What Window Management Options exist for OS X?

Question

I'd like to do something with my windows on OS X, where something includes options like re-arranging, moving, re-sizing, remembering positions, cloning across Spaces, etc. What options exist?

Rules

One app per answer.
Use this format for the first two lines of your answer:
## [app name](link to website)
[App Store](link to appstore) (price)
Check for duplicates before adding new answers.
If you find a duplicate, vote it down and encourage its poster to upvote the original entry instead (and remove the dupe).
Include short description about what this Window Managing app does.
- What makes this Window Manager app different than the others?
- Is it focused on re-sizing using only the keyboard?
- Is it focused on moving using only mouse gestures?
- Etc.

Excellent questions and rules. If we had a word / term to describe said something then that would accelerate the conversation and enable Google search of the subject matter. If there is a term, please update the post to include this term. — gatorback, Aug 25 '20 at 16:18
Related: Move a full screen app to second monitor, Does MacOS have a keyboard shortcut for moving an individual window to another monitor? — V2Blast, Oct 27 '21 at 19:26

score 252 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 25 '20 at 16:30

252

Spectacle

Open source, available at GitHub, accepting donations

Per Spectacle' Github:

Spectacle users have recommended Rectangle as an open source alternative.

Rectangle is maintained as of 2020.

brew cask install rectangle

edited Aug 25 '20 at 16:30

gatorback

3,031
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answered Oct 10 '12 at 14:21

Andrew

101

15

I've tried all the windows managers for OS X. Most of them turn me off because they want to charge $10+ for functionality that comes built-in to Windows 7. This was the first free one that's satisfied my need (hot keys to move and snap windows) with support of multiple monitors (which most of the other free ones did not) – taudep Oct 19 '12 at 14:25
1

Agree with taudep. Spectacle is simple, free, unobtrusive and takes only 1 minute or 2 to learn completely. – DjebbZ Feb 06 '14 at 13:01
Thanks for that. Lots of web searches turned up the other options listed below, but this was the first time I'd heard Spectacle mentioned, and it is exactly what I was looking for. – The111 Jul 01 '14 at 19:22
4

I can finally maximize windows now with the Cmd + Alt + F <3 Thank you – saada Jul 04 '14 at 20:16
1

Note to anyone looking to use this with a 4k display.. it's pretty much useless.. you can only move windows between 1/2's and 1/3's of the whole screen.. so if you want to put 6-7 terminals side by side.. this wont help – Chris Dec 16 '14 at 23:17
... and if offer a straightforward key shortcut customization panel. Tried. Approved. – Stéphane Gourichon Feb 09 '15 at 14:41
1

Too bad it can't handle custom window size/location combos. I like having some of my windows in specific positions with specific sizes. (Other than that appears to work well, I particularly liked the fact that the run on login option is not set by default.) – Daniel Sep 17 '15 at 10:13
If you think the comparison between OS X's default window manager and Windows is bad, OS X's looks far worse compared to *nix window managers. What, there's not even a way to push a window to the back, only the front? Seriously? – Alex North-Keys Dec 22 '15 at 10:42
Too bad it's not supporting mouse for taking actions. You can not drag the title bar to the side you want to get the window fit to half-left, half-right, fullscreen by dragging it on the left, right and top of the screen respectively. – xryl669 Jan 25 '16 at 09:46
Thanks for Spectacle! @xryl669, I also noticed this big difference in comparison to others, it lacks hot corners and hot sides, when controlling mouse only. You may check iSnap, which has the same functionality as Spectacle + hot corners. I've been using this iSnap.app for two years so far, and it's FREE as well. It's lightweight and tiny as well, < 500Kb. – Farside Mar 30 '16 at 09:30
I'm using Sticker. Works well, free and simple. – xryl669 Mar 31 '16 at 13:10
spectacler app, made my day – Daniel Oct 18 '16 at 10:22
This appears to be unmaintained. No updates in about a year as of my comment; doesn't appear to be any maintained / primary fork, either. – ELLIOTTCABLE Apr 22 '17 at 00:50
@ELLIOTTCABLE the last commit as of this comment was 3 months ago which updated the application dependencies.
Just because an application is not being actively developed does not mean it is poor quality or unmaintained.
– Andrew Oct 23 '17 at 19:38
5

I recently rewrote Spectacle in Swift, as a new app called Rectangle. Free and open source and has a few added features, like the drag to edge snapping. – Ryan H Sep 12 '19 at 14:00
No longer maintained: This repository has been archived by the owner on Jan 21, 2023. It is now read-only. – Johnny Baloney Aug 23 '23 at 15:07

score 68 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 26 '16 at 14:42

Moom by Many Tricks

App Store ($9.99)

Screenshot

Mouse controls

Zoom button controls (pop up controls when hovering over a Zoom button):
- Move & zoom to: full screen, left, right, top, bottom, top-left, top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left.
- Move & zoom to grid with customisable cells.
- Move to other display.
- Revert to original dimensions.
Snap to edges and corners (move & zoom when dragging a window to a display edge or corner).

