Software Alternatives & Reviews

Karabiner VS yabai

Compare Karabiner VS yabai and see what are their differences

Karabiner logo Karabiner

Karabiner, previously called KeyRemap4MacBook, is a very powerful keyboard remapper for Mac OS X.

yabai logo yabai

A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning
  • Karabiner Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06
  • yabai Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-26

Karabiner videos

REVIEW: Should you play the Vetterli 71 Karabiner? [Hunt Gun Review #1]

More videos:

  • Review - Vim screencast #59: Karabiner Elements
  • Review - Evolution of the Karabiner 98k, From Prewar to Kriegsmodell

yabai videos

Yabai Demonstration

More videos:

  • Demo - yabai macOS Tiling Window Manager Demonstration

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Karabiner and yabai)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Window Manager
25 25%
75% 75
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
OSX Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Karabiner and yabai. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Karabiner should be more popular than yabai. It has been mentiond 269 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Karabiner mentions (269)

  • Ask HN: What if we wrote HTML with [brackets][/brackets]?
    I have been using Karabiner elements (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org), they allow keyboard customization, I have switched the colon and semicolon key, by default without pressing shift, the key will output colon (:) , I find this useful as I type lot of colon daily. Maybe you can use this software to set "<" and ">" to be the default text output without using Shift. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Remote desktop from Windows to Mac, native keys and function
    In the settings of chrome remote desktop there is an option to not send modifier keys etc to the host system. I've also heard of https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/. Source: 5 months ago
  • DOS_deck: Play DOS games in the browser with full controller support
    Possible karbiner but I've never looked into doing specifically that, so I may be wrong https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Always paste without formatting on macOS
    Remap with Karabiner (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/). I personally mapped right_command + v to it, but it's capable of a straight out remap. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    Karabiner-Elements - Price: Free Powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS. Source: 10 months ago
View more

yabai mentions (132)

  • Ask HN: Best Hacks for a Ultrawide Monitor?
    I have a 49 inch CRG9 and the best recommendation for window management is Yabai (https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai). Yabai is a greedy window management solution that tries to fit opened applications in given space and skhd let's you easily jump between those using keyboard shortcuts. This has massively improved my ultrawide experience. Only disclaimer is, configuring yabai has a slight learning curve. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Is there an app that does this Windows feature?
    Want something free that's better than tiling on Windows? Yabai. Source: 5 months ago
  • macOS Containers v0.0.1
    SIP is a feature that protects you from malicious actors with root (admin) access on your device. After they've encrypted your photos and drives and changed your passwords, it prevents them from making your machine unbootable by deleting or altering system binaries. As a side effect of this protection, you give up certain freedoms to customize your system. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?
    This is disproven by the fact that Yabai [1] can instantly swap spaces with SIP disabled. [1] https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?
    I feel the same way. I would much prefer no animation at all, and an instant transition to another space. Apparently this is possible with [yabai](https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai), but it requires disabling system integrity protection which I am personally uncomfortable with. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Karabiner and yabai, you can also consider the following products

SharpKeys - SharpKeys is a utility that manages a Registry key that allows Windows to remap one key to any...

Rectangle - Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.

SteerMouse - Advanced driver for USB and Bluetooth mouses.

Magnet Window Manager - Magnet Developers

BTT Remote - A remote control for you Mac, using your iPhone or iPad

Moom - Move your mouse over the green zoom button in any window, and Moom's mouse control overlay will appear (as seen in the above animation).