macOS Spaces managers compared.

The four jobs Spaces tools do

Tiling inside Spaces. AeroSpace and yabai replace Spaces with their own virtual workspaces and tile windows. Powerful, keyboard driven, and a big change to how the Mac works.

Stage Manager style switching. BetterStage rebuilds Stage Manager across monitors.

Launchers. Workspaces by Apptorium and ShiftPlus open a set of apps per project, and ShiftPlus also places them on Spaces.

Restore. SnapState and Spencer save where windows were on each Space and put them back.

How they compare on restore

SnapState: Spaces, positions, displays, full screen and browser tabs, with automatic restore on wake and monitor connect, $9.99 for three Macs. Spencer: Spaces and positions, no closed tabs, from $25 (see SnapState vs Spencer). ShiftPlus: Spaces and apps, full screen not put back yet, from $24 (see SnapState vs ShiftPlus). AeroSpace and yabai do not restore a saved macOS Spaces layout; they replace it.

SnapState is a native macOS menu bar app that saves named workspaces. Each one keeps the windows on every Space with position and size, the apps needed to relaunch them, the display layout, full screen windows, and all open tabs in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and Chromium once Automation permission is granted. Restore from the menu bar, with Control-Command-1 to 6, or automatically on wake from sleep, when a monitor connects or disconnects, or when a matching display layout appears.

What are the honest limits?

SnapState does not tile or snap windows, it cannot split one app's windows across several Spaces, Firefox is not supported yet, tab groups are not restored, and it requires macOS 15.7 or later. There is no free trial.

Questions people ask