yabai
Ranked 6 of 11 tiling window managers by recommenders
Free tiling window manager for macOS that people use for keyboard-driven workspaces; its advanced features need System Integrity Protection disabled, and it can break after macOS updates.
Free tiling window manager for macOS that people use for keyboard-driven workspaces; its advanced features need System Integrity Protection disabled, and it can break after macOS updates.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Tiling window management on macOS
“With yabai and skhd I've gotten it pretty closely to where I previously was with i3.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “I also filed the corners off my MacBook” “I use Yabai, which is pretty good”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues” Good workspace and space switching
“I think it works great with the horizontal navigation between workspaces”
Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Quintile – keyboard N×M grid tiling for macOS” “Yabai works while InstantSpaces doesn't”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” Works with skhd and BetterTouchTool
“With yabai and skhd I've gotten it pretty closely to where I previously was with i3.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “I also filed the corners off my MacBook” “I have actually been using it with BTT to fix this exact problem.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Requires disabling System Integrity Protection
“Yabai supports this perfectly ... but it requires disabling system integrity protection”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon” “requires so much permissions and potentially disabling system integrity protection”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” “some features required disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection)”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” - Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS”
- Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues”
- Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Make Tmux the OS”
Relies on undocumented or hacky APIs
“Rectangle, Yabai and whatnot can only hope that the undocumented private APIs that macOS _allows_ them to use today don't mysteriously break tomorrow.”
Comment from 22 Sep 2026 in “I said no and Apple said yes” “yabai does this by binary patching a part of the operating system”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Native Instant Space Switching on macOS” “They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Leaving Linux”
Other tiling window managers people recommend
The four most recommended other tiling window managers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niri | 125 | 17 | 88% | 13 | 6 mo16 owners | Approved |
| Sway | 81 | 23 | 78% | 12 | 4 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| AeroSpace | 77 | 12 | 87% | 12 | 4 mo10 owners | Approved |
| i3 window manager | 70 | 9 | 89% | 12 | — | Approved |
| yabaiThis page | 17 | 14 | 55% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it doesn't require you to deactivate SIP like yabai”
“Rectangle, Yabai and whatnot can only hope that the undocumented private APIs that macOS _allows_ them to use today don't mysteriously break tomorrow.”
“these also were pretty buggy for my use case”
“They are a collection of hacks on the accessibility API”
“That was the reason for me to choose AeroSpace as a foundation instead of yabai.”
“The experience with both of these has been quite terrible”
“I think it works great with the horizontal navigation between workspaces”
“With yabai and skhd I've gotten it pretty closely to where I previously was with i3.”
“until a major macOS update broke it and I just didn't have it in me to diagnose the issue”
“yabai is a good example of how this type of tool can be shared”
“the secret sauce for the background click came from discovering yabai's window_manager_focus_window_without_raise”
“None of them have delivered the level of polish Niri achieves.”
“bsp just doesn't scale well with larger displays”
“Though both bars require yabai or AeroSpace to work.”
“I didn't like that I had to disable System Integrity Protection.”
“I have actually been using it with BTT to fix this exact problem.”
“requires so much permissions and potentially disabling system integrity protection”
“Yabai works while InstantSpaces doesn't”
“some features required disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection)”
“they just don't want to learn a new WM which is fine for them but isn't a valid reason for everyone to not use yabai”
“yabai does this by binary patching a part of the operating system”
“which is the only use I have left for it.”
“Yabai supports this perfectly ... but it requires disabling system integrity protection”
“I use Yabai, which is pretty good”
“requires SIP disabled for what I would consider core features”
“There are an absolute ton of very capable tiling window managers for macOS”
“none of them support tag-based workspace management”
“there is Yabai, but it still suck due to the fact that you can’t have truly independent spaces”
“fn + right-click set to resize window under cursor”
“Really liked that feature in Yabai”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.