Bartender review: From menu-bar clutter to top-shelf power
macOS Tahoe is probably one of the major design overhauls the Apple-made OS has seen recently. Yet, it is disappointing that macOS still does not let us customize the menu bar and how it works. It means you end up with the same congested menu bar, even with all the fun that Liquid Glass may offer.
Fortunately, Bartender 6—the handy menu bar management app—steps in to help. And Bartender Pro now adds Top Shelf features such as widgets, clipboard access, and file storage right from the MacBook notch. We have been testing Bartender for a week now. Here is a complete review to help you decide.
About Bartender 6
Bartender is a menu bar utility that helps you control how the macOS menu bar displays menu bar items. It allows you to, among other things, get rid of those super-clumsy menu bars. It is a huge blessing if you have a MacBook Air or Pro with the notch.
As you can understand from the image above, Bartender makes a huge difference, especially if you are easily distracted. It has, in many ways, been the menu bar control toolkit that macOS should have come with but never did.
Stephen Shan, Senior PM at Applause Group, Inc, told us:
“Tahoe had a fundamental shift in how menu bar items are managed under-the-hood.To get around this limitation, we had to rebuild everything. From the layout algorithms through to the UI, nothing was left untouched.”
For more details, read our interview here.
About Bartender Pro
Though Bartender receives regular updates, Bartender Pro is quite different. The developers have built Bartender Pro as a dedicated upgrade that turns the app from menu‑bar clutter into top‑shelf power.
The Pro version expands the app with Top Shelf features such as widgets, clipboard access, and file storage.
Our Hands-on Bartender Review
As we said, we have been testing the beta and general release of Bartender 6 for over a week now. We used an M2 MacBook Air running macOS Tahoe. For what it’s worth, we have a couple of dozen menu bar items on a day. And the notch on the MacBook Air is a great way to test some new features as well.
The Setup
To test how everything works, we uninstalled Bartender 5 from our Mac and installed the latest version that was available through Setapp. The installation did not take more than a few seconds. The app asks for two permissions: Accessibility and Screen Recording.
Once you open Bartender 6 after the initial setup, you won’t see any changes. You should first configure the menu bar behavior for the tool to take effect. At this point, we need to take a second to praise Bartender’s intuitive UI. It feels effortless to navigate different aspects of the application and the menu bar itself.
The Menu Bar
For starters, you can decide which menu bar icons show up on the interface. Bartender 6 makes things easier by creating three sections: Shown Items, Hidden Items, and Always Hidden Items.
You can drag and drop menu-bar icons from one section to another. The best part is that you get to control both third-party menu-bar icons and macOS system ones. You can use gestures, clicks, or even hovering to access the hidden items. The gestures are new and make a lot of sense if you use a touchpad.
The app offers control over how Bartender behaves with multiple screens. We also loved Bartender Bar, a feature that shows hidden menu bar items on a separate menu bar beneath the main menu bar instead of expanding everything on the main one. Overall, you have almost unlimited control over arranging menu bar items.
The Groups
When you have too many items on the menu bar, hiding them isn’t enough, especially if you want to access them. Bartender 6 has introduced a feature called Groups. This feature allows you to group multiple items under a single access group.
In our cases, we sometimes have to access menu bar items that we have kept under Always Hidden. All thanks to this new feature, we can now organize them under a single menu bar entry. Bartender 6 lets you customize how these groups work as well.
The Presets
Presets are another great way to automate how the menu bar behaves at different times or in various cases. For instance, we primarily use some menu bar apps when we’re at work, whereas some other items are more important when I am back home. Now, we can create multiple presets and change them in an instant.
Each Preset allows you to decide which menu bar items will be shown. You can also create menu bar groups that show up only when you enable the particular Preset. If you use the same Mac for work and life, you will find this helpful option.
The Triggers
You won’t want to see some menu-bar items unless something else happens. For instance, you may want to see the battery icon only when the battery level is below a particular number. You may also want to activate a preset at a specific time or location. You can use the Triggers function for this.
Bartender 6 has extended trigger support for many criteria now. You can choose trigger options like Battery, App, Wi-Fi, Location, Time, Script, etc. Another configuration we have is to activate the Home preset when our Mac is connected to the home Wi-Fi network and vice versa.
The possibilities here are endless, and it is nice to have this option.
The Widgets
Bartender 6 has also introduced Widgets to the menu management app. This is a beta feature, but you get to create custom widgets that appear on your Mac’s menu bar. You can configure these widgets based on a variety of elements such as actions, music, logic, utility, input, and triggers.
We believe these widgets are a mini version of what you can do with apps like Keyboard Maestro or BTT. In any case, it is nice to see Bartender becoming a reliable utility for all things menu bar on macOS.
The Styling & Customization
Menu bar styling is one of the most-awaited features that Bartender 6 has brought to the table. Earlier, you could control only how menu bar elements appeared on the menu bar. However, thanks to how Tahoe has introduced new rules for the menu bar, Bartender 6 now allows you to choose between different styles.
For starters, you can choose between six different ways to style your menu bar:
- Standard
- Solid Color
- Gradient
- Material
- Glass
- Classic Bar
Standard and Classic Bar are two options you may have already come across. They look similar to the macOS menu bar that you have seen on versions like Sequoia. So, if you don’t like what Apple has done with Liquid Glass, you can retain the classic menu bar design. However, all four other options offer so much control.
