Crest vs MediaMate: which one fixes what is bothering you?
MediaMate is small, cheap and well aimed. It replaces the old macOS volume, display and keyboard brightness HUDs with compact ones and tucks a Now Playing HUD into the notch, for €6.99. Crest hangs a whole panel there for $19.99. If the HUDs are the thing that has been bothering you, this comparison is shorter than you expected.
Last updated: July 2026
Full disclosure: this page is published by the makers of Crest. MediaMate's prices and limits below are taken from MediaMate's own pages, checked in July 2026, and the things it genuinely does better are listed as plainly as our own side.
The short version
Pick MediaMate if the system HUDs are the problem. Four themes, keyboard backlight control with its own shortcut, Focus filters that hide the HUDs when you are heads down, and macOS 13 or later, which is older than Crest supports.
Pick Crest if you want the notch to hold more than the volume level: what is playing with lyrics, the meeting you are about to miss, your todos, CPU and battery, your clipboard, and Claude Code asking for permission.
Side by side
| Crest | MediaMate | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 one-time | €6.99 on Gumroad, one time, pay more if you want to |
| Free option | A free tier that never expires, plus a 7-day Pro trial | A demo mode inside the free download |
| Volume and brightness | Catches the media keys and flashes the level on the notch, including on macOS 26 | Replaces the volume, display and keyboard brightness HUDs |
| Keyboard backlight | Crest does not control it | Its own HUD and a shortcut |
| Now Playing | Artwork, lyrics, the queue and full transport | In the notch or a separate bubble, with play, pause and scrubbing |
| Themes | Three modes, Home, Work and Code, with an auto switch | Four HUD themes: iOS-styled, circular, notch and classic |
| Calendar, todos, notes, stats, clipboard | Not what it is for | |
| Developer tools and agent approvals | GitHub pull requests and CI, Claude Code and Codex sessions, Allow or Deny from the notch | |
| macOS required | macOS 14 or later, universal | macOS 13 or later |
Where MediaMate is better
- It costs a third as much and does one job. €6.99 for exactly the thing you wanted. If the only reason you started looking at notch apps was that the volume HUD is ugly, buying a whole control panel is the wrong purchase.
- It runs on older Macs. macOS 13 and up, against Crest's macOS 14. On a Mac that macOS 14 left behind, this is the whole argument.
- Keyboard backlight, which Crest does not do. A HUD for it and a shortcut to drive it. Crest shows volume and display brightness on the notch and stops there.
- Four HUD themes and Focus filters. iOS-styled, circular, notch and classic, plus hiding the HUDs entirely when a Focus mode is on. Crest's HUD flash is one look, and the only setting is whether it replaces the system bezel at all.
- The demo mode has no clock. Download the build and try it in demo mode rather than counting down a trial.
Where Crest is better
- The free tier is a real app, not a demo mode. Now Playing with lyrics and the queue, the Shelf with clipboard history, window snapping and the pinned home glance, free forever and fully working.
- It answers more than the volume key. The meeting you are about to be late for with a one-tap join, todos and notes, CPU, memory, disk, network and battery, and your clipboard history. Every one of those is a window you stop opening.
- It answers your coding agents. A Claude Code permission prompt pins to the notch until you allow or deny it, on whichever display you are looking at. Nothing else in this category does that.
- Three modes with an auto switch. Home, Work and Code, and Auto follows what you are doing: a meeting coming up flips it to Work, your editor in front flips it to Code.
- It works on Macs with no notch. An external display or an older Mac gets a tidy floating pill in the same place.
The pricing math
MediaMate is €6.99 on its Gumroad page, one payment, with the option to pay more, and there is a demo mode in the free download. Crest Pro is $19.99 once, two Macs, free updates for life, with a free tier under it.
MediaMate is cheaper and it should be. It replaces four HUDs and does it well. The only question worth asking is whether the HUDs were the problem, or whether they were just the part of the problem you noticed first.
They overlap on exactly one thing
Both apps draw a volume level, so running them together means two things reacting to the same key press. Pick one for HUD duty. Everything else Crest does sits in a panel MediaMate never opens, and everything MediaMate does to the keyboard backlight is a place Crest never goes, so the overlap really is that narrow.
FAQ
How much does MediaMate cost?
€6.99 on its Gumroad page, a single payment, and Gumroad lets you pay more than that if you want to. Checked 26 July 2026.
Is there a free version of MediaMate?
The developer's page says to download the latest build and use demo mode to try it before buying.
What does MediaMate actually do?
It replaces the volume, display and keyboard brightness HUDs with compact ones, adds a Now Playing HUD that can sit inside the notch or in a separate bubble with play, pause and scrubbing, and gives you four themes, audio output icons, a keyboard brightness shortcut and Focus filters. It lists macOS 13 or later.
Can I run Crest and MediaMate together?
You can, but both draw a volume level and both live around the notch, so pick one to own the HUD or you will see two.
Does Crest have a free version?
Yes. Now Playing with lyrics, the Shelf with clipboard history, window snapping and the pinned home glance are free forever. Pro is $19.99 once.
Put the notch to work
Music, the next meeting, todos, system stats, your clipboard and Claude Code approvals, one glance up. The free tier is a real app, not a demo.
Download Crest for macOS Get Crest Pro, $19.99macOS 14 or later · Universal (Apple Silicon & Intel) · 7-day Pro trial, no card up front
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