The best window manager for an ultrawide monitor on Mac

Why ultrawides break normal window management

A 34" or 49" ultrawide (think the 3440×1440 class or the 5120×1440 class) has a problem most window tools weren't designed for: it's too wide for one window and still too wide for two.

• Maximize a window and a line of text runs across your whole field of view. You end up turning your head to read an email.
• Split it in half and each half is still roughly the width of a normal widescreen monitor. Better, but you've only got two windows.
• Use a grid tiler and every new window forces the layout to reshuffle. Open a sixth window and you get slivers.

The sweet spot on most ultrawides is somewhere around three or four columns of comfortable width, with the one you're actively using right in front of you. The question is how much of that you want to arrange by hand.

Option 1: macOS Sequoia's built-in tiling

Since macOS 15 Sequoia, the Mac can tile windows on its own. Drag a window to the left or right edge, a corner, or the menu bar (to fill); hold Option while dragging; or use the green button's hover menu. There are keyboard shortcuts too, all based on Fn(Globe)+Control: Fn-Control-Arrow for halves, Fn-Control-F to fill, Fn-Control-C to center. Settings live in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Windows.

It's free and already installed. The catch on an ultrawide: the layouts are halves, quarters and fill, and it's manual. There's no automatic layout, and thirds aren't among the built-in positions.

Option 2: snapping apps (Rectangle, Loop)

This is a very common ultrawide setup, and for good reason. Free snapping tools like Rectangle and Loop let you throw a window into a fixed position with a shortcut or gesture, and many ultrawide users snap windows into thirds so they get three columns side by side. Loop (free, open source, macOS 13+) uses a radial menu: hold a trigger key and move toward a direction, with a preview before it commits.

If your day is "browser left, editor middle, terminal right" and it never changes, stop here. A snapping app does exactly that and costs nothing. It gets tedious when windows come and go, because every new window lands on top of the others until you place it. More detail: ChainYourMac vs Rectangle and ChainYourMac vs Loop.

Option 3: grid tilers (yabai, AeroSpace)

yabai (BSP tiling) and AeroSpace (i3-like, tree-based) arrange windows automatically. On an ultrawide you can split the screen into columns and they keep everything tiled. Both are free and neither needs SIP disabled for tiling.

The trade-off is the one grid tilers always have: everything on screen shares the space. Two windows are great, four are fine, and by the sixth the columns are too narrow to use, so you move things to other workspaces. Neither has a scrolling layout. Compared in detail: vs yabai, vs AeroSpace.

Option 4: a scrolling strip (ChainYourMac)

A scrolling window manager puts windows side by side on an endless horizontal strip. Opening a window never resizes the others; the strip just gets longer, and you scroll it. An ultrawide shows more of the strip at once, which is exactly what you want.

How that works in ChainYourMac on an ultrawide:

• Columns at a width you choose. Width presets cycle with Option+R, and Ctrl+Option+Shift+= / - make a column wider or narrower. Set columns to about a third or a quarter of the screen and three or four stay visible, with the rest a scroll away instead of crushed.
• The focused column in front of you. Option+C centers the focused column. Set centering to "always" and whatever you focus slides to the middle of the monitor, so you're not reading at the far edge of a 49" panel.
• Stacks for the small stuff. Chat, a terminal, a music player: stack them in one column (Option+] or Option+[) and resize their heights with Ctrl+Option+= / -. Or make it a tabbed column with Option+T.
• Gaps between windows and at the screen edges, so columns read as separate panels.
• Trackpad or keyboard. A 3- or 4-finger swipe follows your fingers then glides to the nearest window; Option+H/L (or Option+arrows) move focus. A minimap of the strip appears while you navigate.
• Laptop plus ultrawide. Each display has its own strip and windows stay on their display. Option+N jumps to the next display.

Try it in the live demo on this page, which is a working model of ChainYourMac, not a video.

The four approaches, compared

Things worth knowing before you commit

ChainYourMac moves windows through the macOS Accessibility API, so it needs that permission and nothing else: no SIP changes, no kernel extensions. macOS never lets another app push a window completely off screen, so a small tab of a hidden window can show in a bottom corner of the display. Setting "Gap at Screen Edges" to 0 tucks almost all of it behind your windows.

It's also paid and Apple silicon only (M1 or newer). If you're on an Intel Mac, or you only ever use three windows, the free options above are the honest answer.

Who should use what

Use macOS Sequoia tiling if…

• you mostly work in two windows side by side and don't want to install anything.

Use Rectangle or Loop if…

• you run the same three-column layout every day and like placing windows yourself;
• you want something free that stays out of the way.

Use yabai or AeroSpace if…

• you want automatic tiling into a grid, you're comfortable with a config file, and you usually keep a handful of windows per workspace.

Use ChainYourMac if…

• your window count changes all day and you want every window to stay a readable width;
• you want the window you're working in centered on the monitor, not at the far edge;
• you'd rather set it up in a GUI and drive it from the trackpad as well as the keyboard.

It's a one-time lifetime license, $9.99 one time. See the full shortcut list or how it handles a laptop screen in window management on a MacBook.

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