All your menu bar apps, one click away.
MenuBarHub is a free macOS menu bar manager that shows all your running apps — including menu-bar-only apps like Tunnelblick, iStat Menus, and others — in a single, searchable grid panel.
If your menu bar looks like this — icons crammed together, some hidden behind the notch, and you can never find the one you need — MenuBarHub is for you.
Unlike Bartender or Hidden Bar that simply hide icons, MenuBarHub gives you a launchpad for your menu bar. Click one icon, see everything.
- Grid panel — All running apps displayed in a clean, searchable grid
- Menu bar apps included — Shows apps like Tunnelblick, 1Password, Docker that only live in the menu bar
- Click to activate — Click any app to switch to it; menu bar apps trigger their dropdown menu
- Search — Quickly filter by name
- Global hotkey —
⌥ Space(Option + Space) to toggle the panel from anywhere - Lightweight — No Dock icon, minimal resource usage, zero dependencies
- Free & open source — No subscriptions, no telemetry, no nonsense
Download the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, and drag MenuBarHub to your Applications folder.
git clone https://github.com/xlw2180667/MenuBarHubApp.git
cd MenuBarHubApp
open MenuBarHubApp/MenuBarHubApp.xcodeproj
# Build and run in Xcode 26+brew install --cask menubarhubMenuBarHub requires two permissions to function:
On first launch, macOS will prompt you to grant Accessibility access. This is needed to detect and interact with menu bar app icons.
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → Enable MenuBarHub
MenuBarHub runs without App Sandbox because the Accessibility API (AXUIElement) and simulated clicks (CGEvent) cannot work inside the sandbox. This is the same approach used by Bartender, Ice, and similar tools.
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Open panel | Click the grid icon (⊞) in menu bar |
| Open panel (hotkey) | ⌥ Space |
| Switch to a Dock app | Click its icon in the panel |
| Open a menu bar app's menu | Click its icon in the panel |
| Quit an app | Right-click → Quit |
| Search | Start typing in the search box |
| Quit MenuBarHub | Click "退出 Hub" at the bottom, or right-click the menu bar icon |
- Drag-and-drop to rearrange menu bar icons
- Custom groups (Work, Network, System...)
- Quick actions panel (connect VPN, toggle settings without opening the menu)
- Command palette with fuzzy search
- Status dashboard (aggregate info from menu bar apps)
- Themes and icon customization
See the Product Roadmap for details.
- Swift 6.2, SwiftUI + AppKit
- AXUIElement API for menu bar interaction
- Carbon Events API for global hotkeys
- Zero third-party dependencies
Issues and PRs are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting.
Built as a free alternative to Bartender after its acquisition raised privacy concerns in the macOS community.
Built with the help of Claude Code by Anthropic.
