Vanilla menu bar mac: what it does and what to check

Vanilla is a small Mac app by the developer Matthew Palmer that hides menu bar icons. The basic version is free. Vanilla Pro costs $10 as a one time purchase and adds a keyboard shortcut, a section for completely removed icons, automatic re-hiding, and launch at login. It needs Accessibility and Screen Recording permission, and according to its developer it only looks at the top strip of the screen and does not save or send what it sees. On a MacBook with a notch, it works, but setup needs a few extra steps when the bar is crowded.

A search for vanilla macos can also mean two other things, so it is worth separating them before going further. Vanilla OS, at vanillaos.org, is a Linux distribution and has nothing to do with the Mac. And vanilla macOS is also used to describe an unmodified system with no tweaks or extra utilities installed. This page is about the app, with a short section at the end on what a stock macOS can and cannot do with the menu bar on its own.

This site is run by the developer of Koffret, a paid menu bar manager, so the comparison below sticks to facts published by each developer.

What Vanilla does

Vanilla places a small dot or arrow in the menu bar. Status icons to the left of it can be collapsed, and clicking the arrow brings them back. The idea is a menu bar that shows only what is needed most of the time.

The developer's page, Vanilla: hide Mac menu bar icons, describes the setup as downloading the app, launching it and following the prompts. There is no account to create. Moving an icon into the hidden section is done by holding Command and dragging it to the left of Vanilla's dot, which is the standard macOS way of reordering status icons.

The free version does that one job: hide icons and show them again. Everything else is part of Pro.

What Vanilla Pro adds

According to the developer's page, Vanilla Pro includes:

• Keyboard Shortcuts: a custom shortcut to toggle the menu bar and desktop icons
• Completely Remove Icons: a section whose icons are visible only when Vanilla's preferences window is open
• Auto-hide Icons: icons are hidden again five seconds after being toggled
• Start at Log In: Vanilla launches automatically at login

Pro is a single purchase of $10, and each license activation code can be used up to ten times, so one purchase covers several Macs. The page also offers a 30 day money back guarantee.

Version and system requirements

The MacUpdate listing for Vanilla shows version 2.2 and lists macOS 12.4 or later as the requirement. The developer's site does not state a minimum version on its main page, but its help pages cover macOS Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey, which matches the history of the app.

Is Vanilla safe, and why it asks for Screen Recording

The most common question about Vanilla is why a menu bar app asks to record the screen. The developer answers this directly on the page about Accessibility and Screen Recording permission.

Starting from macOS Catalina, Vanilla needs Screen Recording permission to hide icons. It takes screenshots of the menu bar and uses them to blend the collapsed area into the bar, so the result looks seamless. The developer states that the screenshots cover only the top 50 pixels of the screen, are not saved or transmitted, and contain the menu bar and desktop image rather than personal information. The same page says Vanilla accesses the internet only to check for updates and to validate Pro license codes.

Accessibility permission is the second one requested. It allows the app to work with the positions of items in the menu bar.

When the permission screen gets stuck

A known problem is getting stuck on Vanilla's permission screen, where the Next button does nothing. The developer's fix, from the same page, is:

1. Update to the latest version of Vanilla.
2. Quit Vanilla.
3. In System Settings, open Privacy & Security, then Accessibility, remove Vanilla from the list, and add it again from the Applications folder.
4. Do the same for Screen Recording.
5. Open Vanilla again.

The developer's instructions use the older names System Preferences and Security & Privacy, which correspond to System Settings and Privacy & Security on current systems.

This permission model is not unique to Vanilla. Most tools that hide menu bar icons and draw them back need the same two permissions, because macOS does not offer another way to read what an icon looks like. The question to ask of any such tool is what it does with the image, and whether the developer states that in writing.

Setting up Vanilla on a MacBook with a notch

On MacBooks with a notch, Vanilla can appear not to work at all. The cause is the notch, not the app, and the developer explains it in a dedicated guide for MacBooks with notches.

Status icons have to fit between the notch and the right edge of the screen. When there are more than that space can hold, macOS hides the ones that overflow, and they cannot be seen or reached. If Vanilla's own dot is among the overflow, there is nothing to click.

The developer's steps, summarized:

1. Quit Vanilla.
2. Temporarily quit other menu bar apps, or remove some items, so that everything fits to the right of the notch.
3. Open Vanilla and its preferences window.
4. Check that one dot is visible, or two dots if "Let me completely remove menu bar icons" is checked.
5. Command-drag Vanilla's dots to the right end of the available space.
6. Restart the other apps. Their icons appear to the left of Vanilla's dots.
7. Drag the dots left and right to set the hidden and removed sections.

