a free Magnet alternative
updated · by Anton Shakirov
Magnet is a $4.99 window manager from the App Store, and it does its job well. the question in 2026 is narrower than it used to be: macOS now tiles halves and quarters by itself, so the honest version of this page has to start there and not with us.
if two windows side by side is the whole job, macOS already does it and you need nothing. hop snaps windows into eighteen zones — thirds included, which the built-in tiling still has none of — as one of eighteen tools behind a single menu bar icon, for nothing.
what macOS 26 tiles before you look for a Magnet alternative
window tiling arrived in macOS Sequoia and is still here in macOS 26. three ways in: the Window ▸ Move & Resize menu, holding the pointer over the green button in a window's corner, or dragging the window at a screen edge. the last one has a switch in settings and is off on some Macs.
the full picture of what the built-in tiling reaches and where it stops is a page of its own: window manager for Mac
halves and quarters, and the keyboard that stops at halves
the menu holds Fill and Centre, four halves, four quarters, and eight ready arrangements for two windows at once: Left & Right, Left & Quarters and the rest of that family.
the keyboard covers less than the menu does. fn-Control-arrows put a window into a half, fn-Control-F fills the desktop, fn-Control-C centres it, fn-Control-R puts it back where it was. the four quarters have no shortcut at all: they can only be reached with the pointer.
Apple's own shortcut table, checked 10 september 2026: window tiling icons and keyboard shortcuts — Apple Support
what the Option key actually adds
holding Option opens more layouts, and which ones matters, because the internet gets this wrong. Option reveals the arrangements that pair one window with quarters. it does not reveal thirds. we walked the whole Move & Resize menu on macOS 26.6.2 on 10 september 2026: there is no third anywhere in it, held key or not.
so the built-in tiling covers two windows well, four windows adequately, and three windows not at all.
the layouts and what the Option key does, in Apple's words: tile app windows — Apple Support
what a paid Magnet alternative still buys you
here is the short version, before any of the rest. if you put two windows side by side and that is the end of it, stop reading — macOS does that, for free, with a key, and it is already installed. the simple case ends at one of two moments: when a third window has to fit, or when you want a key for the corners instead of a trip to the menu.
past that line, Magnet is a reasonable thing to buy. $4.99 once in the App Store, checked 10 september 2026, with no subscription and no account. it snaps on drag-to-edge, gives every layout its own shortcut, and does thirds, which is exactly the hole the built-in tiling leaves.
the same argument with the free specialist instead of the paid one, since that comparison comes up more often: a Rectangle alternative
how hop works as a Magnet alternative
eighteen zones — halves, thirds, quarters, centre. click a zone glyph in the panel and the active window lands there, or put the two or three layouts you actually use on global ⌃⌥ hotkeys and never open the panel at all. the corners get a key, and so do the thirds.
| what you are doing | built-in tiling | with hop |
|---|---|---|
| two windows side by side | fn-Control-left, fn-Control-right | not needed — use the built-in one |
| a window into a corner | menu only, no shortcut exists | ⌃⌥ hotkey |
| three windows across the screen | not possible, there are no thirds | a third is one of the eighteen zones |
| throwing a window at the screen edge | yes, if the setting is on | no — you pick a zone instead |
| the clipboard manager you were also about to install | nothing to do with tiling | same icon, same panel |
one icon instead of three
the difference that decides this is not the snapping. it is the shape: for Magnet, window management is the whole app; here it is one of eighteen tools behind one menu bar icon, next to clipboard history, text recognition, a colour picker, archives and a system monitor.
if you were about to install a window manager, a clipboard manager and a colour picker, that is one download instead of three, and one icon in the menu bar instead of three.
the third of those three, and the reason the example is not hypothetical: colour picker for Mac
the tool most people reach for second, once the windows are sorted: clipboard history for Mac
where Magnet is better than hop
drag-to-edge, first and plainly. hop works by picking a zone, not by throwing a window at the side of the screen. if that gesture is how you already think about windows, Magnet is built around it and hop is not — and no amount of zones makes up for a habit you have to unlearn.
then the shortcuts. Magnet gives each layout its own combination, set up the way a dedicated app can afford to; ours sit on a shared ⌃⌥ scheme because eighteen tools have to share one keyboard between them.
a specialist against one of eighteen
and the structural fact is simple. Magnet has done one job for years and polished it. our window module is one of eighteen, and it gets the attention of one of eighteen. that shows up in the small places: unusual displays, apps that resist being resized, the fine grain of what a layout does on a second monitor.
App Store distribution counts too: one tap to buy, updates through the same channel as everything else, Apple's review in between. hop is signed and notarised, but it arrives from a website.
we have not gone through Magnet feature by feature. everything above is our half of the picture.
the same trade shows up in every module we compare — a specialist against one of eighteen: an iStat Menus alternative
trying a Magnet alternative without deciding anything
- try the built-in tiling first for a day — Window ▸ Move & Resize, fn-Control-arrows. if nothing is missing, you are done and you spent nothing
- download hop — six megabytes, macOS 14 or later, nothing to register
- put the two or three layouts you actually use on ⌃⌥ hotkeys, thirds included
- give it a week of real work before judging: window habits take a few days to move
- if picking a zone never becomes automatic, drag it to the trash — the built-in tiling is still there
the other seventeen tools behind the same icon, if the windows part is settled: everything hop does
frequently asked questions
- does macOS have thirds?
- no. checked on macOS 26.6.2 on 10 september 2026: Window ▸ Move & Resize has halves, quarters and combinations of the two, and no thirds. holding Option adds the layouts that pair a window with quarters, not thirds — that is the most common piece of wrong information about tiling on the Mac.
- is Magnet still worth $4.99?
- if you want drag-to-edge and a shortcut per layout in a dedicated app, yes. if you want two windows side by side, macOS does that already and you would be paying for something you have.
- can i drag a window to the screen edge to snap it in hop?
- no. you pick a zone from the panel or press a hotkey. if drag-to-edge is your habit, that is what Magnet is built around, and macOS itself has a version of it in settings.
- how many layouts are there?
- eighteen: halves, thirds, quarters and centre.
- are there keyboard shortcuts for the corners?
- yes, global ⌃⌥ combinations, and they cover the quarters — which is where the built-in tiling has no key at all.
- does it work on several displays?
- zones apply to the display the active window is on.
- is hop really free?
- free and open source under MIT, with no trial and no paid tier.
the hop side of this
window layouts — eighteen zones, one click or one hotkey.
about the author
Anton Shakirovmakes hop
makes hop and every page on this site. eighteen tools under a single menu bar icon, MIT licensed and open source. reads and answers issues and email himself.