Side by side
Crowny’s column is ours. AgentNotch’s column comes from its own pages (sources below), checked on 1 October 2026. A dash means the source does not mention it, not that the app lacks it.
| Feature | Crowny | AgentNotch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5 one-time (list $15) | $9.99 one-time |
| How you pay | Pay once, 14-day refund, every version 1 update | One-time, 3-day trial, 14-day refund |
| Open source | No | No (a commercial app) |
| macOS | 15+, Apple Silicon | — |
| Latest version | 0.1.0 | 2.1.7 |
| AI coding agent sessions | YesClaude Code, Codex, Grok | YesClaude Code, Cursor, Codex, Kimi, OpenCode and more |
| Approve agent prompts in the notch | YesClaude Code; Codex shows when it waits | Yes |
| AI plan usage limits | YesClaude 5-hour and weekly | YesPlan limits |
| Music / now playing | YesSpotify, Apple Music, YouTube | — (not listed) |
| Calendar | YesGoogle, iCloud, Outlook | — (not listed) |
| Meetings | YesOne-tap Join | — (not listed) |
| File shelf | Yes | — (not listed) |
| Clipboard history | Yes | — (not listed) |
| Timers / focus | YesFocus, timer, stopwatch, alarms | — (not listed) |
| Games | YesSnake, Tetris, 2048, Flappy | — (not listed) |
| Weather | Yes | — (not listed) |
| Volume / brightness HUD | No | — (not listed) |
| Works without a notch | YesA pill under the menu bar | — (not listed) |
| Also | Reminders, notes, GitHub graph, Gmail and Apple Mail, pinned sites; Water, stand and eye-break nudges, held during focus; AirPods and Mac battery; Always on or Minimal mode; Colourful or Black & white; About 0.1% CPU at rest | Sessions grouped by project and worktree; Works in Ghostty, iTerm2, Warp, VS Code, Conductor |
| Privacy | No account, no analytics; your data stays on the Mac | “100% local session monitoring” |
Who should pick which
Pick AgentNotch if
- You use Cursor, Kimi, OpenCode, Antigravity, Pi or LM Studio. AgentNotch lists them; Crowny covers Claude Code, Codex and Grok.
- You want sessions grouped by project and worktree.
- You only want agents in the notch, nothing else.
Pick Crowny if
- You want one notch app instead of two: your agents, plus music, the next meeting with Join, timers, focus, the shelf, clipboard history and weather.
- You run Grok sessions.
- You want a face for each session that shows what it is doing, and a few games while you wait.
- You want it for $5.
Why people switch to Crowny
This is the closest comparison on this site, because both apps solve the same core problem: an agent waiting on you in a terminal you cannot see. Both show sessions in the notch, let you approve from there and show plan limits. Both say your code stays on your Mac.
Where they differ is everything else. AgentNotch is an agent monitor that happens to live in the notch. Crowny is a notch app for your whole day that happens to be very good with agents. If you would otherwise run a second notch app for music and your calendar, Crowny saves you the clash of two apps drawing in the same place.
Pricing
AgentNotch is $9.99 once, with a 3-day trial and a 14-day refund. Crowny is $5 once for one Mac (list price $15), with every version 1 update and a 14-day refund.
Crowny’s licence and what it includes are on the pricing page. Already have it? Download Crowny.
Questions
Can both apps approve Claude Code permission prompts?
Yes. AgentNotch’s site shows approvals from the notch, and Crowny drops Claude Code’s question into the notch with Approve and Deny.
Which agents does Crowny support?
Claude Code, Codex and Grok. Claude Code prompts can be approved in the notch; when Codex waits, the notch shows it and takes you to its terminal.
Does AgentNotch work on Windows or Linux?
Its FAQ says it is macOS only, with none planned. Crowny is for Mac today; Windows and Linux are coming.
Sources
Checked on 1 October 2026. Apps change; if something here is out of date, write to us and we will fix it.
NotchNook, Boring Notch, Alcove, DynamicLake, MediaMate, Atoll, Droppy, AgentNotch, TopNotch and the other names here belong to their owners. Crowny is not affiliated with any of them.