When comparing ShiftIt vs BetterSnapTool, the Slant community recommends ShiftIt for most people. In the question“What is the best window manager for Mac?” ShiftIt is ranked 2nd while BetterSnapTool is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose ShiftIt is:
ShiftIt is configured through a simple UI where you simply press the hotkeys you wish to map to a certain action.
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Pros
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 Free
Pro Intuitive
ShiftIt is very straight-forward to use for most frequent usages.
Pro Open source
Pro Configuration can be committed to your personal dotfiles repository
Configuration winds up living in .hammerspoon/init.lua and .hammerspoon/Spoons/ShiftIt.lua. Very easy to track configuration changes.
Pro Custom Snap Areas
With this feature, you can move any window into the desired position, select 'advanced: create a custom snap area (using current window as template)' from the toolbar and also edit settings for the snap area. It is also possible to edit the size, position, and presentation of the drop-zone, the shortcut for the custom snap area, and a list apps for which the snap area should be available (eg: only show this zone for VLC).
Cons
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.
Con Vertical monitor orientation snap area bug
The snap feature currently is not working on monitors with vertical orientation. The snap areas show up, but the window never snaps in place. You have to manually adjust each window on the vertical orientation monitor.
Con Costs
BetterSnapTool is no longer free and now costs $3.