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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Mac App

yabai

Tile your Mac windows automatically from the command line.

Visit yabai4.5

  • Rating

    4.5 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Advanced

  • Works on

    macOS

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What is yabai?

yabai is a tiling window manager for macOS that arranges windows automatically using binary space partitioning. It is controlled from the command line, can pair with keyboard-shortcut tools like skhd, and extends the built-in window manager. Some advanced features need System Integrity Protection partly disabled.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what yabai does well

  • Windows tile themselves without dragging
  • Scriptable from the command line
  • Supports many macOS versions

Cons: where it falls short

  • Setup is technical
  • Advanced features need SIP partly turned off

Who yabai is for

Mac users who live in the keyboard and want tidy, automatic window layouts.

Who can skip it

People who like dragging and snapping windows with the mouse.

yabai alternatives

Not sold on yabai? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Personal Productivity resources

Amethyst

Focus: mac utility. Shares window manager and tiling with yabai. Adds Offline. Rated 4.6 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS, Offline
4.6Visit

AeroSpace

Focus: tiling window manager, window management and keyboard shortcuts. Shares macos and open source with yabai. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit

Karabiner-Elements

Focus: keyboard remapping, shortcuts and hyper key. Shares macos and open source with yabai. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit

Starship

Focus: shell prompt, terminal and developer tool. Shares open source and github with yabai. A desktop app, not a Mac app. Adds Windows, Linux and Offline. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

Alacritty

Focus: terminal, command line and gpu. Shares open source and github with yabai. A desktop app, not a Mac app. Adds Windows and Linux. Rated 4.6 (yabai: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Free alternatives to yabai

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Tridactyl

Focus: keyboard shortcuts, vim and firefox. Shares open source and github with yabai. A browser extension, not a Mac app. Adds Firefox. Same 4.5 rating.

Browser ExtensionFreeFirefox
4.5Visit

Harness Terminal

Focus: terminal, coding agents and session manager. Shares macos and open source with yabai. Rated 4.4 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.4Visit

Loop

Focus: productivity, radial menu and swift. Shares macos and window manager with yabai. Rated 4.8 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.8Visit

mpv

Focus: video player, media and subtitles. Shares keyboard and open source with yabai. A desktop app, not a Mac app. Adds Windows, Linux and Offline. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

Rectangle

Focus: window snapping and raycast alternative. Shares window manager and open source with yabai. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit

Stats

Focus: system monitor, menu bar app and mac utility. Shares open source and github with yabai. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (yabai: 4.5).

Mac AppFreemacOS, Offline
4.7Visit
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