Pelmet vs Hidden Bar
Hidden Bar and Pelmet are both free, MIT-licensed, and use the same expanding-spacer technique to collapse menu bar icons with no special permissions. Pelmet adds coverage detection for physical notches and software islands, a Shelf panel that names affected icons, hover reveal, and Sparkle updates.
Pelmet
Free · MITOpen source, no permissions required, detects notch overflow. macOS 13+.
Hidden Bar
FreeMIT, open source. Official site.
Side by side
Pelmet vs Hidden Bar, feature by feature
| Capability | Pelmet | Hidden Bar | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (MIT) | Free (MIT) | |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Hiding technique | Expanding spacer | Expanding spacer | Pelmet's README credits Hidden Bar as the origin of this approach. |
| Needs no permissions | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Keyboard shortcut | ✓ | ✓ | Pelmet's is recordable in Settings; ⌥⌘B is only the default. |
| Auto-hide after a delay | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Show on hover | ✓ | — | |
| Reports icons hidden by a notch or software island | ✓ | — | |
| Panel listing hidden items | Shelf | — | |
| One-click access to a hidden item | ◑ | — | Opt-in, and only for items that advertise an action to macOS Accessibility. |
| In-app updates | Sparkle, opt-in | — | Hidden Bar is distributed through the Mac App Store, which handles its updates. |
| Distribution | Homebrew, DMG | Mac App Store, Homebrew |
Which one
Who each app is actually for
Choose Pelmet if…
- You want to know what a physical notch or software island made unreachable.
- You want hover reveal and a panel that names the missing items.
- You want a project that is actively shipping releases right now.
Choose Hidden Bar if…
- You want the absolute minimum — one chevron, nothing else to think about.
- You prefer installing from the Mac App Store and letting it handle updates.
- You want the option with the longest history and the most installs behind it.
Verdict
These two are closer than any other pair on this site: same licence, same technique, same lack of permissions. Hidden Bar is the minimal classic. Pelmet adds physical-notch and software-island coverage reporting, hover reveal, and the Shelf.
Switching
Moving from Hidden Bar to Pelmet
- 01
Quit Hidden Bar
Both apps manage the same status items, so run one at a time. Quit Hidden Bar from its chevron menu.
- 02
Install Pelmet
brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmet, or grab the notarized DMG.
- 03
Re-sort your icons
Hidden Bar's separator becomes Pelmet's ╱ divider and works the same way: Command-drag anything you always want visible to its right.
FAQ
Questions
- Is Pelmet a fork of Hidden Bar?
- No. Pelmet is an independent Swift 6 codebase. It credits Hidden Bar as the origin of the expanding-spacer technique both apps use, but shares no code.
- Does Hidden Bar detect notch overflow?
- No. Hidden Bar hides the icons you tell it to hide. When macOS separately drops icons that do not fit beside the notch, Hidden Bar has no way to report it — that detection is what Pelmet adds.
Other comparisons
Try Pelmet — it uninstalls as fast as it installs
Free, MIT licensed, and no permissions to grant. If it is not better than Hidden Bar for you, brew uninstall --cask pelmet and nothing is left behind.
$brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmet