Magnet alternative

Snap like Magnet. Pay nothing.

Magnet is a well-known paid window manager on the Mac App Store that snaps windows by dragging them to the edges of the screen or with keyboard shortcuts. Panewise does that too — free — and then helps you choose what goes beside the window you just snapped.

	Panewise	Magnet
Price	Free	Paid
Where to get it	panewise.app or Homebrew	Mac App Store
Drag to edges and corners to snap	Yes	Yes
Keyboard shortcuts	Yes (Rectangle-compatible)	Yes
Picker that fills the other half from live window previews	Yes	—

What Panewise is built around

• Snap one side, pick the other. Drag a window to an edge (or use a shortcut) and the empty half fills with live previews of your other windows. Click one, or type a few letters and press Return.
• Type to launch. If the app you want isn't open, type its name in the picker and Panewise opens it straight into the empty half.
• A divider you can grab. Once two windows share an edge, hover the border to resize both at once, double-click to even them out, or swap sides.
• Snap groups. Click one window and its partner comes forward too; move the pair to another display together.
• Layouts beyond halves. Drag to the top of the screen for 60/40, thirds, main + stack or a grid, and the picker fills each slot in turn.
• Undo. ⌃⌥Z puts the last moved windows back exactly where they were.

Why isn't Panewise on the App Store?

App Store apps must run in Apple's sandbox, which doesn't allow the window previews and picker Panewise is built on. So it's distributed directly — signed with our Developer ID, notarized by Apple, and it keeps itself up to date.

Switching from Magnet

Quit Magnet so the two don't respond to the same drags and keys, then open Panewise. Its default shortcuts are Rectangle's, and you can change any of them in Settings.