Blog · Roundup · 27 October 2026

The best window management apps for Mac

macOS can finally snap windows by itself, but a good window manager still saves a lot of dragging. Here are the ones worth knowing, grouped by how you like to work.

Disclosure: I make Mission Boost, so it's on this list and marked “My app”. Nobody paid to be here and there are no affiliate links. I checked each price and macOS requirement on the maker's own site in October 2026. Prices change and sales come and go, so check before you buy.

Quick picks

• Halves and quarters with shortcuts: what's built into macOS, or Rectangle (free).
• Drag to snap, one purchase from the App Store: Magnet or BetterSnapTool.
• Saved layouts across several displays: Moom.
• Mouse first: Loop and its radial menu.
• You already use Raycast: its window commands.
• Automatic tiling, like i3 or xmonad: AeroSpace or Amethyst.
• You live in Mission Control: Mission Boost.

At a glance

Start with what's built in

Since macOS 15 Sequoia, the Mac tiles windows on its own. Drag a window to the edge of the screen to fill that half, or to a corner for a quarter. Hover the green button in the top-left corner of a window for more arrangements, or use Window ▸ Move & Resize in the menu bar.

The shortcuts use Fn (the 🌐 key) and Control: Fn-Control-←/→ for the left or right half, Fn-Control-↑/↓ for top or bottom, Fn-Control-F to fill the screen, Fn-Control-C to centre and Fn-Control-R to go back. Apple lists the rest in its tiling guide. Settings, including the gaps between tiles, live under System Settings ▸ Desktop & Dock.

If halves and quarters are all you need, you may not need anything else. The apps below go further: thirds, custom sizes, saved layouts and automatic tiling.

Snap with shortcuts and drags

Rectangle

Free and open source · Rectangle Pro is paid, with a 10-day trial · macOS 14 or later

The default answer for most people. Keyboard shortcuts for halves, thirds, quarters and moving a window to another display, plus snap areas when you drag to an edge. Everything is remappable, and it stays out of the way in the menu bar. Rectangle Pro adds more on top for a one-time price.

Install it with brew install --cask rectangle if you use Homebrew.

Magnet

One-time purchase on the Mac App Store

A polished snapper that has been around for years. Drag to corners for quarters, to the sides for halves, and to the bottom edge for thirds; there are shortcuts and a menu bar menu too. It handles thirds on vertical displays and up to six external screens. It goes on sale often, so the price you see may differ from what a friend paid.

BetterSnapTool

One-time purchase · Mac App Store or a direct licence from folivora.ai

From the makers of BetterTouchTool. The standout is custom snap areas: draw your own zones, then drag a window into one. You can also move or resize a window by holding a key and moving the mouse, which is handy on big displays.

Raycast

Free; Raycast Pro ($10 a month or $96 a year) adds custom window commands

Raycast is a launcher first, but its free window commands cover halves, thirds, quarters, centring, moving between displays and restoring a window's last position, and each can have a global hotkey. If you already use Raycast, try these before installing a separate app.

Layouts for bigger setups

Moom

$15 one-time, with at least a year of updates · free trial · macOS 10.13 or later

Moom from Many Tricks is the one to look at when you dock a laptop to different displays. Besides a resize grid and presets, it saves whole-screen layouts that adapt to the displays you have connected, so one keystroke puts your windows back after you plug in.

Loop

Free and open source (GPLv3) · macOS 13 or later

Loop is built for the mouse. Hold a trigger key and a radial menu appears around the cursor; flick in a direction to send the window there. It has plain keyboard shortcuts too. A fresh take that feels fast once your hand learns it.

Automatic tiling

Tiling managers place every new window for you, so the screen is always fully used. They suit people who work mostly from the keyboard and are happy to spend an evening on setup.

AeroSpace

Free and open source (MIT) · public beta, expect changes before 1.0

An i3-style tiling manager with a tree layout, driven entirely by the keyboard and a plain-text config. It uses its own virtual workspaces instead of macOS Spaces, which avoids the animations and many of the quirks of Spaces. The project recommends installing through its Homebrew tap.

Amethyst

Free and open source (MIT) · macOS 10.15 or later

Modelled on xmonad, with ready-made layouts such as Tall, Wide, Column and binary space partitioning. It works with native Spaces. Tip from its README: turn off “Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use” in Desktop & Dock settings, so moving between Spaces by keyboard stays predictable.

Switching and Mission Control

AltTab

Free and open source (GPL-3.0); AltTab Pro adds search and more styles · macOS 12 or later

⌘Tab on a Mac switches apps, not windows. AltTab adds a Windows-style switcher that shows every window, including minimized ones and those on other Spaces, with live previews. If you come from Windows, this is the first thing to install.

Mission Boost My app

€9 once after a 14-day free trial · macOS 13 or later · Apple silicon and Intel

My app. Mission Control shows every window but won't let you do anything to one. Mission Boost adds close, minimize and full-screen buttons to the window under your cursor, and makes ⌘W, ⌘M, ⌘F, ⌘H and ⌘Q work on it, so you can tidy a messy desktop without leaving the overview.

Since version 1.4.1 it also does layouts from inside Mission Control: point at a window and press ⌘← or ⌘→ to snap it to a half (press again for thirds), compose a layout by clicking windows into a template, and bring a saved layout back with ⌘1 to ⌘9. It is a different place to manage windows rather than a replacement for a snapper like Rectangle, and the two get along fine.

Mission Control Plus

Paid, with a 10-day trial · one licence covers 5 Macs · macOS 10.13 or later

The app that had the idea first: a close button on windows in Mission Control, plus shortcuts to close, minimize and quit. Mission Boost is my own take on it, written from scratch, and the original deserves the credit and a look.

Which one should you pick?

Try the built-in tiling for a day first. If you miss thirds or want different shortcuts, install Rectangle. If you dock to different displays, look at Moom. If you want the computer to arrange things for you, try AeroSpace. And if you open Mission Control twenty times a day, give Mission Boost two weeks.

More roundups

• The best free Mac apps: 12 small utilities
• Setting up a new Mac: settings and apps for the first hour

Questions

Does macOS have built-in window snapping?

Yes. Since macOS 15 Sequoia you can drag a window to a screen edge or corner to tile it, or use Fn-Control with the arrow keys. Older versions of macOS need an app such as Rectangle or Magnet.

What is the best free window manager for Mac?

For most people, Rectangle: it is free, open source and covers halves, thirds and quarters with shortcuts and drag-to-snap. Loop is a good free choice if you prefer the mouse, and AeroSpace or Amethyst if you want automatic tiling.

Why do window managers need Accessibility permission?

macOS only lets an app move, resize or close another app's windows through the Accessibility permission. You grant it in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessibility. Only grant it to apps you trust.

Can I use two window managers at once?

Yes, as long as their shortcuts don't clash. A snapper like Rectangle sits fine next to AltTab or Mission Boost. Avoid running two automatic tilers, because they fight over every window.

OOndřej Romancov · engineer, Prague