What is Portmole?
Portmole is a tiny macOS menu bar utility that shows every process listening on a port on your Mac and closes it in one click. It exists for one of the most common interruptions in local development: you run npm run dev and get EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::3000, because yesterday's dev server or a crashed watcher is still holding the port. Instead of reaching for lsof, hunting for a PID and typing a kill command, you open Portmole, find :3000 and click ✕. Both of those are free; Portmole Pro adds the tools for starting your projects again.
Free: See It and Stop It
The free download lists every listening port in your menu bar, sorted into Dev, Apps and Other, with Dev as the default so Android emulators, helper daemons and background services stay out of the way. Each dev server is shown by its page title, the command that started it (npm run dev, even when node is the actual listener) and its project folder. You can search, click a row to open the server in your browser, or Reveal in Finder to jump to its project. Closing a server takes one click: ✕ sends a polite SIGTERM, Portmole offers Force Quit if one hangs on, and Option-click forces it immediately. You can open Portmole from the menu bar or from a small draggable mole tab on the edge of your screen, and the free version includes the animated mole mascot and the Terminal theme.
Portmole Pro: Start Them Again
Portmole Pro is a $15 one-time purchase for up to three Macs, with lifetime updates. Recent keeps every dev server you have run one click away from starting again, and offers the next free port if the old one is taken. Open a project lets you pick any folder and detects how to run it: package.json scripts with the right npm, pnpm, yarn or bun command (installing dependencies if needed), Django, FastAPI, Flask, Rails, Laravel, Phoenix, Go, Cargo, Deno, Docker Compose, Makefile targets and static sites. Change port rewrites the start command for the framework, such as --port for Vite, Next and Astro or PORT= for Express, shows it for review and restarts the server there. Pro also adds Restart in Terminal and copy the start command, and projects always run in a real Terminal window, so logs stay visible and Ctrl-C still works.
Pro Extras: Stars, LAN Badge and Themes
Pro adds a few touches for people who live in the app. Stars keep favourite servers at the top of the list and follow the project across restarts and port changes. A LAN badge flags servers that are exposed beyond localhost, so nothing is quietly reachable from the café Wi-Fi. The menu bar icon shows a live count of running dev servers, and the Amber, Ice and native macOS themes join the free Terminal theme.
Privacy and Trust
Portmole has no telemetry and no analytics, and port and process data never leaves your Mac. Its only network traffic is to your own localhost servers (to read page titles), a once-a-day update check that can be turned off in Settings, and Dodo Payments' license service when you activate Pro. It needs no admin rights and no extra macOS permissions, is signed and notarized by Apple, and updates itself automatically. It is distributed directly rather than through the Mac App Store because sandboxed App Store apps cannot see or stop other apps' processes, which is the whole point of the tool.
Key Capabilities at a Glance
Native macOS menu bar app for macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Universal binary for Apple silicon and Intel, about 7 MB. Free: every listening port sorted into Dev, Apps and Other, dev servers labelled by page title, start command and project folder, search, click to open in the browser, one-click close with SIGTERM, Force Quit and Option-click, Reveal in Finder, and a draggable screen-edge mole tab. Pro ($15 one-time, up to three Macs, lifetime updates): Restart in Terminal, copy start command, Recent, Open a project, Change port, stars, LAN badge, a dev-server count in the menu bar, and the Amber, Ice and macOS themes.