5 Hidden Bar Alternatives to Enhance Your Mac Menu Bar

Do you feel stressed out when your menu bar is cluttered with many icons and notifications? You should have a clean and organized workspace if you want to stay productive and focused. This is where the menu bar management tools come in. You can declutter your screens and streamline your workflow with tools like Hidden Bar.

Although Hidden Bar is a lightweight and free menu bar management tool, it does have some limitations. In this article, we’ll explore 5 Hidden Bar alternatives. By reviewing their features and competitive advantages, you’ll find the perfect solution to hide your apps in the menu bar.

What Are the Limitations of Hidden Bar?

Before exploring alternatives to Hidden Bar, we’ve summarized its limitations. Accordingly, you’ll see whether it’s worth trying other hidden bar apps.

• You can hide and show icons in the menu bar, but you cannot style or group icons.
• You need to manually drag icons to the left of the divider to hide them. It isn’t convenient to automatically hide and manage your app icons.
• It isn’t compatible with VoiceOver.
• It may suffer from inconsistencies with some icons.
• It struggles to work on smaller screens.
• It fails to update in time, so you may face compatibility issues with newer macOS versions.
• It cannot show relevant icons based on the status of macOS.

Top 5 Best Alternatives to Hidden Bar in 2025

In this part, we’ll highlight 5 Hidden Bar alternatives that offer more customization options than the Hidden Bar.

BuhoBarX (Free)

BuhoBarX is developed to declutter your Mac menu bar and enhance the overall experience on your Mac. With BuhoBarX, you can hide the icons that are not usually used. Also, you can reorganize them through a drag-and-drop interface. Moreover, you can get quick access to the hidden icons via hotkeys.

Key Features

• Keep your menu bar clean by hiding the unnecessary menu bar items.
• Quickly reveal hidden icons by hovering or clicking on the menu bar.
• Quickly access the hidden icons via custom hotkeys.
• Rearrange icons by dragging and dropping in an interface.
• Adjust the spacing between menu bar icons.

Editor’s Review

BuhoBarX excels in hiding menu bars. Compared with Hidden Bar, it gives you more control over the hidden bar apps. You can easily hide the unwanted items and quickly access them by clicking on the custom hotkeys or the menu bar. As this tool is up to date, you can operate it on the latest macOS versions, including macOS Tahoe 26.

Bartender (Paid)

Bartender is a popular alternative to Hidden Bar. It offers several options to personalize and organize your menu bar. Bartender provides more control than Hidden Bar because it allows you to hide, organize, and control your icons. Additionally, it has advanced features, including grouping icons, customizing the appearance of the menu bar, and managing the icon spacing.

Key Features

• Hide, show, and rearrange menu bar icons with ease.
• Customize the colors, borders, and rounded corners of menu bar items.
• Automatically show or hide items in terms of use cases, like the battery level or location.
• Quickly access the hidden items via search or hotkeys.
• Create presets for different workflows.
• It’s always up to date, so it can be well compatible with various macOS features and versions.

Editor’s Review

Bartender offers more customization options than Hidden Bar while remaining a lightweight menu bar app. You can hide, show, group, and rearrange icons, as well as customize the colors and borders of your menu bar. This gives you greater control without slowing down your Mac.

Note that major version upgrades may require payment, and it can take some time to explore all its features. The latest version, Bartender 6, is fully compatible with macOS Tahoe.

Vanilla (Paid)

Vanilla is as simple as the Menu Bar app. You can hide the icons by simply placing the divider among the icons. If you want to access them again, tap on the arrow icon. With Vanilla’s Pro version, you can unlock more advanced features. For example, you can completely hide unwanted icons and automatically hide the items after 5 seconds.

Key Features

• Declutter your screen by hiding the unwanted menu bar apps.
• Hide menu bar apps by placing a divider in your menu bar.
• Access hidden icons by clicking the arrow icon.
• Toggle hidden icons via custom hotkeys.
• Completely remove icons from the menu bar.
• Automatically hide icons after a set period, like 5 seconds.

Editor’s Review

It’s quite easy to hide your menu bar apps with Vanilla. You can simply place a divider to hide the unwanted menu bar items. It’s also easy to access the hidden icons with a simple click. For those who seek more advanced features, they can pay for a Pro version to unlock more features like shortcuts. The Pro version users can also completely remove icons from the menu bar.

Ice (Free)

It’s easy to use Ice to manage menu bar items on your Mac. Via a drag-and-drop interface, you can easily hide and reorganize your menu bar apps. Meanwhile, it’s convenient to activate the apps by hovering, swiping, and clicking. Also, you can display the hidden icons in a separate bar. Except for managing the menu bar apps, it also enables you to personalize the appearance of your menu bar. You can customize tints, shadows, and shapes.

Key Features

• Hide and rearrange menu bar items via a drag-and-drop interface.
• Show hidden items by hovering, clicking, scrolling, or swiping.
• Change the appearance of your menu bar, such as tints, shadows, borders, and shapes.
• Switch hidden sections and application menus via custom hotkeys.
• Keep certain items always hidden.
• Show hidden items in a separate bar.

Editor’s Review

Ice is also an outstanding menu bar management app. As it has more advanced features, it’s more convenient than Hidden Bar. Despite hiding menu bar apps, it’s also easy to activate them. You can make them appear again by hovering, clicking, scrolling, and swiping. Additionally, you can optimize the appearance of your menu bar by changing out tints, shadows, and borders.

Barbee (Paid)

Barbee is used to organize your menu bar items. With Barbee, you can hide and show icons with a click. The auto features can make everything easier. You can set up rules to automatically hide or show icons according to specific apps or conditions. Besides, you can customize the appearance of your menu bar, like changing the round corners, adding shadows, and even changing the Apple logo.

Key Features

• Hide and show menu bar app icons with one click.
• Set up rules to automatically hide and show the menu bar apps based on specific scenarios.
• Access to your favorite apps with custom shortcuts.
• Customize the menu bar with emojis, symbols, text, and images.
• Works well on newer MacBook Pros.
• Quickly search your menu bar items in a floating window.
• Fit more icons in less space.

Editor’s Review

Barbee is an outstanding menu bar management app. The customization features are stronger than the Hidden Bar’s. You can set up your rules to automatically hide and show menu bar apps. Also, you can change the appearance of the menu bar. With Barbee, you can have a more customizable experience.

Conclusion

While Hidden Bar allows you to manage menu bar apps, it lacks many customization options. By trying the top 5 Hidden Bar alternatives mentioned in this post, you can better manage the menu bar icons and customize the menu bar as you like.