Mac window management: the built-in tools, the best apps, and AeroSpace vs yabai
macOS now tiles windows on its own. For more than that, there's an app for every taste, from a few shortcuts to a full tiling window manager.
Window management on a Mac comes down to three jobs: placing windows (halves, thirds, full screen), finding them again, and focusing the one you want to type into. macOS covers more of this than it used to. Apps cover the rest.
What macOS does on its own
Window tiling (macOS 15 Sequoia and later)
- Drag a window to an edge or corner of the screen to fill that half or quarter.
- Hold Option while dragging to see the tile zones before you let go.
- Hover over the green button at the top-left of a window for tiling and arrangement options, or use Window → Move & Resize in the menu bar.
- From the keyboard: Fn+Control+arrow keys tile the front window to that side. Fn+Control+F fills the screen and Fn+Control+R puts it back.
Turn these on or off in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Windows, including whether tiled windows have gaps between them.
Mission Control, App Exposé and Spaces
Mission Control (Control+Up Arrow, or swipe up with three fingers) shows every open window. App Exposé (Control+Down Arrow) shows just the current app's windows. Spaces give you extra desktops, and each display has its own by default. That setting is explained in “Displays have separate Spaces”, explained.
Stage Manager
Stage Manager, in Control Center, keeps the current app in the middle and the others as thumbnails on the side. Some people love it on a laptop screen. On large or multiple monitors most people find it wastes space.
The best window manager apps for Mac
There are two kinds. Snapping apps move windows when you press a shortcut. Tiling window managers arrange every window automatically, so they never overlap.
Rectangle: the easy default
Free and open source. It adds keyboard shortcuts for halves, thirds, quarters, centering and moving a window to the next display, and you can drag to edges as well. If the built-in tiling isn't enough, start here. There's a paid Pro version with extra features.
Magnet: the same idea, from the App Store
A paid App Store app that does much the same as Rectangle, with polished drag-to-snap. Pick it if you prefer buying through the App Store.
AeroSpace: tiling without the hassle
Free and open source, inspired by the i3 window manager on Linux. Every window is tiled automatically, and you switch between workspaces with the keyboard. It's set up with a text config file. AeroSpace uses its own workspaces instead of macOS Spaces, so it doesn't need System Integrity Protection (SIP) changed. That makes it the easiest full tiling manager to get running.
yabai: the most flexible
Free and open source, and the long-standing tiling manager for Mac. It tiles windows with binary space partitioning and is controlled from the command line, usually paired with skhd for shortcuts. Some features, such as moving windows between Spaces and controlling Spaces themselves, need SIP partly turned off.
Amethyst
A free tiling manager with a choice of layouts that works out of the box, with less setup than yabai or AeroSpace.
AeroSpace vs yabai
- Setup: AeroSpace works after a normal install. yabai's full feature set needs SIP partly disabled.
- Workspaces: AeroSpace has its own, which switch instantly. yabai works with macOS Spaces.
- Configuration: AeroSpace uses a single TOML file with shortcuts built in. yabai is scripted from the shell, with a separate hotkey tool.
- Pick AeroSpace if you want i3-style tiling with the least fuss. Pick yabai if you want to script everything and don't mind the SIP step.
Which should you use?
- You want a few shortcuts: try the built-in tiling first, then Rectangle.
- You want windows to never overlap: AeroSpace.
- You want to script your whole desktop: yabai.
The part window managers don't do: focus
All of these decide where windows go. None of them know which screen you're looking at. On a Mac with two or three monitors, your keystrokes still go to the last window you clicked, so turning to another screen and typing sends the text back to the first one. You can bind a shortcut to focus the next monitor, but you have to remember to press it every time.
Glance Switch handles that part. It's a menu bar app that uses your Mac's camera to notice which screen you're facing and moves keyboard focus there, and to the window or split pane you look at. It works alongside any of the apps above. Nothing leaves your Mac: frames are processed in memory and thrown away.
More on the problem in why you keep typing into the wrong window on a multi-monitor Mac, and on getting the screens themselves right in how to set up multiple monitors on a Mac.
Common questions
Does macOS have built-in window snapping?
Yes, since macOS 15 Sequoia. Drag a window to a screen edge or corner to tile it, hold Option while dragging to see the tile zones, or use Window → Move & Resize. Fn+Control+arrow keys tile the front window from the keyboard.
What is the best window manager for Mac?
For most people, Rectangle: it's free, quick to learn and adds keyboard shortcuts for halves, thirds and corners. If you want windows tiled automatically, AeroSpace is the easiest full tiling manager to set up.
Is AeroSpace better than yabai?
AeroSpace is easier to install and works without changing System Integrity Protection, because it uses its own workspaces instead of macOS Spaces. yabai is older and more flexible, but some of its features need SIP partly turned off.
Do window managers move keyboard focus between monitors?
Tiling managers like AeroSpace and yabai have shortcuts to focus the window on the next monitor. None of them move focus on their own when you turn to another screen. Glance Switch does that, using your Mac's camera.