FAST vs the window tiling built into macOS
Apple added window tiling to macOS, and for putting two windows side by side it is genuinely enough. The gap opens the moment you want that arrangement back tomorrow, on a different set of displays.
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The short answer
macOS tiles the window you are dragging right now. FAST manages the workspace you keep coming back to. Apple's feature is stateless: it places a window and forgets about it. There is no object you can name, save, and restore — no "my client-call setup", no "my Friday admin screen". That object is what FAST calls a Scene, and almost everything else follows from having one.
Where built-in tiling is the right answer
If you work on one screen, use two or three apps at a time, and rearrange them by hand once a day, you do not need a window manager. Apple's tiling is free, always there, and does not need Accessibility permission. Use it. We would rather you kept your €29 than bought something you check once and forget.
Where it runs out
Unplugging a monitor destroys the arrangement
macOS remembers where a window was as coordinates on a specific display. Take that display away and everything collapses onto whatever screen is left; plug it back in and nothing returns on its own. This is the single most common reason people go looking for a window manager, and tiling does not address it because tiling has no memory. A Scene stores display roles, layouts and matched windows instead of pixel positions, so restoring it maps your workspace onto whatever displays are connected at that moment.
Dropping a window on an occupied space destroys what was there
Tiling replaces. Drop a browser where your editor was and the editor is pushed somewhere else or buried. FAST stacks instead: the previous window stays in the tile behind the new one, a numbered badge appears, and ⌃⌥⇥ cycles between them. Research stays behind the draft rather than under it.
There is no undo
Every geometry change in FAST — a snap, a layout switch, a whole Scene restore — leaves a snapshot that ⌃⌥Z reverses. A screen share that shuffles your windows is one keystroke from being fixed.
Nothing can drive it from outside
Built-in tiling is something you do with a mouse or a menu. FAST exposes the same typed actions to the Shortcuts app, Siri, a fast:// URL scheme and the bundled fastctl command-line tool, so your morning workspace can be a calendar automation or a Stream Deck button. See the CLI and URL scheme.
Feature by feature
| Capability | macOS tiling | FAST |
|---|---|---|
| Snap a window to half or a quarter | Yes | Yes |
| Drag a window into a target tile | Yes | Yes, with Shift held |
| Keyboard shortcuts for placement | Yes | Yes, Vim-style and remappable |
| Named layouts per display | — | Yes, with a 49″ ultrawide layout |
| Save a whole workspace and restore it | — | Yes, as a Scene |
| Reopen apps that are not running | — | Yes, on Scene restore |
| Survive unplugging and replugging displays | — | Yes, displays are matched by role |
| Stack a window behind another | — | Yes, cycled with ⌃⌥⇥ |
| Undo a placement | — | Yes, every geometry change |
| Per-tile app switcher | — | Yes |
| Shortcuts, Siri, URL scheme, CLI | — | Yes, all four |
| Price | Included with macOS | €29 once, for one Mac |
Apple's window management changes with every macOS release. This table describes the built-in tiling as it behaves today; if something here has gone out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Can you use both?
Yes. FAST does not replace or disable anything macOS does — it uses the public Accessibility API, and System Integrity Protection stays fully enabled. Apple's edge-drag snapping keeps working; FAST adds the layer above it.
Every window, exactly where it belongs.
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