The Slant team built an AI & it’s awesome

Find the best product instantly

4.7 star rating

OSXProductivity

What is the best window manager for Mac?

38

Options
Considered

1K

User
Recs.

Nov 28, 2021

Last
Updated

Window managers help manipulate application windows in order to increase productivity.

A good window manager for Mac will allow moving, resizing and rearranging application windows quickly. It will allow customizing how windows are handled, have keyboard shortcuts for performing window manipulations quickly and allow snapping windows to various locations on the desktop with the mouse.

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 36 OptionsWhy?

Best window manager for Mac	Price	License	Minimum System Specs
94 Moom	$9.99	-	-
89 ShiftIt	Free	-	-
89 Divvy	$13.99	-	-
88 Slate	Free	-	-
86 Amethyst	-	MIT	-

Moom

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Customizable keyboard shortucts

Moom comes with many preset keyboard shortcuts. The user can go into the graphical settings of the app and change any one of them to a different combination of keys. See More

Top Con

UI for settings can be confusing

The settings for the app are pretty jumbled and are hard to get a grip of, especially for first time users. While all the settings one would need are there, they are difficult to find or understand, which requires a good bit of playing around with the settings in order to get a feel for them and what they offer. See More

Top Pro

You can save tiling window position and size

Users can set window position and size themselves, allowing for a great way to set up a tiling window experience. See More

Top Con

Not free

Moom is not free: it costs $9.99. See More

Top Pro

Windows can be snapped to the edges of the screen

In addition to using the grid or the overlay, Moom can move and zoom windows by dragging them to screen edges. See More

Top Con

Two steps needed, while some tools only need one

Top Pro

Simple customization

While you can set keyboard shortcuts, Moom has a very easy-to-use GUI and GUI-based customization features to help you get going right away. See More

Top Pro

Adds a zoom button for all apps

Moom adds an overlay zoom button to the corner of all apps which allows any app to go full screen or be placed to certain sections of the screen (such as the top, bottom, or sides). This works even on apps that do not normally allow for full screen views. See More

Top Pro

Multi-monitor support

Moom has excellent support for multi-monitor setups. You can drag a window to the edge of your screen into another monitor and snap it there. See More

Built by Slant

Find the best product
instantly.

Stop wasting time searching endlessly. Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Add to Chrome - It's Free

Add to Edge - It's Free

Add to Firefox - It's Free

Add to Opera - It's Free

Add to Brave - It's Free

Add to Safari - It's Free

Try now - it's free

35 Other Options Considered

ShiftIt

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Easy to configure

ShiftIt is configured through a simple UI where you simply press the hotkeys you wish to map to a certain action. See More

Top Con

A little slow

Similar to Spectacle, but it has a few more features, such as being able to pick the size adjustment increments. Spectacle was a little faster, though. Repeated size changes or moves in succession can cause it to wait for it to complete. See More

Eric Link's Experience

Use daily See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Con

Imprecise when readjusting sizes

Top Pro

Open source

Top Con

Doesn't support moving windows between workspaces

There's no way to move a window to a different workspace with hotkeys in ShiftIt. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive

ShiftIt is very straight-forward to use for most frequent usages. See More

Divvy

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Requires no configuration and is very easy to use

The user simply needs to install Divvy and they can immediately start organizing their windows with no setup time or learning curve involved. See More

Top Con

No longer updated

While this may work for current machines, the last beta version (to be found on the site) is from January 2016. Developer's twitter account has stopped being active as well, on November '16. See More

Top Pro

Reasonably configurable

You can change the grid dimensions and other visual settings to suit your needs. See More

Top Con

Not free

Costs $14. See More

Top Pro

Offers keyboard shortcuts

Although it's not in the same league as the likes of Slate, Divvy does support the use of keyboard shortcuts to move windows about. You can even create custom shortcuts. See More

Top Con

Missing snap to borders

There is no way to snap to border as in Windows, though there is a way to set keyboard shortcuts to throw windows to the sides or top/bottom of the screen. See More

Top Pro

Multi-monitor support

Top Con

Expensive at $13.99

Divvy is one of the more (if not most) expensive window managers. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited free trial

Divvy provides a free trial that never runs out (however, it will encourage you to upgrade with popups). See More

Top Pro

Has keyboard shortcuts

Although it's not in the same level as something like bug.n, Divvy does support the use of keyboard shortcuts to move windows about. You can even create custom shortcuts. See More

