When comparing TotalFinder vs ShiftIt, the Slant community recommends TotalFinder for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” TotalFinder is ranked 11th while ShiftIt is ranked 49th. The most important reason people chose TotalFinder is:
A great feature of TotalFinder is the ability to have dual panes. This is really handy for moving files around.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Adds dual panes to the Mac finder
A great feature of TotalFinder is the ability to have dual panes. This is really handy for moving files around.
Pro Adds cut/paste context menu functionality to Finder
You can cut and paste with just the mouse.
Pro Copy path to file or directory feature
You can copy the path to a directory or file using the context menu in Finder, options include POSIX Path, URL, Windows Path, UNC Path, HFS Path, and Terminal Path.
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.
Pro Intuitive
ShiftIt is very straight-forward to use for most frequent usages.
Pro Free
Pro Open source
Cons
Con Requires special installation procedure in El Capitan and later due to "System Integrity Protection"
"System Integrity Protection" (also know as "Rootless") is a feature introduced in El Capitan that, among other things, inhibits applications to inject code on system apps (TotalFinder injects code into Finder).
For TotalFinder to work properly one must disable SIP temporarly to install. After installation a user can turn SIP back on without issue.
Instructions are detailed here.
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.
Con Imprecise when readjusting sizes
Con Doesn't support moving windows between workspaces
There's no way to move a window to a different workspace with hotkeys in ShiftIt.