Rectangle alternatives for Mac
Rectangle is excellent at what it does. People look for an alternative when they want layouts that survive docking, or a scrolling layout instead of halves and thirds.
1. Transom: snap and scroll, with desks that remember
Transom gives each display either Snap (halves, thirds, maximize) or a scrolling Strip, and restores your layout automatically when you dock or undock. $19 once with a 14-day free trial. Choose it if you dock a MacBook to a monitor and are tired of rearranging windows every time, or you want a scrolling strip on a wide display.
2. Magnet: snapping
Magnet is a long-running paid snapper on the Mac App Store, with drag-to-edge snapping and keyboard shortcuts.
Price: $4.99 (Mac App Store) · Requirements: Recent macOS. Good if you want the simplest possible snapping from the App Store.
3. Moom: snapping
Moom by Many Tricks moves and zooms windows and can save window layouts, including layouts tied to display arrangements. It's the closest older app to Transom's Desks.
Price: $15 direct ($6.99 Moom Classic on the App Store) · Requirements: Recent macOS. Good if you like crafting precise saved layouts by hand and enjoy lots of options.
4. AeroSpace: tiling
AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS with its own virtual workspaces and a text config file. It doesn't require disabling SIP.
Price: Free · Requirements: macOS 13+. Good if you want i3-style tiling and are happy living in a config file.
5. yabai: tiling
yabai is a scriptable binary-space-partitioning tiling window manager, usually paired with skhd for shortcuts.
Price: Free · Requirements: macOS; some features need SIP partly disabled. Good if you want maximum scriptability and accept the SIP trade-off.
6. Amethyst: tiling
Amethyst is an automatic tiling window manager in the style of xmonad, with a settings UI.
Price: Free · Requirements: Recent macOS. Good if you like xmonad-style automatic layouts.
7. Loop: snapping
Loop is a free, elegant window snapper built around a radial menu triggered by a key.
Price: Free · Requirements: macOS 13+. Good if you love the radial menu and only need snapping.
8. Ribbon: scrolling
Ribbon (meetribbon.app) is a scrolling window manager for Mac: windows sit on one horizontal strip per display and new windows open beside the focused one. It launched in November 2026. Not to be confused with ribbonmac.com, a different app with the same name.
Price: $12 early price, then $17 (1 Mac); one-time per major version · Requirements: macOS 14+, Apple silicon. Good if you know you want a pure scrolling strip on every display.
9. ChainYourMac: scrolling
ChainYourMac is a paid scrolling window manager inspired by PaperWM and niri, with stacks, tabbed columns and pinned columns.
Price: $19.99 one-time · Requirements: macOS 13+, Apple silicon. Good if you want the most feature-rich pure scrolling manager.
10. LanesMac: scrolling
LanesMac is a scrolling tiling window manager for macOS with stacks, tabbed columns, window search and an overview.
Price: $19.99 one-time, 7-day trial · Requirements: macOS 13+. Good if you want pure scrolling with window search.
11. OmniWM: scrolling
OmniWM is a free, open-source window manager with niri-style scrolling columns and Hyprland-style dwindle tiling.
Price: Free · Requirements: Apple silicon, recent macOS. Good if you want a free niri/Hyprland-like setup and enjoy tinkering.
12. Paneru: scrolling
Paneru is an open-source sliding/tiling window manager written in Rust: an infinite strip per display, where opening a window never resizes the others.
Price: Free · Requirements: macOS, installed via Homebrew or cargo. Good if you're comfortable with Homebrew and config files and want free scrolling.
How to choose
Snappers are for placing a window when you ask. Tilers arrange everything but divide the screen. Scrolling managers keep windows full-size on a strip. If you move between a laptop and a monitor, check how each one handles docking. Our guide covers it: why windows move when you dock.