Software Alternatives & Reviews

yabai VS Hammerspoon

Compare yabai VS Hammerspoon and see what are their differences

yabai logo yabai

A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning

Hammerspoon logo Hammerspoon

This is a tool for powerful automation of OS X.
  • yabai Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-26
  • Hammerspoon Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-25

yabai videos

Yabai Demonstration

More videos:

  • Demo - yabai macOS Tiling Window Manager Demonstration

Hammerspoon videos

HammerSpoon Worflow Automation

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to yabai and Hammerspoon)
Window Manager
100 100%
0% 0
Automation
0 0%
100% 100
OSX Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Windows Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, yabai seems to be a lot more popular than Hammerspoon. While we know about 132 links to yabai, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Hammerspoon. 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.

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 / 10 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 / 10 months ago
View more

Hammerspoon mentions (4)

  • i3 Linux -> macOS
    Then, I can only suggest http://hammerspoon.org/ and then you can start implementing window movement using it https://www.hammerspoon.org/go/#winmoveintro. Source: 11 months ago
  • 49 inch Ultra Wide Monitor going from PC to Mac mini
    MacOS doesn't do this natively, but you have options: - If you just want to move windows around with some degree of keyboard customization, go for Rectangle. - If you want more control, such as sizing a bunch of windows at the same time, use Slate. - If you can code and want really high degrees of customization, you won't go wrong with Hammerspoon. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Handy utility applications for macOS
    Both of those can be replaced by the open-source Hammerspoon (actually a significant number of the things in this thread can, including BTT). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Keyboard Maestro alternatives?
    Depending on what you want from KM, Hammerspoon may be a good alternative. You can also look up on AlternativeTo for other options. Source: over 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

AutoHotkey - The ultimate automation scripting language for Windows.

Magnet Window Manager - Magnet Developers

Pulover’s Macro Creator - Pulover’s Macro Creator is a Free Automation Tool and Script Generator.

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).

AutoKey - A Python 3 port of AutoKey, the desktop automation utility for Linux and X11.