Slate

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Extremely configurable

Slate is similar to Linux WMs like Xmonad in that it is nearly infinitely configurable. You can either use the default configuration file or just Javascript for very complex/dynamic settings. Slate also offers editing a ".js" or a ".slate" file for configuration. See More

Top Con

Project is no longer in development

Development is no longer active on this project as of 2017. See More

CoherentMoneiba's Experience

The repo is not maintained since 2017, . See More

Top Pro

Based on hotkeys

Hotkeys can be set to re-size and focus windows, as well as activate layout presets. See More

Top Con

Hard to configure

There's no graphical user interface for configuring Slate, meaning it has to be done from the command line interface or by editing a config file. This makes it somewhat difficult and time-consuming. See More

Top Pro

It's free

Slate is completely free to download and use, which is a great option in a field of Mac WMs that often costs money to use. See More

Top Con

Missing features

Unable to perform all tasks of software it was meant to replace. Can not move windows between 'Spaces' (virtual desktops). See More

Top Pro

Allows for tiling

Slate allows for customizing the config file in order to emulate tiling windows. See More

Top Con

Video fail

Demonstration video failed to highlight any of the advantages of the windowing system. Or at least, the advantages were so subtly intrinsic that no-one who didn't already use the system could appreciate them. See More

Top Pro

Lets you set default layouts

By using a feature called "snapshots", users can set up different default window layouts in Slate that they can switch to and from on the fly. See More

Top Pro

Window hints

Slate offers window hints which are an intuitive way to change window focus. See More

Amethyst

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

It's free and open-source

Amethyst is published under the MIT license making it open-source and id offered completely free. This allows anyone to give the tiling window manger a try, which is great. See More

Top Con

Can be buggy at times

Specs

Top Pro

Recently updated and rewritten in Swift.

The application was written in Objective-C, but was recently updated and completely rewritten in Apple's new native language Swift. See More

Top Con

There are more user friendly window managers available

There are certainly more user friendly window managers available for MacOS, such as Divvy or Moom. Amethyst, however, is more powerful and customizable than the more user friendly options available and therefore may be a better choice for a user looking for more advanced capabilities and customization. See More

Top Pro

Works with keyboard shortcuts, no mouse needed

As it's designed to work closely to how xmonad, Amethyst uses keyboard shortcuts to control the windows being used, meaning no mouse input is necessary. This can make for a faster way to control windows. See More

Top Pro

Multi-monitor suppport

Top Pro

Has many common layouts to choose from (fullscreen, floating, row, column, wide, etc)

Top Pro

Can switch between tiling and floating mode

Top Pro

Under active development

Top Pro

Configured via UI

No CONFIG file provides security and will avoid making amethyst crash. Instead configured via simple UI See More

Top Pro

True tiling means never losing track of windows under a huge pile of others

Spectacle

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Free and open source

Spectacle is licensed under MIT with source code available on GitHub. See More

Top Con

Not maintained

The software is free, but no longer seems to be maintained. See More

TactfulLympha's Experience

Simple does it better See More

Top Pro

Simple hotkeys

Spectacle offers easy-to-remember preset hotkeys. See More

Top Con

Impossible to add new functions

While keyboard shortcuts can be changed for the available actions, there is no way to add custom actions which in turn limits the functionality of the app. See More

Top Pro

Mouseless

All windows in Spectacle can be controlled with keyboard shortcuts, so no mouse is needed. This makes for a fast way to control windows. See More

Top Con

Limited window sizing capabilities

You can use 1/2 of the screen vertically and horizontally (divide into 4 parts). You can also use the screen in thirds too, but only the left and right third: you can't use the 1/3 in the center. There is no way to do a more granular distribution. See More

Top Pro

Low footprint

Spectacle only uses up 18-19 MB of RAM, which means there is not much overhead by using this app. See More

Top Con

Breaks on macOS High Sierra / Chrome or Firefox

Doesn't support side by side windows. See More

Top Pro

Great UX

Spectacle is easy to use and configure. It's plug and play. See More

Top Con

Doesn't work with any Adobe products

There are some apps like Adobe Reader that do not work with Spectacle. Basically, any app with a heavily customized UI that breaks OS X accessibility will not work correctly under Spectacle. See More

Top Pro

Multi-monitor support

Top Pro

7+ years of use

Using it for 7 years See More

Magnet

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Intuitive handling

Just drag the window to one of the sides of the screen and it snaps there. This is especially useful for those who can't be bothered remembering the shortcuts. See More

