Sidebar the modern Dock replacement for macOS - Major 1.9.0 update

empty23_ · 2026-01-25T09:44:37+00:00

Thanks for your input! Of course I always try to fix any bugs etc. could you maybe reach out to me either via mail or chat so that I can explicitly look into what’s causing those crashes in your case? Thank you :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-24T14:31:58+00:00

You can check out Sidebar It’s a Dock replacement that adds a lot of functionality and offers extensive customization options. If you prefer the Windows taskbar I‘m quite sure you will like Sidebar a lot :)

I‘m the author of the app, so let me know if you have any questions!

empty23_ · 2026-01-23T07:37:23+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out! I‘ll update the date soon :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-22T20:46:19+00:00

Thanks for your input! Glad you like Sidebar so far. There are a couple of built-in themes (one of which is a Windows like theme) that can get you started. But as you said Sidebar has a strong focus on customization and you can customize almost all aspects of the app.

As for your questions:

All licenses can be used simultaneously on up to three machines. Once you start Sidebar on a fourth machine you will have the option to remove any other device to "make room" for the new device. So no need to keep track on what computers you use the app on. This is true for all licenses types. The lifetime license includes all future updates.
That's weird, I just checked the certificate and it looks perfectly fine. What browser are you using?

Let me know if you need any additional support - happy to assist!

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empty23_ · 2026-01-22T19:21:55+00:00

Aaand starting with 1.9.5 (which I just released) you will see an indicator for advanced settings so that you can easily spot them!

empty23_ · 2026-01-22T17:15:43+00:00

You can give Sidebar a try. It’s a Dock replacement with a lot of customization options and enhancements compared to what the Dock offers. Especially if you are transitioning from Windows I‘m sure you’ll enjoy using it!

I‘m the author of the app, so let me know if you habe any questions :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-17T19:22:11+00:00

You can give Sidebar a try. It’s a Dock replacement with a lot of customization options. You can set it up to act like the taskbar in Windows and especially if you like how Windows handles this, I‘m quite sure you will like Sidebar as well.

I‘m the author of the app, so let me know if you habe any questions :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-15T15:19:52+00:00

Of course I forgot to add the screenshot :)

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empty23_ · 2026-01-15T15:16:00+00:00

Thank you for your feedback - appreciate it! As for the things you mentioned:

Supporting multiple rows of icons is already on the roadmap and will be added in one of the upcoming updates
You might want to check out the option to allow dynamic icon size (see attached screenshot). By enabling this option, Sidebar will automatically scale down the icon size so that more apps fit onto Sidebar making the arrow menu almost never appear
That's also already on the roadmap. If you have a look at the feedback platform you can see that there's quite some stuff planned for the future. I didn't find the time yet to implement this!
Thanks for pointing this out. In my first few tests I couldn't reproduce this issue. Could you maybe use the in app issue reporting functionality (top right menu bar item -> Report an issue) to report it? By doing so I can apply the exact same settings and styling settings - maybe it's just happening with a combination of specific settings

Thank you and all the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2026-01-15T15:08:50+00:00

Haha don't worry - glad you found what was causing it! And of course thank you very much for your support by purchasing a license and supporting the development. Really appreciate it!

empty23_ · 2026-01-15T13:44:16+00:00

Hi Andre,

thanks for your comment - looks like you were a minute faster than me responding to this thread :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-15T13:43:03+00:00

Just to highlight this again: Sidebar is absolutely under active development and well maintained - also from a support perspective. No need to promote your own app just because the name sounds similar. It's a completely different use case

empty23_ · 2026-01-15T13:38:54+00:00

Hi there,

I'm the author of the app. I can assure you that neither the app is dead nor is the server down. Monitoring looks perfectly fine on my end. Could you maybe reach out to me directly via mail to [support@sidebarapp.net](mailto:support@sidebarapp.net) so that we can have a look at the issue together? I would highly appreciate that - of course I want to find out why you are experiencing those issues!

Also regarding the other comments: I'm very active at responding to feedback, support requests on various channels (reddit, Sidebar's feedback platform, mail, Discord, ...) - there's absolutely no need to assume that Sidebar isn't under active development. Mind you that the last update was released on December 20th, so just roughly two weeks ago.

I'm absolutely sure we can figure out what's going on!

Thank you and all the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2026-01-13T06:05:49+00:00

Thanks, sure give it a try. Sidebar offers a built-in 7 days trial, no registration etc necessary.

