# Activity Monitor for macOS

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Activity Monitor for macOS and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Built-in macOS tool for seeing which processes are busy, and some keep it in the Dock. Critics say it shows limited information and its window cannot shrink much.

## Why people recommend it

- Shows what is busy when overloaded (2 comments): "Look at Activity Monitor report when it's overloaded to see what's busy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48548064)) "I keep Activity Monitor in my dock for this reason." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48699635))

## What people warn about

- Shows too little information (2 comments): "it's activity monitor is pretty limited in what it shows me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308160)) "activity monitor wasn't showing me what I wanted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49152381))
- Window cannot shrink; tabs hidden (2 comments): "you can't have Activity Monitor take up less than about 2/5 of the width of the screen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48003906)) "Activity Monitor that doesn't show tabs until you nearly go full screen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46875498))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [btop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/btop.md): 38 recommend
- [htop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/htop.md): 28 recommend
- [Stats menu bar system monitor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stats.md): 10 recommend
- [nvidia-smi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-smi.md): 5 recommend
- [iStat Menus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/istat-menus.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Activity Monitor for macOS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/activity-monitor/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).