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Best Bartender replacement für 2026

S

szilske

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi folks,

since Bartender was taken over by some strange company, I was using Ice, but it seems Ice is not maintained anymore. It' still not fully functional on Tahoe.

What are you guys using? Is it safe to return to Bartender?

Cheers!
Stefan
 
ICE stopped working on both my Macs in 26.2, and had some problems before that. I have gone back to Bartender. I think the transfer was handled badly but the concerns are overplayed.

Presume you have seen this long thread on same topic.
 
I tried Bartender but I do not like how it pops the blue "some app is watching your screen" dot thing in the top right if you switch any app to full screen (including just opening a video in full screen from your browser). Ice doesn't do that.

Other options are:
Hidden Bar (free, it is on the app store but there is a newer version available in their GitHub)
Vanilla (free for limited functionality, pay a few bucks to get everything)

I tried both. They are both workable. Hidden Bar, I am just mildly annoyed that it puts two icons in the menu bar when Ice just puts one. (They separate the "separator" icon and the "click to show the hidden icons" icon.) With Vanilla, I had an issue with the "spacing" of the "show/hide" icon getting messed up sometimes.

I haven't upgraded to Tahoe yet and this is one thing that I'll need to figure out before I do. I wish Ice would get better maintenance but I can't stick on it if the guy isn't responsive to ongoing changes in the OS. I'm not sure how Hidden Bar is still working (it hasn't been updated in multiple years) but that will probably be the one that I pick. I do like an open source solution if one is available. However, if Apple *does* break it at some point, I don't have great hope that it will be fixed quickly since that project also appears to be unmaintained.
 
Last edited:
PotentPeas said:
Hidden Bar, I am just mildly annoyed that it puts two icons in the menu bar when Ice just puts one. (They separate the "separator" icon and the "click to show the hidden icons" icon.) With Vanilla, I had an issue with the "spacing" of the "show/hide" icon getting messed up sometimes.
Click to expand...
an update? am only seeing the one icon in the menubar with hidden bar; if i option-click on it, i get the other icon (still only seen when hidden bar is open). option-clicking again on the main icon hides the divider...
 
Last edited:
fisherking said:
an update? am only seeing the one icon in the menubar with hidden bar; if i right-click on it, i get the other icon (still only seen when hidden bar is open). right-clicking again on the main icon hides the divider...
Click to expand...
That's what I'm talking about. With Ice, you only have one icon *whether or not* the hidden icons are shown. With Hidden Bar, you get two when the hidden icons are shown. It's a minor thing, but I still wish that it did not behave this way *or* that it had the option for the "hide/show icons" menu item also be the divider.

(I sometimes have enough items to have some of the hidden by the notch when hidden icons are shown. I can use all of the slots that I can get!)
 
That purple dot will not be there (persistently) if image based triggers are not in use. Image based triggers became actually usable only since version 6.3.0, but I stopped using them because activating them will bring out bigger purple screen recording icon to menu bar. For now I only use battery state trigger to hide battery icon when power is plugged in and all other hidden icons are displayed by clicking on menu bar. This way it is more or less usable these days without purple dot or icon.

Before 6.3.0 came out I was using latest beta of Ice ( 0.11.13 is available on Github ), which works completely OK but does not have trigger functionality.
 
nmt1900 said:
That purple dot will not be there (persistently) if image based triggers are not in use.
Click to expand...
Maybe I have some other setting that is triggering it. It is there for me and I have all triggers disabled. I checked and it is still easy to get the purple dot by putting a YouTube video in full screen. (I deleted the three triggers that it came with and also toggled the slider for enable triggers to off. Am I missing something else?)

Is there a way to just reset all settings? I just want Bartender to hide icons on the menu bar, I don't need additional functionality.

[Edit]
I have Bartender 6.2.1. That's the latest version on the web site. Where do you get 6.3.0 from?

[Edit 2]
Found the 6.3.0 link on the release notes page. Their front page links to 6.2.1. The in-app update function reports that 6.2.1 is up to date.

[Edit 3]
Bartender 6.3.0 fixed the purple dot for me. The mess with "is it released or not?" is kind of weird to me. But, I'll try this for a while and see what I think. It behaves more like Ice than the alternatives. (Haven't paid yet, just using the free trial.)

[Edit 4]
Nevermind, I tried a couple more times and the purple dot came right back.
 
Last edited:
PotentPeas said:
That's what I'm talking about. With Ice, you only have one icon *whether or not* the hidden icons are shown. With Hidden Bar, you get two when the hidden icons are shown. It's a minor thing, but I still wish that it did not behave this way *or* that it had the option for the "hide/show icons" menu item also be the divider.

(I sometimes have enough items to have some of the hidden by the notch when hidden icons are shown. I can use all of the slots that I can get!)
Click to expand...
am talking about hidden bar. that divider icon only shows when i option-click the main icon (and i can remove it by again control-clicking)...
 
Last edited:
fisherking said:
am talking about hidden bar. that divider icon only shows when i control-click the main icon (and i can remove it by again control-clicking)...
Click to expand...
Yep. I get it. When expanded, Hidden Bar shows two icons. (One is the divider, and one is the show/hide button.) Ice doesn't have this behavior. There is only one icon that shows in either state.

If there is a way to hide the divider icon with Hidden Bar (when expanded / hidden icons shown), I am not seeing that. Ctrl+click doesn't do anything.

Again, it's a minor quibble. I'm probably going to be switching to Hidden Bar anyway.
 
Last edited:
PotentPeas said:
Yep. I get it. When expanded, Hidden Bar shows two icons. (One is the divider, and one is the show/hide button.) Ice doesn't have this behavior. There is only one icon that shows in any state. It serves as both the show/hide button and the divider.

If there is a way to hide the divider icon with Hidden Bar (when expanded / hidden icons shown), I am not seeing that. Ctrl+click doesn't do anything.
Click to expand...
works here: option-click (on the main icon) hides (or re-enables) the divider icon. make sure the app is up-to-date....

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 5.13.13 PM.png


Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 5.13.00 PM.png
 
Last edited:
szilske said:
What are you guys using?
Click to expand...

I wasn’t familiar with menubar managers before MR’s reporting on Bartender and then started using a similar utility only because it was included with BetterTouchTool, which I already owned.

My implementation is rudimentary (simple hide/reveal), but it's fairly sophisticated, if challenging to configure:

https://community.folivora.ai/t/bar...-to-manage-menubar-status-items-via-btt/37429

Obviously not worth purchasing for this alone given the free options, but useful if you've already got the app for other reasons.
 
It’s irritating Apple hasn’t provided a native solution to menu bar crowding. I’ve been using Hidden Bar since I left BarTender 3 several years ago.
 
I think that Apple's "solution" for this is for app devs to switch to using Control Center controls. Starting with Tahoe, these can be offered by third-party apps, and they also be placed in the menu bar for quick access... but they don't have to live there.
 
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