Keyboard controls

Keyboard mode (triggered with a configurable hot key):
- Actions: move, zoom, grow, shrink, center, revert, move to other display.
- Configurable keys: ↑ → ↓ ← (with optional modifiers ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ), Return, Space, Tab, Esc.

Custom controls

Fully customisable actions with menu and hot keys:
- Actions: move, zoom, center, resize, grow, shrink, revert, arrange, move to other display.
- Customisable grid.
- Save and restore window layouts.
- Hot keys can trigger a chain of multiple actions in sequence (eg: center followed by resize).

I dumped Cinch and RightZoom since Moom provides the same functionality but sleeker. — Chris Smith, Mar 16 '13 at 18:26
Just tried Moom, doesn't seem to work very well :( some apps work for snapping, while others just don't work at all :( — Phill, Feb 13 '14 at 14:14

score 59 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

59

BetterTouchTool (free $2.99, $7.50..$21)

BetterTouchTool is known for bringing more functionality to multi-touch trackpads and mice. It also allows you to to snap to the right/left sides, and all four corners. I would highly recommend this application.

enter image description here

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Nov 11 '11 at 18:15

daviesgeek

38,901
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+1 I think it's call BetterSnapTool now? I use it and it's easy to set your own keyboard shortcuts. It allows you to move to the next monitor too. What it's missing is remembering setup when unplugging monitors. I have two externals. – oma May 10 '13 at 10:00
1

@oma BetterSnapTool has only the snapping features and it's also not a free app :) it's paid… – daviesgeek May 13 '13 at 05:18
1

It's $1.99. I think free vs paid is just too black & white. This is practically free :) Right after I posted I noticed that BetterSnapTool was already mentioned below (http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/37892/3876). But I couldn't delete the comment as it was sent for review. I guess I was wrong about it being renamed. – oma May 13 '13 at 09:08

score 56 · Answer 4 · edited May 31 '13 at 12:40

56

ShiftIt (free)

enter image description here

Provides keyboard shortcuts for arranging windows into the four quadrants of the screen, or filling any of the four halves (top, bottom, left, right), or centering a window.

edited May 31 '13 at 12:40

Brendan Nee

101

answered Mar 05 '11 at 18:05

4

Note that Spectacle (recently added below) has a super-set of the functionality of ShiftIt. In addition to the ShiftIt shortcuts, it can move to another monitor, and has an Undo feature. – Oct 10 '12 at 16:13
3

I was a user of ShiftIt, now I've moved onto Spectacle because of the support for multiple monitors. – taudep Oct 19 '12 at 14:27
2

Here's a link to Spectacle's website for those unfamiliar: http://spectacleapp.com/ – Marcel Nov 21 '12 at 02:51
3

Hi, the latest version of ShiftIt 1.6 https://github.com/downloads/fikovnik/ShiftIt/ShiftIt-develop-1.6.zip supports multiple displays and some other new features :-) – fikovnik Feb 11 '13 at 16:01
Looks like it is currently unmaintained: https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt but there are some interesting open pull requests. – ccpizza Feb 10 '19 at 10:52

score 53 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 06 '11 at 04:27

53

Divvy by Mizage

App Store ($14)

Provides a grid window you can use to select (via mouse) the size+location of your window. Has a finer grained selection dialog, and you can add keyboard shortcuts for preset sizes/locations.

Activates via an icon in the menu bar, or by a configured global shortcut.

Divvy - General Grid Divvy - Smaller Grid

answered Mar 06 '11 at 04:27

Jason Salaz

24,471

2

When OSX Mavericks changed the way multi-monitor worked, divvy stopped working for me. I have since moved to Amethyst. – class Feb 08 '14 at 02:40
I have used Divvy since before this post, and haven't had any issues even through Mavericks. Sorry to hear it stopped working. – Jason Salaz Feb 10 '14 at 08:15
thanks, it's not broken (as in doesn't launch) but the window behavior for multiple monitors is giving me trouble. Divvy wasn't the only thing that broke though and it might be my own fault for how customized my Mac environment is. – class Feb 12 '14 at 22:59
2

There's a preference in Divvy to "press a shortcut twice to cycle to secondary monitor". I have shortcuts for fullscreen and some other frequent positions, when I have a second monitor I just mash the combination twice. Try enabling that and give it a try. http://i.stack.imgur.com/zXoJo.png – Jason Salaz Feb 13 '14 at 09:27
@JasonSalaz how is Divvy working with Mavericks these days? It's been a few months since your comment. – Crowder May 10 '14 at 15:34
I couldn't tell you if it's updated or not, but it's worked the same as the day that I first used it. Perfectly well. It suits my transition from built-in display, to thunderbolt display, and even multi display. The "press twice to cycle" feature is really amazingly good. I still love it and put it to use constantly. – Jason Salaz May 11 '14 at 08:55
1

@LuceGoose working perfectly here. (double display setup) – lucasoldaini Aug 26 '14 at 13:14
I still use Divvy. It's incredibly simple. Setup the hotkeys such that window resizing works the same as it would on a windows machine (Windows + Left => left 50%, Windows + Right => right 50%). – Alex Johnson Jan 27 '16 at 19:59
Moom (above) does basically everything both ShiftIt and Divvy do, combined; and it's cheaper, to boot. Check it out as a replacement, now. – ELLIOTTCABLE Apr 22 '17 at 00:51

score 52 · Answer 6 · edited Feb 07 '17 at 15:10

52

Slate

Slate is a relatively new option that's meant to replace all the previous window management tools. To use it you create a ~/.slate file, like a bashrc for window management. This gives you tons of options so you can make it work however you'd like.

