Screen DividerA Rectangle alternative with custom, mergeable zones
Rectangle is free and excellent at keyboard snapping to halves, thirds, and quarters. Screen Divider takes a visual, drag-first approach built around grids you design and zones you merge.
What Rectangle does well
Rectangle is a free, open-source window manager with a loyal following. It snaps windows to halves, thirds, quarters, and screen edges using keyboard shortcuts or drag-to-edge, and it works across multiple monitors. For keyboard-driven snapping at no cost, it is hard to beat.
Where Screen Divider differs
Screen Divider is a paid app focused on designing your own layout. Instead of a fixed set of shortcuts, you build a grid in a visual editor and merge adjacent cells into any rectangular zone, then drag windows into those zones. If your ideal layout isn't a clean half or quarter, that flexibility is the point.
| Rectangle | Screen Divider | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (open source) | $12 one-time |
| Approach | Keyboard shortcuts + edge snap | Drag into zones you design |
| Custom grids | Limited | Full visual editor |
| Merge cells into one zone | No | Yes — any rectangle |
| Multiple monitors | Yes | Yes — per-display layouts |
| Open source | Yes | No |
Which should you choose?
If free, keyboard-driven snapping covers what you need, Rectangle is a genuinely great tool and a fair default. If you want to design your own zones — and merge cells into shapes the presets can't make — and you'd rather snap by dragging, Screen Divider is worth the $12.
FAQ
Is Screen Divider open source like Rectangle?
No. Rectangle is free and open source; Screen Divider is a paid, closed-source app focused on custom drag-to-snap zones.
Why pay for a window manager when Rectangle is free?
You're paying for the visual grid editor and mergeable custom zones. If Rectangle's presets already fit your workflow, you may not need to.
What macOS version do I need?
macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.