Side by side
Crowny’s column is ours. Atoll’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 | Atoll |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5 one-time (list $15) | Free |
| How you pay | Pay once, 14-day refund, every version 1 update | Free |
| Open source | No | Yes, GPL-3.0 |
| macOS | 15+, Apple Silicon | 14+, a MacBook with a notch |
| Latest version | 0.1.0 | v2.3.3 (24 Jul 2026) |
| AI coding agent sessions | YesClaude Code, Codex, Grok | — (not listed) |
| Approve agent prompts in the notch | YesClaude Code; Codex shows when it waits | — (not listed) |
| AI plan usage limits | YesClaude 5-hour and weekly | YesLLM usage tracking |
| Music / now playing | YesSpotify, Apple Music, YouTube | YesApple Music, Spotify, Cider |
| Calendar | YesGoogle, iCloud, Outlook | YesCalendar previews |
| Meetings | YesOne-tap Join | — (not listed) |
| File shelf | Yes | Yes |
| Clipboard history | Yes | Yes |
| Timers / focus | YesFocus, timer, stopwatch, alarms | Yes |
| Games | YesSnake, Tetris, 2048, Flappy | — (not listed) |
| Weather | Yes | YesLock screen widget |
| Volume / brightness HUD | No | — (not listed) |
| Works without a notch | YesA pill under the menu bar | NoREADME: a MacBook with a notch |
| 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 | CPU, GPU, memory, network and disk stats; Lock screen widgets; Colour picker, terminal tab; LLM usage tracking (via OpenUsage) |
| Privacy | No account, no analytics; your data stays on the Mac | — |
Who should pick which
Pick Atoll if
- You want it free and open source (GPL-3.0).
- You want CPU, GPU, memory, network and disk stats in the notch, or lock screen widgets.
- You like a colour picker and a terminal tab in the notch.
Pick Crowny if
- Your coding agents, each with a face, and Claude Code’s permission prompts answered from the notch.
- Your next meeting with one-tap Join, focus sessions that hold nudges, and wellbeing reminders.
- A Mac without a notch, or an external display: Crowny runs as a pill under the menu bar. Atoll’s README asks for a MacBook with a notch.
- Games for the minute a build takes: Snake, Tetris, 2048 and Flappy.
Why people switch to Crowny
Atoll and Crowny agree on a lot: music, timers, clipboard history, a file shelf, calendar and weather all belong in the notch. Atoll adds system stats and lock screen widgets; it also tracks LLM usage through the open-source OpenUsage project.
Crowny is built for people working alongside coding agents. It watches the Claude Code, Codex and Grok sessions you start yourself, in Terminal, iTerm, Ghostty or Warp, and shows each one’s state in the notch. When Claude Code asks to run a command, the question drops down with Approve and Deny. Your Claude 5-hour and weekly limits sit one glance up.
Crowny is also a signed app you buy once, with no account, and it works on Macs without a notch.
Pricing
Atoll is free. 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
Is Atoll free?
Yes. Atoll is free and open source under GPL-3.0, on GitHub.
Does Atoll work on a Mac without a notch?
Its README lists a MacBook with a notch as a requirement. Crowny runs on Macs without one, as a small pill under the menu bar.
Does Crowny show system stats like Atoll?
No. Crowny shows your Mac’s battery and AirPods, but not CPU, GPU, memory or network graphs.
Can Crowny approve Claude Code prompts?
Yes. With the Claude Code hook on, Claude Code’s permission prompts appear in the notch with Approve and Deny.
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.