EDIT:

Phoenix

As some people have commented slate has seemingly been abandoned with a year since the last commit. Luckily I discovered Phoenix which is very similar to slate with similar configs.

Mjolnir

For a while, Phoenix got deprecated and substituted by Hydra, but now it's back in development, by another author, while Hydra is deprecated. Mjolnir is the successor to Appgrid, Zephyros, Phoenix, Hydra and Penknife, by the original author, Steven Degutis. Mjolnir vs. other apps

edited Feb 07 '17 at 15:10

Community

1

answered Jan 11 '13 at 18:20

Keith Smiley

286

4

OMG. +1 * 8 (that is an infinity symbol sideways). – Jan 12 '13 at 07:36
4

And if the built-in commands aren't enough, you can now also use its JavaScript API to create configurations with more complex/conditional logic in response to your commands. There's even the ability to use event handlers for any of the basic app- and window-related events. – Wes Campaigne Mar 21 '13 at 00:41
There is an issue open w/ it requesting command line support for triggering layouts. really hope they make that happen. – cwd Apr 19 '13 at 01:41
This doesn't let you recreate the linux window manager shortcuts with the mouse right? (alt+right-mouse+drag = window resize) – airtonix May 13 '13 at 02:01
@mankoff an infinity symbol can be done with alt-5 (∞) – CousinCocaine Oct 08 '13 at 15:32
One thing I like about Slate is that it's probably the only app featured in this page which lets you set the same hotkey to toggle between multiple layouts (eg. Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + [ to toggle between left aligned 70%, 50% and 30% and Ctrl + Opt + Cmd + ] to toggle between right aligned 70%, 50% and 30%). Why have 6 shortcuts when you can have 2? As an extra, it also features an app switcher. Just call it up and switch to any open app by typing a single character key (letter or number). – Jan 07 '14 at 12:51
3

The author of Slate seems to have stopped maintaining it. There are tons of pull requests and open issues but no response: https://github.com/jigish/slate/network – Adam Nelson Jan 20 '14 at 14:22
Slate is brilliant. Unfortunately, as Adam notes, it's unmaintained and it even performs quite badly on my setup; Retina MBP + 27" Dell monitor. – Ronni Egeriis Persson Apr 14 '14 at 15:19

score 40 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

40

Amethyst (open source, free)

Tiling window manager for OS X similar to xmonad. Was originally written as an alternative to fjolnir’s awesome xnomad but written in pure Objective-C. It’s expanded to include some more features like Spaces support not reliant on fragile private APIs.

Source code: http://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst/

enter image description here

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Jul 16 '13 at 18:33

snahor

101
2
2

score 40 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

40

SizeUp ($13) by Irradiated Software

SizeUp allows you to quickly position a window to fill exactly half the screen (splitscreen), a quarter of the screen (quadrant), full screen, or centered via the menu bar or configurable system-wide shortcuts (hotkeys). Similar to "tiled windows" functionality available on other operating systems

Much of the arranging options provided by SizeUp are available for free in ShiftIt. However, SizeUp does have some additional functionality that may be worth the $

Unique to SizeUp: It allows placement of a window at exact screen coordinates, X,Y, Width, and Height

enter image description here

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Mar 05 '11 at 18:04

sorens

1,510

3

SizeUp handles multiple monitors well (unlike Divy and ShiftIt). If you're running multiple screens, this is the way to go. – Chris Upchurch Sep 23 '11 at 15:20

score 34 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

34

BetterSnapTool

App Store ($1.99)

BetterSnapTool allows you to easily manage your window positions and sizes by either dragging them to one of your screens corners or to the top, left or right side of your screen. This lets you easily maximize your windows, position them side by side or even resize them to quarters of the screen.

