---
name: Ice
subtitle: The free, open-source successor to Bartender
date: 2026-05-03
category: interface
tags: [macos, menu-bar, open-source, utilities]
description: "An open-source menu bar manager that hides, organizes, and reveals icons on demand — a genuine replacement for Bartender."
link: https://icemenubar.app/
---

import { Image } from 'astro:assets';
import slide1 from '../../assets/reviews/ice/banner.png';
import slide2 from '../../assets/reviews/ice/ice-bar.png';
import slide3 from '../../assets/reviews/ice/menu-bar-layout.png';

<div class="carousel">
  <figure id="s1">
    <Image src={slide1} alt="Ice in action: a clean menu bar with hidden icons accessible on demand." />
    <figcaption>Ice in action: a clean menu bar with hidden icons accessible on demand.</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure id="s2">
    <Image src={slide2} alt="Hidden section collapses behind a chevron and reveals on click." />
    <figcaption>Hidden section collapses behind a chevron and reveals on click.</figcaption>
  </figure>
  <figure id="s3">
    <Image src={slide3} alt="Three sections: always visible, hidden, always hidden." />
    <figcaption>Three sections: always visible, hidden, always hidden.</figcaption>
  </figure>
</div>

<nav class="carousel-nav" aria-label="Carousel navigation">
  <a href="#s1">1</a>
  <a href="#s2">2</a>
  <a href="#s3">3</a>
</nav>

> A free, open-source menu bar manager: hide icons, organize them into "always visible," "hidden," and "always hidden" sections, reveal hidden ones on click. The community's chosen successor to Bartender after Bartender was sold to a new owner without telling its users.

Ice covers the same ground: a chevron in the bar collapses what you don't need to see, a search field jumps to a buried icon by name, hotkeys reveal sections directly. It tracks each macOS update without breakage — a quiet but meaningful achievement for a category that has historically struggled at every annual release.

The bar feels native rather than ported: icons don't shuffle when sections collapse, the chevron lands where the eye expects, the preferences window is built in SwiftUI. macOS 14+, MIT license.
