Working remotely with international colleagues means I’m constantly on video calls across different time zones. Nothing disrupts a meeting faster than suddenly realizing your connection quality has tanked, usually right when you’re trying to share something important. I’d been manually running ping tests in Terminal whenever I suspected issues, which meant by the time I confirmed the problem, the awkward silence had already happened.
SimplePing solves this with a persistent menu bar display that shows your current ping time in real-time. The app continuously monitors your connection to a target server and updates the display every few seconds. You can customize which server to ping, defaulting to google.com, but I’ve set mine to ping servers closer to where my team is located to get a more accurate picture of the connection quality that actually matters for my work.
The setup takes about two minutes. After installing from the Mac App Store for $0.99, you choose your ping destination and set your preferred refresh interval. The app then sits in your menu bar displaying your current ping in milliseconds. Green numbers indicate good connectivity, while the display changes color as latency increases, giving you an immediate visual signal without needing to read the exact number.
In my experience on a Mac Mini M4, SimplePing uses minimal resources. The app requires about 11.8 MB of storage and runs efficiently in the background. For anyone managing international remote work, the ability to spot connection degradation before it becomes a problem is worth far more than the dollar price tag.
What makes SimplePing particularly useful is its simplicity. The app does one thing and does it consistently. You’re not buried in configuration options or complicated graphs. The menu bar shows your ping, and clicking the icon gives you quick access to settings if you need to change your target server. This focused approach means the app stays out of your way until you actually need to check on your connection status.
The app works on macOS 10.13 or later, making it compatible with virtually any Mac still in active use. Developer Axel Guilbert from Sweatshop has kept the app updated, with the most recent version from October 2024 streamlining the ping display to show integers only, removing decimal places for cleaner readability.
The main limitation is that SimplePing doesn’t provide historical data or detailed network diagnostics. If you need comprehensive network monitoring with graphs and logging, tools like iStat Menus ($11.99) offer more features, though at a higher price and with a busier interface. For users who simply want to know if their connection is healthy right now, SimplePing’s approach is more practical.
Some users have reported occasional timeout errors in reviews, though I haven’t encountered this myself. The developer provides support at axel@fluffy.es for troubleshooting, which is reassuring for a $0.99 app. The App Store listing shows limited ratings, but the app has been available since at least 2019 and continues receiving updates, suggesting sustained development commitment.
For remote workers, especially those coordinating across continents, SimplePing provides the peace of mind that comes from knowing your connection status before problems become apparent to everyone on your call. It’s a small utility that solves a specific problem without unnecessary complexity.
