FlyKey is a Mac menu-bar utility that surfaces every keyboard shortcut for the app you are currently using — on demand, in a floating overlay — so you can learn and recall hotkeys without leaving your workflow.
What is FlyKey?
FlyKey is a lightweight macOS shortcut-reference tool developed by Better365. Whenever you need a hotkey reminder, a single trigger summons a clean, searchable cheat-sheet tailored to your active application. The overlay appears instantly and dismisses just as fast, keeping you in flow rather than bouncing you out to a browser tab or a PDF you've long since forgotten where you saved.
I first installed it after watching myself open Safari, search "Figma keyboard shortcuts", skim a table, switch back, and immediately forget the shortcut I'd just read. That cycle is embarrassing and expensive. FlyKey collapses it to a half-second glance.
What does FlyKey do best?
FlyKey's strongest suit is context-awareness: it detects the frontmost app automatically and shows only that app's shortcuts, so you are never hunting through a universal master list. The overlay is grouped by action category — navigation, editing, window management — which makes it scannable in seconds even in apps with sprawling shortcut maps like Final Cut Pro or Xcode.
Search is where it really earns its keep. Type two or three letters and the list narrows live. I use this constantly in apps I visit occasionally — Sketch, Numbers, Terminal — where I know a shortcut exists but cannot summon it from muscle memory. The result feels closer to autocomplete than a reference lookup.
- App-aware overlays — shortcut list updates whenever you switch the active window
- Live search — filter hundreds of shortcuts by keyword in real time
- Menu-bar home — zero dock presence, trivial to summon and dismiss
- Broad app coverage — supports macOS system apps and most popular third-party titles out of the box
How much does FlyKey cost?
FlyKey is free to download from the Better365 website. Better365 publishes several Mac utilities under a similar free-or-freemium model, and FlyKey follows that pattern — you get the core shortcut-display functionality without handing over a credit card. Whether advanced or future features sit behind an optional upgrade is worth checking on the developer's site, but the daily-driver shortcut-lookup experience costs nothing.
Who should use FlyKey?
FlyKey is most valuable for two distinct groups: newcomers who are actively learning an app's shortcut vocabulary, and experienced power-users who span many tools and cannot keep every app's hotkey map in their heads simultaneously. If your work day touches Xcode, Notion, Logic Pro, and a terminal all before lunch, FlyKey is quietly indispensable.
It is less necessary if you live almost entirely in a single application whose shortcuts you have long internalized — at that point the overlay sits dormant in your menu bar. Designers who roam across Figma, Sketch, and Affinity Designer will see the most return; the shortcut maps differ just enough between those apps to cause daily friction without a reference nearby.
Compared to something like CheatSheet — which shows shortcuts by holding ⌘ — FlyKey's persistent, searchable overlay feels more deliberate and less like a brief flash. Keysmith and Keyboard Maestro solve a different problem entirely (creating shortcuts rather than discovering them). FlyKey occupies a clear niche that neither tool addresses.
What are the best FlyKey alternatives?
The most direct alternative is CheatSheet (free), which surfaces shortcuts on a long-press of ⌘. It is faster to invoke but offers no search and no persistent overlay. KeyCue takes a similar approach with a slightly more polished presentation and a paid price tag. For learners who want structured shortcut courses rather than just lookup, Macos Shortcuts guides inside apps like Sketch's built-in help are an option, though they require leaving context entirely. FlyKey sits between these: more capable than CheatSheet, more accessible than KeyCue, and purpose-built for the quick-lookup moment rather than structured learning.
How does FlyKey compare to CheatSheet?
CheatSheet requires you to hold a modifier key and releases the overlay the moment you let go — it is a peek, not a reference panel. FlyKey's overlay stays visible, supports search, and can be consulted while you think through what you are about to do. For muscle-memory drilling, CheatSheet is quicker; for actually learning or cross-referencing unfamiliar shortcuts, FlyKey's persistent, filterable panel wins comfortably. Both are free, so running them alongside each other costs nothing.
