Alternatives to Hot
Other tools in this directory that do similar work, with a verified install command for each. Hot itself: install Hot.
Retroactive
Run Aperture, iPhoto, and iTunes on macOS Golden Gate, macOS Tahoe, macOS Sequoia, macOS Sonoma, macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, and mac
Hidden Bar
An ultra-light MacOS utility that helps hide menu bar icons
WhatCable
macOS menu bar app that tells you, in plain English, what each USB-C cable plugged into your Mac can actually do
noTunes
A simple macOS application that will prevent iTunes or Apple Music from launching
Reminders MenuBar
Simple macOS menu bar application to view and interact with reminders. Developed with SwiftUI and using Apple Reminders as a source
Vorssaint
Free and open-source macOS menu bar toolkit
BitBar
Put the output from any script or program into your macOS Menu Bar (the BitBar reboot)
FineTune
FineTune, a macOS menu bar app for per-app volume control, multi-device output, audio routing, and 10-band EQ. Free and open-source alternative to Sou
Gitify
Git notifications on your menu bar. Available on macOS, Windows & Linux
MeetingBar
🇺🇦 Your meetings at your fingertips in the macOS menu bar
Mist
A Mac utility that automatically downloads macOS Firmwares / Installers
LocationSimulator
MacOS application to spoof / fake / mock your iOS / iPadOS or iPhoneSimulator device location. WatchOS and TvOS are partially supported
Razer macOS
Color effects manager for Razer devices for macOS. Supports High Sierra (10.13) to Monterey (12.0). Made by the community, based on openrazer
Fluor
A handy tool for macOS allowing you to switch Fn keys' mode based on active application
folderify
:file_folder: Generate pixel-perfect macOS folder icons in the native style. (Now with support for macOS 26 Tahoe!)
LocalizationEditor
Simple macOS editor app to help you manage iOS and macOS app localizations by allowing you to edit all the translations side by side
nelm
Nelm is a Helm 4 alternative. It is a Kubernetes deployment tool that manages Helm Charts and deploys them to Kubernetes. The Nelm goal is to provide
typescript
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output
MarkText
📝A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows
jj
A Git-compatible VCS that is both simple and powerful
Ultimate Vocal Remover
GUI for a Vocal Remover that uses Deep Neural Networks
Postgres
Mirror of the official PostgreSQL GIT repository. Note that this is just a *mirror* - we don't work with pull requests on github. To contribute, pleas
sonic
🦔 Fast, lightweight & schema-less search backend. An alternative to Elasticsearch that runs on a few MBs of RAM
Reactotron
A desktop app for inspecting your React JS and React Native projects. macOS, Linux, and Windows
How we picked these
We match on what the tool does and how it installs, then order by how widely each project is used. We're not saying these are better or worse than Hot — that depends on what you're building. We're saying they're the projects people reach for in the same situations, and each one has an install command we checked against its documentation.
Hot is developed by its own authors and this page is an independent reference; we are not affiliated with or sponsored by any project listed, and nothing here is a paid placement.