When comparing DaisyDisk vs Slate, the Slant community recommends DaisyDisk for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” DaisyDisk is ranked 7th while Slate is ranked 21st. The most important reason people chose DaisyDisk is:
While working on your Mac you create and download a lot of files, but rarely delete anything. As time goes by you have less and less room for your data. DaisyDisk finds those hidden unused gigabytes.
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Pros
Pro Helps find and delete files taking up HDD space
While working on your Mac you create and download a lot of files, but rarely delete anything. As time goes by you have less and less room for your data. DaisyDisk finds those hidden unused gigabytes.
Pro Awesome visualization of files on drive
DaisyDisk gives you a perfect overview of all the disks connected to your Mac, be it Macintosh HD, flash card, Thunderbolt disk or network storage. And does it in a beautiful way.
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.
Pro Based on hotkeys
Hotkeys can be set to re-size and focus windows, as well as activate layout presets.
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.
Pro Allows for tiling
Slate allows for customizing the config file in order to emulate tiling windows.
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.
Pro Window hints
Slate offers window hints which are an intuitive way to change window focus.
Cons
Con Calculation based on 1000 not 1024
It's nice to have a base 1000 (MB, GB, …) calculation but it should be optional. Default should be 1024 (MiB, GiB, …)
Con Expensive for how often it is used
Con Project is no longer in development
Development is no longer active on this project as of 2017.
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.
Con Missing features
Unable to perform all tasks of software it was meant to replace.
Can not move windows between 'Spaces' (virtual desktops).
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.