Kitsmith / Compare / Whirr vs Chimlo
MacWhirr vs Chimlo
Whirr vs Chimlo: verdict, pricing, and specs compared, so you can pick the right one for your Mac.
At a glance
Whirr
$4.99 one-timeAmbient agent activity in your notch — watch Claude Code work without watching it.
Chimlo
FreeA native activity island for Codex and Claude Code — read questions, approve tool calls, and reopen finished work.
Spec comparison
Whirr
- Price
- $4.99 one-time
- Pricing model
- Paid
- License
- Proprietary
- Placement
- Notch
- Channels
- Direct
- Category
- Dev & Agents
Chimlo
- Price
- Free
- Pricing model
- Free
- License
- Open source
- Placement
- Notch
- Channels
- GitHub
- Category
- Dev & Agents
The verdict
Whirr is the smallest, cheapest tool in the category — $4.99 one-time for a menu bar app that just mirrors Claude Code activity to the notch, with no approvals or transcripts to manage. Chimlo is free, open source, and does more: it covers both Codex and Claude Code, lets you read and answer questions in place, and approves or denies tool calls with bypass mode never exposed. Pick Whirr if all you want is a quiet Claude Code activity indicator for a few dollars; pick Chimlo if you also use Codex and want to act on prompts from the notch, for free.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Whirr if…
- Pick Whirr if a quiet, glance-only activity indicator is genuinely all you want
- Pick Whirr if you only use Claude Code and don’t need Codex support
- Pick Whirr if $4.99 one-time is an easy yes and you don’t need approvals or a chat window
- Pick Whirr if you want the smallest, single-purpose app in the category
Pick Chimlo if…
- Pick Chimlo if you want it free rather than a small one-time fee
- Pick Chimlo if you also use Codex, not just Claude Code
- Pick Chimlo if you want to approve, deny, or answer prompts from the notch, not just watch activity
- Pick Chimlo if open-source code (GPL-3.0) you can inspect matters to you
Whirr vs Chimlo — questions people ask
Is Chimlo free?
Yes — free and open source under GPL-3.0.
Is Whirr a subscription?
No — $4.99 one-time purchase.
Which one supports Codex?
Chimlo — it covers both Codex and Claude Code. Whirr is built specifically for Claude Code only.