Software Alternatives & Startups

Hemingway VS Putback

Compare Hemingway VS Putback and see what are their differences

Hemingway

Hemingway App makes your writing bold and clear.

Putback

Putback is a Mac window manager that puts every window back where it was when your displays change, and switches named layouts with one hotkey.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Paid Free trial $19 / One-off (1 Mac. Family 5 Macs $29, Team 20 Macs $79)
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Hemingway seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 271 times since March 2021.

social mentions
271 vs 0
Writing Tools popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 17

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Hemingway
Putback
Website hemingwayapp.com putback.app
Pricing —
Paid Free trial $19 / One-off (1 Mac. Family 5 Macs $29, Team 20 Macs $79) Official pricing
Platforms —
Mac
Company — Startup from Australia · 1 - 9 employees · 2026
Listed in

About Hemingway and Putback

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Hemingway
Putback

No description of Hemingway yet.

Every time your display setup changes, macOS moves your windows and does not move them back. Undock from a monitor and everything piles onto the laptop screen. Dock again and it stays piled. Putback is a menu bar window manager for macOS that fixes this. It learns where your windows sit while you...

Read more about Putback

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Hemingway 5 features
Putback 8 features
  • Readability Improvement
    The app highlights complex sentences and suggests simplifications, helping improve the readability of your text.
  • Visual Feedback
    Utilizes color-coded highlights to indicate different issues like hard-to-read sentences, adverbs, and passive voice, making it easy to spot and correct errors.
  • Formatting Tools
    Offers basic formatting options like headers, bold, italics, quotes, and lists, which are sufficient for most writing tasks.
  • Distraction-Free Interface
    The app has a minimalist design that allows writers to focus on their work without any distractions.
  • One-Time Purchase
    The desktop version of Hemingway is available for a one-time purchase fee, making it cost-effective in the long run as there are no recurring subscription costs.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Grammar Checking
    Hemingway focuses more on readability and style rather than comprehensive grammar checking, which might necessitate the use of additional grammar-focused tools.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    It lacks advanced features like collaboration, cloud storage integration, and advanced customization options that are present in some other writing tools.
  • Strict on Style
    The app can sometimes be overly rigid in its recommendations, stifling creative expression and nuanced writing.
  • No Mobile App
    Currently, there is no mobile version, making it less versatile for users who prefer to write on their smartphones or tablets.
  • Manual Export
    To transfer work to other platforms, users have to manually copy and paste text or export it, which can be inconvenient for those who work across multiple tools and platforms.
  • Restores windows on display change
    Puts every window back on the screen and in the position it came from when you dock, undock or plug in a monitor.
  • A memory for every desk
    Keeps a separate layout for each display setup: laptop only, desk with a monitor, office dock.
  • Scenes with one hotkey
    Name any arrangement as a Scene and switch to it with a single hotkey.
  • Scene Studio
    Draw a desk with a box for each app, even apps that are not open yet, plus a wallpaper per Scene.
  • Triggers
    Apply a Scene by time or calendar, like Coding at 9am or Meeting for a video call. Off by default.
  • Stash
    Tucks every window aside with one shortcut, then brings them all back exactly where they were.
  • Undo and history
    Undo the whole desk, and see every restore with the reason it happened.
  • Private, no account
    Window data never leaves your Mac. One-time purchase, no subscription, signed and notarized.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Hemingway
Putback

Overall verdict

  • Hemingway is a valuable tool for writers who seek to enhance the readability and directness of their writing. Its straightforward interface and focus on key writing principles make it a good choice for those aiming to hone their craft.

Why this product is good

  • Hemingway Editor is designed to help improve writing clarity by highlighting complex sentences, adverbs, passive voice, and difficult phrases. It aims to help writers produce clear and concise content, making it especially useful for editing and revising text.

