Bartender for macOS
Ranked 2 of 4 menu bar managers by recommenders
People recommend it for tidying a crowded macOS menu bar by hiding overflow icons. Critics say recent versions are buggy on macOS Tahoe and the app changed owners.
People recommend it for tidying a crowded macOS menu bar by hiding overflow icons. Critics say recent versions are buggy on macOS Tahoe and the app changed owners.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Tames a crowded menu bar
“the best solution that helped alleviate this, the Bartender app, was completely broken by Apple's internal API changes in macOS Tahoe”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “It's hacked and sometimes doesn't work but was the only way I could manage this problem”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “Tame the clutter, by using another menubar app to hide the overflow.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” - Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Ghostmoon.app – The Swiss Army Knife for your macOS menu bar”
Seen as the best option
“the best solution that helped alleviate this, the Bartender app, was completely broken by Apple's internal API changes in macOS Tahoe”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “Apple should have bought Bartender and made it part of the OS 10 years ago”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “I heard great things about bartender as well.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Buggy and broken on Tahoe
“the best solution that helped alleviate this, the Bartender app, was completely broken by Apple's internal API changes in macOS Tahoe”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “it's buggy as shit on Tahoe, and has some really weird stuff it does with hiding the cursor and otherwise changing the focus around”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “The Tahoe issues are making me rethink that heavily now”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” - Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time”
Sold to an unknown company
“Ben Surtees burned all the good will accumulated over years in one moment.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux” “has permission to record your desktop and recently had a change of owner?”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “Bartender got sold to an unknown company”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “SaneBar – Privacy-first menu bar manager for macOS (open source)” - Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home”
Flaky and unreliable
“It's hacked and sometimes doesn't work but was the only way I could manage this problem”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “Compared to flaky bartender, I‘d prefer even that tbh.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “none of them work reliably”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” Security concerns after sale
“has permission to record your desktop and recently had a change of owner?”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “in the age of supply chain attacks, very concerning”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home”
Other menu bar managers people recommend
The three most recommended other menu bar managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice menu bar manager for macOS | 13 | 11 | 54% | 5 | — | — |
| Bartender for macOSThis page | 7 | 14 | 33% | 3 | — | — |
| Thaw | 6 | 1 | 86% | 3 | — | — |
| SketchyBar | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
20 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they all come with some downsides”
“Ben Surtees burned all the good will accumulated over years in one moment.”
“I'd deleted Bartender when it sold out”
“Compared to flaky bartender, I‘d prefer even that tbh.”
“Tame the clutter, by using another menubar app to hide the overflow.”
“I heard great things about bartender as well.”
“none of them work reliably”
“It's hacked and sometimes doesn't work but was the only way I could manage this problem”
“Apple should have bought Bartender and made it part of the OS 10 years ago”
“the best solution that helped alleviate this, the Bartender app, was completely broken by Apple's internal API changes in macOS Tahoe”
“in the age of supply chain attacks, very concerning”
“both apps have become quite buggy”
“The menubar gets crowded enough even with Ice, Bartender etc...”
“Bartender got sold to an unknown company”
“The Tahoe issues are making me rethink that heavily now”
“has permission to record your desktop and recently had a change of owner?”
“it's buggy as shit on Tahoe, and has some really weird stuff it does with hiding the cursor and otherwise changing the focus around”
“has been perpetually broken since release and does this. I finally gave up on it”
“The new version has improved a bit since launch, you may want to give it another try.”
“until the newest version, which had so many issues”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.