Magnet is simple, but it does feature the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts to any window snapping area available. If you’re looking for an inexpensive option that’s solely focused on window snapping, then you can’t go wrong with Magnet, a $0.99 app on the Mac App Store that runs in the menu bar.
Unfortunately, Split view is limited to just two apps, and doesn’t compare 1:1 with true window snapping in a variety of other key ways. Split View is a nice option to have, but it simply doesn’t compete with the flexibility and customization afforded by many of the window snapping apps that we highlight below.
To be fair, Apple did implement a Split View function in OS X El Capitan, which allows you to use full screen apps side-by-side. Even though Apple doesn’t natively support it, window snapping is available on the Mac via a variety of third-party apps. This feature was first popularized by Microsoft’s Aero Snap on Windows. Window snapping allows you to position windows in specific areas of the screen, usually by dragging the window to the edge of the screen, causing the window to “snap” into place. Afterwards, I received several tweets and emails asking how to perform window snapping, since this is not a feature that appears natively in OS X. Yesterday, we wrote a post about hiding the menu bar, and in the corresponding video tutorial, we used window snapping to highlight one of the benefits of a hidden menu bar.
