Pelmet vs Ice
Ice is the most feature-complete free menu bar manager for macOS: three sections, its own Ice Bar panel, search, custom hotkeys, and menu bar appearance controls, under the GPL-3.0 licence. Pelmet is deliberately smaller and MIT licensed, and reports menu bar icons hidden by a physical notch or covered by a calibrated software island.
Pelmet
Free · MITOpen source, no permissions required, detects notch overflow. macOS 13+.
Ice
FreeGPL-3.0, open source. Official site.
Side by side
Pelmet vs Ice, feature by feature
| Capability | Pelmet | Ice | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (MIT) | Free (GPL-3.0) | |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Licence | MIT | GPL-3.0 | MIT lets you reuse the code in a closed-source project; GPL-3.0 requires derivative works to stay open. |
| Hide and show menu bar icons | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Sections | 2 (visible, hidden) | 3 (visible, hidden, always-hidden) | |
| Panel listing hidden items | Shelf | Ice Bar | |
| Reports icons hidden by a notch or software island | ✓ | — | Ice handles the notch area well, but neither it nor any other tool counts and names the items macOS dropped. |
| Runs with no permissions at all | ✓ | ◑ | Ice asks for Screen Recording for some of its features, including parts of its panel and appearance handling. |
| Custom keyboard shortcut | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Search menu bar items | — | ✓ | |
| Menu bar appearance customisation | — | ✓ | |
| Show on hover | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Signed and notarized releases | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Homebrew cask | ✓ | ✓ |
Which one
Who each app is actually for
Choose Pelmet if…
- A physical notch or software island is your actual problem and you want the count and names.
- You want the smallest thing that solves it, with no permission prompts whatsoever.
- You prefer the MIT licence for reuse.
Choose Ice if…
- You want the most features available at no cost — Ice is unmatched there.
- You want a third always-hidden section for icons you never want to see.
- You want menu bar appearance controls and menu bar search today.
- You want the longer track record and larger community.
Verdict
Ice is the better all-round free menu bar manager and Pelmet's own README says so. Pick Pelmet if a physical notch or software island covering your icons is the specific problem, or if you want a permission-free, MIT-licensed utility you can read end to end in an afternoon.
Switching
Moving from Ice to Pelmet
- 01
Quit Ice first
Running two menu bar managers at once means both are moving the same status items. Quit Ice before launching Pelmet.
- 02
Install Pelmet
brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmet, then look next to the clock for the ╱ divider and the ‹ toggle.
- 03
Map your sections onto the divider
Ice's visible section becomes everything right of Pelmet's ╱; Ice's hidden and always-hidden sections both become everything left of it. Command-drag to arrange.
- 04
Keep both if you like
There is no harm in trying Pelmet for a week and going back. Both are free, both install and uninstall in seconds, and neither leaves anything behind in your login items you cannot see.
FAQ
Questions
- Is Ice or Pelmet better?
- Ice has more features and a larger community; Pelmet is smaller, MIT licensed, permission-free, and detects notch overflow. If you want the most capable free menu bar manager, use Ice. If your specific complaint is icons vanishing behind the notch, use Pelmet.
- Can I run Ice and Pelmet at the same time?
- You should not. Both manage the same status items and their saved positions, so they will fight and your layout will jump around. Run one at a time.
- Does Pelmet use any of Ice's code?
- No. Ice is GPL-3.0 and Pelmet is MIT, so no code is shared. Pelmet's README credits Ice as a behaviour reference for its notch panel only.
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 Ice for you, brew uninstall --cask pelmet and nothing is left behind.
$brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmet