# boringBar

62 Hacker News commenters recommended boringBar and 52 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for replacing the macOS Dock with a taskbar-style bar that tracks windows and Spaces cleanly. Common caveat: the subscription price, which many find too high for a utility.

## Why people recommend it

- People say they will buy it (4 comments): "I‘d be happy to pay for an upgrade if future macOS changes break the functionality of this - cool - app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743105)) "I'll buy it just to support this move. (Though it should be $20.)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746726)) "I really like this project and just bought a copy for myself." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750228))
- Polished, clean design (5 comments): "It feels polished and feature-full, but like others commented, I'm not seeing myself paying for this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750441)) "I Appreciate the little design touches and thought that is on display in this app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747252)) "Looks really cool. just downloaded it will definately give it a try. nice UI btw" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47753765))
- Frees Dock space, clarifies windows (2 comments): "I just want to offload the which-window-is-where tracking to some other app - in this case boringBar." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47749150)) "It frees up real estate taken up by the Dock and makes it much easier to figure out what goes where." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48365915))
- Shows windows per Space clearly (2 comments): "boringBar addressing the "show me what is in this Space" problem is exactly right." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747755)) "it's present on all spaces and it only shows windows on that space" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47747943))

## What people warn about

- Subscription pricing feels too high (13 comments): "Looks great but even $40 for a perpetual license with only two years of updates still seems excessive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746558)) "Pricing the app even at a higher range ($40-50), one—time payment makes way more sense." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47742554)) "a subscription to a taskbar is just not something I (or many I imagine) can justify" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47742621))
- Minimizes windows when switching apps (2 comments): "That's a tiny papercut. Minimizing windows is a form of window management and everything got reset." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743550)) "I wish it would not minimize applications when switching" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47751253))
- Needs server; contacts many domains (2 comments): "I'm having hard time accepting that I shouldn't be able to run something I'm about to purchase if YOUR server is down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772740)) "Why does it need to talk to facebook.com, ntp.org, aws.com, cloudflare.com, google.com, and windows.com?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47744396))
- Missing autohide and vertical layout (2 comments): "it's matches your criteria except that it doesn't have an option to go vertical" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47755887)) "Something that would make this perfect for me would be autohide on the bar." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746174))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://lawand.io/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "boringBar", https://hackerapproved.com/p/boringbar/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).