Software Alternatives & Startups

Swish VS Putback

Compare Swish VS Putback and see what are their differences

Swish

Insanely great window management

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
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)

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Swish seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 5 times since March 2021.

social mentions
5 vs 0
Productivity popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 17

Base details

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

Swish
Putback
Website highlyopinionated.co putback.app
Pricing
Open source
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 Swish and Putback

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Swish
Putback

No description of Swish 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.

Swish 5 features
Putback 8 features
  • User-Friendly
    Swish provides an easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users of all experience levels.
  • Versatility
    Swish supports a wide range of animation types, from simple movements to complex sequences, catering to various creative needs.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Swish animations are compatible with multiple platforms and devices, ensuring a wide reach for creators' content.
  • Speed and Performance
    Swish offers fast rendering times and high performance, allowing users to create animations efficiently without long wait times.
  • Community and Support
    Swish has a supporting community and extensive resources available, such as tutorials and forums, to assist users in their projects.

Possible disadvantages

  • Cost
    Swish may come with a higher price tag compared to some other animation tools, which could be a potential barrier for hobbyists or small creators.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, mastering all features of Swish may still require a significant time investment, especially for beginners.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Swish might lack some of the advanced features and capabilities found in more specialized or high-end animation software.
  • Dependence on Internet Connection
    Some functionalities of Swish may rely on an active internet connection, which could be inconvenient for users with unstable or slow internet.
  • Platform Limitations
    Swish may not support all operating systems or older versions, potentially limiting accessibility for some users.
  • 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.

Swish
Putback

Overall verdict

  • Swish is considered a good choice for those seeking a blend of functionality and ease of use in a tool. Its positive reception among users highlights its effectiveness and reliability.

Why this product is good

  • Swish, a product from Highly Opinionated, is celebrated for its sleek design and user-friendly interface. It stands out due to its intuitive functionality and its powerful capabilities to streamline user workflows. Its strong focus on optimizing productivity makes it highly appealing to users who prioritize efficiency.

Recommended for

    Swish is particularly recommended for professionals, teams, and individuals who value productivity and seamless user experiences. It's ideal for those who are looking for tools to enhance efficiency in tasks and projects.

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.

Swish 5 videos + Add
Putback 0 videos + Add

Suzuki swish ownership review ll Pjvlogs

More videos

  • - Swish Review - with Tom and Melody Vasel
  • - Swish Jr. Review - with Tom Vasel
  • - Brown Listerine Review: Swish Swish Swish!
  • - SWISH The Perfect Shot Review

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
Swish
Putback
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
Mac
0% 0%
92% 92%
8% 8%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Swish 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 Swish and Putback. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

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

Swish no reviews yet
Putback no reviews yet
  • Top 6 Window Manager Apps for Mac

    You can manage multiple windows on your Mac using various built-in features and third-party tools. For example, you can use Mission Control to view all open windows, Split View to divide the screen into two windows,...

  • The 6 Best Mac Window Management Tools
    www.makeuseof.com · Apr 2023

    Furthermore, it is the only tool in macOS that aligns and divides windows using a pixel-perfect grid. Swish automatically detects multi-monitor setups (both vertical and horizontal) and lets you swap multiple windows...

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.

Swish 5 mentions
Putback 0 mentions
  • Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues
    Swish⁽¹⁾ lets you drag the divider to resize multiple windows at once. BentoBox⁽²⁾ is inspired by Fancy Zones. And Lasso⁽³⁾ is a grid-based window manager with custom layouts. ⁽¹⁾ https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/ ⁽²⁾... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Rift – a tiling window manager for macOS
    Pretty cool, but nothing beats Swish if you're using a Macbook trackpad https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Why our website looks like an operating system
    > That’s the idea behind the new PostHog.com. You can multitask, open a few articles simultaneously, and move them around as you please. No, I can't, because the way I please is to use Swish (https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/) to move... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago

View more

Tracking Putback since Jul 2026.

Alternatives to Swish and Putback

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