Alcove is one of the best-looking notch apps on the Mac. It costs $14.99 once, it is built natively in Swift, and it is the closest thing you can buy to the iPhone's Dynamic Island. The reasons to look elsewhere are narrow, and they are worth naming before you switch.
Quick disclosure: we make OneNotch, one of the apps below. We have tried to be fair to every app, including where Alcove is the better choice. Prices and features were checked against each app's own pages on September 30, 2026; check them again before you buy.
Why people look for an Alcove alternative
Three reasons come up most, from most to least common.
It is not free. Alcove has a 72-hour trial and then costs $14.99 once. There is no subscription, and no free tier. $14.99 is fair for how polished it is, but open-source apps such as Boring Notch do a lot of the same for nothing, and "free" shows up in most searches for an alternative.
It needs macOS 15. Alcove is reported to need macOS 15 Sequoia or later, so it will not install on Sonoma. Check its own page for the current requirement. Note that OneNotch also needs macOS 15, on Apple Silicon, so this reason does not apply if you are choosing between those two.
It does less, on purpose. Alcove is Now Playing, HUDs, notifications, Live Activities, swipe gestures and lock-screen widgets. There is no file shelf and no clipboard manager. If you wanted the notch to do work, you will hit that wall quickly.
What you would give up by leaving is real. Alcove's animations are among the smoothest in the category, its lock-screen widgets are good, and its swipe gestures feel like an iPhone.
The Alcove alternatives
The free ones come first.
1. Boring Notch (free, open source)
Boring Notch is what most people find when they search for a free Alcove. It is open source under GPL-3.0, has around 10,900 stars on GitHub, and runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple Silicon and Intel.
On paper it does more than Alcove: music controls with an audio visualizer, a file shelf with AirDrop, calendar, weather and replacement volume and brightness HUDs. It is less polished, though. The app is not notarized by Apple, so you clear a Gatekeeper warning the first time you open it, and some users report bugs.
Pick it if: the price was the only thing stopping you.
2. Atoll (free, open source)
Atoll builds on the Boring Notch code and adds tools of its own: clipboard history, a color picker, timers and live CPU, GPU, memory and network stats, plus lock-screen widgets. It is GPL v3 with around 4,800 stars.
It only runs on a MacBook with a physical notch (its README names the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro), so a MacBook Air owner or anyone using an external display alone is out of luck.
Pick it if: you have a notched MacBook Pro and want the notch to double as a system monitor.
3. Droppy ($9.99 list price, one-time)
Droppy is a drop shelf that grew into a small suite: a clipboard manager, meeting controls for Zoom, Teams and Meet, a focus timer, screen recording controls, per-app volume and a long list of free built-in extensions. It costs $9.99 once for two devices, with a 3-day trial and a 14-day refund window, runs on macOS 14 or later, and has a free iPhone companion app.
Pick it if: you want a file shelf and clipboard for less than Alcove.
4. NotchNook ($25 one-time or $3/month)
NotchNook is the power-user pick: a file tray with AirDrop, widgets, Shortcuts and more layout control than anything else here. It is $25 once for five devices, or $3 a month for two, and it needs macOS 14.6 or later.
It is the opposite of Alcove in feel: busy where Alcove is calm.
Pick it if: you want to tune every widget and do not mind paying more than Alcove costs.
5. OneNotch (free, Pro is a one-time upgrade)
OneNotch keeps the parts of Alcove that matter most to a lot of people, such as volume and brightness HUDs, Now Playing with floating lyrics, charging and Bluetooth Live Activities and a lock-screen player, and then adds what Alcove leaves out: a deep clipboard manager, screenshots and OCR, translation, file actions and AI-agent status for Claude Code and Codex.
The free tier is useful on its own. Pro is a one-time purchase at $9.99 lifetime, or $6.99 with code LAUNCH30, covering two Macs. OneNotch needs macOS 15 on Apple Silicon, and it works on Macs without a notch through Pill mode. Where Alcove wins: its animations are smoother, and its swipe gestures and overall polish are ahead of ours.
Pick it if: you want the notch to replace a clipboard manager and keep an eye on AI agents too.
Alcove alternatives compared
| Alcove | Boring Notch | Atoll | Droppy | NotchNook | OneNotch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | Free | Free | $9.99 | $25 or $3/mo | Free · Pro $9.99 lifetime, or $6.99 with code LAUNCH30 |
| Trial | 72 hours | n/a | n/a | 3 days | Short trial | Free tier |
| macOS | 15+ | 14+ | 14+ | 14+ | 14.6+ | 15+ (Apple Silicon) |
| Open source | No | GPL-3.0 | GPL v3 | No | No | No |
| Clipboard manager | No | — | Yes | Yes | — | Yes |
| AI-agent status | No | — | — | — | No | Yes |
| Works without a notch | — | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes (Pill mode) |
A dash means the feature is not in that app's own feature list.
The pick for each situation
- You are happy on macOS 15 and love how Alcove looks. Keep it. Nothing here animates better.
- Price is the issue. Try Boring Notch tonight.
- You want a shelf plus a clipboard manager. Droppy, for $5 less than Alcove.
- You want the most customizable dashboard. NotchNook.
- You want the notch to replace a clipboard manager and watch AI agents. OneNotch, which you can try free. For the full field, see our list of the best Mac notch apps or the feature-by-feature comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alcove free?
No. Alcove has a 72-hour trial and then costs $14.99 as a one-time purchase. There is no subscription and no free tier.
Is there a free alternative to Alcove?
Yes. Boring Notch is free and open source under GPL-3.0 and runs on macOS 14 and later. Atoll is also free and open source, but it only runs on a MacBook with a notch. OneNotch has a free tier too, with an optional one-time Pro upgrade.
Does Alcove work on macOS Sonoma?
Alcove is reported to need macOS 15 Sequoia or later, so it does not run on Sonoma. Boring Notch, Droppy and NotchNook run on macOS 14. Check each app's own page for the current requirement.
Does Alcove drain battery?
Alcove is a native Swift app built to stay light, and we are not aware of widespread battery complaints about it. Any notch app that animates music uses some power while it plays, so check Activity Monitor's CPU and Energy tabs.
Which Alcove alternative has a file shelf?
Boring Notch, NotchNook and Droppy all include a file shelf. Alcove does not. OneNotch does not keep files parked on the notch; it processes them with file actions such as resize, convert, compress and OCR.
