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 it is the only one of the two that detects and reports the menu bar icons macOS hides behind the MacBook notch.
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 the MacBook notch | ✓ | — | 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…
- The notch is your actual problem and you want the count and the names, not a workaround.
- 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 custom hotkeys and menu bar appearance controls 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 — Ice's panel is the behaviour reference Pelmet worked from. Pick Pelmet if the notch swallowing your icons is the specific thing driving you mad, 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