Bartender vs SwiftBar

Bartender manages macOS menu bar items, controlling which ones appear and when. It can reveal items quickly, search them, and use custom hotkeys and triggers. Users can hide, rearrange, and group items, create custom items from built-in data sources or scripts without coding, and switch profiles by hotkey, trigger, or display setup. Bartender 7’s Command Bar searches for and triggers menu bar items; clipboard history is included for Pro users. Automation options include built-in triggers, Shortcuts, AppleScript, hotkeys, and Siri. The app works without Screen Recording permission, showing app icons rather than snapshots when permission is disabled. The maker says captures remain cached locally on the device and app data is not transmitted to its servers. Bartender 7 is built for macOS 27 Golden Gate; users on macOS 26 Tahoe are directed to Bartender 6 while Bartender 7 support is pending. Bartender 7 costs 24.99 USD as a one-time purchase, and Pro costs $19.99 a year. A license covers all Macs owned and personally used by its holder.

SwiftBar displays the output of custom scripts in the macOS menu bar and turns it into interactive menus. Plugins can be written in Bash, Python, Ruby, Swift, or JavaScript; SwiftBar runs them on a user-defined schedule and builds menu items from their output. Menus can include icons, colors, dropdowns, submenus, and click actions. Items can open URLs, run shell scripts, refresh plugins, or use keyboard shortcuts. Refresh intervals can be set in plugin filenames or with cron syntax in metadata. SwiftBar includes a plugin repository through its Get Plugins menu, and its product page describes hundreds of community-created plugins. Its plugin API is adopted from BitBar, allowing existing BitBar and xbar plugins to run. SwiftBar also supports plugins made with the macOS Shortcuts app and provides a settings interface for their refresh schedule. It is a free, open source project by Ameba, licensed under MIT. SwiftBar requires macOS 12 or later and is available as a direct download or through Homebrew.