‑outs: because the team doesn't have an Apple Developer account, the app isn't notarized, so macOS flags it as from an unidentified developer and you have to bypass Gatekeeper on install and updates. As a volunteer project it can be buggier and less polished than paid apps (reports of notch misplacement, file‑shelf glitches, AirDrop quirks, and Now Playing missing some apps).
Atoll is a free, open‑source notch app that grew out of The Boring Notch's code (its README credits it as the foundation) and has gone its own way since. It covers media controls, live activities for charging, Focus, screen recording and downloads, lock screen widgets, CPU, GPU, memory, network and disk stats, timers, clipboard history, a colour picker and calendar previews, with a lot of say over layout, animation and shortcuts.
Strengths: free and open source, more system stats and lock screen widgets than most paid apps, actively developed (commits landed this week). Watch‑outs: its README lists a MacBook with a notch as a requirement, and it moves fast, so check its issue tracker for your version of macOS before you settle in.
Best for: people who like The Boring Notch's idea but want more system stats and lock screen widgets, for free. github.com/Ebullioscopic/Atoll
macOS 14+2 Macs per licence14‑day refundHomebrew cask
Droppy started as a file shelf, and its tray is still the best one here: drop files on the notch, then zip or convert them where they sit, or jiggle any drag to call up a floating basket anywhere on screen. Around that it has a clipboard manager with OCR, now playing (on the lock screen too), live activities, volume and brightness HUDs, and 44 free extensions it calls droplets, one of which follows Claude, Codex, Cursor and Antigravity sessions and their usage limits.
Strengths: the lowest price of the paid apps, the most capable file tray, every extension included, a fully unlocked trial. Watch‑outs: the trial lasts 3 days and there is no free tier after it, so you decide fast.
Alcove leans into the Dynamic Island look: notifications that animate around the notch (or a floating pill on notchless Macs), Now Playing with a waveform and seek bar, live activities, a calendar widget, and even lock‑screen support. It's a native Swift app and reviewers consistently say it feels like it's built into macOS.
Strengths: the most "native" feel, fluid animations, light on resources, tasteful and uncluttered. Watch‑outs: there is only a 72‑hour trial and no permanent free tier, and by design it mirrors Dynamic Island rather than adding deep productivity tools, so it does less than a full hub.
Best for: people who want the cleanest, most Apple‑like notch experience over a big feature list. tryalcove.com
DynamicLake goes for the Dynamic Island look and piles on extras: notifications, calls, a slim music player, AirDrop and drag and drop, a file converter, timers, weather and calendar alerts, a compact mode it calls miniLake, a Liquid Glass style and, newest, plugins. It sells through Gumroad, where the checkout read $13.99 on 3 October 2026 (the price in its own site's page data was $16.90), with refunds inside 14 days.
Strengths: a long feature list for the price, one licence covers 3 Macs, Liquid Glass styling, plugin support. Watch‑outs: no free tier, its site does not spell out a trial, and its refund policy asks for a written reason.
Best for: people who want an Apple‑style island with lots of small extras, for about Alcove's price. dynamiclake.com
Notchy is free with no tiers, no trial and no account, paid for by optional donations, and it runs on macOS 13 Ventura. Its site lists 74 features: now playing with album art and scrubbing, clipboard history, timers, HUDs, window snapping, lock screen widgets, a command palette, an AI usage tracker for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Copilot limits, and, newest, Face Unlock, which unlocks the Mac when it sees you. Version 1.0.178 shipped on 25 September 2026.
Strengths: the most features of any free notch app we found, the lowest macOS requirement among the full hubs, frequent releases. Watch‑outs: free is not open source here (its own FAQ says so), so you can't read the code the way you can with The Boring Notch or Atoll. Face Unlock needs your login password, which the site says stays in your Keychain.
Best for: anyone who wants a full notch hub for $0, especially on a Mac still on Ventura. notchy.dev
MediaMate€6.99 one‑time (about $8) · by Wouter Hennen
macOS 13+Works on any Mac5 Macs per licence
MediaMate is the focused pick: it replaces macOS's clunky volume, brightness and keyboard‑backlight HUDs with clean, iOS‑style indicators, plus a Now Playing controller. It offers four indicator styles (including a notch style) with per‑display rules, and works on any Mac, notch or not.
Strengths: polished, stable, affordable, and does its one job (a beautiful media/volume HUD) really well. Watch‑outs: it's intentionally narrow, with no file shelf, clipboard, widgets or broader hub features. Touch Bar Macs need a separate mode the developer notes may be less reliable.
Best for: anyone who just wants gorgeous volume/brightness/now‑playing HUDs, not a full hub. MediaMate
Notchmeister is the fun one. From the respected Iconfactory, it adds playful animated effects around the notch when your cursor passes near it: a glow that lights your way, a Knight‑Rider scanner, festive animations, even clickable fidget dice. It's free, tiny, and needs essentially no setup.
Strengths: free, lightweight, charming, zero configuration, from a trusted developer. Watch‑outs: it's purely cosmetic, so it doesn't hide the notch or add any utility (no media controls, shelf or clipboard).
Best for: people who just want to make the notch fun, not functional. Mac App Store
Four more you will see named
Google’s AI answers for “notch app for mac” also name these four, all on the Mac App Store. They are smaller or single‑purpose, so they get a short entry each. Facts read off each app’s Mac App Store page on 14 October 2026.