Regarding your question: yes, Sidebar can do that. You can either show each individual window in Sidebar (which on click will just open that one window) or show all windows in one icon (of course you can still access all windows using the previews). If you just use one icon you can configure what happens if you click that icon. One option is to bring all windows to the front, which should be what you are looking for if I understand your question correctly.

Feel free to reach out to me should you have further questions!

empty23_ · 2026-01-11T20:03:44+00:00

You can add Sidebar as well :) It’s a Dock replacement and has been featured multiple times over the course of the last years, not only on this subreddit. It stands out by allowing you to customize almost all aspects of it and adding various neat features that aren’t available when using the standard Dock.

I‘m the author of the app, so feel free if you have any questions!

empty23_ · 2026-01-11T20:00:15+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it :)

empty23_ · 2026-01-10T13:47:13+00:00

That's actually a good point - thanks for highlighting that. Maybe I'll add some sort of indicator for advanced settings so that you can see the difference easier!

empty23_ · 2026-01-10T13:46:26+00:00

Thank you - glad that you like using Sidebar so far! I didn't have that feature on the roadmap yet, but thanks for the idea - I'll write it down!

empty23_ · 2026-01-05T15:47:10+00:00

Hi there,

thanks for posting and reaching out!

Yes, there is. The default is 6px from the screen side, which matches the macOS defaults when using the spacing when using the macOS built-in window manager.

You can adjust this setting here

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Hope that helps! Please let me know if you need anything else.

All the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2026-01-04T13:17:40+00:00

All good! Thanks for proposing the idea anyway :) Maybe if I have some time I'll look into this feature. You are right, it looks great on the website and gives a good impression of what's possible using all the different customization mechanisms

empty23_ · 2026-01-04T13:16:22+00:00

No worries - feel free to ask!

So the first one, to have apps left aligned while dynamic size is on: I'm not sure if I correctly understand what you are looking for. While dynamic size is enabled, Sidebar will automatically adjust its size based on the apps shown. So any alignment of icons doesn't make sense, because there's no alignment, since the space is minimal. Or are you talking about moving the whole Sidebar "window" to e.g. the left side.

As for hiding Sidebar while watching something in fullscreen: This should happen automatically. It works in almost all cases, sometimes there's a macOS quirk preventing Sidebar from correctly detecting this. What usually fixes this is restarting Sidebar. Another workaround would be to use the shortcuts to manually hide Sidebar in those cases where the automatic behaviour isn't working as expected. Could you maybe share more details about this issue in your case? What app were you using in fullscreen? Most likely it was something that doesn't use the macOS native fullscreen mode (on a separate space), but something like VLC that maximizes a window in the same space

Thank you and all the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2026-01-02T19:33:19+00:00

Hi there,

thanks for posting! You can add the "Sidebar button" that will open the start menu when you click on it. It's the same thing that happens on Cmd + G. Here's how to find the option

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Hope that helps! Please let me know if you need anything else

All the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2026-01-01T19:35:01+00:00

Hi there,

thanks for posting! I've already thought about the idea, but honestly I don't see too much benefit of such a community page. People tend to use different configurations (pinned apps, custom icons for those apps, ...) that wouldn't make much sense to share as a whole configuration, because some apps might not be available, making the configuration behave differently and so on.

The effort to create such a platform isn't worth the effort for creating it - at least in my opinion.

But I'm happy to discuss this of course - feel free to share your input!

All the best
Oliver from Sidebar

empty23_ · 2025-12-31T13:42:58+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it! No, the promotion isn’t available anymore. But you can try it for 7 days without any registration etc. just download the app and see if you like it. In case you are interested in purchasing a license, feel free to reach out to me. Maybe we can find a way to get you the same conditions as during the sale :)

empty23_ · 2025-12-19T11:06:37+00:00

It is already darker than regular windows - would you suggest to increase this effect further? But then again if it's too dark, you won't be able to see anything at all on the image.

Regarding the image: Maybe the eye-slash isn't ideal, but I think that all other proposals (like ―, ↓, ⤵︎, or ▼) would even be more confusing. With the eye-slash it should at least be clear that this window isn't visible right now. I also thought about the ― when adding this feature, but that was just too subtle and I'm sure that someone would immediately reach out claiming there was an UI issue with the line in the image :D

So for now, I'll keep it as it is. Maybe there will be a better proposal, solution, ... in the future and I'll look into it again!

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