A Listing of Alternative Menubar Software

[Jimmbo]

Below are forkings of—and apps in the same spirit as—Ice. I haven't tried any of these yet. Blurbs are copied from the respective project pages.

If you know another, please reply, hopefully in similar format and I'll eventually add it in.

If you comment about an app, please mention the version # you tried.

Open Source

Ice (calvados)
free & open-source menu bar manager for macOS. Hide and organize menu bar icons (best free Bartender / Hidden Bar / Vanilla alternative) with Ice Bar, hotkeys, themes & notch support.
https://github.com/cavaldos/Ice

Ice (RabenkoYevhenii)
Powerful menu bar manager for macOS
https://github.com/RabenkoYevhenii/Ice

ice-2
Powerful menu bar manager for macOS
https://github.com/teddychan/ice-2

frost
Powerful menu bar manager for macOS
https://sciencialab.github.io/Frost/

fire-from-ice
Maintained fork of jordanbaird/Ice — macOS 26 Tahoe support, signed + notarized DMGs
https://github.com/pdurlej/fire-from-ice

ice-rust
A Rust port of Ice by Jordan Baird: macOS menu bar manager with hidden sections, Always-Hidden, Ice Bar and drag-and-drop layout
https://github.com/UnkAtreus/ice-rust

holzBar
Menu bar manager for macOS 14–27 — a modern fork of Ice. Swift 6.4, zero dependencies, never goes online, least privilege. Hide, show and style your menu bar items; profiles, groups, Shelf, settings sync. Install with Homebrew.
https://github.com/holzcloud/holzBar

Thaw
The open source menu bar manager
https://github.com/thaw-app/Thaw

hidden
An ultra-light MacOS utility that helps hide menu bar icons
https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden

pelmet
A calm menu bar, done the native way. Hides the icons you don't need until you do.
https://github.com/fif7y/pelmet

justhide
A small menu bar tidier for macOS 27. Pick the apps whose icons you do not need all the time; they disappear until you click the chevron.
https://github.com/benjustjammin/justhide

ShiftBar
https://github.com/Superoutman/ShiftBar

voirssant
Free and open-source macOS menu bar toolkit
https://github.com/vorssaint/vorssaint-utils

Semi-Commercial

Barbee: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/barbee-hide-menu-bar-items/id1548711022
Vanilla: https://matthewpalmer.net/vanilla/

Commercial

ExtraBar: https://extrabar.app/?ref=rmacos
Hidden Bar: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hidden-bar/id1452453066
Bartender: https://www.macbartender.com

[graymouser]

Thank you for this helpful list, just to note there seems to be another one https://github.com/UnkAtreus/ice-rust , release announced here #1018

I have not tried that one or any in the list (yet).

[Jimmbo]

Added, thanks!

If you try these and have comments, please post here.