iStat Menus
Shares rank 5 of 8 system monitors by recommenders
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.
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.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: 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
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, 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
Shows live stats in menu bar
“I keep the CPU usage and power usage in my menu bar at all times, this is very useful on battery”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling” “iStat Menus is great to watch this sort of thing”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Boot Naked Linux” “brilliant use of the menu bar”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” Useful for monitoring power on battery
“I keep the CPU usage and power usage in my menu bar at all times, this is very useful on battery”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling” Praised for menu bar design
“brilliant use of the menu bar”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow to start
“waiting for it to start, alone, was sufficiently boring enough that I sought an alternative”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Fast Software, the Best Software” Alternatives called better replacements
“A better replacement to iStat Menus.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Glaze by Raycast”
Other system monitors people recommend
The four most recommended other system monitors, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| btop | 38 | 11 | 78% | 7 | — | Approved |
| htop | 28 | 4 | 88% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Utilyze | 11 | 2 | 85% | 2 | — | — |
| Stats menu bar system monitor | 10 | 1 | 91% | 5 | — | Approved |
| iStat MenusThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“waiting for it to start, alone, was sufficiently boring enough that I sought an alternative”
“iStat Menus is great to watch this sort of thing”
“an iStat Menus replacement”
“brilliant use of the menu bar”
“A better replacement to iStat Menus.”
“I keep the CPU usage and power usage in my menu bar at all times, this is very useful on battery”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.