#What each app is
boring.notch is a free, open-source notch app, licensed GPL-3.0 and maintained in public by TheBoredTeam on GitHub. NotchBay is this site's own closed-source, $9 one-time notch app, so read every recommendation on this page knowing which side it comes from. Both draw a Dynamic Island-style panel around the MacBook notch; the wider category, and which Macs have a notch at all, is mapped in the Dynamic Island for Mac guide.
boring.notch predates NotchBay and proved that people want the notch to do things. If you take one sentence from this page: both apps keep your data on the Mac, and the Mac is better for both existing. The rest is a fair accounting of price, requirements and features, checked on 5 Sep 2026.
#Specs at a glance
| Spec | boring.notch | NotchBay |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $9 one-time; 14-day money-back guarantee; no free tier, no self-serve trial |
| Source and signing | Open source, GPL-3.0, code on GitHub | Closed source; signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple |
| Minimum macOS | macOS 14 Sonoma or later | macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later |
| Install | DMG from GitHub releases, or brew install --cask TheBoredTeam/boring-notch/boring-notch | Direct download from notchbay.com; not on the Mac App Store |
| Updates | GitHub releases and Homebrew | Automatic, signature-verified |
| Limits | Volunteer roadmap; call controls, clipboard history and dictation are not in the README | macOS 26 only; designed for a notched MacBook (a floating pill elsewhere); tray holds 60 clips plus pins; Accessibility permission for call controls; Meet through Chrome, Brave or Comet, not Safari; Full Disk Access for message mirroring; closed source; not on the App Store |
Verified 5 Sep 2026 against the boring.notch README on GitHub and the shipping NotchBay build (0.2.34).
#Feature by feature
| Feature | boring.notch (README) | NotchBay |
|---|---|---|
| Now playing | ✓ music control center with a visualizer | ✓ now playing with waveform and media controls |
| Calendar | ✓ calendar integration | ✓ next event with one-click join |
| Volume and brightness HUD | ✓ full macOS HUD replacement | ✓ HUD drawn in the notch |
| Files and sharing | ✓ file shelf with AirDrop | ✓ drop a file on the notch: Google Drive share link, AirDrop or QR code |
| Zoom and Google Meet calls | not listed | ✓ mute, camera, screen share, leave (Meet via Chrome, Brave, Comet) |
| Clipboard history | not listed (the shelf holds files you drop) | ✓ last 60 clips, sorted by type, OCR on screenshots, pins |
| Dictation | not listed | ✓ on-device via SpeechAnalyzer, inserted at the cursor |
| Message notifications | not listed | ✓ mirrored into the notch with quick reply (Full Disk Access) |
| AirPods and Bluetooth battery | roadmap item (bluetooth status) | ✓ on connect, with device art |
| Camera and mic indicators | not listed | ✓ in-use chips, plus Caps Lock, Focus, download and lock-screen chips |
| Per-app skins | not listed | ✓ the island changes with the frontmost app |
| Claude Code companion | not listed | ✓ agent status, usage limits, approve or deny permission prompts |
The boring.notch column reads the README's feature list and roadmap on 5 Sep 2026. "Not listed" means the README does not claim it, not that a fork could never add it.
Music
Both apps handle now playing well, and boring.notch built much of the category's identity here: hover the notch, get artwork and controls, plus its visualizer. NotchBay's card adds a live waveform. If media control is all you want, this row alone should not sell you a paid app.
Calendar and calls
Both show your calendar. NotchBay goes one step further: the next event carries a one-click Join, and once you are in the call, mute, camera, screen share and leave work from the notch for Zoom and Google Meet. That needs the Accessibility permission, and Meet works through a Chromium browser bridge (Chrome, Brave, Comet); Safari is not supported yet. boring.notch does not list call controls, a scope choice rather than a failure.
Shelf versus tray
boring.notch ships a file shelf: drop files on the notch, pull them out later, send them by AirDrop. Simple and useful. NotchBay's tray is a clipboard history instead: it keeps your last 60 clips sorted by type (text, links, colors, images, files), screenshots and screen recordings land in it automatically, screenshots are OCR'd so the text inside them is searchable, and pinned clips never expire. It is a tray, not an unlimited archive; the full comparison of clipboard tools is in clipboard history on Mac.