A full notch hub from the Mac App Store: media controls with album art, a file shelf with AirDrop, a Pomodoro timer, clipboard history, the calendar, a camera mirror and network speed. The low macOS requirement and the $4.99 Pro price are its draw. It is new enough that the store shows no rating count yet, so there is little track record to go on.
NotchNestFree · Pro $14.99 once, $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year · macOS 14+
A notch hub that leans on Apple Intelligence: an on‑device AI clipboard and calendar briefings, plus media controls, a file tray with AirDrop, notes and a Pomodoro timer. The catch: its store page lists version 1.2.5 from 11 August 2025, so it has gone 14 months without an update.
FocusNotchFree · in‑app purchases $5.99 and $29.99 · macOS 13+
Not a hub: a focus timer that lives in the notch, with a website blocker. If a timer is all you want up there, it does that one job. For a timer next to music, files and the rest, Crest’s Focus timer widget and NotchBox both have one.
The opposite of every other app here: it hides the notch by moving the menu bar below it, with AppleScript, Shortcuts and deep links to switch it on and off. Pick it if the notch bothers you more than it helps. We compare the ways to do that, including what macOS can do on its own, in how to hide the notch on a Mac.
Do notch apps drain your battery?
This is the question people ask most about the whole category, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on what an app does while you are not looking at it. The notch itself costs nothing. The battery goes on three things: a timer that polls system state on a fixed interval whether or not anything changed, animation that keeps running while you are on battery, and monitors that keep ticking through sleep instead of standing down.
You can check any notch app yourself in about a minute, and it beats taking anyone's word for it. Open Activity Monitor, switch to the Energy tab, and read the app's Avg Energy Impact along with its 12 hr Power figure after a normal day of use. A notch app sitting near the top of that list is doing work it does not need to do. Compare it against a couple of browser tabs and you will know quickly whether the notch app is really the thing costing you the hour.
Does The Boring Notch drain your battery?
For some people, yes, and because the app is open source the reports are public. As of 25 September 2026 its GitHub tracker holds two open ones. The first, #1260 from May 2026, reports a very high 12 hr Power reading on an M4 MacBook Air running the stable v2.7.3 on macOS 26.4.1; several people have added similar readings since, and a maintainer replied that a collapsed notch should sit at 0 to 1 percent CPU on Apple Silicon and asked for samples to find the cause. The second, #1607 from 24 September 2026, reports extreme energy use in the v2.8 release candidate, confirmed by a second user on macOS 27.0. An older idle drain report, #338, was fixed in a July 2025 release.
What that means in practice: if you are on the stable 2.7.3 and it is nowhere near the top of Activity Monitor's Energy tab, it is not what is costing you battery. If it is near the top, you are not alone, and the maintainers are asking for exactly the samples described in #1260. If you installed the 2.8 release candidate or a nightly, going back to 2.7.3 until #1607 is resolved is the safe call. Reports like these tend to cluster after macOS updates, so check the tracker for your version rather than trusting a summary, this one included.
What Crest does about it
Crest's animations reduce when your MacBook is unplugged or in Low Power Mode, and its recurring monitors suspend when your Mac or its screens go to sleep, then resume and re‑pin the panels on wake. That second one is the direct answer to the "froze and drained overnight" pattern that runs through this whole category, and it is why the sleep behaviour sits in the checklist at the top of this page.
How to choose
Want one app that does it all without draining your battery? That's exactly what we built Crest for: a full hub with a free tier and deliberate battery/sleep behavior.
Want the deepest customization and don't mind paying? NotchNook, on sale again, with a 48‑hour trial.
Want it free and you're comfortable with open source? The Boring Notch, or Atoll for more system stats and lock screen widgets.
Want the most you can get for $0, or you're still on macOS 13? Notchy.
Mostly moving files around? Droppy.
Want the most native, minimal Dynamic Island look? Alcove, or DynamicLake for more extras at a similar price.
Just want a beautiful volume/brightness HUD? MediaMate.
Just want the notch to be fun? Notchmeister.
Want the notch gone? Say No to Notch.
Where the others beat Crest
Price. The Boring Notch, Atoll and Notchy cost nothing, and Notchy's free app does more than Crest's free tier. Droppy's full price is about half of Crest Pro's.
Older Macs. Notchy and MediaMate run on macOS 13. Crest needs macOS 14.
Files. Droppy's floating basket, which you call up anywhere by jiggling a drag, has no equal in Crest's Shelf.
The look and the lock screen. Alcove is the one reviewers say feels most like part of macOS, and Alcove, Atoll and Notchy put widgets on the lock screen. Crest has nothing on the lock screen.
More Macs on one licence. DynamicLake and Alcove cover 3 Macs and MediaMate 5. Crest Pro covers 2.
Open source. The Boring Notch and Atoll publish their code. Crest does not.
Also worth knowing: NotchDrop is a small free, open‑source app, also on the Mac App Store, that does one thing: a drop zone for files and AirDrop in the notch.
Now Playing, the Shelf, the Clipboard and window snapping are free, and the free tier never expires. Unlock every widget, plus Take and Minutes, with a one‑time $24.99 Crest Pro or $2.99 a month: signed, notarized, and easy on your battery.
