The best window managers for Mac, by how they work

Snapping, tiling or scrolling? The best Mac window managers, with Rectangle, Magnet, AeroSpace, yabai, Amethyst, Loop and Ribbon compared by how they work.

By Chethan Kumar S N · Updated 23 October 2026

“Window manager” covers three very different kinds of app on the Mac. Picking the right kind matters more than picking the right app, so this guide groups them by how they work.

The three kinds

• Snappers move one window at a time into a half, a third or a quarter of the screen when you ask. They don’t keep a layout. Examples: Rectangle, Magnet, Loop, and macOS’s own tiling.
• Tilers keep every window in a grid that fills the screen. Open a window and the others shrink to make room. Examples: AeroSpace, yabai, Amethyst.
• Scrollers put every window in a column on a strip that runs past the screen’s edges. Open a window and the strip grows, and nothing shrinks. Example: Ribbon.

At a glance

Snappers

macOS’s built-in tiling

Since macOS Sequoia, you can drag a window to the edge of the screen to fill half of it, to a corner to fill a quarter, or use Window → Move & Resize in any app. It’s free and already there. It doesn’t keep a layout, though: you place every window yourself, every time. How to tile windows on a Mac covers the shortcuts.

Rectangle

A free, open-source app with keyboard shortcuts for halves, thirds, quarters and more, plus snap areas when you drag. It’s the default recommendation for good reason. Rectangle Pro adds paid extras like saved layouts.

Magnet

A paid app from the Mac App Store that does what Rectangle does, with a polished settings window. Pick it if you’d rather buy from the App Store.

Loop

A free, open-source snapper that puts the choices on a radial menu: hold a trigger key and point the way you want the window to go.

Pick a snapper if you mostly use one or two windows and just want them placed quickly. See Ribbon vs Rectangle and Magnet.

Tilers

AeroSpace

A free, open-source tiling window manager modelled on i3. It’s keyboard-first, configured in a TOML file, and uses its own workspaces instead of macOS Spaces. It’s popular with developers who came from Linux. See Ribbon vs AeroSpace.

yabai

A free, open-source tiler that arranges windows with binary space partitioning and is controlled from the command line, usually together with a hotkey daemon such as skhd. Some of its features need System Integrity Protection to be partly turned off. See Ribbon vs yabai.

Amethyst

A free, open-source tiler inspired by xmonad, with a choice of layouts (tall, wide, columns, full screen and more) and a normal settings window. It’s the friendliest of the tilers to set up. See Ribbon vs Amethyst.

Pick a tiler if you work on a big display, want to see many windows at once, and like a strictly keyboard-driven grid.

Scrollers

Ribbon

Ribbon is a scrolling window manager for macOS, in the tradition of PaperWM and niri on Linux. Every window gets a full-height column on a strip. You glide along it with a three-finger swipe that follows your fingers, or with ⌃⌥ ← →. A strip map floats up while you move, so you never lose your place. It’s set up in a normal settings window, with no config files, and it puts your windows back if you quit.

It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later on Apple silicon. There’s a 7-day free trial, then it’s $15 once.

There’s also PaperWM.spoon, a free Hammerspoon script that recreates the PaperWM strip if you’re comfortable scripting in Lua.

Pick a scroller if you keep lots of windows open, work on a laptop screen, or want every window to stay full size. See What is a scrolling window manager?.

How to choose

1. One or two windows at a time? A snapper: Rectangle, or macOS’s own tiling.
2. Many small windows visible at once, on a big screen? A tiler: AeroSpace if you like config files, Amethyst if you don’t.
3. Many full-size windows, a laptop, or a trackpad? A scroller: Ribbon.

You can also combine them. Ribbon leaves dialogs and fixed-size windows floating, so a snapper still works for those.

Ready? Buy Ribbon for $15, or read all the guides.