We read NotchNook's reviews on October 20, 2026. MacUpdate rates it 4.7 out of 5 from 14 ratings and Product Hunt 4.6 from 5 reviews. But 7 of the 8 reviews on lo.cafe's Trustpilot page give it one star, and nearly every review written since September is about a licence that stopped working.
How NotchNook is rated, site by site
NotchNook has no listing on the Mac App Store, G2 or Capterra that we could find. These are the sites that rate it, all read on October 20, 2026.
MacUpdate shows no star split. Most of its written reviews are five stars from early 2026; the two newest are one star.
NotchNook was the #4 product of the day when it launched there on June 29, 2024. One of the five reviews flags battery use.
The profile belongs to lo.cafe, NotchNook's maker, and is unclaimed. Seven of its eight reviews are about NotchNook; one is about Lo Rain, another lo.cafe app. getdroppy.app is not on Trustpilot either, so we compare no Trustpilot scores here.
Two places where NotchNook used to be listed are gone. Setapp's NotchNook page now redirects to its catalog, after MacMagazine reported that Setapp had scheduled its removal for September 22, 2026. Homebrew disabled the NotchNook cask in September because its download address stopped working, and removed it on October 17. AlternativeTo lists 10 likes and no rating.
The four complaints that repeat
We grouped every negative review we could read by what went wrong. Reviews are paraphrased; each one links to where you can read it in full.
Licences stopped working, and refunds did not come.
A lifetime licence was deactivated twice, support stopped answering, and a refund was refused after a change to the licensing system.
Trustpilot1 star, October 17, 2026
The licence server and the website were down, with no word from the developer. The reviewer called the app a paperweight.
MacUpdate1 star, September 14, 2026
Paid for a licence and could not activate it.
Trustpilot1 star, September 15, 2026
Your key is yours. One key covers 2 Macs, and you move it yourself: remove an old Mac from the Devices list in Settings, or reset the activation on the Recover license page and activate the new Mac. Lost the key? Recover license emails it to you. Refunds are open for 14 days, and Droppy is made and run by one independent developer, Jordy Spruit.
Battery and CPU use on some versions.
A MacBook Air owner traced shorter battery life to NotchNook. A team notice they quoted said the fix in version 1.5.2 was incomplete and suggested going back to 1.4.6.
MacRumors forumsAugust 20, 2025
A launch-week review named battery performance as the one big problem.
Product Hunt2024
To be fair: a newer Product Hunt review calls CPU and battery use reasonable now, and NotchNook's help page says the early CPU, lag and crash issues are fixed.
Droppy is a native Swift and SwiftUI app. Every extension is optional and stays off until you turn it on, so what you do not use does not run. If something does use too much, report it on The Trench, our public bug board, where you can follow the fix to the release that ships it.
Bugs that get in the way.
Frequent bugs, at times bad enough to make the app unusable.
Trustpilot1 star, July 25, 2026
The Setapp build was buggy and ran behind the direct download, version 1.27 against 1.3.
MPU Talk forumOctober 18, 2024
Bugs happen in every app; what matters is whether you can see them being fixed. Every report on The Trench is public, with its status, and the changelog lists what each release fixed.
Support that does not answer.
A $25 key would not work, and emails to support went unanswered for days.
Trustpilot1 star, March 27, 2026
Most of the September and October reviews above end the same way: no reply.
Trustpilot2026
Write to hi@getdroppy.app and the person who builds Droppy reads it. There is also a Discord with a support channel, and The Trench for anything you want tracked in public.
What NotchNook reviewers like
The good reviews are good, and they agree on two things.
It looks like it belongs on a Mac.
Two five-star reviews on the same day: one says it looks like Apple made it, the other calls it the best notch app out there.
MacUpdate5 stars, March 26, 2026
Droppy is built from Apple's own controls, with Liquid Glass, real springs and a Settings window laid out like System Settings. Try it next to your other Mac apps and judge it yourself.
Widgets and a file tray in the notch.
Reviewers praise the widgets, the Tray for files, the media controls and the calendar, while asking for more ways to customise them.
Product Hunt2025 and 2026
Droppy has a file tray with AirDrop, a floating basket that follows your drag, and a custom shelf where you pick up to four widgets and set their order and width. Music comes with live lyrics and a floating player.
| On October 20, 2026 | NotchNook | Droppy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 lifetime (shown down from $25), or $2 a month | $9.99 once |
| Macs per licence | 2 | 2 |
| Free trial | 48 hours | 3 days |
| Refund window | 7 days | 14 days |
| Requirements | macOS 14.6+ | macOS 14+ |
| Homebrew | Removed October 17, 2026 | brew install --cask droppy |
| Clipboard history | No | Yes |
Our verdict: NotchNook is well made, but in 2026 its reviews are about trust.
- Where it is rated by use, it rates well: 4.7 on MacUpdate and 4.6 on Product Hunt, with praise for a design that feels native.
- 7 of its 8 Trustpilot reviews give one star, and since September almost every new review is about a licence that stopped working or a refund that never came.
- It has left Setapp and Homebrew, and who runs the new site has not been settled in public.
- If you want what NotchNook does with a licence you control, Droppy is $9.99 once and you can try every feature free for 3 days.
Questions people ask about NotchNook
Is NotchNook legit?
NotchNook is a real Mac app with real users: it rates 4.7 out of 5 on MacUpdate and 4.6 on Product Hunt. Since September 2026, though, a dispute between lo.cafe's founders has taken payments and the website offline for a time, and most of the newest reviews are about licences that stopped working. It is on sale again at getnotchnook.com.
What is NotchNook's rating on Trustpilot?
The lo.cafe profile on Trustpilot has a TrustScore of 2.2 from 8 reviews, read on October 20, 2026. Seven of the eight give one star, and six of those were written in 2026. getnotchnook.com has no Trustpilot listing of its own.
What do people complain about most in NotchNook reviews?
Since September 2026: licences that deactivate or will not activate, and no reply from support. Before that: battery and CPU use on some versions, and bugs that make widgets or music controls stop working.
How much does NotchNook cost?
On October 20, 2026, getnotchnook.com sells a lifetime licence for $15, shown down from $25, or $2 a month, shown down from $3. One licence covers 2 Macs, the trial lasts 48 hours and refunds are offered within 7 days. It needs macOS 14.6 or later.
Is NotchNook still on Setapp and Homebrew?
No. Setapp's NotchNook page now redirects to its catalog, and Homebrew disabled the NotchNook cask in September 2026 after its download URL stopped working, then removed it on October 17, 2026.
Is there a good alternative to NotchNook?
Droppy covers the same ground (a file tray, music controls, widgets and live activities, on Macs with or without a notch) and adds clipboard history, Droppy Cloud share links and 36 optional extensions. It costs $9.99 once for 2 Macs, installs from getdroppy.app or Homebrew, and has a 3-day free trial.
Sources
Every rating was read on October 20, 2026: MacUpdate, Product Hunt, Trustpilot, AlternativeTo, and NotchNook's own site for price, trial, refund and requirements. Homebrew's record is in pull requests #288444 and #295005. The ownership dispute is as MacMagazine reported it on September 16, 2026. We could not check Reddit or G2. This page is written by Droppy, which competes with NotchNook; we say so and give every source so you can check our reading. NotchNook and lo.cafe are trademarks of their owners.