MacPeek RemoteA Mac Port Manager That Lives in Your Menu Bar
What a good Mac port manager should do: list listening ports, show the owning process, kill safely and stay private. Compare Terminal, Activity Monitor and PortPeek.
macOS has no built-in screen that answers “which app is using port 5432?” Here are your options.
Options compared
| Tool | Shows ports | Maps to process | Kills | Friction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Terminal (lsof, kill) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Commands to remember |
| Activity Monitor | Not by port | Yes | Yes | Hard to find by port |
| Network Utility | Removed in recent macOS | – | – | – |
| PortPeek | Yes | Yes | Yes | One click |
What a port manager should do
- List listening TCP and UDP ports (IPv4 and IPv6).
- Search by port, process name or PID.
- Kill safely: graceful first, never a stale PID.
- Explain permission limits instead of failing silently.
- Respect privacy: no account, no telemetry.
PortPeek
PortPeek is a free, open-source utility inside MacPeek, a native menu-bar app, built around exactly that list. It deliberately isn’t a system monitor — no CPU graphs, no clutter. See the PortPeek page, usage docs and how killing works.
PortPeek gives you the same visibility from your Mac menu bar. See what's using your ports. Kill it in one click. It is a free, open-source utility inside MacPeek.