Rectangle alternative

Your Rectangle shortcuts, plus a picker.

Rectangle is a popular free, open-source window manager built around keyboard shortcuts and snapping to screen edges. Panewise keeps the same default shortcuts — so there's nothing to relearn — and focuses on what happens after the snap.

	Panewise	Rectangle
Price	Free	Free (Rectangle Pro is paid)
Open source	No	Yes
Drag to edges and corners to snap	Yes	Yes
Rectangle's default keyboard shortcuts	Yes	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.

Switching from Rectangle

Quit Rectangle (and remove it from Login Items) so both apps don't respond to the same keys, then open Panewise. Your muscle memory carries straight over.

When Rectangle may suit you better

If you want an open-source tool, or you only ever use keyboard shortcuts and never need help choosing the second window, Rectangle is an excellent choice.