4 NotchNook Alternatives for Mac, Free and Paid (2026)
“Is NotchNook free?” showed up 557 times in the Google searches that reached this site over the last 90 days. “NotchNook github” showed up 113 times. So a lot of people want NotchNook without paying for it, and some of them are hunting for source code that isn’t there.
NotchNook is a paid, closed-source app from lo.cafe, and as of 6 October 2026 you can’t buy it. It sold for $25 once (5 devices) or $3 a month (2 devices), with a free trial first. Whether you wanted to skip that price or just can’t find a download, you’ve got 4 real NotchNook alternatives, and 2 of them are free.
TL;DR: For free and open source, pick Boring Notch. For free with more power-user tools, Atoll, if you own a 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pro. For the prettiest minimal island, Alcove at $14.99. For the most features per dollar, Seam at $29, which adds on-device dictation and a focus timer that NotchNook doesn’t have.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still buy NotchNook?
Not right now. The lo.cafe site no longer loads, the Setapp listing is gone, and Homebrew disabled its NotchNook cask on 19 September 2026 because the download was unreachable. We don’t know why, or whether it’s coming back.
Is NotchNook free?
No. When it was on sale, NotchNook had a free trial, then cost $25 one-time for up to 5 devices or $3 a month for 2. There was no free tier once the trial ended.
Is NotchNook open source or on GitHub?
No. NotchNook is closed source and sold by lo.cafe. The open-source notch apps on GitHub are Boring Notch (GPL-3.0, about 10,800 stars) and Atoll (GPL v3, built on the Boring Notch codebase).
What’s the best free NotchNook alternative?
Boring Notch, for most people. It’s free, open source, runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and later, and covers music, a file shelf, calendar, HUDs and weather. Atoll does more, but only runs on 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pros.
What’s the cheapest paid NotchNook alternative?
Alcove, at $14.99 one-time, with a 72-hour trial. Seam is $29 one-time with a 48-hour trial. Both cost less than NotchNook’s old $25, and neither has a subscription.
Does any NotchNook alternative work on a Mac without a notch?
Seam does. It draws a floating island on a Mac mini, an iMac, an older MacBook or an external display. Atoll requires a notched MacBook Pro.
Why people leave NotchNook
Right now the reason is simpler: you can’t get it. Before that, price was the obvious one, and the searches above show it. $25 was more than every other paid app on this list. The $3 subscription passed $25 in month 9.
The second reason is battery. NotchNook has had drain reports since it launched in January 2024, which we cover in detail in Seam vs NotchNook. The third is taste. NotchNook packs a lot of widgets into the notch, and some people find the result busy next to the rest of macOS.
What NotchNook did well was customization. If you liked tuning every widget and tray, nothing here fully replaces it.
The 4 NotchNook alternatives
Cheapest first.
1. Boring Notch (free, open source)
Boring Notch is the free default. It’s GPL-3.0, has about 10,800 GitHub stars, and installs with one command: brew install --cask TheBoredTeam/boring-notch/boring-notch.
You get music controls with an audio visualizer, a file shelf with AirDrop, calendar, HUD replacements, weather, Bluetooth device indicators and lock screen widgets. That’s close to NotchNook’s list for $0.
The catch is signing. Boring Notch isn’t signed with an Apple Developer account, so macOS blocks it on first launch and you have to allow it in System Settings or through Terminal. People also report crashes after sleep and wake. More on that in Boring Notch alternatives.
Pick it if you want NotchNook’s feature list for free and don’t mind the Gatekeeper warning.
2. Atoll (free, open source)
Atoll is a fork of Boring Notch with extra tools on top. It adds a clipboard manager, a color picker, a terminal tab and live CPU, GPU, memory and network stats. It’s GPL v3 and costs nothing.
The limit is hardware. Atoll’s README asks for a “MacBook with a notch (14/16-inch MBP across Apple silicon generations).” A 13.6 inch MacBook Air, a Mac mini or an external screen is out. We wrote up the rest in Atoll alternative.
Pick it if you own a 14 or 16 inch MacBook Pro and want system stats in the notch.
3. Alcove ($14.99, one-time)
Alcove is the polished minimal pick, built in native Swift by Henrik Ruscon. It costs $14.99 once, with a 72-hour trial, and needs macOS 15 Sequoia or later.
It does fewer things than NotchNook, on purpose. Now Playing, HUDs, notifications, Live Activities, swipe gestures and lock screen widgets. No file tray, no timer, no dictation. What it does, it animates beautifully.
Pick it if you want the closest thing to the iPhone’s Dynamic Island and nothing extra. Full breakdown in Seam vs Alcove.
4. Seam ($29, one-time)
Seam is our app, so weigh this entry with that in mind. It’s $29 once for 2 Macs, with a 48-hour trial, on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
From NotchNook’s list, it covers Now Playing with a visualizer, a file stash with AirDrop, calendar, HUDs and weather. It also shows AirPods battery per earbud and case. Here’s what NotchNook doesn’t have:
- Voice dictation that runs on your Mac, on the Parakeet speech model. Hold a modifier key, talk, and the text lands in whatever app you’re typing in. Nothing goes to a server.
- Flow, a Pomodoro timer: 25 minutes on, 5 off, and a 20-minute break after every fourth session. It comes with its own focus music.
- Coding agent usage, which shows quota bars for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, opencode and Antigravity.
What Seam gives up is NotchNook’s depth of customization. You can’t rearrange widgets freely. It’s built to show the right thing when something changes, then get out of the way.
Pick it if you’d otherwise pay for NotchNook plus a dictation app plus a Pomodoro timer.
Put Your Notch To Work
That black bar already takes up space. Give it music, timers, and voice typing.
Download for free
NotchNook alternatives compared
| NotchNook | Boring Notch | Atoll | Alcove | Seam | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Not for sale | Free | Free | $14.99 | $29 |
| Trial | n/a | n/a | n/a | 72 hours | 48 hours |
| Open source | No | GPL-3.0 | GPL v3 | No | No |
| Signed by Apple | Yes | No | Has had signing bugs | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | n/a | 14+ | 14/16” MBP only | 15+ | 14+ |
| File shelf | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Voice dictation | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Focus timer | No | No | Basic timers | No | Pomodoro |
Our pick
Start with Boring Notch. It’s free, and in 10 minutes you’ll know whether you want a notch app at all.
If it crashes on you or the Gatekeeper prompt bugs you, move to a paid one. Alcove if you want less. Seam if you want more. Both have trials, so try them side by side before paying a cent. If the thing you loved about NotchNook was tweaking every widget, none of these match it today. Check lo.cafe again later in case it comes back.
Related Reading
Put Your Notch To Work
That black bar already takes up space. Give it music, timers, and voice typing.
Download for free