iStatistica Pro vs iStat Menus? Explained
Articles • July 4, 2021
Since these two apps are at the top of their field in the macOS monitoring this year, the best way to do a comparison and pick the right one for you is to slice up their performance and price. Here’s how the two acitivity monitors stack up in 2021.
Too Long Didn’t Read?
Go for iStat Menus if you want all the benefits that a professional ready activity monitor tool provides.
Go for iStatistica Pro if you want a simple no compromise activity monitor app at an affordable price tag.
iStat Menus vs iStatistica Pro: common features
Both the tools iStat Menus and iStatistica Pro come with some standard features that make them a great system monitor application.
System Monitoring
iStat Menus has a detailed set of pages that shows you all the apps running in the background and the foreground. However, it doesn’t just stop there as it also has detailed graphs for processes and other hardware components such as CPU, GPU and Memory that helps you keep track of all performance hits and the load on each of these components separately.
iStatistica, on the other hand, takes a simple approach and brings all the details on a single page. This can get a little confusing for the regular user, but it is excellent at maintaining all records from a single page. It also shows you all the processes under a single tab and can help you terminate the misbehaving process that takes up a massive amount of resources. In comparison, iStat menus have different pages for the various use cases and hardware and don’t club everything on a single page of the screen.
Both have functions that help you monitor:
- CPU Utilization – Has graphs indicators for a detailed CPU process tracking that specifies which apps use the most amount processor resources.
- GPU Utilization – Has GPU core tracking and produces detailed reports for the maximum utilization scenarios.
- Ram Usage and Memory Utilization – RAM and memory utilization can also be tracked through a linear progress bar ranging from 0-100%.
- Process Monitoring and Average Load Graphs – Has detailed reports for detailed load graphs and the uptime for the device.
- Battery Life Tracking – Gives you an average battery-life rating depending on the use case and performance utilization.
- Network Monitoring – Helps monitor download and upload rate tracking with connectivity options.
Notification Settings
iStat Menus features a notification panel that allows you to add custom notifications for everything from weather notifications to battery and CPU monitoring. The notification system is robust and requires you to set it according to your preferences to work seamlessly. However, if you need pre-built notifications, then iStatistica is the way to go as it doesn’t require a lot of customization options and works perfectly with the default settings.
iStatistica Pro also has proper notification and alert settings that can help you get notified of any CPU and performance utilization changes. However, it is very different to iStat Menus as it doesn’t allow you to add custom notification options and is expressly limited to the default options, and iStat Menus is filled to the brim with customization and personalization options.
Here’s all that you can be notified of from both the apps:
- Notifications for CPU, GPU and Memory Utilization
- Remote Notifications straight to your phone
- Warnings for remaining battery life
- Reports for Sensor and Fan data
- Notifications for weather forecast (iStat Menus only)
Winner – iStat Menus (Both provide a decent set of tools and complex graphs for monitoring and managing apps and processes. They also have powerful yet similar notification and alert settings that deliver a great experience, but iStat Menus comes out top as it brings customizability and custom notification settings that take it to the winner cup)
iStat Menus vs iStatistica Pro: unique features
The key differentiating factor between the apps is their unique features and how they improve your overall workflow. So, let’s take a look at what you’re getting with the apps and how is that going to be beneficial to you.
iStat Menus Customization Options – iStat Menus has customizability and personalization at the forefront as it believes in bringing information while looking good. Hence, you can customize everything from the menubar colours to how the dropdown feels and looks. It also allows you to customize the update frequency, making it an option that helps you save battery and improve the optimization overall throughout the UI. iStatistica Pro doesn’t have theme and colour personalization support, and you’re stuck with the default colour scheme for the app.
iStat Menus Weather Widgets – The weather widget might feel like a gimmick at first for an activity monitor, but once you start using it, you get to know all the benefits that it provides. The weather widget helps you track your week down and optimize your workflow accordingly. You can also set it anywhere on the home screen so that it is available to access at a moments notice.
iStat Menus menu bar integration – iStat Menus integrates perfectly in the menu bar and displays all the information related to battery, CPU, GPU, etc. The integration is seamless and occurs when you install the app, and you can access and optimize it according to your preferences. This is our favourite feature overall and helps us monitor everything with ease, and in turn, keeps the performance in check and the Mac healthy.
iStatistica Pro Hardware Monitoring Widgets – iStatistica Pro also has widgets similar to iStat Menus, and we love the all-black colour scheme it comes with. It blends well with the overall UI of macOS and delivers excellent value prepositions for optimizing and monitoring your workflow and performance of the Mac. However, iStatistica Pro widgets are much more potent than iStat widgets and provide all hardware information right at your home screen. In fact, the network monitoring widget also helps you keep track of your download and upload speeds whereas, iStat menus just bring in weather support with its widgets.
iStatistica Pro Remote Web Access – iStatistica Pro also has remote access built-in, and it can be accessed through your phone. This is useful when you want to quickly access your Mac without actually using it or accessing the information from a different room. For example, you can leave your Mac for rendering a video and monitor its hardware info from your phone while doing something else, overall increasing productivity.
Winner – iStat Menus (It provides a lot of features from widgets to various themes and customization options. However, it is very close as iStatistica Pro also has a lot of unique features such as remote web access)
iStat Menus vs iStatistica Pro: pricing differences
Both apps have a free trial version and a premium package that provides access to all the pro features and functionality available. However, iStatistica Pro comes out ahead as the entire package is affordable and better for users who want an activity monitor and nothing more.
iStat Menus Pricing: Free for seven days, and you can purchase it for $14.15
iStatistica Pro Pricing: Free trial version with limited features, $5.99 for the Full Package
Winner – iStatistica Pro (Cheaper and much more affordable)
iStat Menus vs iStatistica Pro: which one should you go for?
Both apps deliver a great experience for monitoring your applications and the Mac hardware. However, iStat Menus is better overall as it provides many other settings and tools that make it stand out compared to iStatistica Pro.
Don’t get us wrong iStatistica Pro is a great alternative and should be used by users that are only looking for a simple and easy to use activity monitor and nothing more but overall, the entire package from iStat Menus is simply fantastic and can help you improve your Mac’s performance and battery life without any hassle.
So, if you need an app that can help you monitor all the processes and hardware for your Mac with high customizability options and other unique features, we recommend you choose iStat Menus. It provides excellent customization options and a powerful monitoring tool that is excellent for pro users and beginners alike. With that said and done, our best recommendation for anyone looking for a decent alternative to the default Mac activity monitor tool would be iStat Menus.
However, if that’s not your cup of tea and you need a simple activity monitor app, then iStatictica Pro should be your go-to app for managing apps and processes. Though it doesn’t have many features as iStat Menus does, it still has some fantastic tools to help make your Mac a lot faster and smoother to work on.
If you are still confused about what to pick, you can check out their trial versions from the link above and get a feel for which one works better for you.
