Stats vs iStat Menus vs Activity Monitor: Compared
An honest table: what Stats, iStat Menus, Activity Monitor and Mac Resources show, what they cost, where they live — and which monitor fits whom.
If you only look once the Mac is slow, Activity Monitor is enough. For everything — temperatures, fans, processes — free and open source, get Stats; the same in more detail, paid, is iStat Menus. For one number in the menu bar and system-style widgets without sensors: Mac Resources.
There is no best monitor — only the one that fits what you want to see and where.
If your question is just “what do I put in the menu bar”, the shorter answer is in the menu bar monitors guide. This is the full comparison: menu bar, widgets, windows and the Dock.
A disclosure: the author of this site is the author of Mac Resources. Stats and iStat Menus weren’t installed for this guide: what you’ll read about them is what their developers say on their websites and GitHub as of October 4, 2026. For mine — including what it can’t do.
The comparison in one table
| Activity Monitor | Stats | iStat Menus | Mac Resources | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | a window, the Dock icon, CPU windows | menu bar: an icon per module or one combined | menu bar: an icon per item or one combined | one menu bar item and 8 widgets |
| CPU, memory, GPU | yes | yes | yes, in more detail: cores, frequencies, compression, swap | yes; GPU if the driver reports it |
| Network | traffic per process | speed, the most active processes | speed, traffic per app | speed, one-minute average |
| Disk | reads and writes per process | space, activity, S.M.A.R.T. | space, activity, S.M.A.R.T. | space used only |
| Battery | Energy tab | yes | yes, plus Bluetooth devices | charge and time |
| Temperatures, fans | no | yes; fans in legacy mode | yes; no fan control in the App Store version | no |
| Processes | full list, with quit | the most active | the most active | no |
| Desktop widgets | no | yes | not mentioned on the website | yes, 8 |
| Price | part of macOS | free | $11.99, family $14.99; 14-day trial | free |
| Code | closed | open, MIT | closed | not published |
| Where to get it | already there | GitHub, brew install stats | Bjango website, App Store, Setapp | beregov.me |
| macOS | any | 12 or later | 11 or later | 14 or later |
Checked on October 4, 2026. Sources: the README and releases page of Stats on GitHub, the iStat Menus page and its note on the App Store version, Apple’s Activity Monitor User Guide. iStat Menus prices are in US dollars before local taxes and may change.
Why some monitors show temperatures and others don’t, and how to fit a monitor into a menu bar with a notch, is covered in the menu bar monitors guide. We won’t repeat it here.
Activity Monitor: already on every Mac
The built-in macOS tool (Applications → Utilities). The CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk and Network tabs show every process: how much CPU and memory it takes, how much energy it uses, what it reads, writes and downloads. Here you can quit a process and see all processes, not just the most active. What’s eating your bandwidth, for example, shows up in the Network tab, and what’s draining the battery in the Energy tab — more in the guides to network traffic and battery drain.
What it lacks: the menu bar and temperatures. The load is visible only while the app is open — as a live graph on its Dock icon or in the small CPU Usage and CPU History windows. It’s a tool for digging in, not an always-on indicator. How to use it is in the Activity Monitor guide.
Stats: free and open source
Modules: CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery, sensors (temperature, voltage, power), Bluetooth devices, a multi-time-zone clock and fans. The module popups list the most active processes. Each module is its own icon, and Combined modules merges them into one. There are desktop widgets too; for them to get data, turn on “macOS widgets” in the Stats settings — the developer turned that link off by default because of the load it puts on the system’s widget process.
You install it from a disk image on GitHub or with brew install stats;
it isn’t in the App Store. macOS 12 or later. The code is open under the
MIT license, and releases come out almost every week: the latest on the
day of checking was 3.0.20, released October 4, 2026.
Caveats, in the developer’s own words:
- fan control is in legacy mode, with no updates or fixes;
- CPU and GPU sensors on Apple silicon are thermal zones, not cores, and their keys change with every new chip; what that means for the readings is in the Mac temperature guide;
- the Sensors and Bluetooth modules cost the most: turning them off can, in some cases, cut Stats’ own CPU usage by up to half;
- the code is open, but the project doesn’t accept unsolicited pull requests: open an issue first. It’s built by one person.
According to its release notes, Stats reads S.M.A.R.T. data from NVMe drives; reading ATA drives is there too, but off by default because of driver problems. What those numbers mean for an SSD is in the SSD wear guide.
iStat Menus: the most detailed, paid
By Bjango, version 7.5. Its feature list: per-core CPU with frequencies and load averages, memory with pressure, compression and swap, disks with S.M.A.R.T. status and per-app activity, network per app and IP addresses, Bluetooth device battery levels, sensors and fan control, weather with forecasts, world clocks and a calendar, rule-based notifications. Combined mode merges several items into a single menu bar icon.
There’s a 14-day free trial. As of October 4, 2026, a license costs $11.99 and a family license for up to five people $14.99 (US dollars, before local taxes). It’s also part of the Setapp subscription. The App Store version is the same app, except it can’t control fans and needs the separate iStat Menus Helper for some stats. The website lists macOS 11 as the minimum; the App Store version, according to the store, needs macOS 14.
The developer’s website doesn’t mention desktop widgets.
Mac Resources: one item and widgets
The menu bar item shows the symbol and percentage of whichever of CPU, memory and GPU is busiest; it updates every 2 seconds and turns red above 80%. Eight desktop widgets look like the system ones and refresh once a minute — macOS doesn’t allow more often. Free; the code isn’t published.
What it lacks: temperatures, fans, a process list, traffic per app, S.M.A.R.T. The widget extension has to run in the macOS sandbox, and the sandbox doesn’t hand over sensors or other apps’ processes. Details are in “In the app” below.
Which one fits whom
- I look at the load once the Mac is already slow. Activity Monitor: nothing to install, and the full process list will show the culprit.
- I want everything, free and open source. Stats: temperatures, fans, processes, S.M.A.R.T., frequent updates.
- I want everything in more detail and will pay. iStat Menus: more detail and settings, weather, rule-based notifications, an App Store version and Setapp.
- I want one number and widgets that look like the system ones. Mac Resources: one item instead of a row of icons, widgets on the desktop, no sensors.
- I need temperatures. Stats or iStat Menus — Activity Monitor and Mac Resources don’t show them.
A monitor doesn’t speed anything up: it shows where the Mac hit the limit. You can combine them — say, an always-on indicator plus Activity Monitor for digging in.
In the app
Mac Resources puts a single item in the menu bar instead of a row of icons. Its menu shows the current numbers: CPU, Memory, Disk used, GPU, Battery; it also has Prevent sleep, Reload widgets, Open at login and Guides & Tips.
Widgets: System, Processor, Memory, Disk and Battery are small; Resources and Network are medium; Last Hour is large. Network speed is a one-minute average: the Network widget shows download and upload with an hour-long graph, System and Last Hour one number with an arrow. Disk is how full the volume is, not activity. How to add widgets and which ones to keep is in the widgets guide.
Free, with no ads, subscription or account; macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. The app isn’t notarized by Apple, and it goes online only to check for a new version every six hours. The rest is on the app’s page.
If the monitor shows the Mac has hit a limit and the cause isn’t clear, go through the step-by-step diagnosis.