WonderSnap vs Rectangle (and Rectangle Pro): an honest comparison

Rectangle is the app most Mac users are told to install first, and the advice is good: free, open source, very good at keyboard snapping. WonderSnap is not a better Rectangle. It does what Rectangle does not: arrange a whole screen at once, keep it arranged, and put it back when your monitor comes and goes.

Rectangle, the free one

Free, open source, and very good at one window at a time. It snaps from the keyboard or by dragging to edges and corners, cycles sizes on a repeat press, has a gaps setting, supports portrait displays and runs on macOS 10.15 and later, Intel and Apple Silicon. Its README also lists sixths, eighths, ninths, edge moves, almost-maximize, tile and cascade, per-app ignoring and JSON config export. If you only ever snap one window, it is hard to argue with.

Rectangle Pro, the paid one

A separate paid app, reported at $9.99 one-time in 2026, with a 10-day trial and one license active on 3 devices. As documented on rectangleapp.com/pro it adds throwing a window to 16 sizes and positions, more stock shortcut options, Windows-style arrow shortcuts, snap targets you create anywhere on screen, a configurable snap panel, custom sizes and positions, arranging an entire workspace with one shortcut, activation on display connect and disconnect, stashing windows at the screen edge, pinning an app to a side, menu customization and iCloud sync.

WonderSnap does not do several of those today: stashing, app pinning, snap targets anywhere and iCloud sync are planned. If one of them is your daily driver, Rectangle Pro is the right buy.

What WonderSnap is for

WonderSnap brings the Windows 11 snapping flow to the Mac, as a native menu-bar app for macOS 14 and later. The pieces:

• Snap Assist. Dock one window with the hold menu and your other open windows are offered for the remaining zones. The palette follows the pointer, so you fill only what you want, in any order.
• A layout picker with guided fill. ⌃⌥Space shows Halves, Stacked, Thirds, two-thirds splits, Quarters and your custom layouts, then walks you through each zone.
• The hold menu. Click and hold a title bar for a snap menu at the cursor, Gallery or Wheel style. Edge drags stay native macOS.
• Custom layouts drawn in Settings > Layouts, one tiling per display, saved together, with never a gap or an overlap.
• Saved arrangements (⌃⌥⇧1/2/3) and per-display memory, which restores your arrangement automatically when that monitor combination returns.
• Linked resize. Drag a shared edge and the neighbours flex with it, live, gapless.
• Dock hover previews. Rest on a Dock icon to see that app's windows; click one to jump to it.
• The basics too: 15 keyboard positions on ⌃⌥ chords with repeat-to-cycle, all rebindable in Settings > Shortcuts, ⌃⌥⌫ restore, margins (Off / Small / Medium / Large) and a smooth move animation.

Side by side

Who should pick which

Rectangle if you want free keyboard snapping and drag-to-edge, nothing more. No reason to pay for that job.

Rectangle Pro if you want stashing, app pinning, snap targets you place yourself or iCloud sync today. WonderSnap has those planned, not shipped.

WonderSnap if you fill a whole screen at a time and want the second, third and fourth window offered to you, you draw your own layouts, you dock a laptop and want windows back on their own, or you want one resize to move its neighbours. Neither Rectangle's README nor Rectangle Pro's page describes those.

Try both, decide on your own desktop

Costs nothing to find out. Rectangle is free, and every WonderSnap feature is free for 7 days from the first launch, no account and no card. Run one, then the other, and keep the one your hands go to.

Questions

Is WonderSnap a replacement for Rectangle?

Only if you want something Rectangle does not do. Rectangle is free and excellent at snapping one window from the keyboard. WonderSnap covers that too (15 rebindable ⌃⌥ chords with cycling) and adds Snap Assist, a guided layout picker, custom layouts, saved arrangements, per-display memory, linked resize and Dock previews. If you only need the first thing, keep Rectangle.

Does WonderSnap have custom shortcuts like Rectangle?

Yes. Every chord can be changed in Settings > Shortcuts, exactly as in Rectangle and Rectangle Pro. The defaults follow Rectangle's own layout, so the shortcuts you already use keep working: ⌃⌥ with the arrow keys for the halves, U-I-J-K for the corners, D-F-G for the thirds, E and T for the two-thirds and Return to fill the screen.

Which is cheaper?

Rectangle is free. Rectangle Pro is reported at $9.99 one-time. WonderSnap is $2 for a year, with no subscription and no auto-renewal, or $8 once for life, with a 7-day trial of every feature.

Does WonderSnap snap when I drag a window to the edge like Rectangle?

No. WonderSnap leaves screen-edge dragging to macOS's own tiling and does not react to a plain drag. Its mouse gesture is the click-and-hold on a title bar, which opens the snap menu.

Can Rectangle Pro restore my windows when I plug my monitor back in?

Rectangle Pro documents activating a workspace arrangement on display connect or disconnect. WonderSnap's per-display memory is automatic: it remembers your arrangement for each monitor combination and restores it when that combination returns, with nothing to set up. Named arrangements go on ⌃⌥⇧1/2/3.