Rectangle fixes one of the most common complaints about the Mac: there is no quick way to put two windows side by side. Press a shortcut and the front window moves to the left half, the right half, a corner, a third of the screen or full size. Or drag a window to the edge of the screen and Rectangle shows where it will land, the way snapping works on Windows.
It grew out of Spectacle, an older Mac app, and has picked up a lot since. It can tile all the windows on a screen in rows or columns, cycle through windows stacked in the same spot, use your mouse's side buttons as shortcuts, leave out apps whose shortcuts clash with it, and animate windows as they snap. It sits in the menu bar and stays out of the way.
Rectangle is MIT-licensed, with about 30,000 stars and 201 contributors, and version 2.0.4 came out on 20 October 2026. It needs macOS 14 or later; the README links older versions for macOS 10.13 to 13. The same developer sells Rectangle Pro, a separate paid app built on top of it, but this one is free.
- Repository: github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle
- Licence: custom (Other)
- Language: Swift. Stars: 30.3K. Forks: 1,040. Last push: Nov 6, 2026.
- Scan: safe, Nov 10, 2026, commit 451ab71
Who it is for
Mac users who keep several windows open at once, people coming from Windows who miss snapping, and anyone on a large or second monitor who wants windows in tidy halves, thirds and quarters.
Getting started
1. Download the app from the project site or the releases page
https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle/releases/latest2. Or install it with Homebrew
brew install --cask rectangleRectangle needs macOS Accessibility permission to move other apps' windows. That is normal for any window manager on a Mac.
Safety scan
We cloned rxhanson/Rectangle at commit 451ab71 on Nov 10, 2026 and ran the checks described on the GitHub Tools page: credential patterns, decode-and-execute code, install-time scripts, committed binaries, risky CI workflows, every host the code talks to, known vulnerabilities in pinned dependencies, and project hygiene. A person read every hit. This is what we found.
- No secret hits, no pattern hits, no install hooks and no committed binaries across 489 files and about 46,000 lines, mostly Swift.
- No lockfile to check against vulnerability databases. The README says it uses Swift Package Manager for its two dependencies: Sparkle, for updates, and the author's own fork of MASShortcut, for keyboard shortcuts, kept because the original was archived.
- The scanner found no network hosts in the source code. Updates arrive through Sparkle from a feed on rectangleapp.com, set in the app's Info.plist.
- 1 workflow, no pull_request_target and no third-party actions. A security policy, code of conduct, licence and contributing guide are present. The licence is MIT with a credit to Spectacle, which is why GitHub labels it other.
What the scanner counted
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Secrets | None found. |
| Suspicious code | None found. |
| Install-time code | None: nothing runs at install beyond the package manager itself. |
| Committed binaries | None. |
| CI workflows | 1 workflow. None use pull_request_target. No third-party actions. |
| Network hosts | 0 distinct hosts referenced from source. No URLs to bare IP addresses. |
| Known vulnerabilities | No lockfile to check: dependencies are declared as ranges, so what gets installed is whatever is current on the day. |
| Project hygiene | Has security policy, licence file, contributing guide. Missing automated dependency updates, CodeQL. |
| OpenSSF Scorecard | 6.1 out of 10, as of Nov 9, 2026. |
By the numbers
| Stars | 30.3K |
|---|---|
| Forks | 1,040 |
| Contributors | 201 |
| Commits | 1,544 |
| Open issues | 52 |
| Open pull requests | 13 |
| Releases | 108 |
| Latest release | v2.0.4 |
| Licence | custom |
| Main language | Swift |
| Project age | 7 years |
| Last push | Nov 6, 2026 |
| Tracked files | 489 |
| Lines of code | 45.8K |
| Checkout size | 5 MB |
Lines by language: Swift 41.7K, JSON 2,555, Markdown 1,480, YAML 48, C/C++ header 8.
Questions
Is Rectangle free?
Yes. Rectangle is free and open source under the MIT licence. Rectangle Pro is a separate paid app from the same developer with extra features; you do not need it.
Can I change the shortcuts or use my mouse buttons?
Yes. Every action's shortcut can be changed in settings, and an action can use a mouse side button instead of a key. You can also tell Rectangle to step aside while a particular app is in front.
Does it work on older Macs?
The current version needs macOS 14 or later. The README links version 1.100 for macOS 10.15 to 13 and version 0.73 for macOS 10.13 and 10.14.
This post is part of GitHub Tools, where every repository is cloned and scanned before it is written up. The scan is a snapshot of one commit on one day; the repository has moved on since, so check it before you install.