Amethyst window manager alternative: when automatic tiling is too much
Amethyst is the friendliest way into automatic tiling on macOS. It's free, MIT-licensed, has over 16,000 stars on GitHub, and — unlike yabai — it ships with a real preferences window instead of a config file you have to write first. For a lot of people it's the app that finally made tiling click. For a lot of other people it's the app that made them realize they didn't actually want a tiling window manager. If you're hunting for an Amethyst window manager alternative, this is the honest version of both stories.
What Amethyst actually is
Amethyst is an automatic tiler modelled on xmonad. It takes over every window on screen and arranges them into a layout — nothing overlaps, nothing floats, and opening a new window reshuffles everything that was already there. You don't place windows; you pick a layout and let it place them.
The layouts it cycles through include Tall (one main pane on the left, everything else stacked to the right), Wide (main pane on top), Two Pane, three-column variants, Widescreen Tall, Column, Row, Fullscreen, Floating, and binary space partitioning. Default modifiers are ⌥⇧ (mod1) and ⌃⌥⇧ (mod2): ⌥⇧Space cycles layouts, ⌥⇧J/⌥⇧K move focus, ⌥⇧H/⌥⇧L shrink and grow the main pane, ⌥⇧↵ promotes the focused window to the main slot.
It's free under the MIT license, installs with brew install --cask amethyst, needs macOS 10.15 or later, and asks for Accessibility permission on first launch. The latest tagged release is v0.24.3 from April 2026, with commits landing on the repo as recently as this month — it's maintained, if not fast-moving.
Why people look for an Amethyst alternative
Four complaints come up again and again, and none of them are bugs. They're consequences of the automatic model.
It's keyboard-only, all the time. There's no mouse story. You can't drag a window somewhere and have it stay — the layout owns the geometry, so the tiler puts it back. That's the point of tiling, but it means the occasional "just let me drag this" moment has no answer.
Dialogs and modal windows break the picture. A small save sheet or a preferences panel gets treated as a window like any other, and the whole layout reflows around it. Amethyst has floating rules to exempt specific apps, but you end up maintaining a list of exceptions for apps that misbehave.
It's all-or-nothing. Automatic tiling isn't a feature you use sometimes; it's a mode your entire desktop is in. If 80% of your day is a browser and an editor side by side and 20% is a video call plus a scratch window wherever it fits, the 20% fights you.
Spaces need babysitting. Amethyst's own docs tell you to turn off "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use" in System Settings, or keyboard navigation between Spaces becomes unpredictable. It's a small thing, but it's the first sign that you're now maintaining a window manager.
Amethyst alternatives compared
| Model | Config | Mouse support | License / price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amethyst | Automatic tiling (xmonad-style) | GUI prefs + optional YAML | No | Free, MIT |
| AeroSpace | Automatic tiling (i3-style) | One TOML file | No | Free, open source |
| yabai | Automatic tiling (BSP) | Shell script + skhd | No | Free, open source |
| Rectangle | Manual snapping | GUI prefs | Drag-to-edge | Free, open source |
| Loop | Radial menu snapping | GUI prefs | Yes (radial flick) | Free, GPLv3 |
| Let's Tile | Visible keyboard grid | GUI prefs, nothing to write | Windows stay draggable | Free tier + $9.99 one-time Pro |
If you want to stay in automatic tiling
Go to AeroSpace. It's the closest thing to a straight upgrade: i3-style layouts, one readable TOML file you can version-control, built-in hotkeys, and it never asks you to disable System Integrity Protection. Its trade-off is emulated workspaces rather than native Spaces, which most people find easy to live with. yabai is the more powerful option if you want to script your window manager, but partially disabling SIP is the price of its headline features.
If the automatic part was the problem
This is the more common case, and it's worth being blunt about it: most people who install a tiling WM don't want a tiling WM. They want to put a window exactly where they want it, from the keyboard, in under a second — and then be left alone.
Rectangle is the obvious free answer, and it's a good one. The catch is the one every snapper shares: a shortcut per layout. Left half, right half, top-left quarter, left third, centre two-thirds — each is its own chord, and you're either memorizing a dozen of them or using three and pretending the rest exist.
Let's Tile is our answer to that, and the reason it exists. There's one shortcut. Press ⌘↵ and a grid drops over the window you're using; steer the highlight with the arrow keys, hold ⇧ and arrow to stretch the selection across cells, press ↵ to snap. Nothing to memorize, because the grid is on screen — and every layout the grid can describe is reachable with the same keystroke.
Crucially, it's not a tiling window manager. Your windows stay ordinary floating macOS windows. Nothing reflows when you open a dialog, nothing fights you when you drag something with the mouse, and there's no mode your desktop is stuck in. You reach for the grid when you want it and forget the app exists the rest of the time.
The honest trade: Amethyst is free and MIT-licensed, and Let's Tile isn't open source. If automatic layouts and a public codebase are what you're after, Amethyst or AeroSpace are the right tools and you should keep them. What Let's Tile offers instead is the free 3 × 2 grid — halves, thirds, two-thirds, quarters and full screen, permanently, not as a trial — with Pro at $9.99 one-time for custom grid shapes, a different grid remembered per display, throwing a window to another monitor mid-tile with ⌘⇧ + arrows, and pixel margins between cells. No subscription, no account, up to 20 devices per key, no telemetry.
If you liked Amethyst's keyboard-first feel and want to keep it for switching too, pair whatever you choose with Let's Switch — ⌥⇥ walks your most recently used windows, which is the half Cmd-Tab never covered. For the wider field, see our best macOS window manager guide and the free options roundup.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amethyst still maintained in 2026?
Yes. The last tagged release is v0.24.3 from April 2026, and commits have landed on the repository within the last few weeks. Development is steady rather than rapid, which is normal for a mature utility.
Is Amethyst better than Rectangle?
They solve different problems. Amethyst arranges every window automatically into a layout; Rectangle snaps the one window you're looking at into a half or a quarter when you ask it to. If you want windows to manage themselves, Amethyst. If you want to stay in charge of a normal macOS desktop, Rectangle — or a keyboard grid like Let's Tile.
Does Amethyst work with mouse dragging?
Not really. Amethyst is keyboard-driven by design, and because the layout controls window geometry, dragging a window generally won't leave it where you dropped it. If mouse-and-keyboard flexibility matters to you, a manual snapper or grid is the better fit.
Does Amethyst require disabling SIP?
No. Amethyst uses the public Accessibility API and only needs the Accessibility permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security. yabai is the tiler that asks for a partial SIP disable for its full feature set.
What's the easiest Amethyst alternative to try first?
If you want to stay in automatic tiling, AeroSpace. If you suspect the automatic part was the problem, try a manual tool for a week — Rectangle if you want free and open source, Let's Tile if you'd rather see a grid than memorize a shortcut for every layout.