SnapState – Native Swift Window Manager for macOS

TL;DR

TL;DR: SnapState is a native Swift Mac utility that saves and restores your complete workspace layout — windows, apps, monitors, and browser tabs — from the menu bar or a Control-Command shortcut. It is a paid commercial app: $9.99 one-time for up to three Macs, requiring macOS 15.7 or later.

Source and Accuracy Notes

Correction notice (updated 2026-10-17): This post originally described SnapState as free and MIT-licensed and linked to a GitHub repository. That was wrong. SnapState is a paid commercial app and the repository no longer exists. The Homebrew cask referenced below has also been removed. Corrections below were verified against the vendor’s own site and structured data, not taken on request.

• Product: getsnapstate.com — canonical source
• Pricing: $9.99 one-time, lifetime licence, up to three Macs, free updates, 14-day refund (verified from site pricing section and SoftwareApplication JSON-LD offers.price)
• Version: 2.7.1 (from site JSON-LD softwareVersion)
• Requirements: macOS 15.7 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel
• Distribution: signed, notarized DMG; checkout via Lemon Squeezy
• Licence: proprietary commercial licence. Not open source, not MIT
• Maker: the SnapState team (the site credits “an independent developer” and does not publish a name)
• Show HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48335834

What Is SnapState?

SnapState solves a problem every power user faces: context switching destroys your workspace. You finish a focused coding session, jump to a meeting, check Slack, and now your carefully arranged windows are scattered. Manually restoring everything takes minutes you do not have.

SnapState captures the state of your Mac workspace and restores it on demand. Window positions, the apps behind them, display topology, and open browser tabs. One click or one shortcut.

The app is built entirely in Swift against native macOS APIs. No Electron, no runtime overhead. It installs as a menu bar agent rather than a Dock app.

Pricing and Licensing

This is the part most third-party listings get wrong. SnapState is not free and not open source.

• $9.99 one-time purchase. No subscription.
• Up to three Macs covered by one purchase.
• Free updates — minor updates and fixes included.
• 14-day money-back guarantee.
• Proprietary commercial licence. There is no source code to audit, because no source is published.

Key Features

Window Position Mapping

SnapState reads and writes window frames across every display using the macOS Accessibility API, including windows that span multiple monitors.

Display-Aware Restoration

Switch between workspace configurations for different tasks. Dual-monitor coding setup on the left, single-monitor presentation mode on the right. SnapState matches saved displays by identity, name, resolution, and layout before remapping frames onto the current topology.

Browser Tab Capture

SnapState reads and reopens all open tabs from supported browsers — Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Chromium, and Safari Technology Preview. Firefox is not supported. Each Space’s browser context is captured when you save a setup.

Global Keyboard Triggers

Restore a named setup with a click or a global Control-Command shortcut. The default bindings are Control-Command-1 through 6.

Optional Automatic Reactions

Arm a saved workspace to fire on display connect, display disconnect, a matching layout appearing, or wake-from-sleep.

Menu-Bar First

The utility lives in the menu bar, not the Dock, and restores a setup with a click or a shortcut when you want it.

Setup Workflow

Step 1: Get the app

SnapState ships as a signed, notarized DMG:

curl -L -o ~/Downloads/SnapState.dmg https://getsnapstate.com/SnapState.dmg
open ~/Downloads/SnapState.dmg

Step 2: Purchase a licence

The app is sold at $9.99 one-time. Checkout is handled by Lemon Squeezy and the licence key is delivered by email.

Step 3: Install and grant permissions

Drag SnapState into Applications and launch it. Then:

1. Grant Accessibility permission — this is what lets SnapState read window positions and move windows back
2. Grant Automation permission — needed if you want browser tab capture
3. The menu bar icon appears
4. Arrange your workspace, then capture it from the menu bar and give it a name

SnapState does not require root access.

Where the data lives

Workspace snapshots and preferences are stored as JSON in ~/Library/Application Support/SnapState/. Window titles, positions, and URLs stay on your Mac — the vendor states only anonymous product signals leave the app.

What SnapState Does Not Do

Their press kit is unusually candid about the limits, and they are worth repeating:

• It does not restore every macOS Space. It restores the visible desktop and each Space’s tabs as you switch to it.
• It does not capture Firefox tabs.
• It does not save browser tab groups.
• With a closed-source app, the permission grant is an act of trust rather than an auditable one. There is no code to review.

Practical Evaluation Checklist

• Ease of use: Menu bar interface, global hotkeys, no configuration files
• Accuracy: Accessibility API gives precise window frames
• Performance: Native Swift, no Electron overhead
• Browser support: Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Chromium, Safari Tech Preview — no Firefox
• Multi-monitor: Display-aware remapping across changing topologies
• Cost: $9.99 one-time, three Macs
• Requirement: macOS 15.7+ — a real floor that rules out most Intel Macs still on older releases
• Auditability: Closed source. You cannot read the code you are granting Accessibility access

FAQ

Q: Is SnapState free or open source? A: No. SnapState is a paid commercial app at $9.99 one-time for up to three Macs. It is closed source with a proprietary licence. The vendor’s own FAQ states that older directory listings claiming “Free” or “MIT” are out of date.

Q: What macOS versions are supported? A: macOS 15.7 or later, on both Apple Silicon and Intel.

Q: Does SnapState work with full-screen apps or Spaces? A: It restores the visible desktop rather than every Space. Layouts are restored per Space as you switch to it, and browser tabs are captured for each Space’s supported browsers.

Q: Which browsers are supported? A: Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Chromium, and Safari Technology Preview, each requiring Automation permission. Firefox is not supported.

Q: Is there a Homebrew cask? A: Not any more. The snapstate cask has been removed from Homebrew and now returns a 404. The DMG above is the supported distribution route.

Q: Can I export and import workspace snapshots? A: Not documented. The snapshots are plain JSON on disk in Application Support, so they are readable and copyable even without an official export feature.

Q: Does it work with third-party window managers like Rectangle? A: SnapState and Rectangle both manipulate window positions through the Accessibility API, so they can conflict. Disable one while using the other.

Q: How long is the refund window? A: 14 days, money back, on the $9.99 purchase.

Conclusion

SnapState fills a real gap in the macOS ecosystem. The platform has excellent window tiling tools but no tidy way to save and restore a complete workspace state. Doing it manually wastes time; doing it with a script means maintaining a script.

The native Swift implementation is the differentiator. Electron-based alternatives exist but carry runtime overhead that a menu bar utility should not need.

The trade-off is that you are buying access, not code. You will be handing a closed-source app Accessibility and Automation permissions, which is a reasonable ask for a $9.99 utility from an independent maker and a heavier one for anything more sensitive.

If you switch contexts frequently — developers, designers, and anyone running multiple monitor setups — SnapState is worth the one-time purchase, and the 14-day refund window makes the decision reversible.

Try it: getsnapstate.com — $9.99 one-time, macOS 15.7+, signed and notarized DMG.

Editorial note: This post was updated at the vendor’s request. runany.dev does not accept paid placements or review keys in exchange for coverage or edits. Every correction above was verified against the vendor’s public site, including its JSON-LD structured data — no licence key was provided or used, and none is needed to check published pricing.