LifetimeMac

Rectangle

free, MIT-licensed window snapping with keyboard shortcuts and edge zones

Open source

The catch

Rectangle handles one window at a time. Custom multi-window layouts, layouts that fire when a display connects, and throwing windows between screens with the mouse are Rectangle Pro features. It drives the macOS Accessibility API, so you must grant Accessibility permission, and a handful of Electron and Java windows resize imprecisely.

Rectangle is what most people should install first. It snaps the frontmost window to a half, a third, a quarter or the full screen with a keyboard shortcut, and does the same when you drag a window into a screen edge or corner. Ryan Hanson built it on the bones of Spectacle after that project was abandoned, and has maintained it steadily ever since. The MIT licence is the part that matters here: this app cannot quietly become a subscription later, because anyone can fork the last free version.

Since it costs nothing, the decision is about scope rather than money. Rectangle thinks about one window at a time. It will not remember a six-window arrangement, will not restore one when you plug in the monitor at your desk, and will not let you flick a window to another screen with the mouse. Those three things are what the paid Rectangle Pro sells. If you work mostly on a laptop display and want half-and-half without thinking about it, none of them are missing from your life.

You will have to grant Accessibility permission on first launch, and a few stubborn windows — some Electron apps, some Java apps — resist being resized exactly. That is a limit of the macOS API rather than of this app. Install this before you pay for anything else in the category, and only upgrade once you can name the feature you are missing.

The Rectangle page at rectangleapp.com
Page capture from rectangleapp.com, taken 2026-09-22. Images belong to their developers.
  • Halves, thirds, quarters, sixths and maximise via keyboard shortcuts
  • Drag-to-edge snap zones, including corner snapping
  • Move windows between displays and cycle sizes with repeated shortcuts
  • Imports Spectacle shortcuts directly
  • MIT licensed and actively maintained, with around 30k GitHub stars

The facts

Price
Free
What you get
No licence to buy, and the source is public.
Details
Free and MIT licensed. Download from rectangleapp.com or install with "brew install --cask rectangle". There is no paid tier of this app: the paid features live in the separate Rectangle Pro.
Free trial
No
On Setapp
No
Minimum macOS
not stated
Developer
Ryan Hanson
Price checked
2026-09-22
Check it yourself
Price band
Free