The important step is placing Vanilla's dot near the right edge first, so that it is never the icon that gets pushed out of view.

The gap next to the clock

A second issue appears from macOS 12.4 onward. The menu bar clock can show the date only when space allows, which makes the clock change width. Vanilla's help page explains that this creates spacing gaps next to its arrow. The fix is to change Show date from When Space Allows to Always or Never. On current macOS, that setting is under System Settings, Menu Bar, Clock Options. After changing it, clicking Vanilla's arrows or restarting the app repositions it.

Updating, testing betas and removing Vanilla

Vanilla updates itself. Clicking its menu bar dot shows Check for Updates, and the developer's notch guide recommends updating before troubleshooting anything else, since several setup problems were fixed in later releases.

For anyone who wants to test new versions early, the developer's help page describes a beta channel that is switched on from Terminal:

1. Quit Vanilla if it is running.
2. Open Terminal and run defaults write net.matthewpalmer.Vanilla vanilla-updater-use-beta -bool true.
3. Open Vanilla again.

A notification to update should then appear. If it does not, the help page suggests checking that notifications are allowed for Vanilla in System Settings, or turning off Focus if it is active.

Removing Vanilla takes a little more than dragging it to the Trash. Quit it first, using its dot in the menu bar or Activity Monitor, then move it out of the Applications folder. After that, open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and remove its entries from Accessibility and Screen Recording, and check General, then Login Items, if Start at Log In was used. Leaving stale permission entries behind is harmless, but it makes the lists harder to read, and it is the same clutter that causes the stuck permission screen described above when an app is reinstalled.

Before switching from Vanilla to another tool, it helps to note which icons were in the hidden and removed sections. Those choices are not carried over automatically, and rebuilding them from memory is the slowest part of a switch.

How Vanilla compares with other menu bar tools

Vanilla is one of several tools that hide menu bar icons. They differ in price, licence and the minimum macOS version. The figures below come from each developer's own page, checked on 2026-10-18.

Tool	Price	Licence or model	Minimum macOS	Source
Vanilla	Free, Pro $10 one time	Free app with paid upgrade	macOS 12.4 (MacUpdate listing)	matthewpalmer.net
Ice	Free	Open source, GPL-3.0	macOS 14	github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
Hidden Bar	Free	Open source, MIT	macOS 13	github.com/dwarvesf/hidden

Ice's repository states that it uses system APIs available from macOS 14 and installs with Homebrew as brew install --cask jordanbaird-ice. Hidden Bar's repository lists macOS 13 Ventura as the requirement and installs with brew install --cask hiddenbar.

Paid tools in this category add features beyond hiding: opening a hidden icon's menu without expanding the bar, searching icons by name, rules that bring an icon out when something changes, and layouts stored per display. Prices and features for the commonly used paid and free tools are on the comparison page.

For someone who only wants fewer icons in view and does not need shortcuts, the free version of Vanilla covers it. The deciding questions are usually whether a keyboard shortcut is needed, whether hidden icons need to be clicked often, and whether the Mac moves between a laptop screen and an external monitor.

What a stock macOS can do without any app

A vanilla macOS, in the sense of a system with nothing added, already offers more menu bar control than it did a few years ago. Apple's guide to Menu Bar settings lists what can be changed on macOS Tahoe 26:

• System items such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Battery, Focus, Sound, Weather and Time Machine can each be turned on or off.
• Several items can be set to Show When Active, so they appear only while in use.
• The Allow in the Menu Bar section lists apps that provide menu bar items, each with its own switch.
• Automatically hide and show the menu bar can be set to Always, On Desktop Only, In Full Screen Only or Never.

Holding Command and dragging a status icon reorders it, and dragging it off the bar removes many system items.

What macOS does not offer is a hidden section: a place where third party icons wait out of sight but remain one click away. Apps that do not appear in Allow in the Menu Bar, and do not offer their own option to hide the icon, stay in the bar. That gap is the reason tools like Vanilla exist.

What to change first

Start with stock macOS: turn off the system items that are not needed and set Show date in Clock Options to Always or Never. If third party icons still crowd the bar, try the free version of Vanilla, and look at a tool such as Koffret only if hidden icons need to be reached without expanding the bar.