If Hidden Bar stopped hiding on macOS 27
You probably have v1.11, and you do not need to switch apps. The v1.11 download was built as the App Store version by mistake. That build is sandboxed, a sandboxed app cannot use the new macOS 27 hiding, and so it hid nothing at all. Install v1.11.1 over it and hiding works again. Nothing changes on macOS 26 and earlier.
One thing that trips people up afterwards: on macOS 27 the arrow is the divider. Hold Command and drag an icon to the left of the arrow to hide it, or to the right to keep it visible. This is the vendor's own account, from the v1.11.1 release notes published 18 September 2026.
What macOS 27 gave you, and where it stops
Golden Gate, released on 14 September 2026, added a native control that hides overflow icons, and lets you reorder them by holding Command and dragging. For a lot of people that removes the reason they installed a manager in the first place. Try it before you install anything.
Where it stops is conditions. The built-in control hides the same icons all the time. There is no way to say "show the VPN icon only when it is connected", or "use this layout while I am in a Focus, and that one while I am presenting", or to keep a second bar. If you want any of that, you still need a third-party app, and that is the only honest reason left to install one.
One piece of context that explains the churn: macOS 27 draws the menu bar as a single window. Managers used to work by enumerating one window per icon, so that change forced real work on all of them. Apple still publishes no official interface for managing status items, which is why this category has always been fragile.
The managers, and which shipped after 14 September
It is tempting to write that macOS 27 broke this whole category. We nearly did. It is not true: the maintained apps shipped within days, and Hidden Bar had a stable release out four days after Golden Gate. The OS change revealed which of these apps still has someone working on it. Two of the five have not had a stable release since 2024 and 2019, and they are among the most starred and most recommended.
So the useful question is which of these shipped something recently. That has a checkable answer, and it is printed under each one.
latest stable v1.11.1, 18 September 2026
GitHub API: latest non-prerelease v1.11.1 published 2026-09-18, last commit 2026-09-19. Its release notes state that the v1.11 zip was built as the sandboxed App Store version by mistake and hid nothing on macOS 27
The only manager with a stable release published after macOS 27 arrived. It does one thing: a divider you click to hide or show the icons to its left. No rules and no profiles. If that is all you want, this is the safe pick today. Take v1.11.1 specifically: v1.11 was mis-built as the App Store version, and being sandboxed it could not do the macOS 27 hiding at all.
latest stable Bartender 7
macbartender.com advertises Bartender 7 and says it is built for macOS 27, and its own page metadata names Applause Group, Inc. as publisher. NO DATED EVIDENCE: there is no public appcast or repository, so unlike every other row here this one rests on the vendor's own undated page
The long-standing paid option, and the most capable if you want triggers, search and per-app behavior without assembling it yourself. Note that major versions are separate purchases, and that the app changed hands in 2024, from Surtees Studios to Applause Group, which some people care about.
latest stable 2.0.1, 2 September 2026, which predates macOS 27
GitHub API: 2.0.1 on 2026-09-02 is the newest non-prerelease; every release since is an alpha or beta, most recently 3.0.0-alpha.7 on 2026-09-25
The most actively developed free option and the most capable: triggers that reveal an icon on battery level, active Focus or Wi-Fi network, and layout profiles bound to a display, a Space or a Focus. Its own docs list macOS 27 support, but that work is in prereleases so far. Worth it if you want the conditional behavior and do not mind running a beta.
latest stable 0.11.12, 29 October 2024
GitHub API: last non-prerelease 0.11.12 on 2024-10-29. Two dev prereleases since, the newer on 2025-09-16. Last commit 2025-09-20. 434 open issues. Not archived
Almost every list still recommends this, including ours until today, and at a glance it is obviously the free pick: nearly 30,000 stars and a real website. Its last stable build is from October 2024 and nothing at all has shipped since September 2025. Nothing is stopping you trying it, but install it knowing that.
latest stable v4.0.0, 20 August 2019
GitHub API: newest NON-prerelease v4.0.0 on 2019-08-20. The later v4.2.0 (2020-07-13) is flagged prerelease, so it is not a stable release. Last commit 2022-11-01, 8,700 stars
Included only because it still ranks and still has thousands of stars. Seven years without a stable release. It is also a cleaner example of the push-date trap than the one we quote below: GitHub reports activity in 2023 against a last commit of 2022.
The menu bar apps worth the space
A manager is plumbing. These are the things people put up there in the first place, and they are covered properly on their own pages rather than summarized twice here.
System readings, clipboard, launchers
Stats for CPU, memory and sensors, Maccy for clipboard history, Raycast to replace several utilities at once. All three are on our Mac apps list with what each one actually fixes.
The best Mac apps in 2026Prices and headlines
Share prices, crypto, RSS and news tickers are their own category with their own traps, including a well known news ticker that has not shipped since 2024. We checked 22 of them with dates.
Mac ticker apps, with datesFeeds worth following
If the point of the icon is knowing what happened, the sources matter more than the app. Hundreds of feeds scored on ad restraint and independence, with the pick of each category copyable.
The best RSS feeds, measuredHow we score any of this
Every measurement on this site comes from the same instruments: a real browser, the consent banner accepted, third parties counted. The method and weights are published.
The methodWhere we stand, and how to check this yourself
We make a Mac app that puts an item in your menu bar, so we are not a neutral party about menu bar clutter. We also had a dead manager recommended on our own list until 26 September 2026, which is what started this page, and we have said so on that page rather than swapping it without saying so.
Every date here is checkable in about a minute, and we would rather you did. For anything on GitHub, read the last commit and the last non-prerelease release, not the repository's push date, which moves for reasons that have nothing to do with the app: one well known desktop widget tool reports activity in 2025 and last had a real commit in December 2023. And a star count says how interesting a project once was.
Nothing here is an affiliate link, and no vendor paid to appear. A last-shipped date is a fact. Finished software is allowed to sit still. Developers, if a date or a description here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.