Software Alternatives & Reviews

yabai VS Spectacle App

Compare yabai VS Spectacle App and see what are their differences

yabai logo yabai

A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning

Spectacle App logo Spectacle App

Move and resize windows with ease.
  • yabai Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-26
  • Spectacle App Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-18

Important note: Spectacle is no longer being actively maintained

yabai videos

Yabai Demonstration

More videos:

  • Demo - yabai macOS Tiling Window Manager Demonstration

Spectacle App videos

Demo of Spectacle App for Mac

More videos:

  • Review - Spectacle App Showcase: Window Management, Manipulation, & Organization for Mac (2017)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to yabai and Spectacle App)
Window Manager
64 64%
36% 36
OSX Tools
60 60%
40% 40
Mac Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Screenshot Annotation
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare yabai and Spectacle App

yabai Reviews

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Spectacle App Reviews

Moom vs Magnet vs Spectacle
While custom sizes can only be done with Moom, the predefined window sizes are provided by Magnet and Spectacle out of the box, but can also be configured manually with Moom. It’s also possible to assign keyboard shortcuts. So, in this case, if you want all the features, Moom can do them all.
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

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

Spectacle App mentions (4)

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Greenshot - Greenshot is a free and open source screenshot tool that allows annotation and highlighting using the built-in image editor.

Magnet Window Manager - Magnet Developers

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).

ShareX - ShareX is a free and open source program that lets you capture or record any area of your screen...

Mizage Divvy - Divvy is an entirely new way of managing your workspace.