The best free system monitors for Mac
You don’t need to pay to see CPU, memory, temperatures and network in your menu bar. Four genuinely free options, no trials, and what you give up with each.
Updated
- 1
Best for The default free menu bar monitor, especially if you want open source or still have an Intel Mac.
- CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors, Bluetooth and clock modules.
- Many menu bar styles per module: text, mini charts, bar charts, pie.
- MIT licensed, frequent releases,
brew install stats. - macOS 12 and later, Intel and Apple Silicon.
- Fan control is legacy and no longer fixed, per the README.
- No history beyond the live charts.
- Wi-Fi name shows as Unknown unless you grant Location access.
- 2
Stat SpaceOurs
Best for Free monitoring plus developer answers: ports, agents, orphaned processes and keep-awake.
- The free tier covers everything Stats does, with no trial and no account.
- Also free: 30 days of history, fan curves, per-app volume, a Devices tab, speed test and keep-awake timers.
- Ports traced to their project and launcher, and Claude Code / Codex sessions with what they left behind.
- Idles under 0.3% CPU, about 21 MB of RAM.
- Apple Silicon and macOS 14+ only.
- Closed source. The free tier is free forever, but you’re trusting us rather than reading the code.
- Some extras (per-app network, keep-awake rules, Docker mapping) are in the paid Pro.
-
Best for Occasional checks and per-process detail, with nothing to install.
- Already on every Mac and trusted by default.
- Sample a process, inspect open files and ports, see energy impact.
- Can show a CPU graph in the Dock (View › Dock Icon).
- No menu bar readouts, temperatures, fans or battery health.
- Helpers aren’t grouped, so one browser can be dozens of rows.
- 4
Best for A rich terminal dashboard, including over SSH to another Mac.
- CPU, memory, disk, network and processes in one full-screen view, with mouse support.
brew install btop, zero cost once you quit it.
- Nothing in the menu bar; it only works while a terminal is open.
- No alerts or long-term history.
How we chose
“Free” here means free to use indefinitely, not a 14-day trial or a free tier that hides CPU usage behind a paywall. Every pick works on Apple Silicon and is still being updated. We skipped older free menu bar monitors whose last release came before macOS 14.
What you actually get for free
| Stats | Stat Space | Activity Monitor | btop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Menu bar readouts | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Temperatures and fans | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Battery health | Yes | Yes, plus charger watts | No | No |
| History | Live charts | 30 days | Short live graphs | Live graphs |
| Ports and dev servers | No | Yes | Per process | No |
| Open source | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Intel Macs | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Which one should you pick?
Pick Stats if open source matters or you’re on an Intel Mac. Pick Stat Space if you’re a developer on an M-series Mac and want ports, AI agent sessions and keep-awake in the same free app. If you only check once in a while, Activity Monitor is enough and costs nothing when it’s closed.
You can run Stats and Stat Space side by side to compare. Turn off the duplicate menu bar modules in one of them so you aren’t paying for the same sampling twice.
Free monitoring from Terminal
No app at all:
# Live process list, sorted by CPU, refreshing every 2 s
top -o cpu -s 2
# Battery health and cycle count
system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -E "Cycle Count|Condition|Maximum Capacity"
# What's listening on the network
lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN
For the port list with project folders and launchers, see what’s using a port on my Mac.
About the free tier in Stat Space
We make Stat Space. Its free tier is a deliberate promise: anything Stats does is free in Stat Space too, forever, so switching never costs you a feature. Pro is a one-time purchase for things Stats doesn’t do at all.
We make Stat Space, so weigh our pick accordingly. Prices and features as of November 2026; spotted something out of date? Email [email protected].
Questions
Is Stats really free?
Yes. Stats is MIT-licensed open source with no paid tier. You can install it from its GitHub releases or with brew install stats.
Is there a free alternative to iStat Menus?
Stats and Stat Space both cover iStat Menus’ core readouts for free. iStat Menus still has the edge on polish and on extras like calendar and S.M.A.R.T. status.
Is it safe to use a free system monitor?
Download from the official site or Homebrew, and check the app is notarized: spctl -a -vv /Applications/Stats.app should say accepted and name the developer. Avoid lookalike download sites.
Know what your Mac is doing, without adding to it.
Free, no account. Pro is $9.99 once for the first 100 buyers.