# Alternatives to Hammerspoon

Lua-scriptable macOS automation.

Hammerspoon ranks #4 of 8 in Window managers, with an Alt Score of 65. It is licensed under MIT, free and available on macOS. 7 of 9 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/hammerspoon/
Category: Window managers

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Developers and power users on macOS who are comfortable writing small scripts and want to automate their machine beyond what built-in tools or GUI utilities allow.
- **What you get**: A bridge between macOS and a Lua scripting engine, with a wide set of extension APIs covering windows, applications, hotkeys, the mouse, screens, audio devices, wifi, battery, the clipboard, and low-level keyboard/mouse events. It's commonly used for custom window management and tiling, global hotkeys, and triggering actions off system events like network changes or battery level. Out of the box it does nothing until you write configuration for it.
- **How it works**: You write a Lua script at ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua that wires system events to actions using Hammerspoon's extension APIs, then reload the config for changes to take effect; Hammerspoon runs in the background executing that script continuously.

## Profile

- **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Starts at**: ?
- **Platforms**: macOS
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-10)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [BetterTouchTool](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/bettertouchtool.md) | 75 | Proprietary | macOS |
| 2 | [FancyZones](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/fancyzones.md) | 75 | MIT | Windows |
| 3 | [Rectangle](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/rectangle.md) | 70 | MIT | macOS |
| 4 | [Magnet](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/magnet.md) | 60 | Proprietary | macOS |
| 5 | [Moom](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/moom.md) | 60 | Proprietary | macOS |
| 6 | [AeroSpace](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/aerospace.md) | 50 | MIT | macOS |
| 7 | [yabai](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yabai.md) | 50 | MIT | macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Window managers checklist | Hammerspoon | BetterTouchTool | FancyZones | Rectangle | Magnet | Moom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | One-time | Free | Free | One-time | One-time |
| Starts at | ? | $15 | ? | ? | $4.99 | $15 |
| License | MIT | Proprietary | MIT | MIT | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | macOS | macOS | Windows | macOS | macOS | macOS |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Snap layouts | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tiling (automatic) | Partial | Partial | Partial | No | No | No |
| Multi-monitor profiles | Yes | ? | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Scriptable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Open source | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| One-time purchase option | No | Yes | No | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Touchpad gestures | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Menu bar control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Hammerspoon. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: MIT — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “The MIT License (MIT)”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy”
- **Platforms**: macOS — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “This is a tool for powerful automation of OS X. At its core, Hammerspoon is just a bridge between the operating system and a Lua scripting engine.”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/releases/tag/1.1.1> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Download archive of Hammerspoon should no longer contain spurious resource forks that can confuse macOS Gatekeeper”
- **Keyboard shortcuts**: Yes — <https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.hotkey.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Create and manage global keyboard shortcuts”
- **Tiling (automatic)**: Partial — <https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.window.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Window manipulation via Lua scripting; no built-in automatic tiling.
  - Quote: “Inspect/manipulate windows”
- **Multi-monitor profiles**: Yes — <https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.screen.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Manipulate screens (i.e. monitors)”
- **Scriptable**: Yes — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/README.md> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “What gives Hammerspoon its power is a set of extensions that expose specific pieces of system functionality, to the user. With these, you can write Lua scripts to control many aspects of your OS X env”
- **Open source**: Yes — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “The MIT License (MIT)”
- **One-time purchase option**: No — <https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/blob/master/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Free OSS; no purchase.
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy”
- **Menu bar control**: Yes — <https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.menubar.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Create and manage menubar icons”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/