The best window manager for a MacBook's small screen

Why small screens are hard

A 13" or 14" laptop screen doesn't have room for much, and each common approach runs into it differently:

• Overlapping windows pile up. You spend the day hunting for the one underneath.
• Grid tiling divides the screen among every open window. Three windows on a 13" screen and none of them is wide enough to read comfortably.
• Full-screen apps give each window the whole screen, but hide everything else. Comparing two things means swiping back and forth between Spaces.

What works on a laptop is showing one or two windows at a time, at a size you'd actually choose, with the others close by and easy to reach.

The built-in options (free)

Full-screen + Mission Control

Every Mac already has this. Put an app in full screen, and use Mission Control (3-finger swipe up, the Mission Control key, or Control-Up Arrow) to see all windows and your Spaces along the top. For single-task work it's hard to beat. Its weak spot is side-by-side work: two things at once usually means switching back and forth.

Stage Manager

Stage Manager arrived with macOS 13 Ventura. The current window sits in the center, recent apps are arranged along the left side, and you can group apps together. Turn it on from Control Center or in System Settings → Desktop & Dock. On a small screen the side rail costs width; you can turn off "Show recent apps" to reclaim it. If you like it but want something different, see Stage Manager alternatives.

macOS Sequoia window tiling

Since macOS 15 Sequoia you can drag a window to a screen edge or corner, or use Fn-Control shortcuts (Fn-Control-Arrow for halves, Fn-Control-F to fill, Fn-Control-R to return to the previous size). On a laptop, halves are about as small as windows should go. It's manual: every window is placed by hand.

Snapping apps (Rectangle and friends)

Free snapping apps like Rectangle add keyboard shortcuts for moving windows to fixed positions: left half, right half, maximize, and so on. They're quick to learn and cost nothing. On a MacBook they overlap a lot with Sequoia's built-in tiling, so check whether the built-in shortcuts already cover what you do. Comparison: ChainYourMac vs Rectangle.

A scrolling strip on a small screen

A scrolling window manager lays your windows side by side on an endless horizontal strip that's wider than the screen. The screen is a viewport onto it. Opening a window never resizes the others; you scroll to it. That's a good fit for a laptop, because the screen only has to hold what you're looking at right now.

How ChainYourMac handles a MacBook screen:

• One or two comfortable windows. Option+R cycles a column through your width presets (a quarter, a third, a half, two-thirds and three-quarters by default — you can edit the list), and Option+F makes it full width. Two half-width windows side by side, or one at two-thirds with a sliver of the next as a reminder.
• Everything else is a swipe away. A 3- or 4-finger trackpad swipe follows your fingers, then glides to the nearest window. On the keyboard, Option+H/L or Option+arrows move focus.
• You don't get lost. A minimap of the strip appears while you navigate, so you can see where you are among your windows.
• Dock-aware sizing. Window sizes take the Dock into account, so it doesn't cover your columns.
• Stacks and tabs. Put two short windows in one column (Option+] or Option+[) or turn a column into tabs with Option+T, which saves width on a small screen.
• Plug in a monitor. Each display has its own strip, and windows stay on their display. Drag a window across and it joins the other strip.

The live demo on this page is a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video, so you can try the strip right here.

Compared on a MacBook

Honest limits

ChainYourMac works through the macOS Accessibility API. macOS never lets another app push a window fully off screen, so a small tab of a hidden window can peek out in a bottom corner. Setting "Gap at Screen Edges" to 0 tucks almost all of it behind your windows. It leaves native full-screen windows alone, so you can still full-screen a video or a presentation as usual.

It's paid, closed source, and needs an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or newer) with macOS 13 Ventura or later.

Who should use what

Stick with full-screen and Mission Control if…

• you work in one app at a time and rarely need two things side by side.

Try Stage Manager if…

• you like one focused window with your recent apps within reach, and don't mind the side rail.

Use Sequoia tiling or Rectangle if…

• you split the screen in half now and then and want something free and simple.

Use ChainYourMac if…

• you flip between several windows all day and want each at a readable width, not squeezed into a grid;
• you navigate with the trackpad and want your windows to follow your fingers;
• you dock your MacBook to a monitor and want the same workflow on both screens.

It's a one-time lifetime license, $9.99 one time. See the default shortcuts, all rebindable in the app.

FAQ