Recommended for

  • Writers who want to simplify their prose
  • Students seeking to improve the readability of their essays
  • Bloggers and content creators focusing on clarity
  • Editors looking to polish drafts
  • Anyone interested in improving their general writing skills

Overall verdict

  • Putback is a niche app designed to help resellers and organizers track items that need to be returned to their proper place, which can be genuinely useful for people managing inventory, decluttering, or reselling goods, though its value depends heavily on your specific workflow needs and how well it integrates with tools you already use.

Why this product is good

  • Helps maintain organization by tracking items that need to be put back or returned
  • Can save time by reducing the need to remember or manually log misplaced items
  • Useful for resellers who need to track inventory location and status
  • Simple, focused functionality without unnecessary feature bloat

Recommended for

  • Resellers managing physical inventory across multiple locations
  • People decluttering or organizing home spaces who need a tracking system
  • Small business owners who need lightweight inventory location tracking
  • Users who prefer simple single-purpose apps over complex all-in-one solutions

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Hemingway 2 videos + Add
Putback 0 videos + Add

Hemingway Editor vs Grammarly | Pros, Cons, & Which You Should Use

More videos

  • - How to Use Hemingway Editor for Self-Editing Your Writing

No Putback videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Hemingway
Putback
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Hemingway and Putback.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Putback's answer:

Mac users who move between display setups: a MacBook that docks to a monitor at the desk, a second screen at the office, a laptop on the couch. Developers, designers and anyone who runs a lot of windows and is tired of putting them back by hand every morning.

What makes your product unique?

Putback's answer:

Most Mac window managers snap windows into place when you ask. Putback remembers. It learns where your windows sit while you work, keeps a separate memory for every display setup, and puts everything back when that setup returns. Named Scenes, drawn in Scene Studio and switched with one hotkey, turn any arrangement into something you can recall in a second.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Putback's answer:

Rectangle and Magnet are great at snapping a window to half the screen, and Putback runs happily alongside them. Choose Putback if your problem is that your windows get scrambled every time you dock, undock or plug in a monitor, or if you want whole desks you can switch between with a hotkey. It is a one-time purchase with a 7 day free trial, no account, and your window data never leaves your Mac. On first launch it even checks your Mission Control settings and tells you if the free macOS fix is enough before you pay.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Putback's answer:

A native macOS app in Swift and SwiftUI, using the macOS Accessibility API to move windows and Sparkle for updates. Licensing and the website run on Cloudflare (Workers, D1 and Pages).

What's the story behind your product?

Putback's answer:

Putback launched in July 2026 with a simple pitch: unplug your MacBook and macOS piles every window onto one screen. The launch post passed 60,000 views and the replies split down the middle, half saying "I've needed this for years" and half saying "my Mac already does this." So we went and found out. The real answer is two Mission Control settings most people never touch, and we published that free fix ourselves. Even with those settings, restores still fail when a dock reconnects slowly or an app resists being moved, and nothing in macOS remembers more than one desk or lets you name a layout. That gap is Putback. About half of its first features came straight from those launch replies.

User comments

Share your experience with using Hemingway and Putback. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Log in or Post with

Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Hemingway 4.0 · 1 review
Putback no reviews yet
  • Not an good experience
    SaaSHub review
    · Jan 2026

    it is a good website and made my book making process so easy

We have no reviews of Putback yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Hemingway 271 mentions
Putback 0 mentions
  • How to Write with an LLM
    MUCH easier approach: just use Hemingway, but don’t pay for getting corrected by the LLM. https://hemingwayapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • I am definitely missing the pre-AI writing era
    Https://hemingwayapp.com/ gives you advice about your writing. This is called Hemingway because he was apparently good at communicating efficiently which made him a popular author. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • 10 Tips to Make Your Blog Posts More Accessible
    When you're writing a blog post, I wholeheartedly recommend using tools like Hemingway or Grammarly for grammar. Additionally, they're great for getting a readability score for your text. I'll share about it in a bit. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago

View more

Tracking Putback since Jul 2026.

Alternatives to Hemingway and Putback

When comparing Hemingway and Putback, you can also consider the following products.