March 20, 2026

Replace 4 Mac Apps with One

Most Mac power users run Rectangle for window snapping, Maccy for clipboard history, AltTab for window switching, and Karabiner for keyboard remapping. That is four menu bar icons, four apps to configure, and four things that can break after a macOS update. OmniKey replaces all four.

The Typical Mac Productivity Stack

Walk into any developer or designer's Mac setup and you will likely find the same collection of small utilities:

• Rectangle ($9.99) for snapping windows to halves, thirds, and corners with keyboard shortcuts
• Maccy ($9.99) for clipboard history -- search and paste from previous copies
• AltTab (free) for a Windows-style Alt+Tab window switcher with thumbnail previews
• Karabiner-Elements (free) for remapping keys, creating hyper keys, and custom keyboard shortcuts

These are all excellent tools. They solve real problems that macOS does not address out of the box. But running four separate utilities has drawbacks: four Accessibility permission prompts, four apps that might need updates after a macOS upgrade, four different configuration interfaces, and four menu bar icons competing for space.

What OmniKey Replaces

Rectangle: Window Snapping

Rectangle popularized keyboard-driven window management on macOS. OmniKey includes window snapping to 14 positions: left half, right half, top half, bottom half, all four quarters, left/center/right thirds, two-thirds left, two-thirds right, maximize, and center. You can trigger any snap position with a keyboard shortcut, a mouse gesture, or a trackpad gesture. Unlike Rectangle, you are not limited to keyboard triggers -- hold your side mouse button and drag left to snap a window, or use a three-finger trackpad swipe.

Maccy: Clipboard History

Maccy stores your clipboard history and lets you search through it. OmniKey does the same thing: it keeps a history of everything you copy, accessible via a keyboard shortcut or from the menu bar. You can scroll through recent copies and paste any item with a single click. The clipboard history lives in your menu bar for quick access, and you can trigger it with any shortcut or gesture you configure -- not just a fixed keyboard shortcut.

AltTab: Window Switcher

macOS Cmd+Tab switches between applications, not windows. If you have three Chrome windows open, Cmd+Tab treats them as one item. AltTab fixes this by showing every window individually with thumbnail previews. OmniKey includes the same functionality: a Windows-style Alt+Tab switcher that shows individual windows. It goes further by also including browser tab previews -- you can switch directly to a specific Chrome or Safari tab without opening the browser first.

Karabiner: Keyboard Shortcuts

Karabiner-Elements is unmatched for low-level key remapping. If you need to remap Caps Lock to Escape at the driver level, Karabiner is still the best tool. But many people use Karabiner primarily for custom keyboard shortcuts -- launching apps, running scripts, controlling system features. OmniKey handles all of those use cases with a visual interface instead of JSON configuration. You can create global shortcuts, per-app shortcuts, chord sequences (press two keys in succession), and modifier combinations. For most users, OmniKey's shortcut system covers everything they were using Karabiner for.

What OmniKey Adds That None of Them Offer

Consolidation is not the only benefit. OmniKey includes features that none of these four apps provide:

• Mouse gesture control: Click, hold, and directional drag gestures for any mouse. No other app in this stack supports mouse gestures.
• Trackpad and Magic Mouse gestures: Custom multi-finger swipe gestures that go beyond what macOS offers natively.
• Text selection toolbar: Select text anywhere on your Mac and a floating toolbar appears with 20+ tools: word count, case conversion, URL encoding, hash generation, and more.
• Dev server monitor: Watches localhost ports and shows which dev servers are running in your menu bar.
• Scratchpad: A quick-access note pad with inline math evaluation. Type "24 * 365 =" and see the result instantly.
• Keep Awake: Prevent your Mac from sleeping with five duration modes. No need for a separate app like Amphetamine.
• Screen saver: Three built-in screen saver styles (flip clock, ambient orb, minimal) triggered by any shortcut or gesture.
• Developer tools: Toggle Metal performance HUD, open Terminal in current Finder directory, clear Xcode derived data, flush DNS cache -- all from shortcuts.

The Cost Comparison

When to Keep the Individual Apps

OmniKey is not a perfect replacement for every user. If you rely on Karabiner's driver-level key remapping (changing how the OS sees a key at the hardware level), OmniKey's shortcut system works differently -- it intercepts events rather than remapping them. The two can run side by side. If you use BetterTouchTool's Touch Bar customization (on older MacBook Pros), OmniKey does not offer that.

For the vast majority of Mac users who want window snapping, clipboard history, a better window switcher, and custom shortcuts, OmniKey is the simpler, cheaper, more capable choice. One app, one configuration, one menu bar icon.

Fully Offline, Zero Tracking

OmniKey runs entirely on your Mac. No cloud account, no telemetry, no data collection. Your shortcuts, clipboard history, and configuration stay on your machine in a local JSON file that you can export, import, and back up. For a detailed feature-by-feature comparison against all competitors, see the OmniKey vs competitors page.