ProcessSpy
Monitor macOS Processes Like a Pro
FreeMonitoring5,894 impressions#6 of its week
ProcessSpy provides deep, real-time monitoring of macOS processes with detailed inspection and historical analysis.
- for
- macOS developers, power users and system administrators who need granular process insight.
- pricing
- freemium
Key features
- Per-process CPU & memory history — Logs and visualizes CPU, memory and thread usage over time with export to CSV.
- Point-and-click discovery — Find a process by clicking anywhere on the screen.
- JavaScript & regex filters — Create advanced search queries across multiple process properties.
- Advanced tree view — Groups child processes and XPC services, showing aggregate CPU, memory and thread totals.
- Menu bar dashboard — Shows real-time system health metrics in a compact drop-down.
- Finished process recall — Remembers terminated processes with command-line, env vars and timestamps.
Use cases
- Identify which Java version a running app is using by inspecting its command line and bundle path.
- Track intermittent CPU spikes by reviewing historical timelines and exporting data for reports.
- Debug a misbehaving background daemon by viewing its entitlements, signature and responsible PID.
- Create shortcuts that trigger when a specific process starts or exits.
ProcessSpy vs alternatives
 ProcessSpy |  Datadog |  Grafana |  New Relic |  Sentry.io | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | In-depth macOS process monitoring | Cloud app observability | Custom observability dashboards | Full-stack app & infra monitoring | Application error monitoring |
| Pricing | Freemium | Subscription | Subscription | Subscription | Subscription |
| DevHunt upvotes | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Launched | Aug 2026 | — | — | — | — |
- ProcessSpy vs Datadog: General cloud-service monitoring, not macOS-specific process inspection
- ProcessSpy vs Grafana: Open-source dashboards for metrics, lacks per-process macOS details
- ProcessSpy vs New Relic: Enterprise-grade infrastructure monitoring, not focused on macOS processes
- ProcessSpy vs Sentry.io: Error and performance tracking for code, not low-level OS process data
ProcessSpy FAQ
Is ProcessSpy safe to install?+
Yes, it is Apple-notarized, signed, and distributed as a .dmg, working on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
Which macOS versions are supported?+
ProcessSpy requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer.
Is there a free version?+
A fully functional free version is available; advanced capabilities require a purchased license.
Does ProcessSpy affect system performance?+
It is lightweight, using minimal CPU and memory, so it does not noticeably slow the Mac.
Does any data leave the Mac?+
No, all monitoring runs locally and no process data is sent to the internet.
Can I run shortcuts on process events?+
Yes, the paid version can trigger shortcuts when a process starts or finishes.
Summarized by DevHunt from process-spy.app · Oct 4, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
