Looking for an AlDente alternative?

Updated 13 August 2026 · competitor facts checked on that date · disclosure: WattMate is our app, and for some jobs the honest pick isn't us. The first section below is one of them. Everything said here about AlDente comes from their own page, checked on that date.

First, the honest part: AlDente is good at what it does. It limits how far your Mac charges: a real, well-established way to slow long-term battery aging, with 700,000+ users and a loyal following. If a charge limiter is what you want, you don't need an alternative; you need AlDente, or the built-in one below.

But "AlDente alternative" is usually a search with one of two other questions behind it. Both have better answers than another limiter.

If you just want the charge limit, macOS now does it natively

Since macOS 26.4, Apple silicon laptops can hold charging at a limit on their own, with no third-party helper, no kernel-adjacent tricks, and nothing to break on updates. (On an Intel Mac there's no native limit; that's AlDente territory.) Look in System Settings → Battery. That's Apple's own answer to the job AlDente pioneered, and for a plain limit it's the simplest one. AlDente Pro still goes further (heat protection, sailing mode, calibration). If you use those, again: you don't need an alternative.

WattMate deliberately does not limit charging. Building a second switch next to Apple's native one would be a feature for the feature list, not for you.

If the real problem is "my battery empties too fast", that's not a limiter's job

A charge limiter protects your battery's future: how much capacity it will still have in two years. It does nothing about your afternoon: a limiter can't tell you why today's charge went from 80% to 30% by lunch. That question has a culprit with a name, and finding it is a measurement job:

• Which app is using the power, in watts: not Activity Monitor's unitless "Energy Impact", but actual watts per app, live.
• What quitting it is worth: WattMate names the minutes you'd get back, and two minutes after you quit, it re-measures the Mac and prints what actually changed. If the effect can't be isolated honestly, it says so.
• What happened overnight: the macOS power log knows which service woke your Mac in its sleep and for how long; WattMate reads it and names names.
• History: yesterday against today, so a suspicion becomes a check, not a feeling.

Side by side

They also coexist fine: AlDente (or the native limit) protecting the battery's future, WattMate accounting for its present. Different jobs, no conflict.

Questions people ask

Do I still need AlDente on macOS 26.4?

For a plain 80% cap on Apple silicon, macOS now does it natively. The remaining case is the extra control in their Pro tier, and Macs or macOS versions Apple's feature does not cover. Our review has their stated version range.

Does WattMate limit charging?

No, and we do not plan to. Building a second switch beside Apple's own would be a feature for a feature list rather than for you.

Does charge limiting make the battery last longer in a day?

No. It slows how fast the pack ages over months and years. Runtime today is decided by what the machine is spending, which is the other question entirely.

Can I run AlDente and WattMate together?

Yes. AlDente writes charge settings, we only read, so there is nothing to collide over.

The short version

Want to charge to 80% and stop? Use macOS's built-in limit, or AlDente if you want the extras. Want to know where today's charge went and what quitting Chrome is actually worth? That's WattMate, and it shows you the receipt.

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