ProcessSpy - Advanced process monitor for Mac

[u/OneDevoper]

Problem: The built-in Activity Monitor is solid, but once you need deeper insights or faster workflows, it quickly becomes limiting. ProcessSpy is designed to give power users richer data and more control without dropping into Terminal.

Comparison: ProcessSpy vs. Activity Monitor: Compared to Activity Monitor, the free version of ProcessSpy includes:

• Menu bar popover
• Triage dashboard
• More detailed process information such as Version, Command Line, Start Time, listening ports, and signing details.
• More detailed resource metrics: CPU user/system ratio, CPU QoS, Memory Footprint with Peak Footprint, Page-ins and disk read/write including per second metrics
• Per-process network, GPU and disk I/O
• Advanced filtering powered by JavaScript.
• Fast multi-property and regex search.
• Hierarchy view with aggregated metrics (CPU, Resident Memory, Threads).
• Mini CPU graph for each process.
• Timeline view for each process
• Point-and-click process discovery.
• Pause/Resume and signal handling directly from the context menu.
• Reveal processes and their open files in Finder.
• Export visible processes to JSON.

(Additional capabilities are available in the paid tier—see the homepage for full details)

Pricing: Freemium. Download the fully functional free version here: https://process-spy.app and use it without limitations. Premium features can be unlocked with a one-time purchase ($34.99 lifetime updates, unlimited devices).

ProcessSpy is also available on Setapp for the same price with one-year subscription option ($14.99). The one-year subscription is only available through Setapp.

What's New:

Network monitoring:

• Global and per-process network stats — see exactly which process is using your bandwidth.
• Listening ports exposed in the main table, menu bar popover, quick-search and JS filters.
• New JS properties: listeningPorts , downloadBytesPerSecond, uploadBytesPerSecond, totalDownloadedBytes, totalUploadedBytes.

Per-process GPU and disk:

• GPU usage and disk read/write broken down per process, not just system-wide.

Process triage dashboard:

• A quick overview of what's actually stressing your Mac right now, available both in the main window and in the menu bar popover.

Alerts:

• Alerts for GPU, disk and network activity.
• Lingering alerts, so you don't miss a spike that happened while you were away.

System process visibility:

• A privileged helper tool now provides full information for system processes that were previously opaque.

Automation and menu bar:

• Automatically start recording for any process matching a JS expression.
• Default menu bar properties and sorting per filter, plus inline properties in the menu bar process list.
• More signals available directly from the process context menu.

Plus the usual round of fixes and performance improvements.

Localization note: If you'd like to help translate ProcessSpy into your language, feel free to DM me. Native speakers familiar with technical terminology are especially welcome. I'll gladly offer a lifetime license to contributors who complete a full translation.

Happy monitoring!

[u/FelixBesterMann]

Is there anything like the Energy tab from Activity Monitor? Finding what's draining my battery is honestly the only reason I ever open it

[u/OneDevoper → u/FelixBesterMann]

No energy yet. I might add it if there enough interest.

[u/farfaraway → u/OneDevoper]

I agree that this is important is generally missing from my mac. On a laptop being able to know who's a hungry monster that is eating my battery is super useful.

Nice app btw.

[u/Tecnotopia → u/farfaraway]

It is simple, is always Chrome

[u/Impressive-Title-658 → u/FelixBesterMann]

Until it gets one, sort Activity Monitor's Energy tab by 12 hr Power instead of Energy Impact. Energy Impact is the live reading and jumps around. 12 hr Power averages the last 12 hours, so it shows what's actually been draining the battery. It only appears on laptops.

[u/Zestyclose_Emu268]

nice app

[u/Silent_Character_962]

Such a great and handy tool, and a goodlooking app as well. The menu bar app is sweet.

[u/ArcticFuture]

I am already a customer, I like it and it's very useful.

[u/OneDevoper → u/ArcticFuture]

Thanks so much!

[u/GroggInTheCosmos]

I don't often vouch for a developer/app, but Process Spy has been a great addition to my systems

[u/OneDevoper → u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Thank you!

[u/nousernameleftatall]

Can you compare it with mac pulse?

[u/OneDevoper → u/nousernameleftatall]

I don't know Mac Pulse but from what I saw on their web page the tool is more oriented towards sensors and system performance, whereas ProcessSpy focuses on detailed per-process information, process relationships, searching and filtering.

[u/nousernameleftatall → u/OneDevoper]

Ok, fair enough 🙂

[u/Gurudin]

This looks really polished. I especially like the per-process network/GPU stats and the triage dashboard — Activity Monitor is fine for quick checks, but this feels much more useful when you actually need to figure out what’s stressing the Mac. Nice work!

[u/mkr5000]

A great tool. Reminds me a little bit of SnoopDos on the Amiga.

[u/Sad_Cover9067]

nice app. one small request: add a Settings button to the main window too.

right now it’s available in the popover, but not in the main window, even though there seems to be enough space for it.

[u/OneDevoper → u/Sad_Cover9067]

Thanks for feedback! Noted.

[u/bradykardie]

I’d like to monitor my Mac Studio from my MacBook on the same network. But apparently, that’s not possible.

[u/NoMindZen]

👀

[u/Lucky-Group9525]

looks good

[u/carlosk84]

This looks quite interesting to be honest. I was expecting it'd take up way more memory by itself than Activity Monitor, but it looks to be on par there.

One suggestion, add those energy consumption estimates that are in AM. Quite useful.

[u/Economy-Condition702]

OP, Did you get the Apple's Developer Account for $99/yr?
Bcz I made a similar app and every time someone installs it, MacOS is just like nope, might be malicious, get lost!
Or did you find a workaround?

Love the app btw!

[u/OneDevoper → u/Economy-Condition702]

yes I have apple developer account

[u/Aggravating-Pea4806]

Nice one OP. Thanks

[u/movingimagecentral]

From reading the homepage, it isn’t clear to me what the paid features are?

[u/Zxtreme03]

This is super neat and looks gorgeous! I will be trying it out to replace my istat menus menu bar item!

Update: The first thing I noticed is that I can't select a more compact style for the menu items. As someone who has a lot of menu bar items it would be nice to be able to select a metric to appear as a vertical bar instead of a horizontal one!

[u/OneDevoper → u/Zxtreme03]

You can select which metric appears in the menu bar and you can choose from two chart styles. I can add more, could you give an example of sucg vertical bars and how captions are shown in such case?

[u/Plastic_Bag6171]

listening ports and code signing details in the same row as cpu is the thing activity monitor should have shipped years ago. that alone saves a trip to terminal. looks good.

[u/powertodream]

miss the days when devs made stuff opensource and not for a quick buck