Why I wanted a system monitor
A computer rarely tells you what is wearing it out. The fan gets louder, a page opens more slowly, the battery drains faster than usual. To find the cause you have to open a system tool, look for the right tab, and only then do you see anything.
I wanted that information in front of me all the time, with no clicking. That is how Pulse came about. It is a small app that lives in the Mac menu bar and shows the most important readings: processor, graphics, memory, disk, network, temperatures, fans and battery. I use it every day, so I fix the things that bother me.
Pulse has no accounts and no ads.
What you see in the menu bar
Each value can look different. There are four styles to choose from:
- text, a plain number such as 23%,
- a ring that fills up like a clock face,
- bars,
- a mini graph of the last few moments.
I set the style, the label and the order separately for each value. Everything can sit in one menu bar item, or each module can have its own place. If you like things tidy, you can keep just the Pulse icon in the bar.
When something is wrong, the value shows it. Under heavy load it changes colour, and a critical value pulses.
The panel behind a click
Clicking a value opens a panel with details. Each module has its own:
- Processor: load for the whole chip and for each core, plus the processes working hardest.
- Graphics: how busy the graphics chip is and which apps are using it.
- Memory: how much apps take, how much is compressed and whether the system has to fall back on the disk.
- Disk: free space, read and write speed, and what is taking up the space.
- Network: download and upload, traffic for each app, and latency.
- Sensors: temperatures, fan speeds and power draw.
- Battery: charge, health, cycle count, and the batteries of Bluetooth headphones, keyboards and mice.
In the processor panel you can right-click to quit an app that has frozen. There is no need to hunt for it in the system tools.
History and notifications
A single number is not enough. I often want to know what happened an hour ago or during the night. So Pulse remembers its readings and draws charts for the last 2 minutes, hour, day, week and 30 days. Hover over a chart to see the exact value. You can also save the data to a CSV file, a simple table that any spreadsheet can open.
Pulse can also speak up on its own. It sends a notification when the processor has been running flat out for a long time, when things get hot, and when memory, disk space or battery is running low.
Fan control and charge limit
Two features do more than show things. They change something.
The first is fan control. I draw a curve: at this temperature, this fan speed. Pulse keeps to it for me. It works on Intel Macs and on Apple Silicon Macs that have a fan.
The second is the charge limit on MacBooks. A laptop that is always plugged in does not have to be fully charged. The battery keeps its capacity longer if it stops lower. You can set the limit anywhere from 50 to 95 percent.
Both features need a small system helper. The first time you turn one on, macOS asks for permission, and Pulse shows you where to give it.
Other computers on the network
If you have several computers, you know the feeling: one sits off to the side and works on its own. When you hear it spin up, it is good to know why without leaving your desk.
So Pulse can see other computers running Pulse on the same network. In one panel it shows their load, memory, temperature, fans and the processes that load them most. The computers find each other. You only have to turn on sharing of readings on each one, because it is off by default.
This data never leaves the local network. Only one thing can be done remotely: installing the official Pulse update on another Mac, and only if that Mac has allowed it.
PulseWin, or Pulse for Windows
Not every computer at home is a Mac. That is why I made PulseWin, a version for Windows 10 and 11.
It works in a similar way, just in a different corner of the screen. Instead of the menu bar there are icons next to the clock, each with a number. A click opens a panel with charts, disks, sensors and processes. PulseWin and Pulse talk to each other: the Mac sees the PC, and the PC sees the Mac.
On Windows the processor temperature is a story of its own. The system does not hand it to apps. It has to be read from the processor itself, and that takes a driver and administrator rights. PulseWin uses an existing open driver signed by Microsoft. Without it, PulseWin shows what Windows provides on its own.
PulseWin is younger and does less. It does not control the fan, it has no long history, and for now it is in Polish only.
What Pulse does with data
In short: it sends nothing to anyone.
It takes all its readings from the system on your computer. There are no accounts, no ads and no usage statistics. It connects to the internet for three things: to measure network latency, to check your public address and to look for updates. The Windows version connects only to check for updates.
The Mac version is signed and notarized by Apple, and its source code is public. Anyone can see what the app does.
How to get it
You can download Pulse and PulseWin from the Apps page on kakaki.pl. For the Mac it is a single file that runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel computers. It needs macOS 15 or later. For Windows there are two installers: one for ordinary Intel and AMD processors and one for ARM processors.
Pulse for Mac comes in English, German and Polish. It installs new versions by itself.
What comes next
Pulse grows in small steps. Most changes come from something getting in my way, or something missing, during ordinary work. You will find the list of changes in each version on the app's page.
If you find a bug or have an idea, write to kontakt@kakaki.pl. I will be happy to read it.