About
Shiny is a small menu bar utility that frees inactive memory and quiets background apps in one tap. A quiet dial in the menu bar shows how the Mac is feeling, the screen edges glow when memory is under strain, and Shiny can polish things automatically when memory fills up, so slowdowns are dealt with before they are noticed. A keyboard shortcut keeps the whole thing one press away.
The app works only with running processes and memory. It never reads, writes or deletes files, and it uses no kernel extensions, Full Disk Access, Accessibility or Screen Recording permissions. There is no account, no telemetry and no subscription. Shiny is signed and notarised under Apple's Developer ID programme, downloads at around 9.5 MB, requires macOS 13 or later, and costs $4.99 once for use on up to three Macs.
Alternatives
- CleanMyMac
Pick CleanMyMac if you want a full maintenance suite rather than a memory freer: it has a free trial, starts at $3.33 a month, and supports macOS 11 and later.
- Activity Monitor
Stay with Activity Monitor if you only want to see what is using memory: it is built into macOS, free, and shows a Memory Pressure graph with a per-process memory list.
At a Glance
- Requires
- macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon or Intel
- Price
- $4.99, one-time, for up to three Macs
- Get It From
- theodorehq.com and Setapp
Curator's Note
“Does one job, asks for no permissions it does not need, and leaves your files alone.”
Theo, Mac Dept.
