Alternatives to yabai

A tiling window manager for macOS that arranges windows by binary space partitioning and is driven entirely from the command line. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as yabai.

  • Amethyst

    Arrange macOS windows automatically with a keyboard-driven tiling manager.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    Amethyst gives keyboard-driven automatic tiling on macOS with built-in navigation, needing only accessibility permissions instead of partially disabling System Integrity Protection or pairing with skhd.

  • GlazeWM

    An i3-style tiling window manager for Windows and macOS, configured in one YAML file.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOS

    GlazeWM offers i3-style tiling configured in one YAML file with its own keyboard command set, though its macOS support is much newer than its Windows side.

  • Rectangle

    Snap macOS windows to halves, thirds, quarters and corners with keyboard shortcuts or by dragging to an edge.

    FreemiumOpen sourcemacOS

    Rectangle snaps macOS windows to halves, thirds and corners with shortcuts or dragging, but it is not a tiling window manager and windows do not rearrange automatically.

  • AeroSpace

    An i3-like tiling window manager for macOS, written in Swift.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    AeroSpace is a free open source i3-like tiling manager for macOS written in Swift with keyboard control, rather than yabai's binary space partitioning driven from the command line.

  • Phoenix

    A lightweight macOS window and app manager that you configure and script with JavaScript.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    Phoenix is an MIT-licensed macOS window manager scripted entirely in JavaScript, so you write your own tiling behaviour instead of using yabai's built-in partitioning.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.