The best Spectacle alternative for Mac (now that Spectacle is archived)
For years, Spectacle was the Mac window manager people installed without thinking: free, tiny, and ⌥⌘← put a window on the left half. If you're looking for a Spectacle alternative now, it's probably because the app finally looks its age. There are three honest answers. Rectangle is the drop-in replacement that keeps your muscle memory, Let's Tile swaps the shortcut list for a grid you can see, and built-in macOS tiling is good enough for some people. Here's how to choose.
Why people are looking for a Spectacle alternative
It stopped being developed a long time ago. The last release, Spectacle 1.2, was tagged in December 2016. The README was updated in late 2019 to say the project is "not being actively maintained", and the GitHub repository is now archived and read-only. The README itself points Spectacle users to Rectangle.
It's an Intel app. Version 1.2 came out four years before Apple silicon and was never rebuilt for it. On an M-series Mac it runs through Rosetta 2, which is why it has kept working without anyone noticing.
Rosetta has an end date. Apple says Rosetta is available on Apple silicon Macs running macOS 27 or earlier. From macOS 28 it will only be kept for certain older games, and a window manager isn't one of them. If you want to check what else on your Mac depends on it, see how to check which apps are Intel.
It's harder to install. Spectacle's Homebrew cask is gone, so brew install --cask spectacle no longer works on a new Mac.
If it still runs for you on macOS 27, you don't have to delete it today. Just choose its replacement before the upgrade, not after.
The Spectacle alternatives at a glance
| Spectacle | Rectangle | Let's Tile | Built-in macOS tiling | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free (Pro is paid) | Free tier, $9.99 Pro one-time | Free |
| Still developed | No (archived) | Yes | Yes | Ships with macOS |
| Native on Apple silicon | No (Rosetta) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| How you pick a layout | One shortcut per region | One shortcut per region | One shortcut, then arrow keys on a visible grid | Drag to an edge, or Fn-Control-arrow |
| Thirds | Cycled by repeating a shortcut | First, center and last third, plus two-thirds | Yes, on the free 3 × 2 grid | No |
| Keeps Spectacle's shortcuts | n/a | Yes, offered on first launch | No, it has its own model | No |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Minimum macOS | 10.9 | 14 (Sonoma) | 14 (Sonoma) | 15 (Sequoia) |
Rectangle: the drop-in replacement
If you want the Spectacle you know, only maintained, install Rectangle and stop reading. Its README describes it as "based on Spectacle", and the first time you launch it you can choose Spectacle's default shortcuts. So ⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→ still give you halves, ⌥⌘F still maximizes and ⌥⌘C still centers, with no relearning at all. It's free, open source and native on Apple silicon. Install it from rectangleapp.com or with brew install --cask rectangle.
It also fixes a few things Spectacle never did. Where Spectacle reached thirds by pressing a shortcut repeatedly, Rectangle has explicit first, center and last thirds plus two-thirds positions, an "almost maximize", and optional snapping when you drag a window to a screen edge. Current versions need macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
The one thing it keeps is the bit some people want to leave behind: a shortcut for every region. Halves and corners are easy to remember. Thirds, two-thirds and "move to the next display" are where most people's memory gives out, which is why so many Spectacle users only ever used four shortcuts. If that's fine with you, Rectangle is the answer. Our Rectangle alternative guide covers where that approach stops working.
Let's Tile: one shortcut instead of fifteen
Let's Tile takes the opposite approach. Instead of a shortcut per layout, it has one. Press ⌘↵ (you can rebind it), a grid drops over the window you were just using, and you steer a highlight with the arrow keys. Hold ⇧ and press an arrow to stretch the highlight across more cells, then press ↵ and the window snaps into it. Every layout on the grid is reachable, and you can see it before you commit, so there's no cheat sheet to keep.
For a Spectacle user, the main benefit is that thirds stop being hard. The free tier is a 3 × 2 grid, permanently, not a trial. It covers halves, thirds, two-thirds, quarters and full screen, which covers everything most people did with Spectacle, without a second shortcut to learn. Pro is $9.99, paid once, and adds:
- any grid you like, from 4 × 3 to 6 × 2 for an ultrawide
- a different grid for each display, remembered automatically
- throwing the window to your other display mid-tile with ⌘⇧→
- margins between cells, in pixels
There's no account and no subscription, one key covers up to 20 devices, and the app sends no telemetry.
It's fair to say what you give up. Let's Tile is much newer than Spectacle or Rectangle. It's not open source. It has no per-region hotkeys, so a layout takes a few keystrokes rather than one chord. And it needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. If you only ever used ⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→, Rectangle will feel more familiar. If you always meant to learn the thirds shortcuts and never did, this is the version where you don't have to.
Built-in macOS tiling: maybe you don't need an app
Since macOS 15 Sequoia, the Mac tiles windows by itself. Drag a window to a screen edge or corner, use Window → Move & Resize, or press Fn-Control with an arrow key. It's free and needs no Accessibility permission. But it only knows halves, quarters and full screen, with no thirds, and the Fn-Control chord is awkward on an external keyboard. If you mostly used Spectacle for left/right halves on a laptop, try this for a week before installing anything. Our guide to tiling windows on macOS has the details.
There are also smaller projects that rebuild Spectacle natively for Apple silicon. They're worth watching, but they're new, and their authors say plainly that they aren't official successors.
Moving off Spectacle in five minutes
- Quit Spectacle first. Rectangle uses the same shortcuts, and two apps can't own one shortcut. Untick Spectacle under System Settings → General → Login Items, then delete it.
- Install the replacement and grant Accessibility. Every window manager needs it to move windows. If a grid or shortcut does nothing, see window manager not working on Mac.
- Choose Spectacle's defaults if you went with Rectangle. If you went with Let's Tile, there's nothing to clash with, because ⌘↵ isn't a Spectacle shortcut. You can even keep both for a week while you decide.
- Turn off the native drag-to-edge tiling if it gets in the way, under System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
Frequently asked questions
Does Spectacle still work on macOS 27? Usually, yes. It runs through Rosetta 2, which Apple says is available through macOS 27. Plan for it to stop opening on macOS 28 unless someone ships a native build, and the archived repository makes that unlikely.
Is Rectangle the same as Spectacle? It began as a Swift rewrite based on Spectacle, and it can use the same default shortcuts. Since then it has added more positions and settings, and it's actively maintained.
What's the best free Spectacle alternative? Rectangle if you want the same shortcuts. Let's Tile's free 3 × 2 grid if you'd rather see your layouts than memorize them. Both are free with no time limit.
Spectacle earned its place: it showed a generation of Mac users that a window doesn't need to be dragged. Rectangle keeps that idea exactly as it was. If you'd rather never memorize another window shortcut, try Let's Tile's free grid. It's one shortcut, and you'll know within a day whether it suits you.