# Stats menu bar system monitor

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Stats menu bar system monitor and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Stats as a free, open source menu bar app for watching CPU, power and system activity on a Mac.

## Why people recommend it

- Free open source Mac menu bar monitor (2 comments): "the new open source "Stats" is a brilliant use of the menu bar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47621875)) "Stats is the open source version I use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48801623))
- Shows CPU and power usage (2 comments): "I have CPU and total system wattage up there so I always know if something weird is going on." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411765)) "Fits in nicely with Stats, which I use for fan control and monitoring power consumption." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137500))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [btop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/btop.md): 38 recommend
- [htop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/htop.md): 28 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
- [iStat Menus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/istat-menus.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Stats menu bar system monitor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stats/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).