Thaw
Ranked 3 of 4 menu bar managers by recommenders
Recommended as the actively maintained fork of the Ice menu bar manager, still working on macOS Tahoe and under active development.
Recommended as the actively maintained fork of the Ice menu bar manager, still working on macOS Tahoe and under active development.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: 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
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 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
Actively maintained fork of Ice
“Thaw is the fork that has been updated and currently still maintained.”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “HopTab–free,open source macOS app switcher and tiler that replaces Cmd+Tab” “Thaw is a fork of Ice which is maintained and woks on Tahoe.”
Comment from 2 May 2026 on Hacker News “There's a maintained fork called Thaw.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” - Comment from 2 May 2026 on Hacker News
Active development, more full featured
“Looks a bit more full featured and under active development!”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Tailscale's New macOS Home” “the fork Thaw[1] is active”
Comment from 2 May 2026 on Hacker News
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 macOS | 7 | 14 | 33% | 3 | — | — |
| ThawThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 3 | — | — |
| SketchyBar | 5 | 1 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the fork Thaw[1] is active”
“Thaw is a fork of Ice which is maintained and woks on Tahoe.”
“Menu bar widgets etc are fixable with thaw”
“Looks a bit more full featured and under active development!”
“There's a maintained fork called Thaw.”
“both apps have become quite buggy”
“Thaw is the fork that has been updated and currently still maintained.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.