In addition to that you can set custom keyboard shortcuts in order to move and resize your windows the way you want. Because there are so many positions available, BetterSnapTool can also popup a menu from which you can select the one position you want.

screen shot of app

Image source

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Jan 22 '12 at 08:48

gentmatt

49,722

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For me, the killer feature of BetterSnapTool is the ability to define custom window sizes and link them all to keyboard shortcuts. – Crowder May 10 '14 at 15:36
it doesnt play well with multiple monitors, and the areas are only activated when the CURSOR touches the area, not the window. very annoying. also, no support. – George Katsanos Sep 06 '14 at 08:38
BetterSnapTool has some serious issues with Yosemite. My multitouch scrolling slows down after a day or so, which is immediately fixed by closing and opening BetterSnapTool. I just switched to Spectacle. – Matt Chandler Jun 18 '15 at 16:20
Working well here with multiple monitors on Mojave. – benwiggy May 27 '19 at 16:11

pointum · Answer 10 · 2017-01-22T11:14:04.633

24

HazeOver: Distraction Dimmer

App Store $4.99

The app automatically puts a shade over all windows except for the currently focused one. The distinct idea is that with this app you don't have to manage the windows per se. No need to organize, minimize or hide windows. You focus on the window you're working with and stop caring about the rest.

HazeOver Screenshot

The effect can be toggled with a keyboard shortcut
Intensity is adjustable with a mouse gesture
Options for handling multiple monitors

edited Jan 22 '17 at 11:14

answered Jan 24 '16 at 18:20

pointum

163

1

HazeOver is a great idea, and is well-implemented (I got it through the Setapp subscription service). I especially like the multi-monitor support. This means I can have, for example, an editor window highlighted on my main screen, and at the same time a window of a different app (such as Preview or Safari) highlighted on my secondary screen. It complements rather than replaces the need for window management though, so I recommend combining it with another app, such as Moom. – deprecated Mar 22 '17 at 14:36
1

I don't like full-screen mode - too much empty space - and I love being able to switch easily between apps or windows, so HazeOver has been perfect for me: background windows become less distracting but remain easily accessible. – green_knight Jun 16 '17 at 09:12
I found that the overlay that the app produces to darken the background can interfere with other apps. For me, trying to fix these issues was not worth the "distraction dimmer" feature, so I uninstalled it. If you have no apps that are affected, fine. But if things start behaving in weird ways, try deactivating HazeOver first. – Christoph Dec 17 '23 at 13:54

score 19 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

19

HyperDock

App Store ($9.99)

In addition to some other fluff (like window previews):

HyperDock brings advanced window management features to Mac OS:

Move & resize windows just by holding down keys and moving your mouse.

Automatically resize windows when dragging to screen edges (Window Snapping).

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Mar 21 '12 at 23:41

noffle

511

score 18 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 06 '11 at 16:59

18

Afloat (free)

Keep windows afloat (heh) on top of all others.
Pin windows to the desktop (new!)
Move windows from anywhere, not just the title bar.
Turn a window into an "overlay" on your screen that doesn't hinder your work.
Show a window's file in the Finder with nothing more than your keyboard.
Resize windows from anywhere, not just the corner (new!), and more.

answered Apr 06 '11 at 16:59

4

Notably, does not work on Carbon applications, like Finder and iTunes. Also, hasn't been updated since July 2011 (e.g. for Mountain Lion). – duozmo Oct 28 '12 at 17:06

score 18 · Answer 13 · edited Jan 22 '12 at 08:45

18

Zooom/2 ($20)

zooom2 mac app

Move and resize windows by moving the mouse anywhere over the window. I hold down fn+⇧ to move and fn+ctrl to resize.
Magnetism. If you like snapping windows the the edges of the screen or other windows (as in many X window managers), you will love this.
Snap to a grid to line windows up (similar to Divvy).
Automatically raise windows when the mouse moves over them. (It doesn’t let you activate without raising, so I don’t use this feature.)
Show information overlay, so you can precisely set the dimensions if you need to.

edited Jan 22 '12 at 08:45

gentmatt

49,722

answered Apr 08 '11 at 03:37

Josh Lee

436

1

This is the application I've been looking for! Thank you for posting it. I came for the hover-moving and resizing, but I'm staying for the magnetism. – duma Dec 20 '14 at 03:40

score 18 · Answer 14 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

18

Cinch by Irradiated Software

App Store ($7)

A great application for bringing Windows 7 functionality to Mac OS X.
It allows you to drag a window to the top, right, or left and it will resize for you.
Then, when you grab the window again, the window resizes itself to its original size.
Window management is the one thing Microsoft did get right. :-)

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Aug 28 '11 at 05:45

daviesgeek

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The app can also be tested before buying, directly from thier home page, http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/ That's what I'm doing right now. – t0r0X Oct 23 '14 at 19:32
Well, no, Windows window management it pretty bad compared to the unix/linux set. Want to have your WM push a window to the back, or type in a window while keeping it in the back, or track the day/night cycle in its menu colors, use radial menus, auto-create menus for all the hosts you SSH to, tile, not tile, use window groups, default windows of a certain types or titles of any of your virtual displays, pan your monitor to arbitrary overlaps with your virtual screens, manage window on a different computer, etc, etc. Unix/Linux/X - it's all there. – Alex North-Keys Dec 22 '15 at 10:49

score 18 · Answer 15 · edited Oct 04 '18 at 19:59

18

Magnet

App Store ($0.99)

