Bartender 3

Take back control of your menu bar

$15 From Surtees Studios, macbartender.com Needs macOS 10.12 or later

Bartender is so clever, you have to wonder why Apple hasn’t integrated its features into macOS itself. It enables you to control what appears in the menu bar and when. You can hide icons permanently, relegate them to the secondary Bartender menu, or let them temporarily appear when they update. You can also drag and drop menu items within the menu bar to rearrange them.

Configuration is handled via the app’s own System Preferences pane, which is both comprehensive and easy to navigate. Version 3 is largely a major compatibility update — rewritten from the ground up to play nicely in Sierra and High Sierra. It means you can once again control system items on the menu bar without attracting the unwanted attention of System Integrity Protection.

That said, there are some new features, too. The interface has been updated so the Bartender Bar overlays the menu bar when evoked instead of appearing beneath it. There are also two new keyboard hotkeys for searching and navigating the menu bar without using the mouse. It’s a must-have.

The bottom line. Bartender 3 remains the go-to app for those wishing to tame their menu bar.

Bartender 3

Integrates beautifully Massively configurable Easy to set up and use Free update from v2

Awesome