Macape vs Mousecape
Mousecape alternative for macOS Sequoia and Tahoe.
Macape is a free menu bar app that applies custom cursor themes system-wide on macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 26 Tahoe. Pick one of 77 themes and macOS draws it everywhere.
Download Macape, freemacOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · about 2 MB
Why Mousecape can stop working
macOS has no public API for replacing system cursors. Mousecape, like every cursor changer, calls private and undocumented cursor functions of the macOS window server. Apple can change them in any release, and a build that still calls them the old way may stop applying capes after a major update such as macOS 15 Sequoia.
How Macape differs
Macape registers each theme cursor with the macOS cursor service under the identifier macOS uses for it, so WindowServer draws the themed cursors in every app that uses system cursors. It is built and tested on Sequoia and Tahoe, saves your original cursors first and restores them with one click.
Side by side.
Mousecape is a long-standing open source project by Alex Zielenski, and community forks and other cursor apps exist too. Choose what fits how you work.
| Macape | Mousecape | |
|---|---|---|
| Theme format | XCursor themes (the format used on Linux desktops) | .cape files |
| Ready-made themes | Built-in catalog of 77 themes, downloaded in one click | Import capes or build your own |
| Theme editor | No | Yes, built-in cape editor |
| Where it lives | Menu bar popover | App window |
| Animated cursors | Yes, played by macOS as frame strips | Yes |
| macOS 15 Sequoia and 26 Tahoe | Tested on both | Depends on the build or fork you use |
| Source code | Closed source, free to use | Open source on GitHub |
| Price | Free | Free |
Mousecape on GitHub: alexzielenski/Mousecape ↗