Top Con

Cannot setup custom sizes and window positions

Unfortunately, you can only move windows to preset positions. See More

FriendlyTonacacihuatl's Experience

Can use shortcuts or not, I prefer not to. Easy to use menu bar controls to decide how to size or move windows - brilliant!! See More

Top Pro

Keyboard centric

Easy to learn keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Con

Can only be purchased from the App Store

Magnet is only available in App Store. See More

FriendlyPhaethon's Experience

breaks pinch zoom See More

Top Pro

Cheap

At $0.99, it is not that expensive. See More

Top Con

Can't hide the menu bar icon

It would've been nice to be able to hide the icon so it doesn't clutter the menu bar. See More

Mat Rhein's Experience

I tried several other options but use Magnet now for its unobtrusive simplicity. Since I don't have any custom splits I use regularly, this is my go-to solution. See More

Top Pro

Mouse controllable

Supports dragging a window along the edges of the screen to activate. See More

Top Con

Interference when switching between folders

Default Folder-X app "warns" that Magnet App may interfere with it's ability to switch between folders in Open and Save dialogue boxes. See More

Top Pro

Do not have to learn or remember keyboard shortcuts

Top Con

Causes cursor bugs in IntelliJ IDEs

Unfortunately, Magnet causes the caret to bounce around in IntelliJ IDEs, this is very annoying. See More

Top Pro

It's often on sale

For example, at the writing of this pro it's currently at $1. See More

Top Pro

Up to six external displays supported

Rectangle

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Free and open source

CalmMors's Experience

Free and open source. Best! See More

Specs

License:OpenSource

Minimum System Specs:MacOS 10.11

Top Pro

Active development

PersistentBanba's Experience

The best replacement for spectacle See More

Top Pro

Plenty of window locations you can define

ChillZ's Experience

Was quickly set up with brew tried 2 others but stayed with Rectangle because of it's various commands and active development See More

Top Pro

Supports MacOS Mojave and newer

Top Pro

Mouse control

Let's you snap the windows like on Microsoft Windows. See More

Top Pro

Option to NOT show Rectangle's settings in the menu bar

One item less that would otherwise clutter your menu bar. See More

Swish

Top Pro

Best window manager for trackpad power users

Gestures are faster than dragging or keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Con

The tutorial within the app is not that thorough

Due to the huge variety of excellent gestures. See More

UpbeatWatatsumi's Experience

What an amazing product! I started by buying a trackpad out of curiosity and started to use swish alongside. 8 months later I haven't even touched the apple mouse and use several of the basic gestures all the time such as minimise, maximise and with key add windows to parts of the screen or even between monitors. With the recent macOS 12 it kinda broke, but I'm so happy to see the devs put this in their change-log for information. Gives me confidence in the product with the clear communication from the devs! See More

Top Pro

Custom grid offsets

The default setting uses a clean single-pixel divider without any overlaps. See More

SensibleSharraItu's Experience

Stays out of sight until you need it. Has a lot of gestures to use, all of which you can turn off and keep the most relevant ones on per your workflow. Haptic feedback. Memory utilization on my M1 MacBook never exceeds 60mb. See More

Top Pro

Multi-monitor and spaces support

Switch intuitively between screens and spaces based on their physical location. See More

DiligentCephisso's Experience

Very useful, should be integrated into the OS itself! See More

Top Pro

Sleek and intuitive

DiligentConsus's Experience

I tried so many apps to control the windows, but this is the best one. It will take time to learn how it works in the first time, but it is not a problem. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Just squeezing on top of an icon to close the app is a breeze compared to right clicking and selecting "quit," using Command + Q, or APP NAME -> Quit. See More

PhilosophicalElatha's Experience

Absolutely love this app. Literally cannot imagine using a mac without it. After having it, I can't believe Apple hasn't built it in themselves. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Intuitive gestures, doesn't get in the way like BetterTouchTool See More

DevotedDagon's Experience

This app makes window management so much easier. Highly recommended to give it a try. See More

CompetentMokosh's Experience

Took mac experience to the next level. See More

AwesomestEloiscol's Experience

Arrange windows intuitively with gestures. Unique features: • Drag divider between snapped windows to resize them together. • Meaningfully preconfigured. • Sixths and even ninths easily spatial placeable; good on the big screen. See More

SincereBaldr's Experience

Great app, highly recommended, took seconds to get used to. See More

CourteousHeimdallr's Experience

Saves me at least 1/4 of the time I work in my MacBook! A must have for every trackpad user out there. Why didn't Apple come up with this? See More

SizeUp

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Keyboard centric

SizeUp has user-configurable keyboard shortcuts for a set of pre-defined actions. See More

