The short answer. Pulse is the native menu bar market tracker covering US, Hong Kong and mainland-China listings, crypto, indices, ETFs and portfolio profit and loss. StockDock does the same job with a privacy-first stance and no account. Cronica is the minimal watchlist across Apple devices. MenuScores is not markets at all: it is a menu bar app for real-time sports news and scores, and it is in this list because the question it answers is identical. The decision is what you want to watch and how often, and both of those are separate from how the ticker looks.
This guide covers 4 menu bar market and watchlist apps for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment.
Quick comparison
| App | What it is | Pricing | Licence | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cronica | media app | Open source | MIT | 2.8.2 |
| MenuScores | system tool | Open source | GPL-3.0 | 2.3.1 |
| Pulse | productivity app | Open source | MIT | 0.15.11 |
| StockDock | productivity app | Open source | MIT | 1.9.21 |
What actually decides this
- What it covers. Equities, ETFs, indices, crypto and sports are different data sources with different latencies and different prices. A tool that covers several markets is not necessarily correct on the one you care about, and coverage lists are marketing.
- How often it refreshes, and what that costs. A quote that updates every second is a continuous network call, and a tool doing that in the menu bar is doing it all day. Refresh interval is the battery decision and it is the one number the product page does not give you.
- Whether it needs an account. A free account is a trade: your watchlist is stored on someone else server in exchange for the data. For a personal watchlist it is often not a trade worth making, and this is exactly the case where the no-account tool is worth more.
- Portfolio or watchlist. A watchlist shows prices. A portfolio shows what you did about them, which means the tool has to know your cost basis, your currency and your dividends, and it is a different class of problem.
- Currency and multi-currency handling. A US-listed share in a non-US account and a Hong Kong listing are the cases where a single-currency tool quietly gives you the wrong number. Whether the tool states which currency it is quoting is the check.
Our picks
- Pulse — Its record describes a native menu bar market tracker covering those listings, crypto, indices, ETFs and portfolio profit and loss. Choose it when you want US, Hong Kong and mainland-China listings plus crypto and ETFs in one tracker.
- StockDock — Its record describes a menu bar app for real-time stocks, ETFs, crypto and portfolio profit and loss that is privacy-first with no account and multi-currency. Choose it when you want the same coverage with no account and privacy-first handling.
- Cronica — Its record describes a minimalistic watchlist app for all of your Apple devices, which is the multi-device case. Choose it when you want a minimal watchlist across your Apple devices.
- MenuScores — Its record describes a menu bar app delivering real-time sports news and scores, which is the same gesture for a different interest. Choose it when what you want in the menu bar is sports rather than markets.
The apps
Cronica
Cronica is a media app for macOS. Cronica is a minimalistic watchlist app for all of your Apple devices. It is released under MIT.
What it does. Watchlist — Save movies and shows; organize with lists, favorites, pins, and archives. Episode tracking — Mark what you’ve watched and pick up where you left off. Release reminders — Local notifications for new episodes and movie releases. iCloud sync — Core Data + CloudKit keeps your list in sync across devices.
Cronica is listed with current version 2.8.2.
Full profile and verified facts for Cronica →
MenuScores
MenuScores is a system tool for macOS. A menu bar app that delivers real-time sports news and scores. It is released under GPL-3.0.
What it does. Live Notch Scores - Pin games to your notch and receive real-time score updates and game info available at a glace. Live Menubar Scores - Pin games to your menu bar and receive real-time score updates available at a glance. Track your favorite teams - Select your favorite teams and live games will automatically pin to your menu bar or notch once live. Smart Notifications - Get notified when a pinned game starts or finishes.
MenuScores is listed with current version 2.3.1.
Full profile and verified facts for MenuScores →
Pulse
Pulse is a productivity app for macOS. Native menu bar market tracker for US, Hong Kong and China stocks, crypto, indices, ETFs and portfolio P&L. It is released under MIT.
What it does. Pulse is a lightweight macOS menu bar stock tracker for US, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan stocks, watchlists, price trends, and position P&L.
Pulse is listed with current version 0.15.11.
Full profile and verified facts for Pulse →
StockDock
StockDock is a productivity app for macOS. Menu bar app for real-time stocks, ETFs, crypto and portfolio P&L. Privacy-first, no account, multi-currency. It is released under MIT.
What it does. Menu Bar P&L — See your portfolio performance at a glance, always visible. Desktop Window — Open a full app window from the menu bar: watchlist, portfolios, live charts, and news, all in sync. Watchlist — Track any stock by symbol, name, or ISIN with live prices and daily change, with separate Price and after-hours columns you can sort. News Search — Filter market news by headline, ticker, or publisher.
StockDock is listed with current version 1.9.21.
Full profile and verified facts for StockDock →
How to choose
- No licence fee, source available. Cronica, MenuScores, Pulse and StockDock — the source can be read and, under the terms of each licence, reused.
Open source: Cronica, MenuScores, Pulse and StockDock (4 of 4).
Common mistakes
- Quoting a delayed quote as a price. Free data feeds are delayed, and the delay is not visible in the number.
- Mixing currencies in one watchlist and reading the totals. The arithmetic is wrong until you fix the currency, and it still looks plausible.
- Setting a one-second refresh on a laptop you use away from the desk. The battery cost is real and the benefit is not.
- Putting a portfolio in a tool that only knows prices. You will end up maintaining the cost basis by hand, which is the part most likely to be wrong.
How this guide was put together
Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.
A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.
The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose between these menu bar market and watchlist apps?
There is no single answer — it depends on what you need. This guide covers 4 menu bar market and watchlist apps: Cronica, MenuScores, Pulse and StockDock. They differ mainly in pricing model, licence and the trade-offs each one carries. Pick by the trade-off you care about rather than by rank.
Are these menu bar market and watchlist apps free?
Pricing across this group: open source (Cronica, MenuScores, Pulse and StockDock). We quote a price only where the record carries one from a stated source, and we never estimate one. Prices change and vary by region and by store, so always check the developer’s own page for the current figure.
Which of these menu bar market and watchlist apps are open source?
Cronica (MIT), MenuScores (GPL-3.0), Pulse (MIT) and StockDock (MIT) are open source.
Do these menu bar market and watchlist apps support Apple Silicon?
Our data does not carry an explicit Apple Silicon statement for any app in this group, so we do not claim one. The absence of a statement is not the same as the absence of support.
How do I choose between them?
Start with how you pay: the guide groups these apps by pricing model, because the budget is the constraint most people actually have. Then check the trade-offs listed for each app: the limitations are the part that decides most people’s choice, because they describe what the app will not do for you.
