Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Hidden Bar VS ToDesktop

Compare Hidden Bar VS ToDesktop and see what are their differences

Hidden Bar logo Hidden Bar

A ultra-light MacOS utility that helps hide menu bar icons.

ToDesktop logo ToDesktop

Convert your web app to a desktop app in 2 minutes.
  • Hidden Bar Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-18
  • ToDesktop Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-22

Hidden Bar features and specs

  • Free and Open Source
    Hidden Bar is free to use and its source code is available on GitHub for anyone to inspect, modify, and contribute to. This promotes transparency and community-driven improvement.
  • Minimalist Design
    The app has a simple, minimalist design that integrates seamlessly with the macOS user interface without being obtrusive.
  • Improves Productivity
    By hiding unnecessary menu bar icons, Hidden Bar helps users focus on their tasks without being distracted by clutter.
  • Lightweight
    The application is lightweight and uses minimal system resources, ensuring that it won't slow down your machine.
  • Customizable
    Users can easily configure which icons to hide and which to display, allowing for a tailored experience.

Possible disadvantages of Hidden Bar

  • Limited to macOS
    Hidden Bar is only available for macOS, which limits its usability to Apple computer users.
  • Manual Updates
    As a GitHub project, updates may not be as frequent or automatic as those of apps available on the Mac App Store.
  • Basic Functionality
    While it effectively hides menu bar icons, it lacks additional advanced features that some paid alternatives might offer.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    With frequent macOS updates, there is a potential for compatibility issues, which may require manual intervention from the user or the community to resolve.
  • Dependence on Community
    As an open-source project, Hidden Bar relies heavily on community contributions. If the community loses interest, the app could become outdated or unsupported.

ToDesktop features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ToDesktop provides a straightforward interface to convert web apps into desktop applications, requiring minimal technical skills.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    The service enables web applications to run as native applications across multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • Automatic Updates
    ToDesktop allows desktop applications to receive automatic updates, ensuring that users always have the latest version without manual intervention.
  • Custom Branding
    Developers can customize the branding of the desktop application, including icons and splash screens, to match their brand identity.

Possible disadvantages of ToDesktop

  • Limited Advanced Features
    ToDesktop may not provide some advanced features needed by more complex desktop applications, limiting functionality for certain use cases.
  • Subscription Cost
    The service requires a subscription, which can be a drawback for individuals or small businesses with limited budgets.
  • Dependency on Web Technologies
    Applications created with ToDesktop are still reliant on web technologies and may not perform as well as fully native applications in some scenarios.

Analysis of Hidden Bar

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Hidden Bar is considered good by many users due to its functionality, simplicity, and open-source nature, which provides transparency and community-driven development.

Why this product is good

  • Hidden Bar is a popular macOS menu bar management tool that allows users to hide or group icons on the menubar. It is open-source, lightweight, and provides an easy way to declutter the menu bar, making it particularly useful for users who have many apps running simultaneously. Hidden Bar offers simple customization options and runs seamlessly in the background. Its ease of use and effectiveness for organizing icons has led to positive feedback from its user base.

Recommended for

    Hidden Bar is recommended for macOS users who want to keep their menu bar organized and clutter-free, especially those who manage multiple applications and system indicators. It is ideal for individuals who appreciate straightforward tools with minimalistic design and end-users who value open-source software.

Hidden Bar videos

THE DECEASED HIDDEN BAR REVIEW @Petaling Street

More videos:

  • Review - 6 hidden bars in Taipei
  • Review - Top 6 Hidden BAR (Bangkok/Thailand) [SUBTITLE]

ToDesktop videos

No ToDesktop videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hidden Bar and ToDesktop)
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Mac Tools
85 85%
15% 15
Mac
71 71%
29% 29

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hidden Bar should be more popular than ToDesktop. It has been mentiond 34 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Hidden Bar mentions (34)

  • Tailscale's New macOS Home
    Tame the clutter, by using another menubar app to hide the overflow. Examples: https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden https://www.macbartender.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Tailscale's New macOS Home
    Iโ€™ve been using this for years. Itโ€™s simple and works perfectly: https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Tailscale's New macOS Home
    I had been using Hidden Bar but gonna give Thaw a shot now. Looks a bit more full featured and under active development! https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Why I'm Spoiled by Apple Silicon (But Still Love Framework)
    25. Left-clicking in a window to raise it _sometimes_ performs actions in the app (e.g. Clicking a button or scrolling the window) and _sometimes_ only raises the window. It seems to depend on the app. 26. No ability to use focus-follows-mouse. 27. Home/End keys send you to the top/bottom of the whole document instead of the start/end of a line. The latter is much more useful to me and I use it all the time. You... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Ice - open source bar manager for macOS
    I use Hidden Bar (https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden) for this. It works well enough despite not being updated in a while, though there is a bit of jank. Just tried out Ice and it seems to be a nice, lower jank replacement! - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

ToDesktop mentions (4)

  • Someone please help me. Electron-builder skips signing for no reason.
    You may checkout todesktop.com if you want to offload these tasks. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Looking for an ElectronJS expert.
    We're looking to create something like todesktop.com with some additions. Source: over 4 years ago
  • How to make a Rails app for the desktop platform?
    Write a Rails app and wrap it with https://todesktop.com. Source: almost 5 years ago
  • Need some advice regarding making a desktop app
    I also came across flask-desktop, and todesktop.com which claim to be able to convert a flask app into a desktop app. I'm not sure how an https request would work there, but I'm considering looking into that as well. Source: about 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Hidden Bar and ToDesktop, you can also consider the following products

Bartender Mac App - Bartender is an award-winning app for macOS that superpowers your menu bar, giving you total control over your menu bar items, what's displayed, and when, with menu bar items only showing when you need them.

Electron - Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

Rectangle - Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.

Fluid - Turn Your Favorite Web Apps into Real Mac Apps.

Vanilla - Vanilla is a free Mac app that lets you hide icons from your menu bar.

Unite for macOS - Turn websites into native apps on your Mac.