Top Con

Nag window

If a license is not purchased there is a nag window (which suspends function) that pops up when loading the app (at user login). The nag pop-up is also summoned at certain time intervals and by performing a certain number of commands (manually or by keyboard shortcut). See More

ReceptiveTapio's Experience

Simple keyboard shortcuts to resize windows and move between screens. You can applescript any custom keyboard shortcut you want. Exactly the right tool to make a user learn efficient window management without the mouse. I encourage my team to use this over any other window manager on mac. See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple monitors / spaces

Windows can be sent to different monitors and spaces. It can also be aligned as needed. See More

Top Con

No on-the-fly split screen window settings

Unlike some other tiling window managers, SizeUp has no way to change the size of split screen actions on-the-fly. Any time a user wants to change how much room on the screen a window takes up when using the split screen function, they will need to manually change the settings, which can be time consuming. See More

SpiritedEuporie's Experience

Free, easy to use, keyboard shortcuts, works fine. See More

Top Pro

Simple

SizeUp is easy and simple to use without having to configure. See More

Top Pro

AppleScript support allows extending functionality

AppleScript permits adding features such as tiling all open windows. Additionally, FastScripts it allows the user to add keyboard shortcuts to AppleScripts. See More

Top Pro

Menubar dropdown for shortcuts

Learning a bunch of keyboard shortcuts right off the bat may be difficult to remember at first, which is why a menubar shortcut for the app exists with all the shortcuts listed. See More

Hyperdock

Top Con

Not under active development

Hyperdock doesn't seem to be under active development and hasn't been updated since october 2014. See More

Top Pro

Snaps to corners

Top Con

No more free on app store

Paid on app store and no more access. See More

Top Pro

Scroll up/down to change size

Simply scroll up or down on the menu bar to make size alterations. See More

Top Con

Does not work on High Sierra

Top Pro

Lets you easily find a window you have open

Top Pro

Select individual application

Select individual application windows just by moving the mouse on a dock item. The user can also use mouse clicks to quickly open new windows and many more. See More

Top Pro

Lots of small improvements to the dock

Hyperdock adds a lot of small improvements to the default Mac dock, like better iTunes controls and calendar event previews. See More

XMonad

Add Video or Image

Top Con

macOS is not the primary target platform

For a macOS-specific XMonad, see osxmonad (https://www.slant.co/topics/526/viewpoints/7/~best-window-manager-for-mac~osxmonad). The instructions primarily target Linux. There are specific macOS instructions but as of 2018-02 they have not been updated since 2014-11. These instructions note that "XMonad cannot manage Aqua windows ... Neither XMonad nor any other X11 window manager will ever be able to manage native windows". See More

Top Pro

Highly configurable

If you enjoy programming, you can even add features to XMonad to make it your perfect desktop environment, and the Contrib modules give you most of what you need to do exactly that. See More

Specs

License:Modified BSD (3-Clause)

Type:Tiling / Dynamic

Programming Language:Haskell

Initial Release:March 6, 2007

Top Con

Requires knowledge of Haskell for configuration

Understanding of Haskell is required in order to configure XMonad. See More

Top Pro

Absolutely minimal

The entire window manager is extremely small, and includes nothing beyond basic window manipulation and tiling. Out of the box, there are no window decorations, status bar nor icon dock; just clean lines and efficiency. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve for uninitiated users

Like a lot of tiling window managers, the learning curve for XMonad is quite steep. See More

VEEER

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Various features regarding window control ❤️

It doesn't only allow the alignment of windows, it also lets you drag windows and close & maximize windows using customizable keys. See More

PatientTaneRore's Experience

Best window manager for designers like me - allows superfast window switching and ramps up your overall workflow speed! See More

Top Pro

VEEER allows me to drag, minimize, maximize and center Windows using mouseclicks

Additional features that really saves time when working! See More

Dave's Experience

Great product that worked first time. Drag and drop windows, easy keyboard shortcuts, an actual opening tutorial that makes sense too. Nice. See More

Top Pro

It's free and actually works unlike half the others on this page

Mar Zumaya's Experience

I love it. Managing my windows is easier and faster than ever before. I highly recommend it. ✨✨ See More

dwm

Specs

License:MIT/X Consortium

Type:Tiling / Dynamic

Programming Language:C

Initial Release:July 14, 2006

Built By the Slant team

Find the best product instantly.

Lustre recommends the best products at their lowest prices – right on Amazon.

4.7 star rating

Try it now - it's free

Lustre.ai illustration