Stay is a Free and Useful Utility for Multiple Monitor Setups

When it comes to multi-monitor setups, users have wildly different demands. Some people make extensive use of spaces, while others won't; their applications must be tiled the exact same way at all times. My personal use case in the two-monitor setup that I use is that I want apps to open on the same monitor with each use. Although Stay does remember tiled window positions in its profiles, I don't care so much about that, because I tend to use most of my apps in full-screen mode. I absolutely do not want to have to drag windows around from monitor to monitor so that my muscle memory can take over as I work.

Free Solution

To accomplish this task, I use the free utility Stay from Cordless Dog Software. The core idea is that Stay lets me snapshot window positions (size + location + display) for particular configurations (e.g., laptop display only, laptop + external monitor) and then restore them when my display setup changes. It's not so much a fully featured window management tool as it is a "put my windows where I left them" solution across display changes and reboots.

Stay is free, and it supports Apple Silicon. It does not need Rosetta.

It isn't perfect or bulletproof. Apple Spaces are flaky, and anyone who says they aren't hasn't made extensive use of them. Stay can sometimes get confused, placing a window sized correctly in the correct position on your monitor, but in the wrong space. Apps that use non-standard windows (Steam, X11, Adobe Creative Cloud) don't always work well with Stay. Stay works best with a static setup. If you often open and close various windows and want tiling, automation, and snapping, Stay is not the product for you.

Caveat

Now, the biggest drawback for some people is that Stay appears to be abandonware. It's abandonware that works, so I'm fine with it, but some people won't invest 30 seconds of setup time in an app that hasn't been updated since 2021.

Paid Alternative

If you want a top-shelf, well-maintained app to do what Stay does (plus a lot more), my recommendation is Moom from the great team at Many Tricks Software. It’s more refined than Stay, featuring window-snapping and custom grid resizing. You can save and recall layouts, but it’s less strict about returning windows to exact positions when changing monitors.

There is also a new player in the space, Snaps of Apps, which I have not personally tried yet.