A yabai alternative that keeps SIP on.

What yabai does

yabai is a free, open source tiling window manager driven from the command line and a config file, often paired with a hotkey tool such as skhd. Tiling works with SIP on. Features such as moving windows between Spaces, creating and destroying Spaces, and some window effects need its scripting addition, which requires partly disabling System Integrity Protection.

Why people look for an alternative

Disabling parts of SIP lowers a macOS security protection, is often blocked on managed work Macs, and has to be redone or rechecked around macOS updates. A config-driven tiler also takes time to set up and maintain.

What SnapState does instead

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.

It needs only the Accessibility and Automation permissions macOS asks for. SIP stays on.

Which should you pick?

Pick yabai if you want automatic tiling and enjoy scripting your setup. Pick SnapState if you want a saved layout of apps, Spaces and tabs that comes back by itself after sleep, a restart or a monitor change. If you want a tiler that keeps SIP on, see the AeroSpace alternative and Spaces managers compared pages.

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