BetterSnapTool has been on the Mac App Store for well over a decade at a price that barely registers, from the developer behind BetterTouchTool. Since macOS started tiling windows by itself, the question is no longer whether it works. It is whether you still need it.
The short answer
Worth the $1.99 for two specific wants: snap areas of your own shape and position rather than the fixed halves and quarters macOS gives you, and reassigning what the red, orange and green window buttons do. It also supports macOS 10.12 or later, which is wider than almost anything else current, so it is a real answer for an older Mac. If you are on Sequoia or later and only want halves and quarters, macOS already does that for free.
What it does
Drag a window toward an edge or corner and it snaps to that region. The part that separates it from the built-in behaviour is that you define the regions. Its own listing puts the feature set like this:
| Price | $1.99 on the Mac App Store, one payment |
|---|---|
| Seller | folivora.AI GmbH, the company behind BetterTouchTool |
| Minimum macOS | "macOS 10.12 or later" |
| Version listed | 1.9.12, dated 2024 |
| Multiple monitors | "support for multiple monitors" |
| Shortcuts | "customizable keyboard shortcuts to trigger any snap area" |
| Quick menu | "always accessible pop up menu showing all possible snap sizes / positions" |
| Modifier drag | "move or resize the window below the cursor while holding customizable modifier keys" |
| Titlebar | "select what happens when double-clicking a window's titlebar" |
| Window buttons | "select what happens when right-clicking any of the red/orange/green window buttons of any window" |
| Saves and restores a layout | Not documented |
The window-button item is the one people underrate. Being able to right-click the green button and get the exact size you use every day, in any app, is a small thing that compounds, and it is not something native tiling or most competitors offer. Full details are on its App Store listing.
Where native macOS tiling has caught up
This is the honest part. Halves, quarters, drag to an edge, keyboard shortcuts for every position: macOS Sequoia and later ship all of it, and the shortcuts are listed in how to split screen on a Mac. If that describes your whole use of a snapper, you do not need to buy anything, and a page selling you a window manager should say so.
What survives that comparison is custom geometry. Native tiling gives you the regions Apple chose. BetterSnapTool lets you draw your own, which is the difference between a layout that nearly fits your screen and one that does, especially on an ultrawide where halves are too wide and quarters are too short.
BetterSnapTool or Magnet
They cost about the same, come from the same store and do the same job, so the split is about temperament. Magnet is the one that works the way you expect five seconds after install. BetterSnapTool is the one you can bend, and it reaches back to macOS 10.12 while most others do not.
If the deciding factor is saved layouts rather than snapping, neither is your answer: look at Moom, covered in Rectangle vs Magnet vs Moom, and read the section below first.
The job no snapper does
"Support for multiple monitors" means snap areas work on every screen. It is easy to read that as a promise about display changes, and it is not one. Unplug the monitor, or let a dock drop its connection while the Mac sleeps, and macOS moves every window off the screen that just disappeared. Plug back in and they stay where they landed, piled and resized on the wrong display.
BetterSnapTool has nothing to say about that moment, and neither does Rectangle, Magnet or native tiling, because snapping acts when you trigger it and keeps no record of where windows were.
What does handle it
A restorer, which is a separate category rather than a better snapper. It watches where your windows live and puts them back when something outside your control rearranges them. Putback is one, and we make it, so discount this accordingly: it learns your layout as you work instead of asking you to save snapshots, keeps a separate memory for each display setup you use, and restores everything in about 0.4 seconds when that setup returns. It never snaps or resizes on its own, so it runs alongside BetterSnapTool rather than replacing it.
The category map, including the tools that do both jobs badly, is in the Mac window manager comparison, and the head-to-head is in Putback compared with every Mac window tool.
Questions, answered.
How much does BetterSnapTool cost?
$1.99 on the Mac App Store, one payment, no subscription. It is sold by folivora.AI GmbH, the company behind BetterTouchTool.
What macOS version does BetterSnapTool need?
Its App Store listing states macOS 10.12 or later, which is a wider range than most current window managers support. If you are keeping an older Mac useful, that matters more than any feature on the list.
Is BetterSnapTool still updated?
It is still on sale and still listed, but the version shown on its App Store page is 1.9.12 from 2024. For an app this narrow that is not necessarily neglect, since snapping windows is a job that stops changing once it works. It is a fact worth knowing before you buy, not a reason on its own to skip it.
Is BetterSnapTool better than the tiling built into macOS?
For halves and quarters, no, because macOS Sequoia and later do that with no app at all. BetterSnapTool earns its price if you want snap areas of your own shape and position, or you want to change what the red, orange and green window buttons do, or you are on a macOS version too old for native tiling.
What is the difference between BetterSnapTool and Magnet?
They target the same job at roughly the same price from the same store. BetterSnapTool leans toward customisation: your own snap areas anywhere on screen, plus reassigning the standard window buttons and the titlebar double-click. Magnet leans toward working the moment you install it. Neither saves and restores a layout.
Does BetterSnapTool restore my windows when I plug a monitor back in?
Its listing does not describe anything of the kind. It documents multiple-monitor support, meaning snap areas exist on each display, which is a different claim from putting your windows back after a display disconnects and reconnects. No snapper does that, because snapping acts when you trigger it and keeps no record of where windows were.
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 5 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 BetterSnapTool. Add the piece it is missing.
Putback does not snap windows. It makes sure the layout you snapped survives your next dock, undock or display change.
Free for 7 days · then $19, once · macOS 14+