iPulse

Thousands of customers have been using iPulse to keep an eye on their Mac’s performance since it was introduced back in 2002. Now, the first app to display system status is optimized for modern macOS and Apple Silicon!

Using its concise and appealing user interface, iPulse graphically displays the inner workings of macOS on your desktop, menu bar or Dock. The presentation is totally configurable so you can set exactly what you need and view it just the way you want.

iPulse comes with ten built-in presets that let you quickly choose a setup that works best for your needs. You can also add new looks from the Iconfactory.

The app is fully compatible with "rootless" System Integrity Protection: it's designed to use system resources efficiently and securely.

Download for macOS

And now for the first time, this essential developer tool is available on your iPhone and iPad!

Your processors, network, memory, and storage space are constantly monitored and can be displayed in a convenient picture in picture view. It's like you’re watching a movie of what's going on inside your device!

There are even sound effects for the movie: when configurable thresholds are exceeded, you'll hear an alert and know to check things out.

And it's all done with minimal impact on your device performance and battery life.

Download for iOS

What Others Are Saying…

There are zillions of “system monitor”-type apps in the (iOS) App Store. Good luck finding one other than iPulse that works well, is attractive and well-designed, and has no ads.John Gruber, Daring Fireball

#1 Paid Developer Tool in the App Store — ★★★★★ Rating March 2024

PiP mode is brilliant — just used it for a real diagnostic need just minutes ago. Thanks! Jerrod Hofferth

Iconfactory’s iPulse epitomizes the indie Mac developer ethos. It’s such a nerdy utility — it displays system stats and status for your Mac — but it’s absolutely gorgeous. And really, really tweakable. It warms my heart to see something like this near the top of the Mac App Store chart. John Gruber, Daring Fireball

#1 Paid App in the Mac App Store — ★★★★★ Rating October 2015

Quick, discrete, easy installation and optional settings. An elegant way to keep an eye on your Mac. Jean-Louie Gassée

Features

iPulse for macOS

Monitor numerous macOS statistics including:
- CPU activity
- System load over time
- Network bandwidth and activity
- Memory activity and usage
- Battery & wireless signal strength
- Disk usage
- Current time and date
Compact, clever & fully customizable user interface
Presents information both graphically and with text
Beautiful on Retina display
Fits in perfectly with the new system appearances
Save & load custom appearances
Minimizes impact on system performance
View data on the desktop, in the menu bar or Dock
Show & hide windows using system hotkeys

iPulse for iOS

Uses picture in picture to display in any app
Monitor numerous iOS statistics including:
- Efficiency core usage
- Performance core usage
- Graphics core usage
- Download throughput
- Upload throughput
- System memory usage
- App memory usage
- Compressed memory usage
- Internal and external storage usage
Compact & customizable user interface
Configurable audio alerts for system thresholds
Presents information both graphically and with text
Minimizes impact on system performance

Version History

iPulse 3.1415

May 2024

Efficiency and performance cores are now displayed in CPU info window:
- Roll over CPU gauge to open information window
- Window shows if core is effciency (sparkles) or performance (lightning)
- Number of cores in use/total is displayed at end of statistics
Mobility info now shows external UPS for battery:
- Connect UPS to Mac using USB cable to see information
- Shows charge level, run time remaining, and line voltage
- Works with UPS devices supported by macOS (e.g. APC Back-UPS)
CPU info now shows VRAM usage on Apple Silicon
Memory info now shows App usage (like Activity Monitor)

iPulse 1.1 for iOS

March 2024

Cache usage (purgeable space) is now displayed in the Storage gauge [Yay everyone!]
Added setting to show usage percentage as total space or purgeable space ("Match Storage in Settings")
Elevated thermal states are shown on the efficiency core graph (which are typically used to reduce heat) [Yay Troy!]
Performance cores are no longer shown if the device does not have them
Fixed crash when adding or removing an external storage device
Fixed a leak in kernel memory

iPulse 1.0.1 for iOS

March 2024

Fixed a crash on older devices without performance cores (such as iPads running iPadOS 16)
Older devices without performance cores will always show 0% in that bar - we'll improve this in a future release
Audio alert for storage is now turned off by default
Added note to storage help about why it differs from Settings
Tweaked app icon because of course we did

iPulse 1.0 for iOS

March 2024

Initial release

iPulse 3.141

November 2023

Fixed display of Wi-Fi information on macOS Sonoma
Round gauge window’s maximum size is now 512 x 512

iPulse 3.1.4

April 2023

The CPU gauge can now show up to 48 cores - you never know…
General Information window now reports Apple Silicon processor family
Preferences were renamed as Settings
Fixed a typo in Settings [Yay Pascal!]

iPulse 3.1.3

December 2021

Updated battery status check to work with latest Macs. [Thanks Peter!]
Added battery health to Mobility info window.

iPulse 3.1.2

November 2021

Compatibility with macOS Monterey.
Added gauge and info for compressed memory usage.

iPulse 3.1.1

January 2021

Fixed an issue with memory usage being reported incorrectly on Apple Silicon.

iPulse 3.1

November 2020

Compatibility with latest operating systems and hardware, including Big Sur and Apple Silicon
CPU architecture is now shown in General info

iPulse 3.0.5

December 2019

Fixed display problems of a startup disk using Catalina's new partition layout
Disk space warning is now shown when disk space falls below 10 GB
Improved disk usage reporting (especially with drives using APFS)
Removed Wi-Fi BSSID because of Apple security limitations
Fixed a problem with window positioning during first-run setup

iPulse 3.0.4

September 2018

Ooooh, Dark Mode.

iPulse 3.0.3

April 2018

Updated Disk gauges to be fully compatible with the new Apple File System (APFS).

iPulse 3.0.2

September 2016

Your Mac's operating system got a new name and now iPulse is using it throughout the app. Welcome, macOS!

iPulse 3.0.1

November 2015

New Features

Added new information for CPU gauge:
- GPU utilization (if available)
- Video memory (VRAM) usage (if available)
- OS X thermal state (OS X 10.10.3 and later)
- Total number of cores
- See the "CPU usage" help section for more info

Improvements

Improved compatibility with OS X 10.7
Added notes about other window preferences in Quick Setup
Instructions are clearer about restarting to get Dock changes
The alignment of text baselines in the clock gauge is much better
Added more information about the 24-hour clock face in Help
Added Help for Power Users:
- Make the round window huge
- Place the iPulse windows below other windows
- Disable mouse clicks at launch

Fixes

Fixed typos about swapping gauges in Help
"Logarithmic" is now spelled correctly in Preferences
Fixed problems with ring on hour and calendar week start in Preferences
Minimum system version is now set correctly to 10.7
Text is no longer clipped in older versions of OS X
Fixed problems with mouse tracking in larger windows

Older releases…