This one is a simplified mash-up of Cinch and ShiftIt, bringing Windows 7 style docking along with a few helpful keyboard shortcuts. I'm going to stick with SizeUp for its Spaces and multiple monitor support, but this is a good, cheap option.

edited Oct 04 '18 at 19:59

Matt Sephton

5,068

answered Feb 23 '12 at 20:54

billkw

101

2

It is now $1.99 – digitaljoel Aug 14 '14 at 21:55
1

I've been using this for about 6months and it's reliable, lightweight and exactly what I was looking for. – Dewald Els May 04 '17 at 11:10

score 16 · Answer 16 · edited Jun 07 '22 at 06:33

16

Sticker (FREE prior v1.0, then $4.99)

enter image description here

Version prior to 1.0 was FREE, can be downloaded here Sticker v0.91. It works flawlessly even on MacOS Mojave (10.14.4). The latest version can be downloaded from official website, and costs $4.99 after free trial.

Mouse only or mouse and keyboard.
Drag a window to the part of the screen you want the window to fill, hit an arrow key and it snaps the window to where you want it to be.
For example, if you already have a window that fills up 2/3 of the screen to the left, drag another window to the right 1/3 of the screen, hit an arrow key and it fills up that area with your other window.
It also allows dragging of windows to the side and top edges to snap windows to half screen or maximize (sides for half and top to maximize)
Here's a link to the video for more details http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYpGo_g0n88

edited Jun 07 '22 at 06:33

jasonology

807

answered Jun 08 '14 at 11:30

theNotSoPro

101

1

After testing a few, this one is the easiest and offer the best features for free. I use it combined with Afloat to have floating windows and windows on all spaces. I'm using it on latest Yosemite. – Simone Gianni Dec 26 '14 at 22:32
@SimoneGianni Great to know you liked it and thanks for the good word. Please continue telling people about it. – theNotSoPro Apr 16 '15 at 22:37
I love the simplicity. I need nothing more. Haven't tried the others. They appear to give me what I wasn't looking for in the first place. I just needed full, left, right, fill. Sticker is doing just that. Nice! – Christiaan Westerbeek Apr 19 '15 at 05:03
I tried to use Sticker + Spectacle apps - and these work like a charm together! Sticker has mouse snapping, and does it really nice, spectacle does keyboard shortcuts excellently. If someone needs not that rich snapping + keyboard shortcuts, almost the same functionality, there is tiny iSnap utility, which mixes features of those two and has <500Kb size of the app. – Farside Mar 30 '16 at 09:51
arrows doesnt work on os x 10.11.4 – Srneczek Apr 27 '16 at 12:56
Beware that versions below 1.0 had huge memory issues and some critical bugs. Keep an eye on memory usage and you'll see it going up. – theNotSoPro Apr 30 '19 at 20:48
The link to the chompstomp site is dead. – jasonology Jun 07 '22 at 06:34

score 15 · Answer 17 · answered Jun 08 '11 at 20:52

15

Stay ($15)

Stay automagically restores windows to a second monitor when it is connected. You need to set them up on the monitor and tell Stay to memorize the location before unplugging from the monitor.

answered Jun 08 '11 at 20:52

Unfortunately, I had troubles when using multiple monitors that were on a different sides of the Macbook. I.e. at Home I have an external display on the left side, while at work I have it on the right of the Macbook. To make things more confusing for Stay, I also use the same monitor manufacturer/model so it gets confused sometimes. – Siniša Šašić Feb 22 '14 at 12:15
Great app but it doesn't seem to know about the applications running on the machine and only can identify by title, so doesn't work well for Chrome browser, for example. There is a means of specifying a regular expression to match the title which is fine for geeks (like me) but kind of wonky. Also, I agree with @SinišaŠašić about multiple locations issue; I have the same issue. It would be nice to be able to name the configurations, e.g. "Work" and "Home". But it's a lifesaver overall and I strongly recommend it. – Tom Harrison Jr Sep 11 '14 at 12:45
1

@TomHarrisonJr You can set a custom name on a stored layout by double clicking on the name. "Home" and "Work" work pretty nice :) – Matthieu Napoli Mar 09 '15 at 04:06
Amending my comment; turns out you can identify an application such as Chrome using the "Link Active Window To..." option. This solved the issue I reported in cases where it wasn't always working. Great app. – Tom Harrison Jr Mar 11 '15 at 21:23

score 14 · Answer 18 · edited Jun 29 '11 at 02:09

14

Optimal Layout ($14)

Optimal Layout is a powerful window manager with tools to switch and arrange your app windows:

Lists all your open app windows with a preview. Type to search the list.
Also searches your open tab titles from Safari, Google Chrome and Terminal.
Mouse positioning with a grid and buttons.
Create new positions and save them to the menubar.
Keyboard shortcuts to position windows, move them freely around the screen and snap them to the screen edges.
Highly customizable user interface.

