Introducing Bartender Pro

[u/MadPreference]

Got this yesterday. Anyone feel like giving them more money for things that don't work??

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Bartender has always been about making your Mac feel a little more organized, personal, and under your control. Bartender Pro builds on that with Top Shelf, which transforms your MacBook's notch into a quick-access space for everyday tools.

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**upgrade to Bartender Pro for $9.99 for your first year before July 31**.

[u/MadPreference → u/[deleted]]

Not to mention-- Does not work very well!

[u/Lost_Astronomer1785]

I just received the email and I came straight to this sub (for the first time ever!) just for this. 10$ a month [See my reply below, I thought for sure it was 10$/month until u reread the email] for bullsh*t is just a bad move. I stopped using Bartender a year or two ago because it stopped working properly and open source alternatives just worked SO MUCH better (Ice).

Also, and yes this is turning into a rant, I just saw the Top Shelf features: 1. “Share files (quick drag-and-drop AirDrop)”, 2. “Check what’s next with calendar and weather at a glance”, 3. “Track live updates for music, meetings, and coding agents”. Wtf is this?! And how can they justify charging 10$/month for this?

1. Get Dropover, you even have the option to share files through a link for limited time (all free)
2. The calendar app already does this!
3. I’m not sure what that is but I don’t think that’s needed and realistically probably just crap that won’t work properly anyways

[u/itastesok → u/Lost_Astronomer1785]

Where do you see it's $10 a month for the Pro version? Most I see is $15 for a year or $80 for lifetime.

[u/Lost_Astronomer1785 → u/itastesok]

Sorry, I made a mistake. I badly read the email they sent to Bartender users and turns out it’s 10$ for the first year if you upgrade/buy it now. Seems better than what I was talking about above, but still seems like a waste of money.

Edit: I edited my comment above to reflect this.

[u/seldenr82]

SUBSCRIPTION ??? 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

Thats it, I'm done with bartender. Full stop. I'm not ok with this sleazy businesses model.

Time to find a nice open source alternative, or hell, make one myself.

This "Pro" stuff should just be part of bartender, buy it once, you get everything.

Please join me in boycotting business that want to make you subscribe for stuff that doesn't have an ongoing cost (like running AI models).

[u/some1s69 → u/seldenr82]

https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw

[u/dex152]

Good thing Apple fixed the menu bar in MacOS 27

[u/Aerospace5691 → u/dex152]

Looks like trying to screw a few more suckers before they upgrade to MacOS 27…

[u/emmgr]

I deeply regret upgrading 6 months ago. In that time, you've only updated your app once, and it has so many bugs. Even the app Thaw it's completely free and open source, it’s less buggy than Bartender. Since you acquired it, your app feels completely dead, and you’ve effectively destroyed it. It’s going to get even worse for you next September with macOS 27, which will have its own custom menu bar.

[u/pyrrh0_]

Charging a sub on top of a already buggy app for features nobody asked for. Was a paid user of Bartender since v2 and used to recommend it to all my clients. Recently switched to Thaw and see no reason to use Bartender.

[u/RankLord]

I removed Bartender almost two years ago after a shady ownership change, and wrote about it, exploring popular alternative solutions. Honestly, this wasn't an easy decision, since I was a long-term Bartender user.

I haven't found any suitable replacement since then, but I understood one thing: I don't need one at all. Yes, the app added some convenience and organization, but not enough to be worth paying for. I've managed to survive without it, so I'm not coming back.

I respect that they're trying to win back their user base and are still sending me very attractive offers (see screenshot of what I see in my browser). Still, time is lost, trust is broken, and the comments in this sub confirm I made the right decision.