Spacepal vs Mission Control: what you get on top
If you use two or three desktops and always remember what is on each, Mission Control is enough and costs nothing. Spacepal is for the point where "Desktop 6" stops meaning anything: it keeps the same macOS Spaces and adds names, previews, faster switching and window tools on top. It is not a replacement; it is a layer over the Spaces you already have.
What Mission Control already does well
Per Apple's guide, macOS Spaces and Mission Control give you:
- up to 16 Spaces, added and deleted from the Spaces bar at the top of Mission Control;
- switching with a three- or four-finger swipe, ⌃← and ⌃→, or a click in the Spaces bar;
- moving a window by dragging it to the screen edge, or dragging it onto another Space in Mission Control;
- assigning an app to one desktop or all of them from its Dock icon, under Options.
macOS also has optional "Switch to Desktop 1, 2, 3…" shortcuts in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control. All of this is free, built in and needs no extra permissions.
What is missing
Apple's guide does not cover renaming Spaces, and the Spaces bar keeps showing "Desktop 1, Desktop 2". Switching plays a slide animation. Mission Control shows windows, but you cannot search them by title, and nothing remembers where your windows were after a restart.
What Spacepal adds
| Task | Mission Control alone | With Spacepal |
|---|---|---|
| Tell Spaces apart | Numbers ("Desktop 4") | A name, icon and colour per Space, in the menu bar, in Mission Control and in Spacepal's overview |
| See every Space | Small thumbnails in the Spaces bar | Full-screen overview (⌥Tab) with a large preview of each Space |
| Switch | Swipe or ⌃ arrows, with the slide animation | ⌃⌥1…⌃⌥0 without the animation; press again to go back |
| Grid navigation | One row | Up and down a row with ⌃⌥↑ ⌃⌥↓ when a grid column count is set |
| Move a window | Drag to an edge or in Mission Control | ⌃⌥⇧ plus a number, or a tile's menu in the overview (version note below) |
| Find a window | Look through thumbnails | Search window titles on every Space (⌃⌥F) |
| Keep apps on their Space | Dock, Options, Assign To | Same, plus rules for apps that belong on a Space and pulling stray windows back |
| After a restart or monitor change | Windows end up wherever macOS puts them | Saved layouts that put windows back on their Spaces, on macOS 14.0–14.4 and 26.4 and later |
| Automation | Nothing specific to Spaces | Actions on entering a Space, profiles, URL scheme, AppleScript |
| Cost and permissions | Free, nothing to grant | One-time purchase after a 14-day trial (pricing); Accessibility and Screen Recording |
Mission Control details checked 2026-10-27 from Apple's guide Work in multiple spaces on Mac.
A note on moving windows: Spacepal moves windows with a direct macOS call that works, with System Integrity Protection on, on macOS 14.0–14.4 and 26.4 and later. On other versions it falls back to holding the window by its title bar while it switches Spaces, the way you would by hand, and that fallback only works for the front window. Putting windows back on their Spaces uses the direct move only, so it works on macOS 14.0–14.4 and 26.4 and later; on other versions the drag fallback cannot help, because it only moves the front window, and those windows stay on the Space they are on. App rules that pull stray windows back work the same way.
What stays the same
Spacepal does not invent its own desktops. Your Spaces are still macOS Spaces: swipes, full-screen apps, the Dock's Assign To setting and Mission Control itself keep working. If you quit Spacepal, everything is as it was, minus the names and previews. That is the main difference from AeroSpace or FlashSpace, which run their own workspaces instead (see Mission Control alternatives).
One macOS setting matters: turn off Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use in Desktop & Dock. Otherwise macOS keeps reordering your Spaces and numbered shortcuts point at different desktops from day to day. The setup steps cover this.
What Spacepal cannot change
- It cannot rename the "Desktop N" text itself. It draws its own labels over Mission Control, and a macOS update can break that until Spacepal is updated.
- The Mac App Store version cannot add or remove desktops; the direct version can, by driving Mission Control. Four-finger tap, restoring browser tabs and AltTab setup are also direct-only.
- It cannot reorder your real Spaces. Its overview can show them in your own order, but macOS keeps its own.
- It cannot move every window on every macOS version. Outside macOS 14.0–14.4 and 26.4 and later only the front window can be moved, by the drag fallback, so restoring layouts and app rules cannot move windows between Spaces there.
- It is not a tiling window manager and does not arrange windows for you.
When Mission Control on its own is the better choice
- You use few Spaces and always know what is on each.
- You do not want to grant Screen Recording or Accessibility to a third-party app.
- You switch mostly with trackpad swipes and do not mind the animation.
- You would rather not pay for something macOS mostly covers.
Getting started
Start with names, since that is what most people miss first: how to rename desktops on a Mac. Then try switching without the animation and the Spaces keyboard shortcuts. The full list of keys is in the docs.
Related
- Spacepal vs DeskStag, which only adds names to Mission Control
- Mission Control alternatives for Mac
- All comparisons
We make Spacepal, so read this with that in mind. Competitor details come from their own sites and are dated; if something is out of date, email support@getspacepal.com and we will fix it.
Written by Dan Bayer, developer of Spacepal. Last updated 2026-10-27.