There are more real options than a year ago — including good free ones. Which one is best depends mostly on your macOS version and on how much tinkering you enjoy. Disclosure up front: ChainYourMac is ours.
On macOS 13–15: ChainYourMac if you want a native app with GUI settings, or PaperWM.spoon if you want free and enjoy Lua. On macOS 26 Tahoe: ChainYourMac or the free, open-source OmniWM — both good; pick by taste. Want a grid instead of a strip? That's a different list (see the end).
Try it right here — this is a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video.
A working model of ChainYourMac, not a video. Drag a title bar to reorder, click a Dock icon to open an app, close a window with its red button. In the real app every key here is ⌥ plus the key.
| Option | Best for | macOS | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChainYourMac | A polished native strip, GUI settings, support | 13 Ventura+ | $9.99 one time |
| OmniWM | Free, open source, power features | 26 Tahoe+ | Free |
| PaperWM.spoon | Hammerspoon users who like Lua | Wherever Hammerspoon runs | Free |
| Nehir | OmniWM, narrowed to scrolling only | See README | Free |
| komorebi for Mac | komorebi users coming from Windows | See README | Free for personal use |
| ScrollDesktop.spoon | A ten-minute experiment | Wherever Hammerspoon runs | Free |
This site belongs to ChainYourMac, so we have a horse in this race. We keep the ranking useful by saying plainly where each alternative wins and who should not buy ours. The criteria:
Disclosure again: this one is ours. ChainYourMac is a native app — a SwiftUI interface over a Rust engine — built only around the strip. Shortcuts respond instantly and motion is synced to your display's refresh rate. You get stacks in both directions, tabbed columns, width presets, centering, gaps, Dock-aware sizing, a strip minimap, a three- or four-finger swipe that follows your fingers, drag-to-reorder, an independent strip per display, session restore and automatic updates. Every setting is in a GUI that applies instantly.
It runs on macOS 13 Ventura through 26 Tahoe on Apple silicon, it's notarized, and it needs only the Accessibility permission. It's $9.99 one time for a lifetime license.
Who shouldn't buy it: anyone who wants open source on principle, and Tahoe users who are already happy with OmniWM.
OmniWM is free and open source (GPL-2.0), notarized, needs no SIP changes and is very actively developed — v0.7.0 shipped on 16 September 2026. Each workspace can use Niri-style scrolling or a Hyprland-style Dwindle layout, and it packs extras: a Ghostty-powered quake terminal, scratchpads, an overview, a command palette and a CLI. It has a settings GUI plus a TOML file.
The catch is the requirement: macOS 26 Tahoe or later on Apple silicon. If your Mac is on Sequoia or earlier, it isn't an option. Head-to-head: ChainYourMac vs OmniWM.
PaperWM.spoon is a free, MIT-licensed Lua script for Hammerspoon that faithfully recreates PaperWM's layout, and it's actively maintained. It has built-in trackpad swipe scrolling and companion Spoons for extras.
The trade-offs come with being a script. You install Hammerspoon, clone the Spoon, change two Mission Control settings and configure it in init.lua. Its README asks for multiple displays to be arranged vertically. Its issue tracker shows the usual script-layer rough edges: some apps' windows mis-tiled, and state lost after sleep. Verdict: the best free choice on macOS 13–15, if Hammerspoon appeals to you. Setup walkthrough: PaperWM.spoon setup and troubleshooting.
Nehir is an opinionated fork of OmniWM that keeps only the Niri-style scrolling layout, configured through TOML files plus a settings window. komorebi for Mac is the macOS version of the Windows tiler. It's at v0.1.x as of September 2026, lists a scrolling layout, and is free for personal use but paid for work use. Both are early; check their READMEs for requirements.
ScrollDesktop.spoon is a much smaller Hammerspoon script that makes the desktop pannable. Think of it as a proof of concept rather than a full window manager. Fun for ten minutes; not a daily driver.
Lists like this love to include yabai, AeroSpace and Amethyst. All three are excellent — and all three are grid tilers: every new window subdivides the screen and resizes its neighbours, which is exactly what the scrolling model avoids. Honest comparisons: vs yabai, vs AeroSpace, vs Amethyst. Snappers like Rectangle and Loop are a third category — see vs Rectangle and vs Loop.
As of September 2026 the real options are ChainYourMac (native app, macOS 13+), OmniWM (open source, macOS 26+), Nehir (a scrolling-only fork of OmniWM), komorebi for Mac (early, v0.1.x, lists a scrolling layout), and the Hammerspoon scripts PaperWM.spoon and ScrollDesktop.spoon. yabai, AeroSpace and Amethyst are often mentioned alongside them, but they're grid tilers.
On macOS 26 Tahoe, OmniWM — free, open source, notarized, with a settings GUI. On older macOS versions, PaperWM.spoon, if you're comfortable with Hammerspoon and Lua.
If you're on macOS 13–15, the free native option (OmniWM) isn't available to you, and the free alternative is a Lua script. ChainYourMac buys you a native app with GUI settings, a trackpad swipe that follows your fingers, stacks, tabbed columns and a developer you can email. If you're on Tahoe and happy with OmniWM, it's genuinely a fine choice.
ChainYourMac, OmniWM and PaperWM.spoon don't. They work through the macOS Accessibility permission (OmniWM also asks for Input Monitoring). The SIP question belongs to yabai, whose optional scripting addition needs SIP partially disabled.
ChainYourMac: macOS 13 Ventura and later on Apple silicon. OmniWM: macOS 26 Tahoe and later on Apple silicon. PaperWM.spoon: whatever Hammerspoon supports. For Nehir and komorebi for Mac, check each project's README.