# iStat Menus

5 Hacker News commenters recommended iStat Menus and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Mac menu bar app showing live CPU, power and system stats, useful for watching battery use. Some critics find it slow to start and prefer alternatives.

## Why people recommend it

- Shows live stats in menu bar (3 comments): "I keep the CPU usage and power usage in my menu bar at all times, this is very useful on battery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412308)) "iStat Menus is great to watch this sort of thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547825)) "brilliant use of the menu bar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621875))
- Useful for monitoring power on battery (1 comments): "I keep the CPU usage and power usage in my menu bar at all times, this is very useful on battery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46412308))
- Praised for menu bar design (1 comments): "brilliant use of the menu bar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621875))

## What people warn about

- Slow to start (1 comments): "waiting for it to start, alone, was sufficiently boring enough that I sought an alternative" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48794294))
- Alternatives called better replacements (1 comments): "A better replacement to iStat Menus." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47248368))

## 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
- [Activity Monitor for macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/activity-monitor.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "iStat Menus", https://hackerapproved.com/p/istat-menus/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).