4 Alcove Alternatives for Mac, Including Free Ones (2026)
Over the last 90 days, searches for an Alcove alternative reached this site 626 times. 301 of them had the word “free” in them.
Alcove is one of the best-looking notch apps on the Mac. It’s $14.99 once, built in native Swift by Henrik Ruscon, and it’s the closest thing to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island you can buy. The reasons to look elsewhere are narrow, and they’re worth naming before you switch.
TL;DR: Free and open source, Boring Notch. Free with system stats, Atoll, on a 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pro. NotchNook was the most customizable, but it’s off sale right now. On macOS 14 Sonoma, or if you want dictation and a focus timer in the notch, Seam at $29.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alcove free?
No. Alcove has a 72-hour trial, then it’s a $14.99 one-time purchase. There’s no subscription and no free tier.
Is there a free alternative to Alcove?
Yes, two. Boring Notch is free and open source under GPL-3.0, and runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later. Atoll is free under GPL v3, but only runs on 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros.
Does Alcove work on macOS Sonoma?
No. Alcove needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later. On macOS 14 Sonoma, Boring Notch and Seam both run.
Does Alcove drain battery?
Alcove is a native Swift app and is built to stay light, and we haven’t seen a pattern of drain reports like NotchNook’s. Any notch app that animates music will use some power while it plays.
Which Alcove alternative has a file shelf?
Boring Notch, Atoll, NotchNook and Seam all let you drag files into the notch. Alcove doesn’t.
3 reasons people leave Alcove
From most common to least.
It isn’t free. $14.99 is fair for how polished Alcove is. But Boring Notch does a lot of the same for $0, and the search data says that’s what most people want.
It needs macOS 15. If you’re still on Sonoma, Alcove won’t install. That’s a lot of Macs, including anyone holding off on an upgrade for work.
It does less, on purpose. Alcove is Now Playing, HUDs, notifications, Live Activities, swipe gestures and lock screen widgets. There’s no file tray, no timer and no dictation. If you wanted the notch to do work, you’ll hit that wall fast.
What you’d give up by leaving is real. Alcove’s animations are the smoothest in the category, its lock screen widgets are good, and its swipe gestures feel like an iPhone.
The 4 Alcove alternatives
The free ones come first.
1. Boring Notch (free, open source)
Boring Notch is what most people find when they search for a free Alcove. It’s GPL-3.0, about 10,800 stars on GitHub, and runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later.
It does more than Alcove on paper: music with an audio visualizer, a file shelf with AirDrop, calendar, HUDs, weather, Bluetooth device indicators and lock screen widgets. It’s less polished, though. The app isn’t signed by Apple, so you’ll clear a Gatekeeper warning on install, and people report crashes after sleep and wake.
Pick it if the price was the only thing stopping you.
2. Atoll (free, open source)
Atoll is built on the Boring Notch code, with extra tools: a clipboard manager, a color picker, a terminal tab and live CPU, GPU and memory stats. It’s GPL v3 with about 4,700 stars.
It only runs on a MacBook with a notch, and the README names the 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro. A MacBook Air owner is out of luck. See Atoll alternative for the signing issues we found.
Pick it if you own a 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pro and want your notch to double as a system monitor.
3. NotchNook (not for sale right now)
NotchNook was the power-user pick. You got a file tray with AirDrop, widgets, Shortcuts and more layout control than anything else here. It sold for $25 once for 5 devices or $3 a month for 2. As of 6 October 2026 you can’t buy it: the lo.cafe site no longer loads, the Setapp listing is gone, and Homebrew disabled its cask on 19 September.
It’s the opposite of Alcove in feel. Busy where Alcove is quiet. And it has had battery drain reports since January 2024, covered in Seam vs NotchNook.
Pick it if you want to tune every widget and don’t mind paying more than Alcove.
4. Seam ($29, one-time)
Seam is our app, so keep that in mind. It’s $29 once for 2 Macs, with a 48-hour trial, and it runs on macOS 14 Sonoma.
It shares most of Alcove’s core: volume and brightness HUDs, Now Playing with an audio visualizer, Focus mode, calendar, battery alerts, and AirPods battery per earbud and case. Then it adds the 3 things Alcove leaves out:
- A file stash with AirDrop. Drag a file toward the notch to stash it or send it.
- Voice dictation, on-device. Hold a modifier key and talk, and the text types into any app.
- Flow, a 25/5 Pomodoro timer with its own focus music.
It also shows quota bars for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other coding agents, which is niche but handy if you live in them.
Where Alcove wins: lock screen widgets and swipe gestures. Seam doesn’t have either.
Pick it if you’re on Sonoma, or you want the notch to replace a dictation app and a timer app too.
Put Your Notch To Work
That black bar already takes up space. Give it music, timers, and voice typing.
Download for free
Alcove alternatives compared
| Alcove | Boring Notch | Atoll | NotchNook | Seam | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | Free | Free | Not for sale | $29 |
| Trial | 72 hours | n/a | n/a | n/a | 48 hours |
| macOS | 15+ | 14+ | 14/16” MBP only | n/a | 14+ |
| Signed by Apple | Yes | No | Has had signing bugs | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | GPL-3.0 | GPL v3 | No | No |
| File shelf | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lock screen widgets | Yes | Yes | Yes | n/a | No |
| Swipe gestures | Yes | n/a | Yes | n/a | No |
| Voice dictation | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Focus timer | No | No | Basic timers | No | Pomodoro |
The pick for each situation
If you’re on Sequoia and love how Alcove looks, keep it. $14.99 is money well spent and nothing here animates better.
If the price is the issue, try Boring Notch tonight. If the macOS 15 requirement is the issue, Boring Notch and Seam both run on Sonoma. And if you’ve been paying for a separate dictation app or Pomodoro timer on top of Alcove, Seam folds both into the notch for $4.91 more.
Related Reading
Put Your Notch To Work
That black bar already takes up space. Give it music, timers, and voice typing.
Download for free