FlashSpace is a free, open-source virtual workspace manager for macOS that lets you define named workspaces, assign specific apps to each one, and snap between them with a single keystroke — all without touching macOS Spaces or Mission Control.
What is FlashSpace?
FlashSpace is a lightweight macOS utility that replaces the friction of traditional virtual desktops with a show/hide model: each workspace is a named collection of apps, and switching means hiding everything that doesn't belong and surfacing everything that does. The result is workspace-switching that feels closer to pressing a hotkey than dragging through Mission Control animations.
The project lives on GitHub — free, open source, and actively maintained by Wojciech Kulik. There's no subscription, no nag screen, no telemetry checkbox to uncheck. You download it, configure a few workspaces, assign your apps, and you're done in under ten minutes.
What does FlashSpace do best?
Speed and focus are where FlashSpace earns its name. Conventional macOS Spaces animate a slide transition across your entire display; FlashSpace just shows what you need right now and hides the noise. For anyone running a dense screen setup — multiple monitors, two dozen open windows, half a dozen active projects — that difference is felt immediately.
The workspace definition is app-centric rather than window-centric. You tell FlashSpace this workspace is Slack, Bear, and Safari; that workspace is Xcode and Terminal. From then on, switching is context-switching, not window-juggling. I've found this model particularly powerful when alternating between deep-focus coding sessions and communication windows — one hotkey drops me into the zone, another pulls me back to messages, and my mental desk stays clear in both directions.
FlashSpace also pairs elegantly with AeroSpace, the tiling window manager that's won over a growing slice of the Mac power-user community. If you're already living inside AeroSpace's layout engine, FlashSpace layers named, persistent workspace identities on top without conflict.
Is FlashSpace free?
Yes — completely. FlashSpace is open source and costs nothing. There are no paid tiers, no pro features behind a paywall, and no licence key to manage. The GitHub repository is the natural place to file issues, follow development, or support the author directly if the tool earns a permanent spot in your workflow.
Who should use FlashSpace?
FlashSpace is built for keyboard-first Mac users who find macOS Spaces too slow, too animation-heavy, or too indifferent to application context for serious multitasking. If your work involves switching between clearly delineated contexts — client work in one workspace, research in another, communications in a third — FlashSpace makes that switching nearly zero-cost.
Developers in particular tend to find it indispensable. A terminal workspace, an IDE workspace, and a browser-research workspace — each reachable by a dedicated hotkey — removes the context drag that comes with hunting through ⌘+Tab or swiping between Spaces. Designers juggling Figma, reference material, and a Slack client will feel the same pull.
If you prefer the mouse, favour Mission Control's bird's-eye visual overview, or only run two or three apps at a time, FlashSpace may be more structure than you need. Moom, Magnet, or even macOS's native Stage Manager might serve you better in that scenario.
How does FlashSpace compare to macOS Spaces?
macOS Spaces is window-centric: windows live on a virtual desktop, and you swipe or hotkey between desktops regardless of which app owns them. FlashSpace is app-centric: you define which applications constitute a workspace, and switching hides or reveals those apps regardless of which virtual desktop they technically occupy.
This makes FlashSpace faster to navigate (no slide animation), more intentional (you decide exactly what a workspace contains), and more compatible with layout tools like AeroSpace or yabai that already manage window arrangement within a single Space. The trade-off is that FlashSpace is deliberate where Spaces is passive — new apps don't automatically belong anywhere until you assign them, which takes a few seconds of housekeeping each time you add a tool to your stack.
Compared to the now-discontinued TotalSpaces or older Space-enhancer utilities, FlashSpace takes a philosophically different route: instead of extending the virtual desktop metaphor, it sidesteps it entirely and builds something more purposeful in its place.
