Spare vs iStat Menus
A focused view for a busy Mac.
iStat Menus offers extensive, customizable system monitoring. Spare puts your apps, projects, and agents at the center, helping you understand what is running and review what can close.
Free. No subscription. No account. Apple silicon · macOS 14+.
Which one fits?
Choose iStat Menus for configurable hardware monitoring and alert rules. Consider Spare for a focused workflow around recognizable work, reviewed stop requests, and daily or weekly recaps.
A familiar workday
Your agent is working. So is everything else.
A busy CPU can mean useful work. When an agent, a build, and a browser compete for resources, the useful question is what belongs to each task—and what you still need.
Spare groups recognized work and explains what closing it affects. Its recaps show the biggest recorded resource users and elevated memory-pressure time, with gaps shown for sleep and missed readings.
See Spare’s illustrated workflow →Spare and iStat Menus, side by side.
Different scopes. Choose the one that answers your questions.
| What matters | iStat Menus | Spare |
|---|---|---|
| Main focus | Customizable menu bar system monitoring | Recognizable apps, projects, and agents |
| Monitoring breadth | CPU, GPU, memory, disks, network, sensors, and battery | CPU and memory focused on running work |
| History | CPU, memory, and network history graphs | Daily and weekly summaries with coverage and CSV export |
| Notifications | Configurable rules across multiple system metrics | Optional sustained memory-pressure alerts |
Competitor information: Bjango’s iStat Menus overview. Reviewed October 4, 2026. This is a documentation-based comparison, not a performance test.
Choose iStat Menus for customization
It offers a broad set of readings, history graphs, and configurable notification rules. If you want to tailor the information in your menu bar or track hardware beyond CPU and memory, it is the stronger fit.
Consider Spare for everyday decisions.
See recognized apps and their helpers together. Find development work by project or port. Review what a stop request affects. Look back at your day or week in a dedicated Recap window.
Spare never closes work automatically. A stop request can still interrupt a server or agent, so review the session before proceeding.
Before you choose
A few practical details.
Does Spare have the same monitoring coverage?
No. Spare does not currently offer iStat Menus’ range of sensors, GPU, disk, network, battery, and other system information. Its focus is understanding running work.
Can Spare identify individual browser tabs?
No. It groups browsers with their helpers but does not identify individual tabs or read their contents. It also does not inspect Docker containers or measure per-app power use.
Can I download Spare today?
Yes. Download the signed, Apple-notarized release for Apple-silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. The source is available on GitHub under the MIT license.
What does Spare keep from my day?
Up to 30 days of hourly summaries stay on your Mac, including app and project names. You can pause recording, clear history, or export a selected period as CSV. Sleep and missed readings are shown as unobserved time. Resource use does not measure productivity.
Explore another comparison.
Get Spare
Free to use. Yours to explore.
Download Spare for Apple silicon, or explore the MIT-licensed source on GitHub. Free to use, with no subscription or account.
macOS 14+ · Apple silicon · Signed and notarized