If you are choosing between LayoutLock and Moom, start with what you do most often. Do you spend the day moving and resizing individual windows? Or do you want to save an arrangement and return to it after a call, a restart, or a change of displays?
Both apps can save and restore layouts. Moom can also launch apps in an app-specific saved layout, subject to the limitations described in its documentation. The difference is in the surrounding workflow. This comparison is written by LayoutLock’s developer.
Where Moom gives you more control
Moom offers a configurable palette at a window’s title-bar buttons, snapping, a resizing grid, and modifier-key controls for moving and resizing windows. Custom actions can be combined into chains. Its layouts can match particular apps or arrange a group of recently used windows.
If those controls are part of your daily routine, Moom has a broader set of tools for the job. Its product page shows the controls in action, and the custom actions guide explains saved layouts and app launching.
Where LayoutLock fits
LayoutLock starts with the windows you have already arranged. Save them under a name, inspect the layout in the dashboard, and restore it from the dashboard, menu bar, or a per-layout global shortcut. Windows are positioned relative to their displays, with a fallback available when a saved display is missing.
It also supports Safari and Chrome tab capture with the required Automation permission, and saved opening targets for supported documents, folders, and URLs. Pro offers display-change restore suggestions and lets you customize restore order. You choose when a suggested layout is restored.
If your main task is returning to a few familiar workspaces, you can try that workflow with three layouts in the free version. The workspace guide walks through a coding and meeting setup.
Price and requirements
LayoutLock requires macOS 14 or later. Free includes up to three saved layouts without a trial deadline. Pro is $14.99 once for unlimited layouts, display-change suggestions, and custom restore order. The pricing section lists the current terms.
Moom’s website currently lists a $15 license, valid indefinitely, with at least one year of updates included. Its update coverage is separate from continued use of the purchased version. Check Many Tricks’ website for current pricing and system requirements.
Try the arrangement you actually need
Use the apps and displays from your normal workday. Save the layout, move the windows, and restore it. If you regularly quit an app, test that case too. Layout restoration depends on the window information apps expose and the way they reopen their content.
LayoutLock handles one macOS desktop at a time. Moom’s documentation also describes its restriction on saving layouts across Spaces. Neither should be chosen on the assumption that one saved layout recreates every desktop in Mission Control.
Try LayoutLock free with your own windows and displays.