Optimal Layout

edited Jun 29 '11 at 02:09

BendiLow

322

answered Jun 08 '11 at 20:53

nix

934

And now the price has been lowered to $7! – yalestar Nov 02 '14 at 02:26
Don't want to reboot a post, but doing it anyway. But it seems this app has presets, so with one click set all window sizes. Is that correct or should every window be set manually, one at a time? – Sander Schaeffer Aug 23 '16 at 18:18

score 12 · Answer 19 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

12

Breeze

App Store ($8)

Setup your window sizes/positions beforehand, then associate them with hotkeys

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

Community

1

answered Jun 27 '11 at 01:47

Igorio

111

Graham Perrin · Answer 20 · 2014-07-25T21:12:25.157

SizeWell

Donations accepted.

I have tried a few alternatives, but I keep coming back to this solution. For me, the features and configurability are just right:

zoom
one quarter
one third
one half
two-thirds
resolutions (on my display, from 320 x 480 to 1920 x 1200)
position (without resizing)
whole screen (maximise, without full screen)
next screen, previous screen.

It integrates with the Window menu, but I more often use it by right-clicking the zoom button of a window. Example:

enter image description here

SizeWell requires SIMBL.

Users may prefer EasySIMBL.

score 10 · Answer 21 · edited Aug 24 '13 at 22:32

10

Arrange ($8.99)

Rearranges and resizes windows both with keyboard shortcuts, by selecting a predefined (grid-based) or freeform position/arrangement from an overlay hud-style window with the mouse, or by moving the window to active zones on the screen edges.
Each option supports multiple monitor configuration.

Screencast showing Arrange in action

edited Aug 24 '13 at 22:32

tubedogg

15,240

answered Mar 05 '11 at 18:20

Asmus

7,585

score 10 · Answer 22 · edited Jun 11 '12 at 03:05

MercuryMover ($20)

“[…] MercuryMover enables anyone to easily and conveniently move and/or resize the frontmost Window, directly from the their keyboard. “Main Features:

Move and resize virtually any window without touching the mouse
Move and resize by 1, 10, 100 pixels at a time or to the edge of the current screen [in fact, freely configurable in the Prefernce file! thyx]
Configurable modifier keys
Unlimited undo/redo
Single key window center and maximize [after activation, e.g. ctrl+⌥+←, X]
Multi-screen aware [haven't tried that one]

Good idea. Haven't heard about most of the others.

score 8 · Answer 23 · edited Aug 24 '13 at 22:35

NuKit

No longer available

The feature set of this newcomer includes a mouse-driven window mover and resizer. I use ctrl+←+Mouse movement for moving windows, ctrl+←+⌘+Mouse movement for resize. Fast on my MacBook 2,1.

Download the trial from their site, rather than buying blindly from the App Store - well, that's common sense for any app.

The other main modules are a quite simple launcher and a shortcut manager, which are also sold separately. Nulana promises to refine them soon. Nice: the launcher offers dictionary entries (copy function promised) and an automatic calculator with fractions.

score 7 · Answer 24 · answered Apr 14 '14 at 18:44

I just found this searching for Alfred plugins.

Layouts is an AppleScript file and an Alfred Workflow to give you a lightweight window manager for your Mac. Out of the box, it allows you to resize your active window to top half, right half, bottom half, left half, top left quarter, top right quarter, bottom right quarter, bottom left quarter, center window and zoom (full screen).

score 7 · Answer 25 · edited Aug 24 '13 at 22:33

7

DoublePane

App Store ($4.99)

It's cheap, lightweight, does the job (left half, right half, full screen, restore original window size).

edited Aug 24 '13 at 22:33

tubedogg

15,240

answered Jan 22 '12 at 10:13

Tuan Anh Tran

678

chillin · Answer 26 · 2014-05-13T22:35:20.110

Window Maker

MacPorts $0.00

One of my favorite window managers (albeit for X11) is Window Maker.

In every way possible, it reproduces the elegant look and feel of the NEXTSTEP user interface.

You can download the Window Maker source code, but it is also available on MacPorts if you'd like to use package management.

screen1

screen2

MacPorts

MacPorts is a robust, stable, mature and easy to use package management solution, for OS X. It is modeled after FreeBSD's ports system, which has been adopted as the basis of NetBSD's pkgsrc.

install Xcode 5.1.1

MacPorts requires an appropriate version of xcode; xcode_5.1.1.dmg is the most recent version for Mavericks (after registerring for a free developer account, and logging into developer.apple.com, that link will begin your xcode download). Once the download completes, open your Terminal.app and complete the installation:

 hdiutil attach -quiet -noverify -nobrowse -noautoopen ~/Downloads/xcode_5.1.1.dmg
 cp -npR /Volumes/Xcode/Xcode.app /Applications/
 hdiutil detach -quiet /Volumes/Xcode
 open -g /Applications/Xcode.app
 killall Xcode.app

install MacPorts

Get to know MacPorts

 curl -Ok https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 tar xf MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 cd MacPorts-2.2.1
 ./configure
 make
 sudo make install     # *not war!*
 cd ..
 rm -rf Macports-*
 sudo /opt/local/bin/port -v selfupdate
 diskutil quiet repairPermissions /

add MacPorts to your $PATH:

 export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
 export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/ man:$MANPATH

install Window Maker and extra themes

 sudo port -vsc install windowmaker wm_xtra

And you can keep everything updated simply with:

 sudo port -vsc selfupdate
 sudo port -vsc upgrade installed

If for whatever reason you are unsatisfied and/or need to remove MacPorts:

to completely uninstall MacPorts

 sudo port -dfp uninstall --follow-dependencies installed
 sudo port -dfp uninstall all
 sudo rm -rf /opt/local  
 sudo rm -rf /Library/Tcl/macports*

