14 Free Mac Menu Bar Apps That Work Just Like iPhone Widgets

Aside from the recommended apps below, if you want to check out some Apple menu bar apps that are extremely useful, check out Amphetamine and Magnet. Amphetamine will keep your Mac awake, with undefined schedules or settings. Magnet offers powerful window capture and management tools for a small fee. We also recommend RunCat as one of the Mac menu bar extensions you should install.

Checking your battery on an iPhone can be a pretty in-depth process. AirPods, the phone itself and other Bluetooth devices can be monitored simply by placing the standard battery widget. On macOS, everything is still there, but it’s either hiding in an off-screen widget or the default menu app has relatively little information. AirBattery is an option to monitor every device you have connected to your Mac from the menu bar. No need to hunt down the widget or navigate through it and disrupt your workflow.

It’s not the most detailed, those being reserved for paid apps like Juicy, but it’s great for a quick overview of the battery life of your Bluetooth and Mac devices. It even offers an option to monitor Macs on the network. For those looking to monitor their connected AirPods on the fly, still without a widget, AirPods Battery Monitor might be the menu app for you. It provides battery information for the case and both AirPods independently. The developer has made it open source and supports the latest edition of macOS.

Everyone has their favorite calendar apps. However, on macOS these are relegated to programs and widgets, with the date and time button only showing the sidebar. For a quick overview or even to edit your calendar, take a look at the open source apps Dottt, Mini Calendar, and Calendr. These are all designed to be quickly accessed from the menu bar, offering various versions of the lens.

Calendar brings the standard month overview, but also integrates a to-do list for each day. This is then timed so you can stay on top of what’s happening at a glance. The other two options are designed to be as simple as possible, with Mini Calendar’s main feature being that it supports Simplified Chinese. Dottt is the most fleshed out option of the three. With a menu bar calendar that displays all events, notifications and will even automatically take you to a meeting if a link is attached to the information. It will even display events and the time you have left to wait for them, all in the menu bar.

There’s nothing like staring into the abyss of the weather app on iPhone, trying to time a dog walk with the rain coming. While the full app on macOS remains great as it is on iOS, and newer versions of macOS since 2025 let you embed it in the menu bar, it only appears if there’s enough space. Do you have many menu apps? This may not appear. Instead, MenuBar Weather from the App Store will work and is a free app that replicates the weather widget, but embeds it in the menu bar.

A real-time icon and temperature gauge will be located on the bar and support Celsius and Fahrenheit. Sparrow is another, and it simplifies things even further to a certain extent, simply displaying a list of hourly weather with icons to indicate rain, clouds, or sunshine. For even more minimalism, DatWeatherDoe will position a small icon on the menu bar to indicate the type of weather and the temperature. That’s it, it’s incredibly minimal, but it does offer a few options on what it can and can’t display. It will even allow you to manually set the refresh interval.

Taking notes on macOS is relatively simple. With the built-in notes app, you can quickly drag the mouse to the bottom right corner to make it appear. However, it’s not always enabled and can sometimes be a bit annoying if it crashes or doesn’t load properly. Having a quick note bubble appear at the top of the menu bar can be much tidier. BarNotes, available on the Apple App Store, also offers a simple user interface with themes and font options.

If you want to DIY it or build it yourself, the option is also available, since it is open source. It benefits from security thanks to iCloud Keychain encryption, allowing you to enter sensitive information without much hassle. Alternatives to this include Papelzinho or Paper Mess, another from the App Store. It provides a very easy to enter text box, which can be closed to discard the note. He describes himself as “ephemeral,” so nothing is permanent here. Phyllon is a more in-depth version, bringing Markdown export, encryption, and various appearance options.

Depending on your needs, Just10 and TaskMenu may be your go-to apps. Just10 is a generic, slim app that lets you quickly create a new to-do list, without having to resort to another app. Just10 sets itself apart from the rest of the many macOS-based task apps by offering pure simplicity, at zero cost. In fact, it’s open source, so if you have the know-how, you can start modifying it to suit your needs. The alternative, TaskMenu, is incredibly close in concept.

Rather than focusing solely on creating a to-do list within the macOS ecosystem, TaskMenu integrates Google Tasks, allowing you to sync across devices to keep tabs on your day. It’s designed with a SwiftUI interface, so it will also integrate seamlessly with the latest editions of macOS. Again, TaskMenu is open source, so you can DIY it if you want. Another alternative is Cue, which aims to reduce distractions. It works like any other task app and is closer to Just10. However, this is not open source, but is available directly from the App Store. Cue offers a light and simple to-do list with timed reminders built into the app.