Moom vs Magnet (2026): Which Mac Window Manager Should You Buy?

Moom costs twice as much as Magnet. Does the extra $5 buy you anything useful? Honest feature-by-feature comparison for 2026, including when neither is the right answer.

Both Moom and Magnet snap windows to halves, thirds, quarters, and fullscreen on macOS. Both cost under $10. Both have been around long enough to be trusted. If you came here wanting a quick verdict: buy Magnet ($4.99) if you mostly drag windows to screen edges; buy Moom ($9.99) if you want to save and recall named window arrangements. If budget matters at all, try Rectangle first — it's free and matches both on raw snapping.

But if you want to understand why, and whether either tool actually solves your problem, read on.

At a glance

What they share

Before the differences: the overlap is substantial. Both tools do the 90% of window management that most users need every day.

Snapping zones. Moom and Magnet both cover left/right halves, top/bottom halves, all four corners (quarter-screen), two-thirds, one-third, fullscreen, and center. They both work with multiple monitors. They both activate via keyboard shortcuts that you can customise to your preference.

One-time purchase. Neither requires a subscription (Moom is also available through Setapp if you already have that). You pay once, you own it.

Reliability. Both have been around since the early 2010s and are actively maintained. Both work correctly on macOS Sequoia and Apple Silicon. Crash reports for either are rare enough to be negligible.

Stage Manager caveats. Both tools have friction with Stage Manager — Apple's window management layer doesn't play well with third-party snapping tools. If you use Stage Manager heavily, neither is a perfect fit.

Where they differ

Price and distribution

Magnet is half the price ($4.99 vs $9.99) and lives in the App Store. If you're in a managed work environment, an IT policy might require App Store apps — Magnet fits, Moom doesn't. Moom's direct-purchase model means no App Store review delays but also no automatic family sharing.

If you subscribe to Setapp (€10.49/month), Moom is included in the bundle. At that price point the comparison shifts entirely.

Drag-to-snap feel

This is the most subjective difference and the one users mention most in reviews. Magnet's edge-drag implementation feels snappier than Moom's on a trackpad — the snap zone activates faster and the window preview appears with less latency. On a mouse this difference is less noticeable; on a MacBook trackpad it's real enough that trackpad-primary users consistently prefer Magnet for the feel alone.

Moom uses a hover-menu on the zoom button (the green dot) as its primary drag target, which is an unusual but effective interaction model. It takes a few days to build muscle memory. Magnet's drag-to-edge model is immediately familiar to anyone who's used Windows 7+.

Custom grid editor

Moom has a grid editor. You draw a rectangle on a configurable grid to define exactly what fraction of the screen a window should occupy. A 60%/40% left-right split, a narrow Spotify sidebar, a custom three-pane ultrawide layout — all possible by drawing in Moom's grid. Each custom layout gets a keyboard shortcut and optionally a name.

Magnet has no custom grid editor. You get fixed proportions: halves, thirds, quarters, sixths, and their combinations. If your workflow fits those proportions (most do), this is no loss. If you work with unconventional column widths, Moom has a clear advantage.

Layout snapshots

Moom lets you save a named snapshot of the current window arrangement — which window is where, at what size — and recall it later with a keyboard shortcut. Switch from a "writing" layout (full-screen editor) to a "coding" layout (editor left, terminal right, browser left-bottom) with one keystroke.

Magnet has no equivalent. It moves windows to positions; it has no memory of where you last put them.

This is Moom's strongest differentiator over Magnet (and over free Rectangle). If you regularly switch between two or more window configurations, Moom's snapshots are genuinely useful and nothing Magnet offers can replicate them.

One important caveat: Moom's snapshots save positions, not which app is in which position. Close Xcode and reapply a "coding" snapshot and Moom will reposition whatever windows happen to be open — not necessarily Xcode. The snapshot doesn't launch apps that have quit. For true workspace restoration (launching apps, switching browser profiles, assigning apps to Spaces), you need something above the window manager layer entirely.

When neither is the right answer

If you only need snapping and not snapshots, Rectangle is free, open source, and matches both Moom and Magnet on raw snapping capability. There's no reason to pay $4.99–$9.99 for what Rectangle does at zero cost. Rectangle Pro ($9.99) adds custom snap zones and window cycling, making it a Moom competitor on the grid side.

If you want your whole working context back — not just where windows sit, but which apps are open, which browser profile is active, which terminal environment is loaded, which macOS Space each app lives on — window snapping tools can't help. The moom alternative guide covers this in detail, but the short version is: Moom, Magnet, and Rectangle all operate at the window geometry layer. They reposition what's open; they don't manage what's open.

ShiftPlus operates at the workspace layer. You define workspaces — sets of apps, URLs, browser profiles, Spaces assignments — and switch between them with a hotkey, even after a restart. It's not a Moom or Magnet replacement (it includes basic window snapping but that's not the point). It's a complement or successor depending on what problem you're actually trying to solve.

Which should you buy?

Buy Magnet ($4.99) if:

• You primarily use drag-to-edge snapping and want the snappiest feel on a trackpad
• You need an App Store install (managed environment, family sharing)
• You don't need to save named window arrangements
• You want the lower price

Buy Moom ($9.99) if:

• You switch regularly between 2+ named window layouts and want one keystroke to recall them
• You want a custom grid editor to define non-standard column ratios
• You're already a Setapp subscriber (it's free in bundle)
• You're willing to pay the extra $5 for snapshot recall

Try Rectangle first if:

• Snapping is all you need and you have no reason to pay for it
• You're not sure which paid tool you want — test the free baseline first

Look at ShiftPlus if:

• You want to restore the full context of a working session — apps, browser profiles, Spaces — not just window positions

FAQ

Is Moom better than Magnet?

For layout snapshots and custom grid layouts, yes. For drag-to-snap feel on a trackpad and App Store distribution, Magnet wins. For raw snapping without snapshots, they're equivalent — and both are beaten on price by free Rectangle.

Can Magnet replace Moom?

Yes, if you don't use Moom's layout snapshot or custom grid features. The core snapping functionality is identical. Switch with confidence if your Moom usage is keyboard-shortcut snapping and nothing more.

Does Moom work on macOS Sequoia?

Yes. Moom is actively maintained and supports macOS Sequoia and Apple Silicon natively. Magnet also supports both.

Is Moom or Magnet better for multiple monitors?

Both handle multiple monitors. Moom lets you define per-display layouts in snapshots. Magnet works on all connected displays with the same snap zones. For automatic window memory per display configuration (reconnect your monitor and windows restore automatically), neither qualifies — that's what Stay does for free.

Can either Moom or Magnet restore windows after a Mac restart?

No. Neither Moom nor Magnet can restore windows after a restart — they reposition windows that are already open. After a restart, there are no windows to move until you relaunch each app manually. For post-restart workspace restoration, see ShiftPlus or the full Moom alternatives comparison.