Mac Dock alternatives: which ones provide a Windows-style taskbar

Making windows easier to find on a Mac is really three different problems, addressed by three different kinds of tool. Establishing which kind you need is more useful than comparing feature lists.

Three kinds of tool, three different problems

• Persistent taskbars — replace the Dock and keep a window list along the edge of the screen. Tungsten Edge belongs to this kind.
• Dock enhancers — leave the Dock in place and extend it, for example with hover previews.
• Window switchers — a panel summoned by a keyboard shortcut for choosing a window, dismissed afterwards. Nothing on screen the rest of the time.

The table below compares the first kind only: products that replace or take over the Dock and remain along the edge of the screen. The other two kinds are covered under "Adjacent tools that do a different job".

Eight compared

The same job, and how far each one takes it. Information about the others is taken from their own websites.

The table scrolls sideways.

— means their site does not state it, not that the ability is absent. Information was taken from each vendor’s own website on 2026-09-20; the grey line under each name is that site. Such information changes, so treat their sites as authoritative.

ABOUT TUNGSTEN EDGE

Reliable switching is the real dividing line

A feature list is easy to compare; whether a click reliably lands is not. Anyone who has used products in this category knows that "one click gets you there, entries keep their place, nothing flickers" is not a given.

Three behaviours can be checked: one click switches to that window, raising what should be raised and minimizing what should be minimized; entries keep their place; and nothing flickers or leaves an entry behind for a window that is gone.

That is where most of the work has gone: 375 of its 1,198 unit tests cover window identification and switching. This is not a claim of perfection, only an indication of which part is maintained as the main line.

Multiple displays: moving a window to another screen

Each screen has its own bar, listing only that screen's windows. Moving a window across requires neither dragging its title bar nor a shortcut — drag it off the bar and release once the pointer is on the other screen. The window keeps its size and relative position, and is not brought to the front.

Requires one of the multi-display modes, selected from the menu bar; full-screen windows cannot be moved; in apps where tabs are windows, only the current tab moves.

The trade Tungsten Edge makes: single-window apps collapse to icons

What these products share is that every window has its own place. The divergence is elsewhere: should an app with only one window also spend a title slot?

The Windows taskbar says yes: Photoshop has one window and still receives an icon and a label, so a dozen apps fill the strip. Tungsten Edge keeps single-window apps as plain icons — a title is not needed to recognise an app, so title slots go to the apps that need telling apart, and the strip stays short even with many windows open.

Two related behaviours: a minimized window keeps its place, and only closing it frees the slot; and in apps where tabs are windows (Finder, Ghostty), switching tabs leaves a single stable entry rather than several.

The features all serve one purpose

Products here tend to pile things onto the bar: CPU load, a calendar, a clock, progress bars. Tungsten Edge is not short of features either — a drawer, a shelf, the Trash, moving windows between screens, keeping maximized windows clear of the bar — but all of them serve one purpose: making windows easy to find, to move and to put away. Nothing unrelated to windows goes on the bar.

What happens when there are too many windows? Some products answer by adding rows — Mac Taskbar allows one to four per display. Tungsten Edge does not: a single row, single-window apps collapsed to icons, and horizontal scrolling if it still does not fit. One row fewer is one more strip of desktop.

New, but not thrown together

Tungsten Edge is the youngest product on this page. The facts available for checking: 1,198 unit tests, 375 of them covering window identification and switching; an installer signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a double-click; Sparkle built in for updates; support from macOS 12 through 27; and more than a thousand confirmed addresses on the release-notification list.

The other seven in brief

uBar 4 is the longest-established of these; the copyright line on its site begins in 2009 and the current build is 4.2.5 (15 September 2026). It can be configured as a dock or as a taskbar, and with grouping turned off it becomes what the site calls "see every window right in the bar". The bar can also display CPU and memory usage, app badges, media progress, a clock and a calendar, and it may sit on any edge of the screen across as many as five rows. Suited to: systems older than macOS 12, where Tungsten Edge cannot be installed, or a taskbar of high information density.

Taskbar (lawand.io) is the closest in form to the Windows taskbar itself; its site opens with "Every window gets its own button. Click it and you're there." Windows are not grouped by application by default and buttons may be dragged anywhere along the bar; grouping one application's windows together is a single checkbox — the setting known on Windows as "never combine taskbar buttons". It supports hover previews, minimising by clicking the focused window again, and middle-click to close, with a Start menu at the left end; multi-display support extends to five screens. Suited to: adopting the Windows taskbar model in full, Start menu included.

Mac Taskbar is built around multiple displays: one taskbar per screen, one to four rows configurable per display, and a mode that shows every window on the primary display and only local windows elsewhere. Several windows of one application may be combined into a single tile and selected from a list. Suited to: workflows with more windows than a single row can hold.

Winstrix is not a taskbar product alone but a set of switches that make macOS behave like Windows: taskbar, Start menu, system tray, window snapping, clipboard history and remapped shortcuts, each enabled independently. Per-window switching is handled by its Alt+Tab, while the taskbar itself lists what the site calls "pinned and running apps". Suited to: changing more than a single bar — the machine's interaction model as a whole.