The Glass style, for instance, creates a transparent design, but you can control the presence of shadow and the shape of the bar. You also have a say on the position, border, thickness, etc. Solid Color, on the other hand, lets you choose a color as the menu bar background. Then, again, you have control over its shape.
If you think a static color isn’t fancy enough, you can also go for a gradient. This is a great way to take menu bar customization to a new level altogether. Bartender 6 allows you to choose the right shape for the menu bar as well. You can also separate the pills for a different look.
We must commend the Bartender developer team for their work in this department. You essentially get a lot of power that macOS is unlikely to offer natively.
The Miscellaneous
We also felt the latest version has made it easy to customize Bartender for different circumstances. The fact that you can connect presets and triggers and worry less about adjusting the menu bar is a great way to save time. So, if you want a menu bar utility that simplifies everything, you are in for a treat.
The Advanced tab on the Bartender Settings interface is also pretty great from a customization standpoint. It feels nice to access features like indexing, notifications, and delay from a single space. Many of these control options were unavailable in the previous versions.
The Performance and Stability
It is no secret that early releases of Bartender 6 had some serious bugs. They mostly happened because of the conflicts between macOS Tahoe and the app itself. We also faced some issues with the preview version, but the latest sub-release seems to have fixed the problem. So, Bartender 6 has been pretty stable since the release of its public version.
In terms of performance, the app has become slightly faster. We felt Bartender 6 takes less time to detect your clicks/gestures and modify the interface. So, we would give it good scores when it comes to speed and performance. At the end of the day, we could count on Bartender for keeping track of our menu bar.
Those additional features have only boosted productivity.
The Compatibility with macOS
Compatibility of Bartender can be a little confusing.
As of now, Bartender and the latest Bartender Pro, are compatible with devices running macOS 26 Tahoe and Sequoia. It means there is no point in getting this version if you have a Mac running Sonoma or earlier. Bartender says this has happened because many of the new features rely on the overhaul by macOS Tahoe.
However, the developer adds that they have introduced some changes to the sub-version of Bartender 5. You’d be able to enjoy those features if you stick to Bartender 5.
Also, keep in mind that Bartender 5 would not work on macOS Tahoe.
The Top Shelf (Pro version)
Bartender Pro extends Bartender 6 with a new feature called Top Shelf, which turns the MacBook notch into an interactive utility bar that feels a bit like macOS’s own Dynamic Island. Top Shelf lives just under the notch on notched Macs (and as a Dynamic Island–style bubble on machines without a notch), and it’s designed to make that space useful rather than just a design gap.
Top Shelf centers around three main sections: Widgets, Files, and Clipboard. In the Widgets section, you can pin things like a Now Playing panel for Apple Music or Spotify, a calendar view with upcoming events, a timer for active meetings, and compact status banners for volume, brightness, and battery. The Files area lets you keep up to six temporary files or folders pinned for up to a week, and you can drop files into Top Shelf to quickly share them over AirDrop. And, the Clipboard section shows up to 100 of your most recent copied items in a horizontal carousel, with search and storage that persists across reboots.
Top Shelf also supports Live Activity–style notifications for AI agents like Codex and Claude Code, giving you a compact status view of ongoing tasks so you can keep working elsewhere. The panel tucks away when Bartender itself expands, and you can bring it back with a quick hover or keyboard shortcut, so it never feels in the way.
In practice, Top Shelf feels like a natural extension of Bartender’s menu‑bar‑focused workflow. If you live in the notch and want more widgets and utilities there, Bartender Pro is a compelling upgrade; if you mostly care about hiding icons and basic automation, Bartender 6 on its own is still enough.
Bartender 6 vs Bartender Pro
Bartender 6 is the menu‑bar utility that hides, groups, and styles icons, plus adds widgets, presets, triggers, and notch‑friendly layout.
Bartender Pro builds on top of Bartender 6 with the Top Shelf, giving you:
- Persistent widgets and system info.
- Clipboard tools.
- File storage.
- More dynamic behavior around the MacBook notch.
In our view, Bartender Pro is meant for users who want more utility out of the menu bar and notch, while Bartender 6 alone is still perfectly capable for pure decluttering and basic automation.
Pros
- Rebuilt for macOS 26 (Tahoe) with a modern codebase.
- Flexible hiding, grouping, and organizing of menu bar icons.
- Supports triggers, presets, AppleScript, and hotkeys.
- Custom styling (tint, gradients, borders, corners).
- Handles notch spacing on newer MacBooks.
Cons
- Reported bugs and UI lag on macOS Tahoe.
- Some users claim upgrade pricing feels unfair.
The Pricing
You can get a Bartender 6 license for $20 one-time purchase. It’s available in Setapp subscription as well. Starting at $9.99 per month, Setapp Membership includes 260+ Mac, iOS, and web apps.
Bartender Pro is available now for $15/year. It includes Bartender 6, all future upgrades for the duration of your subscription, and the full Bartender Pro suite.
The developer also offers a 4-week free trial, during which you have full access to features.
Final Verdict
Overall, Bartender 6 remains an excellent choice if you just want to clean up your menu bar, automate icons with presets and triggers, and customize the look and feel. Bartender Pro is worth considering if you want to use the MacBook notch as a dynamic utility bar, with extra widgets, clipboard access, and file tools.
Updated on May 15, 2026, by TheSweetBits Team