iStat Menus alternatives: decide what you can drop

The most direct free alternative to iStat Menus is Stats, an open source menu bar system monitor under the MIT license. It covers CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, sensors, battery, Bluetooth device batteries and a clock, runs on macOS 12 or later, and released version 3.0.21 on October 11, 2026. What Stats does not replace is iStat Menus' weather forecast, its rules that send notifications when a reading crosses a threshold, and its maintained fan control. If you only glance at CPU and memory, Activity Monitor can already show CPU load in the Dock without installing anything. Before choosing, it helps to work out which readings you actually look at, because that decides the shortlist more than any feature table. All facts below were checked on the developers' own pages on October 18, 2026.

This guide is published by the maker of a paid menu bar manager for macOS. That kind of tool is not a system monitor and is mentioned only where it is relevant to menu bar space.

What iStat Menus includes and what it costs

The iStat Menus page lists version 7.5, which requires macOS 13.5 or later. Its menu bar items cover CPU and GPU, memory, disk usage and activity, network, battery and power, sensors, date and time, and weather. Two features sit on top of the readings. Rules can notify you of events such as a changed public IP address, a lost internet connection, CPU above a set level for a set time, or low disk space. Combined mode merges several items into one menu bar item.

The direct version has a 14-day free trial. Its buy panel lists a Single License and a Family License, which covers up to five family members, and states that all licences include six months of weather. Prices are loaded at checkout in the buyer's currency, so they are not quoted here.

The Mac App Store listing for iStat Menus 7 shows $11.99 in the US store, with weather sold separately as a yearly subscription at $4.99 or a monthly one at $0.99. The developer's help page on the Mac App Store version states two differences from the direct version: it cannot control fan speeds, and it needs the iStat Menus Helper to show some readings.

iStat Menus is also included in Setapp. The Setapp pricing page lists the Mac plan at $14.99 per month with a 7-day free trial.

Work out which readings you actually use

iStat Menus can show a great deal, and most people read only a small part of it. A quick audit makes the rest of the decision obvious.

Open iStat Menus' settings and list every item you have turned on in the menu bar. Then, for a few days, notice which ones you actually look at. For each, mark one of three uses.

Glance: you read the number in the menu bar without clicking. CPU percentage, network speed and battery are typical.

Open: you click the item to see the detailed menu, such as the list of apps using the most memory, or the hourly forecast.

Alert: you rely on a rule to tell you something, such as disk space running low, without looking at all.

Most audits end with two or three glance items, one or two open items, and either zero or one alert. That profile is the shopping list. If your list has no alerts and no weather, almost every alternative below will do. If it has an alert you depend on, that narrows things considerably, because rules are where iStat Menus differs most from the free tools.

The alternatives side by side

	iStat Menus	Stats	Activity Monitor
Price	Paid, 14-day trial	Free, MIT license	Included with macOS
Requires	macOS 13.5 or later	macOS 12 or later	Built in
Latest release, as of October 18, 2026	7.5	3.0.21, October 11, 2026	Updated with macOS
CPU, memory, disk, network	Yes	Yes	CPU in the Dock, everything in its window
GPU and sensors	Yes	Yes	No
Weather	Yes, six months included with a licence	No	No
Rules and notifications	Yes	Not listed	No
Fan control	Yes, direct version only	Listed as not maintained	No

Sources for the table: the iStat Menus page, the Stats repository, and Apple's Activity Monitor guide. Two older open source monitors are covered below the table.

Stats

Stats is the alternative most people end up with. Its site describes nine modules and thirteen widget styles, with each module shown as a chart, a number, a gauge or a dot. It supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs, is translated into 41 languages, and installs with Homebrew. The README lists fan control as not maintained, which is worth noting if that was a reason you used iStat Menus. The same README also says that macOS decides the order of menu bar items, not Stats, and that the order may change after the first restart.

Stats has added an optional remote monitoring module that streams readings to a web dashboard called System Stats. It is set up through a separate install script and an account sign-in, so it is not active unless you choose it.

