Stay for Mac alternatives, and when to keep Stay
Stay is the app most people find first. It is free, and it puts your windows back when you reconnect a display. If you are looking for something else, the real question is what Stay does not do for you. Here is an honest answer, then the alternatives.
What Stay does
Stay is free on the Mac App Store. You arrange your windows, tell it to store their positions, and it restores them when your displays reconnect. The storing is manual: nothing changes until you store again.
For one setup that rarely changes, that is all anyone needs, and it costs nothing.
When Stay is still the right answer
If Stay works for you, keep it. It is free, it is on the Mac App Store, and it does the job on the tin. It suits you if:
- You are happy to store your layout by hand whenever it changes.
- You have one main setup, so you rarely need to store it again.
- You would rather not pay for a utility.
It is not abandoned and it is not a security risk. Its Mac App Store listing showed version 1.5.1, last updated August 2025, and its page at cordlessdog.com/stay is live. The fair description is free and manual, not dead.
Why people look for an alternative
The original complaint is in the title of an r/macapps thread from January 2023: Alternative to "Stay" app, which remembers windows positions when docking/undocking. It has 21 points and is 97% upvoted. The poster's reason was support and age: "Stay has ZERO developer contact info ... Hasn't been updated in over a year." The comments suggest Display Maid, Moom and Rectangle Pro in turn.
What has changed since is Stay itself. It is free now, and it was updated as recently as August 2025. A later r/macapps thread is titled Stay is a Free and Useful Utility for Multiple Monitor Setups.
The alternatives, honestly
The split is manual against automatic. Stay is free and Display Maid is $5.99, and both ask you to save the layout yourself. Workflo, Putback and Resettle learn it for you. Moom and Snapback sit in between, because they are window managers first.
| App | Price | How it remembers | Last updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stay | Free | You store window positions on command | August 2025 (1.5.1) |
| Display Maid | $5.99 | You save window sets and profiles | October 2023 (3.3.10) |
| Moom | $15 | A window manager with saved layouts | August 2026 (4.6) |
| Snapback | Free, or $9.99 Pro | A window manager with saved workspaces | August 2026 (0.43.1) |
| Workflo | $19.99 once | Learns each display setup | August 2026 (1.5.4) |
| Putback | $19 once | Keeps a memory for each display setup | September 2026 (1.3.0) |
| Resettle | $14.99 once | Learns each display setup as you work | September 2026 (0.8.7) |
Prices and release dates come from each app's own site or App Store listing, checked on 30 September 2026. What each one gets wrong, including the automatic ones, is on the comparison page.
What changed in 2026
Stay is free now, which removes the main reason people left it. The field is also much bigger than it was when that 2023 thread was written: several of the apps above learn each display setup rather than asking you to save one.
It is a busy niche, and the competition writes about it. A page at shiftplus.app ranks first for this search, under the title "5 Best Stay Alternatives for Mac in 2026 (Window Memory and Beyond)". To its credit it hedges on Stay's status rather than declaring it dead. Putback compares itself to Stay directly.
Where Resettle fits
Resettle is the automatic end of the market: $14.99 once, one Mac. You arrange your windows as you work and it remembers the layout for the display setup you are on, so there is nothing to store by hand.
- Nothing to store or store again. Move a window and that becomes its place.
- Separate layouts for the laptop alone, the laptop and a monitor, and the office dock.
- Tells identical monitors apart, and the same model at home and at work.
- Full-screen windows go back to full screen on the right display.
Resettle's own shortcomings: it is paid, with no free tier and a 14-day refund instead of a trial. It does not snap or tile windows. It does not fix your monitors swapping in the arrangement. And it is new, first released in September 2026. If Stay does what you need, stay with Stay.
Questions
Is Stay abandoned?
No. Its Mac App Store listing showed version 1.5.1, last updated August 2025, and its site is live. There has not been much movement, and that is fair to note, but calling it abandoned would be wrong.
Is Stay free?
Yes. Stay is free on the Mac App Store now, which removes one of the main reasons people went looking for an alternative.
Stay vs Moom vs Resettle: which should I pick?
Stay if you want free and you are happy to save your layout by hand. Moom if you also want a window manager for snapping and tiling, and you do not mind building and saving layouts. Resettle if you want the layout remembered for each display setup with nothing to save, and $14.99 once is acceptable.