A Rectangle alternative with custom, mergeable zones

Rectangle is free and excellent at keyboard snapping to halves, thirds, and quarters. Screen Divider takes a visual, drag-first approach built around grids you design and zones you merge.

Prices and features checked on rectangleapp.com and rectangleapp.com/pro on October 18, 2026; how-it-works details, version and macOS requirements rechecked on rectangleapp.com and GitHub on October 22, 2026.

What Rectangle does well

Rectangle is a free, open-source window manager with a loyal following. Both rectangleapp.com and its GitHub README say current releases (version 2.0.4, October 20, 2026) need macOS 14 or later; version 1.100 still covers macOS 10.15–13. It snaps windows to halves, thirds, quarters, and screen edges using keyboard shortcuts or drag-to-edge, and it works across multiple monitors. For keyboard-driven snapping at no cost, it is hard to beat.

How Rectangle works

Here’s what using the Rectangle app actually looks like, from its GitHub README, its source code’s default shortcut list and rectangleapp.com. Install it from the site, the Releases page, or Homebrew (brew install --cask rectangle). On first run you choose between Rectangle’s recommended shortcuts and Spectacle’s; the recommended set uses Control-Option (⌃⌥):

A few things make it quicker than the table suggests:

• Repeat a shortcut to cycle. Press “first third” again and the window steps through the thirds (first, center, last). Thirds follow the screen’s orientation, so on a portrait display the first third is the top.
• Snap areas. Drag a window to the left or right edge for a half, the top for maximize, a corner for a quarter, or the bottom left, center or right for a third; drag from a bottom corner third toward the center for two-thirds. Rectangle shows a footprint of where the window will land, and you can turn snapping off.
• Extra actions. Settings › Shortcuts has more, including sixths, ninths, eighths, “almost maximize”, and Tile in Rows / Tile in Columns, which arrange all the windows on a display and cycle through grid layouts as you press again. You can also cycle through windows stacked in the same spot, or assign a mouse side button to an action.
• Ignore an app. If an app uses the same shortcuts, focus it and choose “Ignore app” from the Rectangle menu; Rectangle’s shortcuts switch off while that app is in front.
• For tinkerers. Every action can be run from a URL (rectangle://execute-action?name=left-half), settings import and export as JSON, and more options are set with Terminal commands listed in the repo.

What it doesn’t do, per its own README: move windows to another desktop (Space), because Apple has no public API for that (Rectangle Pro has next/previous Space actions), and it can’t shrink an app below that app’s minimum window size, so thirds can overlap on small screens.

What about Rectangle Pro?

Rectangle Pro is the paid version from the same developer: US$9.99 on its site, with a 10-day free trial, one license active on up to three Macs, and macOS 13.5 or later. It adds a lot on top of the free app: shortcuts for custom sizes and positions, snap areas you can place anywhere on the screen with a configurable snap panel, workspace layouts that arrange a set of apps with one shortcut (optionally when displays connect), stashing windows at a screen edge, pinning an app to one side, and iCloud sync of your settings. If you live on the keyboard and want custom positions, Rectangle Pro is a strong option at a similar price to Screen Divider.

Where Screen Divider differs

Screen Divider is a paid app focused on designing your own layout. Instead of a fixed set of shortcuts, you build a grid in a visual editor and merge adjacent cells into any rectangular zone, then drag windows into those zones. If your ideal layout isn't a clean half or quarter, that flexibility is the point.

Which should you choose?

If free, keyboard-driven snapping covers what you need, Rectangle is a genuinely great tool and a fair default. If you want custom positions driven from the keyboard, look at Rectangle Pro. If you want to design your own zones — and merge cells into shapes the presets can't make — and you'd rather snap by dragging, Screen Divider is worth the $12. Coming from another app? We compare Screen Divider fairly as a Magnet alternative for keyboard snapping, a Divvy alternative comparison and a Moom alternative. Deciding between the two big names? See our neutral Rectangle vs Magnet comparison. Still on Spectacle? Rectangle grew out of it; here’s what to use now that Spectacle is discontinued. New to all this? Start with how to snap windows on a Mac, which walks through the built-in options first.

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