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.
Spectacle earned its place. Then it stopped.
Spectacle made keyboard window snapping mainstream on the Mac: halves, thirds, corners on a keystroke, free and open source. Development ended in 2019 and the project points users elsewhere. The Spectacle app may still launch on today's macOS, but every release is a coin toss, and nobody is patching what breaks.
The direct replacement is Rectangle
Honest answer first: if all you want is Spectacle back, install Rectangle. It's free, open source, actively maintained, and built as Spectacle's successor; it even ships a Spectacle-compatible shortcut preset, so your muscle memory carries over. If a like-for-like swap is the whole job, you can stop reading here.
The part Spectacle never fixed
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. Spectacle made that minute faster. Its successors make it faster still. None of them make it stop.
That's the real fork in replacing Spectacle: every snapping tool waits to be asked. Every arrangement starts with you noticing, deciding, and pressing something. If you're changing tools anyway, this is the one chance to change the model instead of the shortcut set.
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. Snapping tools act 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 (it calls them Desks), so docking and undocking just work: everything snaps back where it belongs, untouched by you.
- 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
Three answers to "replace Spectacle": the like-for-like swap, and the model change.
| Spectacle | Rectangle | Workflo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Retired in 2019, unmaintained | Actively maintained | Actively maintained |
| Windows move | When you press a shortcut | When you press a shortcut or drag to an edge | On their own, from your calendar, the clock, and display changes |
| Apps that aren't open | You launch them yourself | You launch them yourself | The Scene opens them as it applies |
| Apps in the way | You hide or quit them | You hide or quit them | The Scene clears them |
| Keyboard tiling | Its whole purpose | Excellent, with a Spectacle-compatible preset | Not the focus; keep a snapping tool for that |
| Displays change | You rearrange | You rearrange | Every layout snaps back by itself |
| Price | Was free, open source | Free, open source (Pro upgrade available) | $19.99 one-time, 7-day free trial |
| Data | Local | 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 maintained 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? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spectacle | Keyboard snapping (retired 2019) | Free, open source | No, and no longer maintained |
| 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 |
| 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 |
Replace the button, or retire the job
If Spectacle's keystrokes are what you miss, Rectangle gives them back in an afternoon. If what you actually want is the workspace handled, Workflo removes the keystroke entirely: the right apps open, placed, and cleared before the call or the focus block, and every layout back the moment your displays change. The two answers also combine; a snapping tool for one-off moves and Workflo for the recurring setups don't conflict. And if you're weighing the whole category, our guide to the best Mac window managers in 2026 covers every tool in the field, or see saving window layouts if restore is the part you care about.