ClutterFreeMac is the scrolling window manager for macOS. Every window sits side by side on one endless strip. Nothing overlaps, nothing hides, and opening one more app never shrinks the rest. You just scroll.
Pay once, keep it. macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
This is a working model, not a video. Drag a title bar to reorder, click the Dock to open an app, close a window with its red button, or scroll sideways on a trackpad. In the app you hold ⌃ ⌥ with each key and while you scroll; here they work on their own too.
Grid tilers split your screen again every time an app opens, so everything keeps getting smaller. ClutterFreeMac gives every window a column on a strip that runs past the edges of your display. The strip grows. Your windows do not shrink.
Every new window splits the same screen again. Everything gets smaller.
The strip gets longer. Every window keeps the width you gave it.
2 windows open
Open an app and its window slides in right next to your focused one. Nothing lands on top, nothing hides behind anything, and every window already open keeps the exact size you gave it.
Move focus with a shortcut, a three finger swipe, the strip dock or the arrows at the edges. The strip scrolls just enough to bring that window fully into view, on a spring that starts the moment you press the key.
Column order, widths and stacks are remembered. Quit, restart, plug in your monitor again: windows go back to where they were on the strip.
If you have used PaperWM or niri on Linux, you know the idea. This is that idea as a real Mac app, with a settings window instead of a config file. Every picture below is live: press the keys under it.
Windows fill each screen exactly, two side by side or the way you choose. Nothing hangs half over an edge. Drag the line between them to resize both at once, and move on a whole screen at a time with a swipe, a key or the strip dock.
Put two or three windows in one column. Pull a window into the column on its left or right, push it back out, move it up or down inside the stack, and make any one taller or shorter.
Turn a stack into tabs when each window deserves the full height. One shortcut flips a column between stacked and tabbed, and a tab bar shows what is in it.
Cycle a window through the widths you choose, such as 25, 33, 50, 66 and 75 percent, or nudge it wider and narrower. Full width and centre are one key each.
Set the space between windows and at the screen edges, down to zero. Windows size themselves around the Dock, so nothing ends up underneath it.
Every display has its own strip with its own focus and scroll. Windows never hang over onto the screen next door, one shortcut sends the focused window to the next display, and any display can be left out entirely.
Swipe sideways with three or four fingers and the whole strip follows them, then settles on the next screen, the way Spaces do. Or hold ⌃ ⌥ and scroll with two fingers. Scroll sideways over this picture to feel it.
One icon for every window on the strip, in order, with a dot under what is on screen. Click to go there. It waits out of sight until you point at the bottom edge, or stays put, at the size you like.
When more of the strip waits off screen, a round arrow appears at that side. Click it to bring the next window in. Show them always, only when you point near the edge, or not at all.
Settings shows your strip as tiles. Drag apps into order, drop one onto another to stack them, drag an edge to resize. Save the arrangement as a layout, then switch to it from the menu bar, a shortcut or a link. Try dragging the tiles below.
Everything starts with ⌃ ⌥, so the shortcuts your apps already use keep working. Change any of them in Settings, give an action more than one, or add H J K L next to the arrows. Shortcuts follow key positions, so any keyboard layout works.
| Move focus | ⌃⌥← ↓ ↑ → |
| First or last window | ⌃⌥⌘← → |
| Jump to window 1 to 9 | ⌃⌥1 … 9 |
| Move window | ⌃⌥⇧arrows |
| Send to next display | ⌃⌥N |
| Pause or resume | ⌃⌥P |
| Cycle width | ⌃⌥R |
| Full width | ⌃⌥F |
| Centre the column | ⌃⌥C |
| Wider or narrower | ⌃⌥= − |
| Taller or shorter | ⌃⌥⇧= − |
| Equal heights | ⌃⌥0 |
| Stack into left column | ⌃⌥] |
| Stack into right column | ⌃⌥[ |
| Pop out to the right | ⌃⌥⇧] |
| Pop out to the left | ⌃⌥⇧[ |
| Tabbed column | ⌃⌥⇧T |
| Float or tile | ⌃⌥T |
Download it, drag it to Applications, turn on two switches. It sits in the menu bar and starts at login. No terminal, no scripts, no security settings to change.
No subscription, no account. One payment and the app is yours.
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It puts every window on one long horizontal strip, side by side, like pages laid out on a table. Your screen is a view onto part of that strip. Open another app and the strip gets longer instead of everything else getting smaller. You move along it with a shortcut or a swipe.
Yes, the same idea: columns on an endless strip that scrolls. ClutterFreeMac is a native Mac app, so it works with the Dock, the menu bar, Spaces and full screen apps, and there is nothing to configure in a text file.
Those move one window into a slot on the screen when you ask. ClutterFreeMac arranges every window, all the time, without you asking. New windows always land in a sensible place, and nothing overlaps.
Those are grid tilers: each new window splits the same screen again, so everything shrinks. Here the strip grows and every window keeps its width. You also never need to change macOS security settings or write a config file.
macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
That permission is how any app is allowed to move and resize other apps' windows, and it is the only one ClutterFreeMac requires. The welcome also asks for Screen Recording, so moving between screens slides the way Spaces do: it keeps pictures of your windows in memory, so the strip follows your fingers. They are never saved or sent. Without it, the windows glide on their own instead.
Yes. Each display has its own strip, and you can leave any display out. Each Space keeps its own strip too.
Yes, choose the Screens layout in Settings. Windows fill each screen exactly, two side by side by default, and nothing hangs over the edges. Drag the line between them to resize both, choose one, two or three windows per screen, or switch to free scrolling in Settings.
Yes, that is how it starts: the Focus layout. The window you are in takes the middle of the screen, 80 percent by default, with a slice of the windows either side showing. Switch to one of them and it becomes the big one. Set the size by dragging in Settings, Layout.
Yes. In Settings, Arrange shows your strip as tiles: drag apps into order, drop one onto another to stack them, drag an edge to change the width. Save it with a name, like Writing or Coding, and switch to it from the menu bar or a link. Apps in the layout that are not running are opened for you.
macOS can use three finger swipes to move between full screen apps. Mac Setup in Settings spots this and takes you to the one Trackpad setting to change, or you can use four fingers for the strip instead.
No. It does nothing until a window opens, closes or moves, and sits idle in the menu bar the rest of the time.
Straight after checkout you land on a page with your download link, and the same link arrives by email with your receipt. Open the download, drag ClutterFreeMac to Applications, and open it. It is notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other app.
No. You pay once and keep it. Every update in version 1 is included.
Email us and you will hear back from the person who makes the app. Tell us what you expected and what happened, and include your macOS version.
Windows pile up, the one you need is always underneath, and Mission Control only shows the mess. What macOS gives you, and a layout where nothing can hide.
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Read ›One payment, every window in its place, from today.