Is Window Maker still possible to install on Monterey? How does it work? Can I use it as my desktop environment with Mac installed apps, like chrome or Iterm2? — user2449761, Jul 22 '22 at 09:43

score 4 · Answer 27 · answered Dec 27 '14 at 01:17

4

Better Window Manager

$3.00

Better window Manager allows you to position and size windows where you like them, then save it's state and associate it with a keyboard shortcut so you can restore that window state any time.

answered Dec 27 '14 at 01:17

Aaron Smith

1

score 4 · Answer 28 · edited Jan 14 '18 at 08:10

4

iSnap

App Store (FREE)

has up to 7 hot corners on the screen (the big benefit in comparison to Spectacle);
supports shortcuts, around 9 shortcuts in total;
attaching positions: half left, half right, half top, half bottom, and 4 quarters of the screen.
has iSnap and iShake out of the box (iShake - shakes the window on shortcut, to draw attention if lost around tons of other screens);
managing the windows on your computer has become a snap! With the iSnap app, you can organize various windows to fit perfectly on your screen and access them simultaneously!
by clicking and dragging your windows to various sections on your screen, you can optimize productivity with a snap. iSnap offers you 3 different templates to choose for optimal productivity.

edited Jan 14 '18 at 08:10

Ryan

101

answered Mar 29 '16 at 08:17

Farside

1,593

You can't hide the icon that it adds to the menubar, adding yet another usless application up there. Also it refuses to open and says to "Enable access for assistive devices and try again". But there is no such thing in System Preferences anymore. – xApple Apr 12 '16 at 16:00
@xApple, you are right, but consider the point, that this utility is tiny, ~0.3Mb. It would be too much to expect an advanced feature list here. I'm not forcing anyone to use it, I just shared what I've been using for 1.5 years. It simply does the job, not more, not less. iShake - appeared useless utility for me as well, I disabled it from the very beginning... – Farside Apr 12 '16 at 22:15

score 3 · Answer 29 · answered Apr 15 '15 at 16:21

3

FastScripts adds functionality to other window managers such as SizeUp, including a script for tiling all open windows. Scripts can be run by binding to keyboard shortcuts.

http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscript/

answered Apr 15 '15 at 16:21

Hypersphere

1

score 3 · Answer 30 · answered Mar 29 '16 at 07:21

3

Magnets

App Store ($1.99)

Main features:

Snapping windows like Windows 7, works well with dual display

Video review on youtube

answered Mar 29 '16 at 07:21

Jifeng Zhang

101

score 3 · Answer 31 · edited Jun 07 '22 at 06:46

Flexiglass ($9.99)

Flexiglass is no longer available and the link is dead because Nulana was bought by Acronis.

Flexiglass featured complete and convenient window management with exclusive multi-touch gestures support, offering a simple way to manage many windows on a Mac with a mouse, keyboard, trackpad, and graphics tablet. It included different tools to move, resize, and arrange windows on the screen easily and joyfully.

Features

Move & Resize
Usually, when you want to move or resize a window on a Mac you are limited by its title bar or lower-right corner. Flexiglass adds a Linux style Alt-Dragging to manage windows.
Multi-Touch Gestures
You can use finger gestures on your MacBook trackpad or Magic trackpad to move and resize windows. Flexiglass can save different settings for a trackpad and mouse and automatically change them when you plug or unplug devices.
Quick Layouts
Quick Layouts was an intuitive snap feature. It was a simple solution for working with multiple windows which can be resized to take up halves or quarters of the screen or full screen.
Quick Layout Shortcuts
User-defined shortcuts allowed you to move windows to halves or quarters of the screen and back to original size.
Real Zoom & Real Close
These options made title bar buttons much more useful. Right-clicking on the green Zoom button will truly maximize a window to full screen. Right-clicking on the Close window button will quit the application.
Double-click to Zoom
Double-clicking on the window title bar was the easiest way to expand it to full screen.