MenuMeters and eul

Both still appear in older recommendation threads, so it is worth knowing their status. The MenuMeters fork on GitHub describes itself as a version for El Capitan through Big Sur, and its README recommends Stats, iGlance and eul for anyone on a sufficiently new macOS, noting that those are actively maintained. Its latest release is 2.1.6.1 from November 2021. The eul repository lists macOS 10.15 as the minimum and notes that its Mac App Store version is out of date, with some features disabled. Its latest release is 1.6.2 from August 2021. For a new Mac, Stats is the practical choice among the free monitors.

Activity Monitor

Apple's guide to viewing CPU activity describes three built in views. Choose Window, then CPU Usage, for current activity. Choose Window, then CPU History, for recent activity. Choose View, then Dock Icon, and pick a Show CPU option to see load in the Dock. This uses the Dock rather than the menu bar, but for someone whose audit shows only one glance item, which is CPU, it removes the need for a third party app.

Matching the audit to a choice

The audit from earlier usually lands in one of four profiles.

One glance item, CPU, nothing else. Activity Monitor's Dock icon is enough. Nothing to install, nothing to keep updated.

Several glance items, a few open items, no alerts, no weather. Stats covers this completely. Turn on only the modules you marked, and pick a compact widget for each.

Any alert you depend on, or weather you read every morning. Keep iStat Menus. Its rules and forecast are the parts that the free monitors do not replace, and the cost of a licence is lower than the cost of missing a disk space warning on a work machine.

Fan control. Keep the direct version of iStat Menus, since the Mac App Store version cannot control fans and Stats lists fan control as not maintained.

A fifth profile is common enough to mention: people who bought iStat Menus years ago, rarely open it, and are looking only because a renewal or upgrade notice appeared. For them the question is not which alternative to buy, but whether the menu bar needs a system monitor at all.

Switching without losing your setup

If the audit points to Stats, the move takes a few minutes.

1. Export your iStat Menus settings first. Its help section has a page on importing and exporting settings, and keeping an export means you can go back without rebuilding everything.
2. Write down the modules and display styles you had turned on, using the audit list.
3. Install Stats from its site or with the Homebrew command brew install stats given in its README.
4. Turn on only the modules on your list. Leave the rest off, even if they look interesting.
5. Quit iStat Menus and remove it from System Settings, General, Login Items & Extensions, so two monitors are not sampling the same sensors.
6. Use the Mac normally for a week before uninstalling iStat Menus. If you reach for a missing reading more than once, that reading belongs on your list.

Stats also documents its own uninstall script in its README, which removes the helper it installs. That is useful to know if the trial week ends with a decision to go back.

What you lose when you switch

Every switch away from iStat Menus drops something. These are the ones people notice.

Weather

None of the free monitors listed here include weather. On macOS Tahoe 26 and later, Apple's Menu Bar settings include a Weather item under Menu Bar Controls, which puts current conditions in the bar. It is simpler than iStat Menus' forecast, but it covers the glance use.

Rules

This is the hardest feature to replace. Stats does not list notification rules in its features. If you relied on a rule such as warning when disk space is low, check whether you still need it, and if so, set a reminder or keep iStat Menus for that alone.

Fan control

Stats lists fan control as not maintained. The iStat Menus Mac App Store version cannot control fans either, according to its developer. If you need fan control, the direct version of iStat Menus is the option among those covered here.

Combined mode

iStat Menus can merge several items into one. In Stats, each module is its own item. If you enable four modules, you get four menu bar items, which takes more width.

Keeping a system monitor from crowding the bar

System monitors are the widest items most people run. A CPU graph, a memory figure, a network speed and a temperature can take as much space as six ordinary icons, and on a MacBook with a notch that space is limited. When there are more items than fit, the ones that overflow are not shown.

Three steps help. First, keep in the bar only your glance items from the audit, and turn off the others. The open items can stay available inside one module's menu. Second, choose the most compact widget style each module offers. Third, consider whether a glance item really needs to be visible all the time. Many people only care about CPU when the fans spin up, or about battery when it is low.

That last case is where a menu bar manager for macOS can help. It keeps an item hidden until you want it, and some tools can bring an item back automatically when a condition is met, such as battery dropping below a set level. The features page shows how conditions like that are set up, and the FAQ explains what permissions this kind of tool needs.

What to change first

Do the audit before uninstalling anything. If your list is CPU, memory and network with no alerts, install Stats and turn on only those modules. If the monitor then pushes other icons off the bar, Koffret can keep them hidden but reachable.