Workflo is a macOS menu-bar app for workspace automation: it opens the apps you need, arranges every window, and clears the rest, on its own, from your calendar, the clock, and display changes.
Magnet does its job well
Magnet is one of the most popular window managers on the Mac App Store for a reason. Drag a window to an edge and it fills its half; a shortcut puts it in a corner; it handles several displays without fuss. As a better way to place one window right now, it's polished and dependable.
The part no snapping tool fixes
A Mac workday is a context switch every hour — a call, a focus block, docking at the desk, undocking to leave. Every switch costs the same manual minute: reopen, drag, resize, hide. Snapping makes each drag cleaner. It doesn't make the minute go away.
Magnet — like every tool in this category — waits to be asked. The workspace never prepares itself; you prepare it, one window at a time, again.
What Workflo does instead
Workflo isn't a faster way to arrange windows — it's the end of arranging them as a task.
- The whole workspace, not just the windows. A Scene opens the apps that aren't running, places every window, and clears the rest. Magnet acts on the windows you already have on screen.
- Before the moment. Scenes apply on their own from your calendar or the clock — the right apps are open, placed, and ready before the call or the focus block starts.
- When displays change. Workflo learns your layout for every display setup (Desks), so plugging into the office monitor or undocking to leave just works: everything snaps back where it belongs.
- When you need an empty screen. One hotkey stashes every window for a screen share; the same hotkey brings it all back.
At a glance
The difference is who initiates, and how much of the workspace is in scope.
| Magnet | Workflo | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows move | When you drag to an edge or press a shortcut | On their own — from your calendar, the clock, and display changes |
| Apps that aren't open | You launch them yourself | The Scene opens them as it applies |
| Apps in the way | You hide or quit them | The Scene clears them |
| Drag-to-snap | Excellent — its whole purpose | Not the focus; keep a snapping tool for that |
| Displays change | You rearrange | Every layout snaps back by itself |
| Before a meeting | You set up while it starts | The workspace is staged before it starts |
| Price | One-time purchase on the Mac App Store | $19.99 one-time, 7-day free trial |
| Data | Local | Local JSON, no account, no cloud, ~4 MB app |
The whole field, honestly
A fair comparison names everyone. Here's the category in one table — every tool in it is good at what it does, and the last column is the only line Workflo draws.
The last column is the whole comparison.
| Tool | The model | Price | Starts on its own? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rectangle | Keyboard + drag snapping | Free, open source | No — waits for your shortcut |
| Rectangle Pro | Deeper snapping: custom areas, app layouts | Paid | No — still your keystroke |
| Spectacle | Keyboard snapping (retired 2019) | Free, open source | No, and no longer maintained |
| Magnet | Drag-to-edge snapping | Paid | No |
| BetterSnapTool | Drag + keyboard snapping, custom snap areas | Paid | No |
| Moom | Palette, grids, saved layouts | Paid | Partly — replays a snapshot you saved when displays change |
| Loop | Radial snapping menu | Free, open source | No |
| Amethyst | Automatic tiling | Free, open source | Tiles continuously; no saved layouts, no staging |
| yabai | Scriptable tiling window manager | Free, open source | Only what you script yourself |
| BetterTouchTool | Gestures and snapping (and much more) | Paid | No |
| Divvy | Grid-picker resizing | Paid | No |
| Swish | Trackpad-gesture snapping | Paid | No |
| Raycast windows | Snapping and saved layouts, by command | Free tier | No — runs when you invoke it |
| Stay · Display Maid | Save & restore window positions | Paid | No — you save, you restore |
| Workflo | Workspace automation: Scenes + Desks | $19.99 one-time, 7-day trial | Yes — your calendar, the clock, and display changes |
Looking for a free alternative? That's a different answer.
If what you want is Magnet's snapping without the price tag, the answer is Rectangle — free and open source. Workflo isn't a cheaper snapping tool; it's for the day you notice the snapping was never the real cost. The real cost is rebuilding the same workspace before every call, at every dock and undock, at the start of every day. That's the job Workflo takes over. (And if what you want is to save and restore whole window layouts, that's a third answer — compared in our layout guide.)