Mac Automation Showdown: BetterTouchTool vs Keyboard Maestro vs Karabiner-Elements

If you want your Mac to do more with less clicking, three apps come up again and again: BetterTouchTool, Keyboard Maestro, and Karabiner-Elements. They overlap a little, but each solves a different problem, and many power users run two or all three together.

Quick Verdict

Choose BetterTouchTool if you want to customize how you control your Mac: trackpad gestures, mouse buttons, keyboard shortcuts, Stream Deck and other macro pads, window snapping, and floating menus.

Choose Keyboard Maestro if you want to automate workflows: multi-step macros across apps, triggered by hotkeys, typed text, app events, schedules, and more.

Choose Karabiner-Elements if you want to remap your keyboard at a low level, for example turning Caps Lock into a Hyper Key, for free.

Feature Comparison

BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool (BTT) makes your input devices do exactly what you want. Its developer says it offers more than 600 triggers across devices and more than 600 built-in actions, which you can chain together.

What it's best at:

• Trackpad and mouse gestures: custom swipes, taps, and drawn shapes; per-button mouse actions; smoother scrolling.
• Keyboard shortcuts: global hotkeys aware of left and right modifiers, short and long presses, typed key sequences, text triggers, and a configurable Hyper Key.
• Window management: snapping, moving, and resizing windows.
• Floating menus and widgets: radial launchers, an iOS-style control center, live widgets, and HUDs you can place anywhere.
• Hardware: native support for Elgato Stream Deck and many other macro pads, MIDI controllers, the Apple/Siri Remote, and the BTT Mobile app for iPhone and iPad.
• Newer additions: a Spotlight-style launcher with clipboard history, and custom AI agents that work with OpenAI, Anthropic, or local models.

BTT also still customizes the Touch Bar, which mattered more when this post first ran. Apple no longer sells a Mac with a Touch Bar: the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 (2022) was the last model to have one, so this is only useful if you still own one of those Macs.

The downside: there are so many options that the interface can feel overwhelming at first. Start with a few gestures or shortcuts and grow from there.

Pricing: BTT is a one-time purchase. The Standard license ($15) includes two years of updates, and you can keep using the last version you received after that. The Lifetime license ($25) includes updates for as long as BTT exists. Prices vary by country and tax. One license covers all your personal Macs and unlocks the BTT Mobile companion app. There's a 45-day free trial, and BTT is also included in Setapp if you prefer a subscription.

Looking at other options? See our guide to BetterTouchTool alternatives for Mac.

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is the classic Mac macro app. If you can do something manually, it can probably automate it. Macros are built from hundreds of actions, with flow control, conditions, and loops, so they scale from typing your email address to multi-app reporting.

Highlights:

• Triggers: hotkeys, typed strings, application launches and quits, schedules (for example, setting up your Mac at 8:00 every morning), and more.
• Apps and windows: launch apps, open documents, arrange windows, select menus by name.
• Text and images: text snippets, prompts that combine several inputs into one snippet, text transformations, OCR using Apple's text recognition, and multiple-entry clipboard history.
• Web: fill forms, open pages, and download files.
• Version 11 additions: a New Macro Wizard, a Security Settings pane that shows which permissions are granted, and a keyboardmaestro command-line tool.

The downside: it has a learning curve for complex macros, and the editor looks dated next to newer apps. Its active forum helps a lot.

Pricing: US$36 one-time for version 11, plus tax. Upgrades from earlier versions cost US$25, and purchases since 1 March 2023 got version 11 free. A free trial is available. Keyboard Maestro 11.1.1 requires macOS 10.13 or later, runs natively on Apple silicon, and supports macOS 27.

Karabiner-Elements

Karabiner-Elements does one thing extremely well: keyboard customization at the system level. Simple key mappings are set up in its settings window. For more, you import Complex Modifications rules from the community gallery or write your own in JSON.

Popular rules include a Hyper Key on Caps Lock, Vi or Emacs key bindings everywhere, preventing an accidental Command-Q, and mouse keys. Rules can also depend on the connected device or the frontmost app.

The downside: it doesn't run actions, gestures, or window management, and advanced rules mean editing JSON. Because it works at a low level, it needs system extension permissions during setup.

Pricing: free and open source (released into the public domain under the Unlicense), with optional sponsorship. Version 16.3.0 (September 2026) supports macOS 13 through macOS 27 on Intel and Apple silicon, and older versions remain available for older systems.

Using Them Together

These tools combine well. A common setup:

1. Karabiner-Elements turns Caps Lock into a Hyper Key (Control-Option-Command-Shift).
2. Keyboard Maestro or BetterTouchTool assigns actions and macros to Hyper Key combinations.
3. BetterTouchTool handles trackpad gestures, mouse buttons, and window snapping.

BTT now has its own configurable Hyper Key, so you may not need Karabiner just for that.

Which One Should You Choose?

Choose BetterTouchTool if you:

• Want custom trackpad gestures or mouse button actions
• Use a Stream Deck or another macro pad
• Want window snapping, floating menus, and a launcher in one app

Choose Keyboard Maestro if you:

• Repeat multi-step tasks across several apps
• Want macros triggered by schedules, app events, or typed text
• Need powerful text snippets and clipboard tools

Choose Karabiner-Elements if you:

• Want to remap keys or modifiers at a low level
• Want a Hyper Key or Vim-style navigation everywhere
• Prefer a free, focused tool

Final Verdict

There's no single winner, because they solve different problems:

• BetterTouchTool is best for input customization, and its one-time price is very fair.
• Keyboard Maestro is best for workflow automation.
• Karabiner-Elements is best for keyboard remapping, and it's free.

Start with the 45-day BTT trial or the Keyboard Maestro trial, install Karabiner-Elements if you need key remapping, and keep the combination that removes the most repetitive work from your day.

Catch these apps on sale: many paid Mac apps, including automation tools, run discounts at least once a year, most often around Black Friday. Subscribe to the Apps.Deals newsletter to hear when the deals arrive.

Note: First published in April 2025 and updated in October 2026. Features and prices are current as of October 2026 and can change; verify them on each official site before buying.

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