Shortcat
Ranked 3 of 4 keyboard navigation apps by recommenders
Lets you move the cursor and click anything on macOS by typing, bringing keyboard control beyond browsers. Common caveat: it feels slow on older and newer Macs alike, and receives no updates.
Lets you move the cursor and click anything on macOS by typing, bringing keyboard control beyond browsers. Common caveat: it feels slow on older and newer Macs alike, and receives no updates.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works across all macOS apps
“If you like the concept of being able to manipulate buttons and other parts of your MacOS application”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “KeyTips now available in Office for Mac (Windows alt-shortcuts) (2024)” “this is not just for the browser but works in other Mac applications too!”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows” “Manipulate macOS masterfully, minus the mouse.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows”
Moves cursor to any element
“Use shortcat to automatically bring your cursor to anything on your screen”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” “Use shortcat to bring your cursor to any element with just typing.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” Easy to adopt and handy
“I found I was willing to adopt without much effort”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows” “that's when Shortcat is very handy”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow, even on modern Macs
“I used to use (and love) ShortCat, but it got too slow on my ancient MacBook Pro.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows” “it's too slow to be usable on my i5-based MacBook Pro”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Making macOS Bearable” “I like shortcat, but it's slow, even on a modern Mac.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Mouseless – keyboard-driven control of macOS/Linux/Windows”
Other keyboard navigation apps people recommend
The three most recommended other keyboard navigation apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mouseless | 22 | 17 | 56% | 4 | — | — |
| Homerow | 10 | 1 | 91% | 5 | — | Approved |
| ShortcatThis page | 9 | 2 | 82% | 5 | — | — |
| Neverclick | 7 | 5 | 58% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Shortcat.app fills some of this gap.”
“as I was unhappy with other tools (vimium, shortcat etc)”
“this is not just for the browser but works in other Mac applications too!”
“that's when Shortcat is very handy”
“I like shortcat, but it's slow, even on a modern Mac.”
“I used to use (and love) ShortCat, but it got too slow on my ancient MacBook Pro.”
“Manipulate macOS masterfully, minus the mouse.”
“I found I was willing to adopt without much effort”
“Similar to Vimium, but for the whole OS.”
“each time you fire shortcat it makes one HTTP request, yikes”
“Use shortcat to bring your cursor to any element with just typing.”
“Use shortcat to automatically bring your cursor to anything on your screen”
“Shortcat doesn't receive updates and for years there has been an indication that it would move from beta to licensed software”
“it's too slow to be usable on my i5-based MacBook Pro”
“If you like the concept of being able to manipulate buttons and other parts of your MacOS application”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.