Looking for a coconutBattery alternative?
Updated 13 August 2026 · competitor facts checked on that date
coconutBattery has earned its two decades. Since 2005 it's been the Mac's household thermometer for battery health: design capacity, current capacity, cycle count, manufacture date, iOS devices over a cable — free, with a paid Plus upgrade. If you open it twice a year to check whether the battery is aging normally, it does that job with a long, trusted record.
The search for an "alternative" usually starts when the thermometer stops being enough — when the health number says one thing and your afternoon says another.
The gap: health says "fine", the battery still doesn't last
The most common battery complaint on a Mac isn't "my capacity is degraded". It's "health says 96%, so why am I barely making it to 2 PM?" A health snapshot can't answer that, because the answer isn't in the battery — it's in what's running. Answering it takes a different kind of tool:
- Power by app, in watts — live, ranked, with helpers grouped under the app they belong to.
- The price of a fix, in minutes — "quit this, get about 12 minutes back" — and a re-measurement two minutes after you quit that prints what actually changed.
- Nights, explained — which service woke the Mac while the lid was closed, how many times, for how long. Read from the macOS power log; no health tool looks there.
- History — this week against last week, so decline is a chart, not an anecdote.
WattMate also keeps the thermometer: battery health — capacity against design, cycle count, tracked monthly — is in the free part of the app, alongside the history macOS has been keeping since the machine's first day.
Side by side
| coconutBattery | WattMate | |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Battery health snapshot | Where the charge goes, and what to do |
| Health & cycle count | Yes — its specialty, incl. iOS devices over cable | Yes, free, tracked monthly (Mac only) |
| Power by app, in watts | No | Yes, live and in history |
| Minutes back for quitting an app | No | Yes — promised first, then measured |
| Overnight wake-ups, by name | No | Yes, from the macOS power log |
| Price (Aug 2026) | Free · paid Plus upgrade | $9.99/yr or $29 forever · 10-day trial, no card |
| Platform | Intel and Apple silicon | Apple silicon only, macOS 15+ |
The short version
Checking whether a used MacBook's battery is healthy before buying it? coconutBattery is the classic for a reason. Trying to find out why a healthy battery keeps emptying by mid-afternoon — and what quitting the right app is worth? That's WattMate's whole job, receipt included.
More comparisons: WattMate and AlDente · WattMate and Juicy
Health is a number. Hours are the point.
10 days free, no card · Requires macOS 15 or later · Apple silicon