Bartender Alternatives: Ice, Hidden Bar, or TuckBar?
Most Bartender alternatives manage menu bar icons, as Bartender does. One of them hides the whole bar instead. Here is which tool fits which job.
If you want a cheaper or free Bartender, the real alternatives are Ice and Hidden Bar. Like Bartender, they manage the icons on the right side of the menu bar. TuckBar, the app this site is about, is not one of them. It does not touch your icons. It hides the whole menu bar on the displays you choose, so the bar stops sitting in the same OLED pixels all day.
So the useful question is not "which one is best". It is "which job do you have". This page answers that, with prices and versions checked on each app's own site.
Prices checked September 2026.
The short answer
- You have too many menu bar icons and want the most complete tool: Bartender.
- You want most of that for free and do not mind an open-source project with slow releases: Ice.
- You want one click to collapse the clutter, and nothing else: Hidden Bar.
- You have an OLED monitor and want the bar gone on that screen only: TuckBar. Keep an icon manager too if you like one.
Side by side
| Bartender 7 | Ice | Hidden Bar | TuckBar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it manages | Menu bar icons | Menu bar icons | Menu bar icons | The whole menu bar |
| Price | $25 once, or $20 a year for Pro | Free | Free | Free |
| Source | Closed | Open source (GPL-3.0) | Open source (MIT) | Open source (MIT) |
| Where to get it | macbartender.com | GitHub | GitHub, Mac App Store | Mac App Store |
| Latest release | Bartender 7 (for macOS 27) | 0.11.12 stable; 0.11.13 beta for macOS 26, Sept 2025 | 1.11.1, Sept 2026 | 1.0, June 2026 |
| Hides the Apple menu, app menus and clock | No | No | No | Yes, on the displays you tag |
| Different behaviour per display | Profiles you can pair to display setups | No | No | Yes |
Bartender 7: the most complete icon manager
Bartender has been the paid standard for more than ten years. Version 7 is built for macOS 27, and the same licence also activates Bartender 6 for macOS 26. On its own pricing page when we checked:
- Bartender 7: $25, one-time, with updates for version 7.
- Bartender Pro: $20 a year, with a 14-day free trial. It adds the Pro tools and future major versions.
- Mega Supporter: $80, lifetime access, marked as a launch discount.
- A 4-week trial of Bartender 7.
What you get for that money is a lot. Bartender hides icons and shows them only when you need them. It moves icons that the MacBook notch would cover. It has a command bar with search, triggers, hotkeys, Shortcuts and AppleScript support, custom menu bar items, tighter spacing, and styling for the bar (glass, colour, gradients). It also has menu bar profiles that you can pair to your display setups.
Where Bartender wins: depth, polish, and a company behind it. If you run twenty status items and want rules for when each one shows, nothing free matches it.
Where it does not help: it styles and organises the bar. It does not take the bar away. The Apple menu, the app menus, and the clock stay on screen.
Ice: the free, open-source Bartender alternative
Ice is the closest free match to Bartender. It is open source under GPL-3.0 and needs macOS 14 or later. It hides items behind a divider, has an always-hidden section, can show hidden items when you hover, lets you drag items into order, and has search and hotkeys. It can also tint and shape the bar, and it can show hidden items in a separate bar under the notch.
Where Ice wins: it is free and covers most of what people buy Bartender for.
The honest caveat: the release pace is slow. When we checked, the last stable release was 0.11.12, from October 2024. The macOS 26 fixes were in a pre-release, 0.11.13 beta 2, from September 2025. The repository has had no new commits since that month. Test it on your macOS version before you depend on it.
Hidden Bar: the simplest option
Hidden Bar does one thing. You drag a separator, and everything on one side of it collapses behind an arrow. Click the arrow to show the icons again. It can hide them again after a delay, and it has a keyboard shortcut.
It is free and open source under MIT. The GitHub version is current: 1.11.1, released September 2026, for macOS 13 or later. The Mac App Store listing still shows version 1.8, from June 2021, so if you want the recent fixes, get it from GitHub.
Where Hidden Bar wins: no setup and nothing to learn.
Where it does not: no search, no triggers, and no rules for when an icon shows.
Dozer, which older lists often include, works in a similar way, but it has had no release since 2020.
TuckBar: not an icon manager
TuckBar does a different job, so it would be wrong to rank it against the three above.
On an OLED monitor, the menu bar is the part of the screen that shows the same bright shapes in the same pixels for as long as the Mac is on. That is the condition that causes uneven wear. (For the details, see does the Mac menu bar cause OLED burn-in.) Hiding six status icons leaves most of that in place: the bar, the Apple menu, the app menus, and the clock are still lit.
macOS can auto-hide the menu bar, but only on every display at once, and the bar comes back at full brightness when you hover. There is no built-in setting for one display. We explain that in how to hide the menu bar on an external OLED monitor only.
TuckBar fills that gap. You tag the displays you want to protect. On those displays it covers the menu bar with your live wallpaper, or with solid black, or dims it. Move the pointer to the top edge and the real bar comes back. You can untuck it for 5 to 60 minutes, and it can hide the Dock too. It is free on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.
Where TuckBar wins: it is the only tool here that removes the whole bar, and it can do that on one display while the others keep theirs.
Where it does not: it does nothing for icon clutter. When you bring the bar back, your icons are exactly as you left them.
Run both
The two kinds of tool do not conflict. You can use an icon manager for tidy icons on every display, and TuckBar on the OLED monitor so the bar is not there at all until you reach for it.
If you are not sure your screen is OLED, see which Macs and Apple displays are OLED. If you have an OLED and want to see whether the bar has already left a mark, the free OLED burn-in test shows full-screen solid colours and a menu bar check.
Sources
- Bartender 7 pricing and features: macbartender.com, checked September 2026.
- Ice licence, requirements and releases: github.com/jordanbaird/Ice, checked September 2026.
- Hidden Bar licence, requirements and releases: github.com/dwarvesf/hidden and its Mac App Store listing, checked September 2026.
- Dozer releases: github.com/Mortennn/Dozer, checked September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free Bartender alternative?
For managing menu bar icons, Ice is the closest free match. It is open source, hides items behind a divider, has an always-hidden section, search, and hotkeys. Hidden Bar is simpler and also free. Neither is a company-backed product, so check the release history before you rely on either one.
How much does Bartender cost?
When we checked in September 2026, Bartender 7 was $25 as a one-time purchase, Bartender Pro was $20 a year, and a lifetime Mega Supporter licence was $80 at a launch discount. There is a 4-week free trial.
Is TuckBar a Bartender alternative?
Not for icons. TuckBar does not hide, reorder, or search menu bar items. It hides the whole menu bar on the displays you choose, which is useful on an OLED monitor where a static bar can cause burn-in. You can run it beside Bartender, Ice, or Hidden Bar.
Does Bartender or Ice prevent OLED burn-in?
Not by themselves. They hide status icons, but the Apple menu, the app menus, the clock, and the bar behind them stay lit in the same pixels. To take the bar off an OLED screen you need to hide the bar itself on that display.
Can I run TuckBar and Bartender at the same time?
Yes. They do different jobs. Bartender or Ice tidies the icons on every display. TuckBar removes the whole bar only on the display you tag, and the icons are there as usual when you hover the top edge to bring the bar back.
TuckBar hides the macOS menu bar on the displays you choose, so it stops burning into your OLED.
Get TuckBar — free on the Mac App Store