Coming soon

Softset Tile

Put every window in its place.

Snap windows into halves, quarters, and thirds with a shortcut or a drag. Press a half again for two thirds, then one third. Restore any window to where it was.

Coming soon. Planned price: $9.99 once, with a 14-day free trial.

The problem

Arranging windows by hand wastes the first minute of every task.

Two documents side by side, a browser next to your editor, a call beside your notes. Dragging corners until things roughly line up takes longer than it should, and the result is never quite even.

macOS can tile halves and quarters, but it has no thirds, no way to cycle a window through sizes, and only an on or off choice for the space between windows.

Notes

Safari

Repeat a half to cycle through ½, ⅔, and ⅓

Selected: Safari. Drag a window by its title bar to an edge or corner to snap it.

Try the layouts on an example desktop. Click a layout, or press the shortcut's arrow keys while the desktop is selected.

One shortcut, and the window is exactly where you want it.

Press ⌃⌥← for the left half. Press it again for two thirds, again for one third. Drag a window to a corner for a quarter. ⌃⌥⌫ puts it back where it was.

Layouts

Halves, quarters, and thirds

Left, right, top, and bottom halves; all four quarters; thirds and two thirds, running top to bottom on a portrait display.

Cycle through sizes

Repeat a half shortcut to move from a half to two thirds to one third. Turn it off if you'd rather a half always stays a half.

Maximise, centre, and resize

Maximise, almost maximise, maximise height, centre, and make the window a step larger or smaller.

Restore

⌃⌥⌫ returns a window to the size and place it had before Tile moved it, even after several moves in a row.

Control

Drag to snap

Drag a window to the left or right edge, a corner, the top, or the bottom. An outline shows where it will go before you let go.

Your shortcuts

Every layout has a shortcut you can change or clear. Tile tells you when two clash, or when another app already uses one.

Gaps

Choose the space between windows and around the screen edge, from none to 40 points.

Several displays

Move a window to the next or previous display, keeping its place and size. Snapping works on every display.

Beyond shortcuts

Saved layouts

Save where every app's windows are, like Coding or Writing, and put them all back with one click or shortcut, opening apps that aren't running if you like.

Layouts for each desk

Apply a layout by itself when a particular set of displays connects, such as your office monitor.

Move with keys held

Hold ⌃⌥ and drag anywhere in a window to move it, or right-drag to resize it from the nearest corner.

Fourths, sixths, and more

Fourths and three fourths for ultrawide displays, a grid of sixths, and centred halves and two thirds. Leave chosen apps alone.

Privacy

What stays on your Mac

Tile reads and changes only the position and size of the window you're moving. It never reads what's in a window.
Settings are stored on your Mac. There's no account.
No analytics. The only network requests are license activation and the daily update check.

Softset trust card

What Softset Tile does with your Mac

Internet required: Only for license activation and a daily update check.
Account required: No account.
Usage analytics: None.
Data that leaves your Mac: Your license key and an anonymous device ID when activating. Nothing about your windows.
Permissions: Accessibility: Required. macOS only lets an app move and resize other apps' windows with Accessibility access. Tile uses it for window positions and sizes, nothing else.
Runs in the background: Yes. It stays in the menu bar so shortcuts and drag-to-snap work in any app.
Apple notarized: No public build yet. Releases are signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple before they're published.
Architecture: Planned: Apple silicon and Intel (universal).
Minimum macOS: macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Tested on macOS 27 Golden Gate on Apple silicon.

More detail in the privacy policy. The Mac apps contain no analytics or tracking code.

Requirements: A Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
macOS: macOS 14 Sonoma or later
Price: Coming soon. Planned: $9.99 once for one Mac, with a 14-day free trial.
Changelog: No public release yet. Softset Tile changelog

Questions about Softset Tile

macOS can already tile windows. Why use Tile?

Since macOS 15 Sequoia you can drag windows to the screen edges for halves and quarters, and use Window → Move & Resize. Tile adds thirds, fourths, and sixths, repeat-to-cycle sizes, a gap you can size, saved layouts of all your apps, moving windows with keys held, and shortcuts you set in one place. If the built-in halves and quarters are all you need, you don't need Tile.

Why does it need Accessibility access?

macOS only allows an app to move or resize another app's windows through the Accessibility system. Tile uses it to read and set a window's position and size. It doesn't read window contents or keystrokes; its shortcuts use the standard system shortcut API, which needs no permission.

Will it clash with macOS's own tiling?

Both can be on at once. If you'd rather only Tile reacts when you drag to an edge, turn off "Drag windows to left or right edge of screen to tile" in System Settings → Desktop & Dock.

Some windows don't resize exactly. Why?

Apps can set a minimum size, and some, like Terminal, resize in steps to fit their text. Tile moves the window as close as the app allows and keeps it on screen.

What happens when the trial ends?

After 14 days, shortcuts and snapping stop working until you add a license. Your settings stay on your Mac.

Get Softset Tile early