Contrary to the first bullet, Flexiglass seems able to only resize from the lower right corner (whereas Linux would resize the corner of the quadrant you started dragging in). In testing, I also found the motion very choppy. — duozmo, Oct 28 '12 at 17:11
@duozmo I know I'm very late to the party with this answer, but you can resize from every corner and it doesn't seem choppy to me at all. It might have been difference in 2012, I don't recall. :) — kba, Apr 15 '14 at 14:51
It's a subtle distinction. In Linux-style alt-dragging, alt-dragging in, for example, the upper-left quadrant of the window would change the coordinates of the upper left corner (demo), whereas in Flexiglass it changes the lower right corner. — duozmo, Apr 15 '14 at 22:32
@duozmo Ah, you're right. I've never used that feature. And that does, indeed, seem a little choppy. — kba, Apr 16 '14 at 01:08
Flexiglass has been great for me. Simple, without a bunch of features I don't need. Fast: no silly animations or whatever. It just pops windows where they're needed without fuss. — allanberry, Aug 11 '14 at 19:14

score 2 · Answer 32 · edited Jun 07 '22 at 06:56

2

Gridsutra Lite

Standard suite of window management features, such as assigning hotkeys to various window sizes.

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/gridsutra-lite/id1195876099?mt=12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoCNTCayS2E

edited Jun 07 '22 at 06:56

jasonology

807

answered Dec 01 '16 at 16:24

soosan

1

score 2 · Answer 33 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:04

ChunkWM (Free, Open Source)

It seems surprising to me that nobody seems to have mentioned chunkwm yet, a successor to kwm. It is the one solution with the user experience and feature sets closest to a traditional Unix tiling window manager, even much more so than Amethyst.

It supports all the intuitive tiling WM commands, including increasing/decreasing window size, swapping windows, changing focus between windows, spaces, monitors, etc. It even supports killing the currently focused window with one universal key, just as all the Unix window managers allow you to do.

The default keybindings are also very intuitive and easy to press.

It is in active development as of now (Mar 2019). The author has implemented a lot of difficult-to-implement functionalities, and now even plans to add the ability to throw a space onto another monitor, which no window manager on OSX has been able to achieve yet.

Definitely worth checking out if you're acquainted with various Unix tiling window managers.

chunkwm was archived and rebuilt as yabai recently, check it out here: https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai — Hum4n01d, Oct 19 '19 at 22:29

score 1 · Answer 34 · answered Sep 13 '14 at 10:16

I used to use an app called Zephyros which is open source on Github https://github.com/pd/zephyros

Loved it because its essentially infinitely configurable and very lightweight whereas a lot of the commercial apps I've tried are always unnecessarily heavy on resources which bugs the crap out of me.

But I've had trouble running Zephyros ever since I upgraded to Mavericks. :(

It's worth checking out though.

score 1 · Answer 35 · answered Apr 01 '16 at 07:08

1

WindowKeys

App Store (Free currently)

Keyboard based minimal window manager. Shift to left, right, center, and drag adjust via keyboard. Adjust width, height, display. Switch between dragging windows or jumping.

answered Apr 01 '16 at 07:08

Josh Alto

1

score 1 · Answer 36 · answered Oct 05 '16 at 19:08

WindowMizer

My favorite Window management utility is WindowMizer available from rgbworld.com.

It allows you to roll-up windows without losing your focus. A double-click rolls up the window to get it out of the way. Double-click and it returns to its full-size.

score 1 · Answer 37 · edited Feb 10 '19 at 22:05

1

Split Screen Ultimate $19.99

Comes with Dual Monitor Support

Support Multiple languages including: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish

And Most Important: Includes Drag and Snap feature - just like what you find in Microsoft Windows!

Disclosure: I own this app.

edited Feb 10 '19 at 22:05

ccpizza

2,995
3
36
41

answered Feb 09 '17 at 06:02

meetpd

151

score 0 · Answer 38 · answered Oct 18 '22 at 00:42

RayCast

Not in AppStore (free with paid team options)

Differenciator: It's actually a spotlight replacement like Bartender, but there are native options to move windows around with it and there are options to bind hotkeys to this. What I do is to just bind some shortcuts to common window actions and manage my windows using that. As a bonus, you get a fantastic piece of software as a Spotlight replacement (not affiliated).
It's keyboard only, you cannot special-resize using the mouse when using this method.

score -1 · Answer 39 · answered Dec 22 '16 at 13:35

Use Gridsutra. Awesome UX and so easy to use. Apart from others, you will notice the effectiveness, easy of use, and features that no one else offers. Especially support for adobe package and the window sticking to corner. I am a happy customer and waiting for more excitement from that team.

Rules

39 Answers39

Open source, available at GitHub, accepting donations

App Store link (will not be updated past version 0.6.9)

Moom by Many Tricks

Mouse controls

Keyboard controls

Custom controls

BetterTouchTool (free $2.99, $7.50..$21)

ShiftIt (free)

Divvy by Mizage

Amethyst (open source, free)

SizeUp ($13) by Irradiated Software

Afloat (free)

Zooom/2 ($20)

Cinch by Irradiated Software

Sticker (FREE prior v1.0, then $4.99)

Stay ($15)

Optimal Layout ($14)

Arrange ($8.99)

MercuryMover ($20)

MacPorts

install Xcode 5.1.1

install MacPorts

install Window Maker and extra themes

Flexiglass ($9.99)

Features

ChunkWM (Free, Open Source)

Linked

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