Early access
Softset Pulse
Find out why your Mac is slow, in plain words.
A system monitor that groups every helper process under the app it belongs to, explains what's slowing your Mac down, and finds forgotten development servers.
In development. Early access builds go to people on the list first.
The problem
Activity Monitor lists hundreds of processes and doesn't say what's wrong.
Your Mac feels slow and the fans are on. Activity Monitor lists “Google Chrome Helper (Renderer)” forty times, memory numbers that don't add up, and nothing that says what to actually do.
Developers get it worse: a Next.js server from last week still holding port 3000, a Docker VM eating memory, and no easy way to see which project each one belongs to.
Softset Pulse demo
- Memory pressure is high and macOS is using 6.2 GB of swap.
- Google Chrome is using 8.4 GB of memory across 41 processes.
- Docker is responsible for 31% of current CPU use.
- Two development servers have been idle for more than six hours.
| App | CPU | Memory | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Chrome 41 processes | 38% | 8.4 GB | 22 |
| Docker 6 processes | 31% | 4.1 GB | 18 |
| Slack 5 processes | 4% | 1.3 GB | 3 |
| Xcode 9 processes | 2% | 2.2 GB | 2 |
| Port | Runtime | Project | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3000 | Next.js | ~/code/shop | 6 h idle |
| 5173 | Vite | ~/code/docs-site | active |
| 8000 | Python (uvicorn) | ~/code/api | 9 h idle |
A preview of Softset Pulse's app list and explainer, with example numbers.
Usage per app, and a short explanation of what's going on.
Softset Pulse adds every helper process to the app it belongs to, such as Chrome, Slack, or Docker, and explains what's using your Mac and what you can do about it. The explanations come from fixed rules applied to your Mac's own numbers, with no cloud service involved.
Your whole Mac
CPU, memory, and swap
Usage and history, memory pressure the way macOS judges it, and how much is being swapped to disk.
Disk and network
Free space, read and write speed, and upload and download speed.
Battery and power
Charge, health, cycle count, and how much power the Mac is drawing, on Macs with a battery.
Heat and graphics
Thermal pressure as macOS reports it, plus GPU usage and battery temperature on Macs that report them.
Grouped by app
Helpers grouped
Every helper, renderer, and background process is counted under the app it belongs to, so Chrome is one line with one total.
Top apps
See the apps using the most CPU, memory, energy, and disk right now, and over the last hour.
Quit or force quit
Quit an app, or force quit a stuck one, from the same list after confirming.
Unusual activity
Get a quiet heads-up when an app pins the CPU for minutes or its memory keeps climbing.
For developers
Open ports
Every listening port, the process that owns it, and the project folder it was started from.
Dev servers, recognised
Next.js, Vite, Node, Bun, Python, Rails, and Docker workloads are identified by their command, not guessed from a name.
Idle servers
Servers that haven't done anything for hours are flagged, and can be stopped safely with one click.
Why is my Mac slow?
Short explanations built from fixed rules, for example “Chrome is using 8.4 GB of memory” or “Three dev servers have been idle for six hours.”
In your menu bar
Compact indicators
Choose any of CPU, memory, memory pressure, network, battery, and temperature for the menu bar, as numbers or small live graphs.
Alerts that reach you
A notification when memory pressure turns critical, the disk runs low, the battery drops, or your Mac gets hot. Each can be turned off.
Accessory batteries
Charge levels for your Magic Keyboard, Mouse, Trackpad, and other Bluetooth accessories that report them.
Light on your Mac
Samples every few seconds from the same counters Activity Monitor uses, and slows down when you're not looking.
Privacy
What stays on your Mac
- Everything Softset Pulse measures stays on your Mac. It sends no telemetry and has no cloud features.
- History is kept in memory and a small file on your Mac, and you can clear it any time.
- Stopping a process only ever happens after you confirm, and only for processes you own.
Softset trust card
What Softset Pulse does with your Mac
- Internet required
- Only for license activation and a daily update check.
- Account required
- No account.
- Usage analytics
- None.
- Data that leaves your Mac
- Your license key and an anonymous device ID when activating. None of your system data.
- Permissions
- None. It doesn't ask for any special permissions.
- Runs in the background
- Yes. It samples your Mac's counters every few seconds for the menu bar and history.
- Apple notarized
- No public build yet. Releases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple before they're published.
- Architecture
- Planned: Apple silicon and Intel (universal).
- Minimum macOS
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Tested on macOS 27 Golden Gate on Apple silicon.
More detail in the privacy policy. The Mac apps contain no analytics or tracking code.
- Requirements
- A Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
- CPU temperatures and fan speeds aren't shown: macOS has no public way to read them on Apple silicon. Pulse shows macOS's thermal pressure instead, plus the battery temperature on Macs that report it.
- macOS
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Price
- Early access. A one-time purchase; the price will be announced at launch.
- Changelog
- No public release yet. Softset Pulse changelog
Questions about Softset Pulse
How is this different from Activity Monitor?
Activity Monitor lists processes. Softset Pulse adds each helper process to the app it belongs to, keeps history, recognises development servers and their ports, and explains in plain words what's using your Mac and what you can do.
Does “Why is my Mac slow?” use AI?
No. It applies fixed rules to your Mac's own numbers (memory pressure, swap, sustained CPU use, idle servers), so every sentence can be traced back to a figure you can see. It never guesses at causes it can't measure.
Can it show CPU temperature and fan speed?
Not in the first version. macOS doesn't offer a public way to read CPU temperatures or fan speeds on Apple silicon, and Softset doesn't rely on private interfaces that can break with any update. Pulse shows thermal pressure, which is what macOS itself uses to decide when to slow down.
Will it stop my development servers on its own?
Never. Pulse flags idle servers and offers to stop them; nothing is stopped until you confirm.
When can I get it?
Softset Pulse is in development. Join early access and we'll email you when the first build is ready. Pricing will be announced at launch and, like every Softset app, it's a one-time purchase.
Get Softset Pulse early
In development. Early access builds go to people on the list first.
