iStat Menus vs Stats
The two most popular Mac menu bar monitors: one paid and polished, one free and open source. Here’s exactly where they differ, and when a third option makes more sense.
Updated
- 2
Best for Free, open-source readouts for people who don’t need history or weather.
- CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors, Bluetooth and clock modules.
- Free, MIT licensed,
brew install stats, frequent releases. - Runs on macOS 12 and later, Intel and Apple Silicon.
- Fan control is legacy and no longer fixed.
- No long-term history, weather or S.M.A.R.T.
- Sensors and Bluetooth modules are the heaviest; the README suggests disabling them to save power.
- 3
Stat SpaceOurs
Best for A third option for developers on Apple Silicon: Stats’ features for free, plus history and developer tools.
- Everything Stats does, free, plus 30 days of history, data usage, a latency monitor and weather for one location.
- Ports traced to their project and launcher, AI agent sessions and orphan cleanup.
- Idles under 0.3% CPU and about 21 MB of RAM.
- Apple Silicon and macOS 14+ only.
- Closed source; no calendar in the free tier, and no S.M.A.R.T. for external drives.
Side by side
| iStat Menus | Stats | Stat Space | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Paid, one-time | Free | Free · Pro one-time |
| Open source | No | Yes (MIT) | No |
| Macs | Intel and Apple Silicon | Intel and Apple Silicon | Apple Silicon only |
| macOS | 13.5+ | 12+ | 14+ |
| CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sensors and battery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth device batteries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fan control | Yes | Legacy, unmaintained | Yes, with curves |
| Long-term history | Yes | No | 30 days |
| Weather | Yes | No | One location free |
| Calendar | Yes | No | Pro |
| World clocks | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Disk S.M.A.R.T. | Yes | No | Internal NVMe |
| Notifications | Rules | Thresholds | Thresholds; app alerts in Pro |
| Ports, agents, dev processes | No | No | Yes |
Where iStat Menus wins
Depth and polish. Every menu is dense with detail, history goes back a long way, and extras like weather, calendar events and S.M.A.R.T. status are things Stats simply doesn’t have. The combined mode helps on notched MacBooks where menu bar space is scarce. If you want one app to own your menu bar and don’t mind paying, it’s the safer choice.
Where Stats wins
Price and openness. It’s free, the code is public, and it installs with one Homebrew command. Releases come out often. It also still supports macOS 12, which the current iStat Menus doesn’t. The trade-off is that it’s a readout, not an archive: there’s no long-term history and its fan control is no longer maintained.
How to decide
- Want weather, calendar and history in one polished app: iStat Menus.
- Want free and open source, or have an older Mac: Stats.
- Develop on an M-series Mac and want ports, agent sessions and history for free: Stat Space.
Whichever you try, measure its cost with Activity Monitor’s CPU Time column after a day of use; our lightweight monitor guide shows how.
Why a third option
We make Stat Space. It exists because both of these answer “how busy is my Mac?” and neither answers “what is busy, and who started it?”. Stat Space matches Stats feature for feature in its free tier, adds 30 days of history, and then traces ports to projects and tracks AI agent sessions. It doesn’t run on Intel Macs, and it isn’t open source.
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 iStat Menus worth paying for if Stats is free?
If you want history graphs, weather, calendar, S.M.A.R.T. status and the most polished menus, yes. If you only glance at CPU and memory, Stats does that for free.
Does Stats work on Apple Silicon?
Yes, natively on M-series Macs as well as Intel. Some sensor names are generic on Apple Silicon because the sensor keys change with each chip.
Can I run iStat Menus and Stats at the same time?
Yes, they don’t conflict. You’ll pay the sampling cost twice, so turn off duplicate modules in one of them.
Does iStat Menus have a subscription?
No, the direct license is a one-time purchase with a 14-day trial. It’s also included in Setapp, which is a subscription.
Know what your Mac is doing, without adding to it.
Free, no account. Pro is $9.99 once for the first 100 buyers.