SnapState

Who It's For

SnapState is for laptop users who dock and undock or put their Mac to sleep often, and who are tired of coming back to every window piled onto the built-in screen. It also fits anyone who keeps a work setup spread across several Spaces and dozens of browser tabs, and wants to save it all as a named workspace they can bring back in one step.

How It Works

SnapState runs from the menu bar and saves named workspace snapshots. Each one records window positions per display, which Space each app is on, which windows were full screen, the apps to relaunch, and the open tabs in Safari, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Chromium, and Safari Technology Preview. It uses the macOS Accessibility permission to "read window positions and move windows back into place", and browser tabs are captured through Automation permission. You restore a workspace from the menu bar or with Control-Command-1 to 6. SnapState can also restore on its own when the Mac wakes or a monitor connects.

Multi-Space support arrived in 2.7.0: windows are saved on every Space, and each Space is restored when you switch to it. In 2.7.2, apps go back to the Space they were saved on, full screen windows come back in full screen, and windows that ended up on the wrong display go back to their saved display and Space. There are documented limits. macOS moves an app with all of its windows, so SnapState can't split one app across several Spaces, and it doesn't save tab groups. Workspace snapshots and preferences are stored locally as JSON in ~/Library/Application Support/SnapState/.

Compared to Alternatives

Compared to Resettle, which learns window positions for each display setup automatically and doesn't use profiles, SnapState has you save named workspaces and also restores browser tabs and Space assignments. Compared to Spencer, a $20 lifetime workspace manager that saves window positions across Spaces and displays and can restore Space counts, SnapState covers similar ground for $9.99 and also saves browser tabs and restores automatically on wake or monitor reconnect.

Requirements

• macOS 15.7 or later
• Apple silicon and Intel
• Accessibility permission required; Automation permission needed for browser tab capture
• Does not need root access
• $9.99 one-time license for up to three personal Macs, 14-day refund
• Actively developed (2.7.2 released October 17, 2026)

Getting Started

Buy and download SnapState from getsnapstate.com. It updates itself through Sparkle. Grant Accessibility permission so it can move windows, and Automation permission for each browser whose tabs you want saved. Arrange your windows across your displays and Spaces, save them as a named workspace from the menu bar, and restore it with a Control-Command shortcut. If you made workspaces before 2.7.2, re-save them so they record each window's Space. Release notes are on the changelog.