8 alternativesKeyboard Maestro: $36 once
The best Keyboard Maestro alternatives
For most people the best alternative to Keyboard Maestro is Itsyhome, and the best free one is Alfred.
ItsyhomePick it if you have Apple Home devices and want to control them from the Mac without opening another app.Free to startCompare at a glance
Keyboard Maestro is highlighted, so you can see what you give up and what you gain.
| App | Price | How you pay | Mac | iPhone | iPad | Watch | App Store | Developer | Setapp | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keyboard Maestro | $36 once | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||||
| Itsyhome | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Shortap | From $5 | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Alfred | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | Too few ratings | |||||||
 BetterTouchTool | $15 once | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Hazel | $42 once | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Hookmark | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Eney | From $14.99 | Subscription | Too few ratings | |||||||
 Osaurus | Free, open source | Free | Too few ratings |
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The alternatives, in order
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Pick it if you have Apple Home devices and want to control them from the Mac without opening another app.
Apple Home and Home Assistant controls in the Mac menu bar, with a $12.99 Pro upgrade.
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Pick it if you own a recent MacBook and want a few shortcuts you can fire without touching the keyboard.
Turns the sides of your MacBook into 6 buttons for screenshots, music controls and Apple Shortcuts.
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Pick it if you want automations you start by typing a keyword, plus community workflows to borrow.
A keyboard launcher you buy once, with clipboard history, snippets and thousands of community workflows in the Powerpack.
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Pick this if you want a trackpad gesture or mouse button to run a script or paste a snippet.
Turn any trackpad gesture, mouse button or key into your own shortcut, with a 45-day trial to build the setup.
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Pick this if what you repeat is filing and renaming downloads, bills and scans.
Set rules once and your Mac renames, files and cleans up downloads on its own, even reading the text in scanned PDFs.
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Pick it if you juggle research, client work or writing projects across many apps and files.
Hooks your files, emails and web pages together, so everything for a project is one shortcut away.
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Pick it if you want to ask your Mac for chores like sorting Downloads or drafting a reply, and you already pay for AI tools.
MacPaw's AI assistant that organizes files, drafts emails and works with your apps, on a credit plan from $14.99 a month.
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Pick it if you want AI that can run offline on your Mac, with your files and chats staying on your computer.
A free Mac app that runs private AI agents on your own computer.
Keyboard Maestro head to head
- Keyboard Maestro vs HazelPick this if what you repeat is filing and renaming downloads, bills and scans.
- Keyboard Maestro vs AlfredPick it if you want automations you start by typing a keyword, plus community workflows to borrow.
- Keyboard Maestro vs BetterTouchToolPick this if you want a trackpad gesture or mouse button to run a script or paste a snippet.
When Keyboard Maestro is still the right pick
You repeat the same clicks and keystrokes at work every day and would rather your Mac did them.