13 Free System Tasks and Process Managers for macOS
A process manager is a tool used to manage processes on an operating system. It allows users to start and stop processes, view information about running processes, and send signals to control their behavior.
In macOS, a process manager is important for monitoring and controlling the various processes running on the system, ensuring efficient resource utilization and system stability.
Activity Monitor is a built-in process management tool in macOS. It provides a graphical user interface for monitoring system resources such as CPU, memory, disk usage, and network activity. It allows users to view and manage running processes, identify resource-intensive applications, and troubleshoot performance issues.
Alternative process management tools to Activity Monitor in macOS include:
1- TaskManager
TaskManager is a powerful and reliable free and open-source task manager designed specifically for Mac OS X. It seamlessly presents a comprehensive list of applications along with detailed information about each one.
Moreover, it empowers you to effortlessly perform various actions such as quitting and hiding applications. If you are in search of a practical implementation of NSRunningApplication, look no further as TaskManager is the perfect example! :)
2- Task Manager
Task Manager is a powerful and feature-rich free and open-source application inspired by the Windows Task Manager, designed specifically for Linux and macOS.
It is built on Electron, Ant Design, systeminformation, and ECharts. Previously, there was a C++ version based on QT, which can be found in the v1.0-qt-based branch.
3- Tiny Task Manager
Tiny task manager is a free and open-source process and task manager for Linux, MacOS, and Unix-like systems. The app is written as a single Python script.
4- Sysmon or Linux Activity Monitor
Sysmon is a powerful graphical system monitor designed for Linux. It provides comprehensive information about your CPU, GPU, Memory, HDD/SDD, and network connections. It is comparable to the functionality offered by the Windows Task Manager.
Features
- Provides comprehensive information about CPU, GPU, Memory, HDD/SSD, and network connections
- Offers graphical visualization of CPU utilization and per core clock speed
- Displays GPU utilization and clock speed (currently supports only Nvidia)
- Shows memory and swap utilization
- Monitors network utilization for both WLAN and Ethernet connections, with constant updates on WLAN link bandwidth
- Tracks HDD/SSD utilization
- Provides an overview of running processes
5- Slashboard-desktop
Slashboard desktop client is a user-friendly app for monitoring server activity and performance. It offers a more ergonomic alternative to traditional terminal htop and is compatible with Linux, macOS, and Unix systems.
6- Htop
Htop is an interactive system monitoring utility for Unix-like systems, including Linux and macOS. It provides a more user-friendly and feature-rich alternative to the traditional top command.
Key Features
- Real-time monitoring of system resources such as CPU, memory, and disk usage
- Color-coded display for easier identification of processes
- Sorting and filtering options for better process management
- Ability to kill or manipulate processes directly from the interface
- Customizable settings and layout for personalized monitoring experience
7- Supervisor: A Process Control System
Supervisor is a client/server system for controlling processes on UNIX-like operating systems. It allows users to monitor and control processes related to a project or customer, and is designed to start like any other program at boot time.
8- Bashtop
Bashtop is a free and open-source resource monitor that displays usage and statistics for the processor, memory, disks, network, and processes.
Features
- Easy to use, with a game inspired menu system.
- Fast and "mostly" responsive UI with UP, DOWN keys process selection.
- Function for showing detailed stats for selected process.
- Ability to filter processes.
- Easy switching between sorting options.
- Send SIGTERM, SIGKILL, SIGINT to selected process.
- UI menu for changing all config file options.
- Auto scaling graph for network usage.
- Shows message in menu if new version is available
- Shows current read and write speeds for disks
- Multiple data collection methods which can be switched if running on Linux
9- vtop
vtop is an open-source graphical activity monitor for the command line, for Linux and macOS.
10- gotop
gotop is a terminal-based graphical activity monitor written in Go, compatible with Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS.
It has limited support for Windows and OpenBSD. When installing or modifying gotop, ensure that the layout files are placed in the correct directories for gotop to locate them.
11- gtop
This is a free and open-source System monitoring dashboard for terminal.
12- Process Manager
The Process Manager is a command-line tool for managing processes on a Unix-based system. It allows users to start and stop processes, send signals, and view information about running processes. Requires a Unix-based operating system.
13- SHProcessManager
A simple macOS process manager in Swift that you can build it yourself.