Magnet 3.0.7 — Mac version

Magnet is a window manager that lets you organise your Mac desktop with keyboard shortcuts or by dragging windows to the screen edges.

How it tidies up

• Halves and quarters. Snap an app to the left or right to fill half the screen. Drag to a corner or use a shortcut to pin it into a quarter. Handy for keeping a browser beside your notes.
• Full screen and thirds. A single shortcut can push any window into its own full-screen Space. You can also split the display vertically into thirds for wider monitors.
• Custom layouts. Assign your own shortcuts to arrange your most-used setup. If you always want a tall code editor on the left and a slim browser on the right, you can set a key for that.

What drag-to-snap feels like

Dragging a window to the top, sides, or corners of the screen works just like it does on some other systems. A translucent outline shows you where the window will land before you let go. It feels built-in, and you can turn the drag feature off if you prefer sticking to shortcuts. The app sits quietly in the menu bar until you need it.

Mission Control and Stage Manager carry on as before

Most people want to know whether Magnet interferes with Mission Control or Stage Manager. It does not. Magnet arranges windows inside the current Space. Stage Manager's floating strip, Mission Control's overview, and Spaces themselves all carry on exactly as before. You can use them together without any collisions.

Another common concern is whether the app loads down an older machine. Magnet is light — it hooks into macOS window APIs and sits idle until you drag or press a shortcut. It does not poll windows constantly, and the menu bar helper uses almost no CPU. If your Mac runs Ventura comfortably, Magnet will not nudge the fans.

People also ask about ultra-wide and multi-monitor setups. Magnet sees each display separately. You can snap a window to the left half of one screen while another window fills a corner of a second display. The app handles up to six external monitors, so even a sprawling desk setup stays organised. If you rearrange displays in System Settings, Magnet follows the new layout without extra configuration.

Four apps, a 13-inch screen, and no dragging

Clare works from a small flat in Sheffield. She juggles a CAT tool, a glossary spreadsheet, a web-based style guide, and a messaging app — all open at once on a 13-inch MacBook Air. Before Magnet, she spent half her morning nudging windows so she could see source text beside the target field.

Now she opens the CAT tool and hits a shortcut to fill the left half of the screen. The glossary snaps into the top-right quarter. Her style guide sits in the bottom-right corner, and the messaging app tucks away as a slim window on a second virtual desktop. She taps between layouts with keys she set herself — no mouse, no dragging. When she unplugs from the desk display at lunch, the windows rearrange onto the built-in screen without fuss. It is not flashy. It just means she translates instead of tidying.

Drag-to-snap feels tighter out of the box

Rectangle. Rectangle does much of what Magnet does and costs nothing upfront. However, Magnet's drag-to-snap feels tighter — there is less configuration to get the same outlined preview and edge sensitivity. If you mostly use shortcuts, the difference shrinks. If you drag windows with a trackpad, Magnet's snap feedback is the smoother of the two.

BetterSnapTool. BetterSnapTool offers custom snap areas you can resize by dragging handles on screen. That level of control appeals if you want a browser window that fills exactly three-fifths of the display. Magnet keeps things simpler: fixed halves, thirds, and quarters, plus whatever custom keyboard shortcuts you assign. Less fiddling, less time spent tweaking.

Moom. Moom goes further, with a grid overlay and the ability to save window positions as named layouts you can recall later. Magnet does not have a visual grid — you drag or press a key. If you need to store a dozen precise layouts and restore them on a schedule, Moom earns its place. For the rest of us, Magnet covers the daily snaps without adding a layout library to manage.

Writers, developers, and anyone working in two apps at once

Anyone who lives in two or three apps at once benefits straight away. Writers who keep a research window beside a draft. Developers with a terminal on the left and a browser on the right. Designers comparing a reference image against their canvas. The app earns its keep fastest when your workflow is "see one thing, work in another."

People who use a MacBook docked to a larger display get a quiet bonus too. Magnet remembers how you like windows arranged on the big screen, and you can set different habits for the built-in display. Unplug and the layout shifts to your portable setup. That alone saves a few minutes of dragging every morning.

If you are new to the Mac and miss the snap behaviour from other systems, Magnet fills that gap without turning the desktop into something it is not. A magnet download macos search will point you to the current build. You can also find a magnet torrent mac if that is how you prefer to try software, and the app is small enough that a direct download magnet for mac is quick even on a modest connection. Some folks grab a magnet mac free copy to test on an older machine before committing — sensible, and it runs identically.

• macOS 13 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel 64-bit Mac