Sidebar is a vertical strip docked to the side of the screen, described on its site as "The modern, most customizable Dock replacement for your Mac". Its display style switches between icons only and every window with its title, it can be configured per screen, and it can reserve screen space so that windows do not overlap it.

InfyniDock is a Dock replacement organised per application, with the proposition "Preview before you click.": hovering an application shows live thumbnails of all its windows for selection. The system Dock may also be left in place, with the product used only through a shortcut-summoned overlay.

Docky is entirely free and open source, and is marked on its site as currently in beta. Its dock can be composed from applications, widgets and folders, while per-window switching lives in a separate Cmd-Tab-style overlay rather than on the dock itself.

Adjacent tools that do a different job

These products are not substitutes for Tungsten Edge; this section covers only what each one does. It omits prices and system requirements — that information changes.

Dock enhancers: keeping the Dock and extending it

ActiveDock fully replaces Apple's Dock and Launchpad while keeping the icon metaphor: hovering an app icon shows thumbnails of its windows, alongside app grouping, custom themes and icons, and a Start-menu-style launcher. Where the requirement is a highly customizable Dock rather than a strip organized by window, it is the better fit.

DockDoor is free and open source and describes itself as "Previews and switching for the Dock you already use" — it does not replace the Dock. It adds window previews on hover, together with a preview-rich replacement for Alt+Tab and Cmd+Tab. Where the system Dock is fine and only previews are missing, DockDoor is precisely that; Tungsten Edge is not.

Window switchers: summoned by a shortcut, nothing on screen otherwise

AltTab is free and open source (GPL-3.0) and the most widely used of these: hold the shortcut and choose from a grid of window thumbnails. A Pro tier adds search and further appearance options.

Contexts describes itself as a "Radically simpler & faster window switcher for Mac" and takes the search route: summon a panel and type a few characters to filter windows. It also offers a sidebar that groups windows by Space.

Witch is the long-running utility from Many Tricks, tagline "⌘-Tab Everything". It switches between apps, windows and tabs, and several switchers can be configured; it does not show live thumbnails.

Choosing by requirement

With the comparison above in view, the shortest route to a choice:

• Keeping the system Dock, with window previews on hover → DockDoor
• A better Alt+Tab only, with no permanent strip on screen → AltTab; typing rather than thumbnails → Contexts; tabs switched as well → Witch
• A highly customizable Dock (groups, themes, a launcher) rather than a per-window strip → ActiveDock
• A system older than macOS 12 → uBar or Taskbar; Tungsten Edge cannot be installed
• Multiple displays with several rows per screen → Mac Taskbar
• The whole machine behaving like Windows (Start menu, system tray and snapping included) → Winstrix
• A vertical strip down the side of the screen, configurable per display → Sidebar
• Keeping a per-app Dock, with the right window chosen on hover → InfyniDock
• A free, open-source Dock that takes widgets and folders → Docky
• A dozen windows open and constant switching, where what matters is whether a click lands and whether entries keep their place → Tungsten Edge is worth considering; it also keeps single-window apps from spending a title slot
• Multiple displays, with windows moved between screens regularly → Tungsten Edge again; see the “moving windows across screens” row above

Frequently asked

What Dock alternatives are there for macOS?

Three kinds. Persistent taskbars replace the Dock and keep a window list along the edge of the screen: Tungsten Edge, uBar, Taskbar, Mac Taskbar, Winstrix, and the newer Sidebar, InfyniDock and Docky. Dock enhancers keep the Dock and add hover previews to it: ActiveDock and DockDoor. Window switchers are a panel you summon with a shortcut to pick a window: AltTab, Contexts and Witch.

Is there a Mac app that shows every window as its own button, like the Windows taskbar?

Yes — that is the persistent-taskbar kind: uBar, Taskbar, Mac Taskbar, Winstrix and Tungsten Edge all list windows individually, and Sidebar can be configured to do so. The differences are in the details: whether an app with only one window also spends a title slot, whether a minimized window keeps its place, and whether a click reliably lands. All of them need the Accessibility permission to read and manage windows.

Are Mac Dock alternatives free?

Some are, some are not. Tungsten Edge is free to download now, and the 1.0 release will be a one-time purchase, not a subscription. DockDoor, AltTab and Docky are free and open source. uBar, Winstrix, InfyniDock and Sidebar are one-time purchases with a free trial (Sidebar also has subscription tiers); Taskbar is free today, and its site says it becomes a $25 one-time purchase on 19 December 2026. Treat each vendor's site as authoritative on price; the figures in the table on this page are dated.

What is the difference between Tungsten Edge and uBar?

Both are persistent taskbars, both replace the Dock, both list windows individually, and on multiple displays both can give each screen its own bar or mirror it. Four differences: Tungsten Edge collapses a single-window app to a plain icon and can move a window to another screen when you drag it there (uBar's site addresses neither); Tungsten Edge is free to download and open source, while uBar Personal is $30; Tungsten Edge requires macOS 12 or later, while uBar goes back to macOS 10.13.

Related: How to see all open windows on a Mac · Is there a Windows-style taskbar for macOS? · Back to home