Side by side
Crowny’s column is ours. MediaMate’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 | MediaMate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5 one-time (list $15) | €6.99 one-time |
| How you pay | Pay once, 14-day refund, every version 1 update | One-time, via Gumroad |
| Open source | No | Not stated |
| macOS | 15+, Apple Silicon | 13+, all Macs |
| Latest version | 0.1.0 | — |
| 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 | — (not listed) |
| Music / now playing | YesSpotify, Apple Music, YouTube | YesNow playing in the notch |
| 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 | YesVolume, brightness, backlight |
| Works without a notch | YesA pill under the menu bar | Yes“All macs are supported” |
| 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 | Keyboard backlight HUD and shortcut; Touch Bar mode |
| Privacy | No account, no analytics; your data stays on the Mac | — |
Who should pick which
Pick MediaMate if
- You want iOS-style volume, brightness and keyboard backlight HUDs. Crowny does not replace them.
- You run macOS 13 or 14, or an Intel Mac.
- You want a small app that does one job and nothing else.
Pick Crowny if
- You want a panel in the notch, not just indicators: music with a live visualiser, the next meeting with Join, timers and focus sessions.
- You run Claude Code, Codex or Grok and want each session, and Claude Code’s approvals, in the notch.
- You want a file shelf, clipboard history, weather and reminders in one place.
Why people switch to Crowny
MediaMate and Crowny overlap in one place: both show what is playing. MediaMate builds out from there into system indicators. Crowny builds out into your working day.
In Crowny, the notch shows what is live (the song, a running timer, a coding agent at work) and opens into a panel: music with cover art and a visualiser, your next meeting with one-tap Join, reminders, timers, a stopwatch and alarms, focus sessions, clipboard history, the shelf, weather and a few games. If you write code with Claude Code, Codex or Grok, each session has a face in the notch and Claude Code’s questions can be answered there.
If you like MediaMate’s HUDs, you do not have to give them up for that reason alone: Crowny does not touch the volume and brightness indicators. Running two apps that both draw around the notch can clash, though, so test it on your Mac.
Pricing
MediaMate is €6.99 one-time on Gumroad. 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
Does Crowny replace the macOS volume HUD like MediaMate?
No. Crowny leaves the volume, brightness and backlight indicators to macOS. That is MediaMate’s speciality.
Which Macs does MediaMate support?
Its site says macOS 13 or later and “All macs are supported”, with a separate mode for Touch Bar Macs. Crowny needs Apple Silicon and macOS 15.
Does Crowny show what is playing?
Yes: Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, with cover art, a live visualiser, skip and scrub.
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.