Take back your menu bar. Hide what you don't need, find anything in a keystroke, and make the bar look the way you want. Free and open source. Private by design: no tracking, no account, nothing ever leaves your Mac.
I was a long time @Bartender 5 user, but left after the acquisition. I tried several open source alternatives, including @Ice (which is what Thaw forked) but couldn't get it to work.
Hoping Thaw is the Bartender successor I've been seeking!
switched off Bartender a while back after the whole acquisition mess, so an open source alternative that's private by design is exactly the kind of thing I want to trust. rearranging other apps' menu bar icons usually needs Accessibility permission though - curious how you square that with the "nothing ever leaves your Mac" claim, since that permission technically lets an app see a lot more than just icon positions
Been using Bell for a while, and has a focus steal bug that drives me crazy. Unfortunately i can't get it to work on Golden Gate - hope you add support soon!
About Thaw on Product Hunt
“The only app that owns your whole menu bar, in and out”
Thaw launched on Product Hunt on September 3rd, 2026 and earned 112 upvotes and 6 comments, placing #9 on the daily leaderboard. Take back your menu bar. Hide what you don't need, find anything in a keystroke, and make the bar look the way you want. Free and open source. Private by design: no tracking, no account, nothing ever leaves your Mac.
Thaw was featured in Mac (103.7k followers), Open Source (68.8k followers), GitHub (41.4k followers) and Menu Bar Apps (12.3k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 55.7k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Thaw?
Thaw was hunted by Chris Messina. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Thaw stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Chris Messina
I was a long time @Bartender 5 user, but left after the acquisition. I tried several open source alternatives, including @Ice (which is what Thaw forked) but couldn't get it to work.
Hoping Thaw is the Bartender successor I've been seeking!