--- title: "The MacOS Menubar Apps I Haven't Uninstalled" excerpt: "CodexBar, CleanShot X, Rectangle, LuLu… A tour of the macOS menubar apps that survived the big cleanup: lightweight, useful, frictionless." author: "Cédric TOURNIER" author_url: "https://mysaas.blog/en/@Amorem" published_at: 2026-05-13 locale: en tags: #macos source: "https://mysaas.blog/en/@Amorem/the-macos-menubar-apps-i-haven-t-uninstalled" site: https://mysaas.blog --- # The MacOS Menubar Apps I Haven't Uninstalled There are apps you install because you saw a tweet. There are apps you install because a Reddit thread said they were "game-changing". And above all, there are all the apps you uninstall two days later or (worse) that are never launched again and quietly end their days buried in your Applications folder. This post is about the ones that survived. ## CodexBar **What it is:** a menu bar app that displays your remaining LLM credit usage in real time (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor... 28 providers supported to date, which is huge). **Why I kept it:** I tested several in this category. CodexBar is by far the best made. It knows your reset windows (5h, 7 days), it updates in the background, the UI is clean. It's the kind of small tool that was clearly written by someone who actually uses it. **In practice**: a quick glance at the top right and I know whether I'll need to juggle between accounts or whether I can hit the accelerator and spin up a bunch of sub-agents. ![Codex Bar](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/b07582f3-abe0-42d2-8fb4-8600e6c69b62.png) ## CleanShot X for Mac **What it is:** a replacement for the native macOS screenshot tool. The only paid one on this list. **Why I kept it:** because it's more productive than the native tool. Capture history, pre-configured actions (save / clipboard / both, however you like), all in one action where macOS requires three. That's what justifies the purchase. **In practice**: Now that we spend our days feeding context to LLMs, it shows even more. Codex Desktop does have its own annotation window directly on your product view, which is great when you have the time and everything is up and running. But when you just want to go fast, direct, without friction: CleanShot. Capture + to clipboard, in two seconds. Having the history often saves the day and avoids ending up with a folder full of screenshot files, like I used to have. ![CleanShot X](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/f81dcb44-d97a-4b08-aa1f-a2711cebb124.avif) ## App Day Progress - App Store **What it is:** a progress bar for your day in the status bar. Free. **Why I kept it:** it's exactly CodexBar, but for time. At a glance you know what you have left before the bath-dinner-bedtime rush, before picking up the kids, before the day is gone. And it changes the decisions you make: do I dive into a big project with 4 hours ahead of me, or do I stick to small bug fixes? **In practice**: It's a resource gauge. Not for your battery, not for your credits. Just your available time! For employees it's almost the opposite: it's the reward. Watching the bar approach 100% and knowing you're allowed to put the keyboard down. ![Day Progress](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/e7ddebc5-3d3e-475e-bb45-7d8dd1a5b40c.png) ## Rectangle **What it is:** a macOS window manager. Free. **Why I kept it:** Out of laziness to look for something else. I use 5% of its features. Concretely, I use it to snap a window to the left or right of the screen, with the right proportions, via a keyboard shortcut. That's it. I didn't read the docs. I didn't configure much. It worked right out of the box. **In practice**: macOS may have done this natively for several versions now, I don't know and I don't care to find out — since it's been in place my workflow is built around it. ![Rectangle](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/0ab78e2e-9d46-4fba-b983-7af77f1019d0.png) ## Objective-See: LuLu **What it is:** an open source firewall for **outgoing** traffic on macOS. Free. **Why I switched:** I previously used a paid version (the thing with the little helicopter hat, Little Snitch, for those who know it). It's a paranoid person's tool: every unusual outgoing connection triggers an authorization popup. 99.99% of the time it's legit. It's quite informative — you get a better understanding of what's going on behind the curtain. So, since I was already being paranoid, it made sense to go with an open source app, with community-audited code, maintained by Patrick Wardle — if you know the macOS security world, you know the caliber of person we're talking about. **In practice**: It's not for everyone. But if you have a bit of a sysadmin background, you might enjoy it. ![Lulu](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/88ca5e0c-e4aa-4f19-b26c-ee2aebf0a6f5.png) ## App Coin Tick - Menu Bar Crypto - App Store **What it is:** the Bitcoin price in your macOS status bar. Free on the App Store. **Why I kept it:** It's been installed for over a year, it's never crashed, never asked for money or shown intrusive ads. It's almost surprising. **In practice**: During the day, with just a glance, I have a view on the direction of financial markets. ![Coin Tick](https://assets.mysaas.blog/posts/assets/2026-05-13/819e2614-ff9e-4fc2-803c-3b2e71779389.png) ## Conclusion They just do their job without getting in your way. They save you a few seconds here and there, and that's always something. ## Sources - [App Day Progress - App Store](https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/day-progress/id6450280202?mt=12) - [App Coin Tick - Menu Bar Crypto - App Store](https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/coin-tick-menu-bar-crypto/id1141688067?mt=12) - [CodexBar](https://codexbar.app/) - [CleanShot X for Mac](https://cleanshot.com/) - [Rectangle](https://rectangleapp.com/) - [Objective-See: LuLu](https://objective-see.org/products/lulu.html)