AeroSpace is the tiling window manager people recommend when someone asks for yabai without the security compromise. It is free, it is configured in a text file, and it is the only serious tiling option for macOS that promises never to ask you to disable System Integrity Protection. Here is what it does, who it suits, and the one gap its own documentation leaves open.
The short answer
Get AeroSpace if you want i3 style keyboard tiling on a Mac and you are comfortable editing a TOML file. It is the best answer in its category precisely because of what it refuses to do: it never asks you to weaken macOS security. Skip it if you want windows arranged by dragging with a mouse, or if you need your specific arrangement remembered across a monitor unplug, which is a different category of tool entirely.
What AeroSpace is
The project describes itself in one line: “AeroSpace is an i3-like tiling window manager for macOS”. If you have used i3 or sway on Linux, that sentence tells you nearly everything. Windows are arranged in a tree of containers, every container is horizontal or vertical, and you move around with the keyboard instead of the mouse. There are four layouts: h_tiles, v_tiles, h_accordion and v_accordion.
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Licence | MIT, open source |
| Minimum macOS | macOS 13 and later, per the README |
| Install | Homebrew, from the project's own tap: brew install --cask nikitabobko/tap/aerospace, or a download from the releases page |
| Configuration | Plain text TOML, described as dotfiles friendly |
| Requires disabling SIP | No, and the project commits to never requiring it |
| Project status | Public beta, breaking changes expected until 1.0 |
| Restores a saved layout | Not documented |
The workspace trick, and why it matters
Almost every technical decision in AeroSpace follows from one choice. It does not use macOS Spaces. The guide is blunt about why: “Since Spaces are so hard to deal with, AeroSpace reimplements Spaces and calls them Workspaces”. The implementation is almost funny in its directness: when a workspace is not active, its windows are “placed outside the visible area of the screen, in the bottom right or left corner”.
That sounds like a hack, and in a sense it is, but it is the hack that buys you everything else. Moving windows off screen only needs the standard accessibility APIs. Manipulating real macOS Spaces needs privileges Apple does not hand out, which is why the alternative approach leads directly to patching Dock.app and turning off part of macOS security.
AeroSpace vs yabai
This is the comparison everyone actually wants, and it comes down to one row in a table.
| AeroSpace | i3 style tree tiling. Emulated workspaces. TOML config. Never requires disabling SIP. |
|---|---|
| yabai | Binary space partitioning. Controlled through a command line interface. Documents partially disabling SIP to inject a scripting addition into Dock.app for functions needing elevated privileges. |
Both are free and MIT licensed. Both are keyboard first and expect you to write config. yabai is the older and more powerful of the two, and its scripting addition unlocks window controls AeroSpace does not attempt, at the cost of turning off part of System Integrity Protection. If that trade sounds acceptable to you, yabai rewards the effort. If reading “partially disable SIP” made you close the tab, AeroSpace exists for you.
The other practical difference is maturity in the opposite direction from what you would expect: yabai is stable and mature, while AeroSpace still warns of breaking changes before 1.0. Newer does not mean smoother here.
Who AeroSpace is not for
You want to drag windows with a mouse
Tiling window managers place windows for you, by algorithm, and you navigate with the keyboard. If what you actually want is to throw a window at the left edge and have it fill half the screen, you want a snapper, not a tiler. macOS has that built in now, and Rectangle does it with more layouts for free. See window snapping on Mac for the whole set.
You need your exact layout back after a display change
This is the gap, and it is worth being precise about rather than sloppy. AeroSpace's documentation does not cover monitor connection or disconnection anywhere, and it documents no feature for saving or restoring a specific layout. What it does is tile: whatever windows are on a workspace get arranged according to the tree, live. So when you undock and redock, you do not get a broken layout, but you also do not get your layout. You get a freshly computed one.
For a lot of tiling users that is genuinely fine, and it is the point of tiling. It stops being fine the moment your arrangement carries meaning that an algorithm cannot infer: this reference doc on the left of the portrait monitor, the terminal bottom right at exactly that height, the app you keep glancing at parked on the laptop screen. A tiler cannot know that, because you never told it.
Where Putback fits, honestly
We build Putback, so treat this paragraph with the suspicion it deserves. Putback is not a tiling window manager and it is not an AeroSpace alternative. It does one thing: it learns where your windows sit while you work, keeps a separate memory for each display setup you use, and puts everything back when your displays change. It never tiles or snaps a window itself, which is exactly why it runs alongside a tiler instead of competing with one.
If you are happy with automatic tiling, you do not need it. If you have floating windows outside the tiler that keep landing in the wrong place after a dock, that is the overlap. The full picture of which kind of tool solves which problem is in the Mac window manager comparison, and the underlying reason macOS scrambles things is in why your Mac windows move when you unplug a monitor.
Questions, answered.
Is AeroSpace free?
Yes. AeroSpace is open source under the MIT licence and costs nothing. There is no paid tier and no subscription.
Does AeroSpace require disabling SIP?
No, and the project is unusually explicit about it. The README states that AeroSpace "doesn't require disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection)" and that "AeroSpace will never require you to disable SIP". That is the single biggest practical difference between AeroSpace and yabai, which documents partially disabling SIP to unlock its full feature set.
What macOS version does AeroSpace need?
The README states the AeroSpace binary runs on macOS 13 and later. It is installed with Homebrew via the project's own tap, or from the releases page.
Is AeroSpace stable enough to use every day?
The project describes itself as public beta, and says AeroSpace "can be used as a daily driver, but expect breaking changes until 1.0 is reached". If you dislike your window manager's configuration format changing under you, that is worth weighing.
Does AeroSpace restore my window layout when I unplug a monitor?
Its documentation does not cover display connection or disconnection at all, and it documents no way to save or restore a specific layout. AeroSpace tiles whatever windows are on a workspace according to its tree, so after a display change you get a freshly tiled arrangement rather than the arrangement you had. That is how tiling window managers work by design, and it is a different job from restoring.
Does AeroSpace use macOS Spaces?
No. It reimplements them. The guide says "since Spaces are so hard to deal with, AeroSpace reimplements Spaces and calls them Workspaces", and describes the mechanism plainly: windows on an inactive workspace are "placed outside the visible area of the screen, in the bottom right or left corner". This is why it can avoid touching SIP protected internals.
How we checked this
Prices, licences, minimum macOS versions and feature claims on this page were read from each tool's own website, App Store listing or repository documentation on 4 August 2026. We build one of the tools mentioned here, which is a conflict of interest worth knowing about, so every claim about a competitor is either quoted from its own documentation or described as something that documentation does not cover. Where a tool does not state something, we say so instead of guessing. Prices and features change: check the linked source before you buy anything.
Keep your tiler. Keep your layout too.
Putback does not tile or snap anything. It remembers where your windows were and puts them back when your displays change.
Free for 7 days · then $19, once · macOS 14+