Alternatives to Zebar
A tool for building custom taskbars, desktop widgets and popups on Windows, macOS and Linux. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Zebar
A tool for building custom taskbars, desktop widgets and popups on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Zebar.
YASB
A configurable status bar for Windows, written in Python, with widgets and theming.
YASB is a configurable Windows-only status bar written in Python with many widgets and theming, set up by editing configuration files.
SketchyBar
A scriptable status bar for macOS that replaces or supplements the standard menu bar.
SketchyBar is a scriptable status bar for macOS only, with every item defined by shell scripts and an event system for dynamic items.
Waybar
Add a customizable status bar to compatible Wayland desktops.
Waybar is a Linux status bar for Wayland compositors with workspace and system-status modules, custom styling and scripts, under MIT.
Polybar
Build a configurable status bar for an X11 desktop.
Polybar is a configurable X11 status bar for Linux with modules and custom scripts, needing an appropriate window-manager setup.
Eww
Create custom desktop widgets using declarative configuration and styling.
Eww creates custom Linux desktop widgets and panels from declarative configuration and styling, displaying information from scripts, under MIT.
Quickshell
A QtQuick toolkit for building your own status bars, widgets, lockscreens and desktop shells.
Quickshell is a Linux-only QtQuick toolkit for bars, widgets, lockscreens and whole shells, requiring QML or an adopted community config.
Ironbar
A customisable GTK4 status bar for Wayland compositors, written in Rust.
Ironbar is a Rust GTK4 status bar for Wayland only, suited to Sway or Hyprland users, with example configs and Nix packaging.
Rainmeter
Puts customisable widgets on the Windows desktop, from hardware meters and clocks to full audio visualisers.
Rainmeter is Windows-only and places skins like hardware meters and visualisers on the desktop, with a large community catalogue under GPL-2.0.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
GlazeWM
An i3-style tiling window manager for Windows and macOS, configured in one YAML file.
komorebi
Automatic tiling window management for Windows, with virtual workspaces and multi-monitor support.
Übersicht
Put script-driven widgets on the macOS desktop.
AGS
Scaffolding CLI for building custom Linux desktop shells and widgets.
nwg-panel
Add desktop panels to Sway and Hyprland using GTK.
yabai
A tiling window manager for macOS that arranges windows by binary space partitioning and is driven entirely from the command line.
