Crest vs MediaMate: which one fixes what is bothering you?
By the makers of Crest · updated July 2026 · full disclosure
macOS 14 or later. Open Crest for 7 free days, no account or card.
| Crest | MediaMate | |
|---|---|---|
| Now Playing | Artwork, lyrics, the queue and full transport | In the notch or a separate bubble, with play, pause and scrubbing |
| Calendar, todos, notes, stats, clipboard | Not what it is for | |
| Developer tools and agent approvals | GitHub pull requests and CI, Claude Code, Codex and Copilot CLI sessions, Allow or Deny and Claude's questions from the notch |
Why Crest is better
- Try all of it first. Every Crest feature is yours for 7 days from first open, no account or card.
- More than the volume HUD. Your next meeting, todos, CPU, battery and clipboard history sit in the same notch.
- It answers your coding agents. When Claude Code asks for permission, you press Allow or Deny right on the notch.
- It works without a notch. On an external display or an older Mac, Crest sits in a small pill in the same place.
Full comparison and details
That big grey volume square in the middle of your screen is annoying, and MediaMate restyles it. For €6.99 it replaces the macOS volume, display and keyboard brightness HUDs with compact ones and tucks a Now Playing HUD into the notch. But for most people the HUD is only the first annoyance they notice. Crest hangs a whole panel from the notch, with music, your next meeting, the clipboard and Claude Code approvals, so it fixes the rest of the reasons you keep opening windows too.
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.
The short version
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, Passwords with Touch ID, the Authenticator (your two-factor codes, typed in for you), Drop for encrypted files, and Claude Code asking for permission. Crest is a native Mac app that stays light on battery, and it replaces several small utilities at once.
Where MediaMate stops. MediaMate restyles the volume, brightness and Now Playing pop-ups and stops there. It has no calendar, todos, notes, stats, clipboard, developer tools, agent approvals, password manager or two-factor codes.
Side by side
The comparison table is at the top of this page.
Where Crest is better
- A 7-day trial of everything, not a demo mode. Now Playing with lyrics and the queue, the file shelf, the Clipboard and window snapping are all in the 7-day trial and in every paid plan. After the trial, the Pro features pause until you buy Crest, and Now Playing, the file shelf and the clipboard keep 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.
- Pages of widgets you arrange, and swipe between. 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
Crest Pro is $14.99 once, after a 7-day trial of everything with no card.
MediaMate does one job. Crest takes over the jobs of a clipboard manager, a calendar peek, a system monitor, a password manager, an authenticator and an agent dashboard as well, all in one native app. If the HUDs were just the first part of the problem you noticed, that is the better deal.
They overlap on exactly one thing
Both apps draw a volume level, so running them together means two things react to the same key press. Pick one for HUD duty. Everything else Crest does sits in a panel MediaMate never opens, and Crest never touches the keyboard backlight, 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 of them.
Does Crest have a free version?
Partly. Crest is free to download, Now Playing, the file shelf, the clipboard and receiving files with Drop stay free, and there is a 7-day trial of everything with no card. After that the Pro features pause until you buy Crest. Crest is $14.99 once, on 2 Macs.
Put the notch to work
Music, the next meeting, todos, system stats, your clipboard and Claude Code approvals, one glance up. Try all of it free for 7 days, no card.
Download Crest for macOS Buy Crest, $14.99macOS 14 or later · Universal (Apple Silicon & Intel) · 7-day Pro trial, no card up front
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