Keystroke Pro

Keystroke Pro is a Mac automation launcher that transforms any screen region into a tappable macro pad — letting you fire shortcuts, scripts, text snippets, and app commands from a persistent, fully customisable button grid.

What is Keystroke Pro?

Keystroke Pro is a productivity utility for macOS that gives you a software-based control surface: a floating grid of buttons, each wired to any action your Mac can perform. Think of it as a Stream Deck that lives entirely in software — no hardware required, no USB dongle, just a panel you summon when you need it and dismiss when you don't.

The app sits in your menu bar and surfaces palettes on demand. Each palette is a named collection of buttons, and you can have as many palettes as you like — one for video editing, one for your code editor, one for communication tools. Switching between them takes a single click or a keyboard trigger.

What does Keystroke Pro do best?

Keystroke Pro's standout strength is the sheer range of actions it can chain together without writing a single line of code. A single button can open an application, paste a text template, wait half a second, then fire a keyboard shortcut — all in one tap.

• Multi-step macro sequences — drag-and-drop action blocks that run in order, with optional delays and conditionals.
• Shell script execution — pass arguments, capture output, and even display results in a notification.
• App-aware palettes — palettes can auto-switch when a specific application comes to the foreground, so your Final Cut palette appears the moment you click into Final Cut.
• URL scheme and Apple Script support — deep integration with the Mac automation ecosystem without requiring a separate helper app.
• Touch Bar and Stream Deck bridging — if you do own hardware, Keystroke Pro can push buttons to both.

Where Keyboard Maestro gives you raw scripting power and a steep learning curve, Keystroke Pro keeps the visual metaphor front-and-centre. The button is the atom; everything else follows from there.

Is Keystroke Pro free?

Keystroke Pro is free to download with a meaningful free tier — you can build and run palettes immediately without paying anything. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks the full feature set, including unlimited palettes, cloud sync, and the more advanced action types. There is no subscription.

For power users who live in automation tools all day, the unlock price is easy to justify against the hours it saves. Casual users may find the free tier entirely sufficient for a handful of frequently-used buttons.

Who should use Keystroke Pro?

Keystroke Pro earns its place on machines where repetitive sequences eat real time: video editors running colour-grade shortcuts, developers toggling between terminal and editor, podcasters controlling recording software, or anyone who has mentally mapped the same five keystrokes so many times that the muscle memory has become a liability rather than an asset.

It also makes an excellent companion for accessibility needs — replacing complex modifier-key combinations with a single large tap target. And if you have been eyeing a physical Stream Deck but baulk at the price or the desk footprint, Keystroke Pro is the honest software answer to that question.

It is not the right tool if your primary need is global hotkeys triggered without looking — for that, something like Raycast or Alfred handles the invisible-launch-bar model better. Keystroke Pro is most at home when you want a visible, persistent control surface you can glance at and tap deliberately.

How does Keystroke Pro compare to Keyboard Maestro?

Keyboard Maestro is the undisputed king of Mac automation depth — triggers from everything, conditional logic, variables, complex scripting, a decades-long track record. If you need to automate truly intricate multi-app workflows, Keyboard Maestro wins on capability.

Keystroke Pro wins on immediacy. Setting up a button takes thirty seconds rather than five minutes. The visual palette model means you see your automations rather than hunting through a list of macro names. Many users run both: Keyboard Maestro handling the heavy background automation while Keystroke Pro surfaces the daily-driver actions in a panel they can actually see. BetterTouchTool overlaps here too, though its scope — gestures, Touch Bar, window snapping — is broader and the learning curve is steeper still. Keystroke Pro stays focused on the button-grid paradigm and is better for it.

What are the best Keystroke Pro alternatives?

The closest rivals depend on what drew you to the button-grid idea in the first place. Elgato Stream Deck (hardware + software) is the gold standard if you want physical tactile buttons. Keyboard Maestro provides far deeper macro logic without the visual palette surface. Raycast and Alfred both offer extensible launchers with their own macro-like features but are keyboard-first rather than tap-first. Mango 5Star is a more recent entrant in the software macro-pad space worth watching.