Voice
Dictation is NotchBay territory: on-device speech recognition built on Apple's SpeechAnalyzer, with transcripts you can copy or insert at the cursor. SpeechAnalyzer is the macOS 26 speech API, which is the main reason NotchBay's floor is macOS 26 while boring.notch runs back to Sonoma.
#Where boring.notch beats NotchBay
The closed-source app here is this site's own, so read this as a competitor conceding the other side's real advantages, with specifics.
- Price: $0 against $19. No purchase decision to make and no license key to keep.
- Three more macOS releases. boring.notch runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later; NotchBay needs macOS 26. On a Mac still on Sonoma or Sequoia, boring.notch is the one you can run today.
- Auditable code. When boring.notch says your media data stays local, you can read the function that makes it true. With NotchBay you are trusting the developer plus the Developer ID signature and Apple's notarization scan. Verify-it-yourself is a stronger guarantee than trust-the-developer.
- Fork and patch rights. The GPL-3.0 license lets you fix a bug, add a feature or ship your own build, and the project takes pull requests. NotchBay takes email.
- A Homebrew cask. One command installs it and brew upgrade keeps it current; NotchBay updates itself but installs from a download.
- Fewer permissions to grant. NotchBay's call controls need Accessibility and its message mirroring needs Full Disk Access. Nothing in boring.notch's feature list needs either.
#Where NotchBay earns its price
- Meetings. One-click join from the calendar card, then mute, camera, screen share and leave from the notch for Zoom and Google Meet.
- A clipboard tray. Last 60 clips, sorted by type, OCR on screenshots, pins that never expire.
- Dictation. On-device transcription, copied or inserted at the cursor, audio never leaves the Mac.
- Messages in the notch. Notifications mirrored with quick reply (Full Disk Access required).
- The small stuff. AirPods and Bluetooth battery on connect, a focus timer, weather for a chosen city, camera and mic in-use chips, per-app skins, a Claude Code companion that shows agent status and usage limits from the local logs.
- One person on support. When NotchBay breaks after a macOS update, paying users land in the developer's inbox and the fix is his job rather than a volunteer's evening. That is a real difference, not a moral one; volunteer projects often answer faster than people expect.
Added up: if boring.notch covers your workflow, it is not the budget choice, it is the correct choice. NotchBay is worth $9 when the meeting controls, tray search and dictation would pay it back inside your actual week.
#Privacy in both apps
The positions are close where it matters: both apps process your data on the Mac. boring.notch lets you confirm that in the source. NotchBay's terms, stated plainly: no account; clips, transcripts and calendar events are never uploaded; dictation audio is processed on-device; a file you drop to share goes to your own Google Drive, not to any NotchBay server; and the app sends one anonymous install check-in (a random id, the app version and license state), nothing personal. Each permission is requested only when you switch on the feature that needs it, and the Settings window has a live Permissions page showing what is granted.
#Verdict
Pick boring.notch if open source is your requirement, if your Mac runs macOS 14 or 15, if music, calendar and a file shelf are all you want, or if you like software you can patch yourself. Its Gatekeeper warning on first launch is explained in is boring.notch safe.
Pick NotchBay if your day runs through meetings, copied things and voice notes, and you have a notched MacBook on macOS 26. The Join button and in-call mute alone tend to decide this for meeting-heavy people.
And genuinely: try boring.notch first if you are unsure. If it is enough, you saved $19. If you find yourself wishing the island did more, that wish list is roughly NotchBay's feature set. For the wider field, see the Mac notch app roundup and NotchBay vs NotchNook.
#Frequently asked questions
Can NotchBay and boring.notch run at the same time?
No. Both draw in the same notch region and will overlap, so quit one before running the other. If you are comparing the two, give each a full day on its own rather than switching mid-meeting.
Which MacBooks have a notch for these apps to use?
MacBook Pro models from 2021 onward and MacBook Air models from the 2022 M2 redesign onward. The notch measures about 220x38 points on the 16-inch and 185x32 points on the 14-inch, roughly 12.2 percent of the screen's width. On a Mac without a notch NotchBay runs as a small floating pill at the top of the screen instead.
Can you add a feature to boring.notch instead of buying NotchBay?
Yes, if you write Swift. The project is GPL-3.0 on GitHub under TheBoredTeam and takes contributions through the usual fork and pull request flow. If you are missing one specific feature, extending the open project can be the better path, and the license lets you ship your own build.
