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Do you need BetterTouchTool just to middle click?

· 7 min read

No. BetterTouchTool will give your trackpad a middle click (its own example sets a three-finger click to its Middle Click action), but it is one of several routes. For opening a link in a background tab, Command-click already does the job in Safari, Chrome and Firefox with nothing installed. If you want a real middle click on the trackpad, an app built mostly around gestures, such as Trill, does it with one Gesture Set switched on.

Which way makes sense depends on what else you want from the app, so here is what each route gets you and what it costs.

What a middle click is for on a Mac

A Mac trackpad has one surface and no middle button, and System Settings has no switch that adds one. The browser is where it does the most.

  • On a link, a middle click opens the page in a new tab behind the one you are reading.
  • On a tab, a middle click closes it in Chrome and Firefox.

Outside the browser it matters much less. Some apps give the middle button a job of their own, and many give it none. If you came from Linux, where a middle click pastes the current selection, that is not a Mac convention: outside the odd app that chooses to copy it, adding a middle click will not bring it back.

A mouse with a clickable scroll wheel already has a middle click: press the wheel. The question only arises on a trackpad.

The free route: Command-click

Before you buy anything, try the keyboard versions for a day. They work on every Mac.

  1. Hold Command and click a link to open it in a background tab.
  2. Hold Command and Shift and click a link to open it in a new tab and go straight to it.
  3. Press Command-W to close the current tab.

For plenty of people that settles it. Where it falls short is one-handed reading: scrolling search results with one hand on the trackpad and the other nowhere near the keyboard. That is the moment a trackpad middle click earns its place, and the step-by-step setup is in how to middle click on a Mac trackpad.

Middle click with BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool has a Middle Click action, and its trackpad page uses “Three finger click → middle click” as an example of what you can set up. It can also respond to taps, clicks, swipes and tip-taps with one to five fingers, so you are not limited to that one gesture.

What you are buying, though, is far more than a middle click. BetterTouchTool covers trackpads, the Magic Mouse, mice, keyboards, the Touch Bar, remotes, Stream Deck, game controllers and MIDI controllers, with more than 600 built-in actions that can be chained together, and it adds a clipboard manager, a launcher, window management and scripting on top. At the time of writing (October 2026) it costs $15 for a Standard licence with two years of updates, or $25 for a Lifetime licence, and the exact price depends on your country and taxes. One licence covers all your personal Macs, and the free trial lasts 45 days.

If you expect to use even a few of those other features, that is an easy purchase, and a middle click is a fine first thing to set up in it. If you would only ever use the middle click, you are buying a broad toolkit for one gesture, and a narrower app may get you there with less setting up.

Middle click with Trill

Trill is a menu bar app for trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts with a Hyper Key, and window snapping. It covers less than BetterTouchTool, and the middle click is part of what it sets up for you rather than something you build.

Its Everyday Gesture Set makes a three-finger tap a middle click in every app. The same set makes buttons 4 and 5 on a mouse go back and forward in browsers and Finder, and leaves them untouched everywhere else. Switching the set on is one click, and when you first open Trill, the welcome suggests the sets that fit the apps on your Mac.

On a Force Touch trackpad, you feel a tick under your fingers the moment Trill recognises the tap, before the click is sent, so you know it registered even when the new tab opens out of sight. On a trackpad without Force Touch, Trill shows each gesture on screen instead.

If a tap is not the gesture you want, middle click is also one of Trill’s actions, so you can give it to another gesture:

  • A corner click, a real click with one finger in a corner of the trackpad, if you would rather press than tap.
  • A TipTap, resting one finger and tapping beside it with another.
  • Any gesture, only in some apps. Each gesture works everywhere or only in the apps you choose, so the tap can be a middle click in your browsers and free for something else in other apps.

To make one, press New gesture, do the gesture on the trackpad, and choose middle click. Trill reads the rule back as a sentence so you can check it before you rely on it.

Trill costs $29 once, not a subscription, and one licence key works on up to three Macs. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. The free trial is shorter than BetterTouchTool’s: 24 hours from the first launch, with every feature and no card needed. If it does not suit you, you have 30 days to ask for a refund by email.

The clash both routes have to deal with

Whichever app you use, check one macOS setting first. macOS can use a three-finger tap for Look Up, the panel that shows a definition for the word under the pointer. It is not the standard setting, but if it has been chosen on your Mac and a three-finger tap also sends a middle click, one tap does both.

  1. Open System Settings and choose Trackpad.
  2. Click Point & Click.
  3. Look at “Look up & data detectors”. If it says Tap with Three Fingers, that is the clash.
  4. Change it, or switch it off, if you want the three-finger tap for middle click.

You do not lose Look Up by doing this: Control-Command-D with the pointer over a word still opens it.

BetterTouchTool’s guidance for any gesture macOS already uses is: “you can disable the system version in System Settings to avoid both firing.” Trill checks for the clash itself. If macOS is using the three-finger tap, Trill keeps your middle click off, marks it “Blocked by macOS”, and offers the fix in one click: turn the Look Up tap off in macOS, or pick another gesture. It changes the macOS setting only when you click that fix, and Put back returns it exactly as it was.

So, which one?

  • Use Command-click if what you miss is opening links in background tabs and you do not mind using the keyboard.
  • Use BetterTouchTool if middle click is the first of many things you want to customise, if you use a Magic Mouse, Touch Bar, Stream Deck or other device it supports, or if you want the lower price, the 45-day trial and a licence for all your personal Macs.
  • Use Trill if you want a middle click and a few other useful gestures switched on today, with a tick to confirm each one and the Look Up clash handled for you.

Questions

Can a Mac trackpad middle click without any app?

No. Trackpad settings cover secondary click (the right click) but not middle click. Command-click does the same job for links in Safari, Chrome and Firefox, and a mouse with a clickable wheel sends a middle click on its own.

Is BetterTouchTool worth buying only for middle click?

At $15 or $25 (at the time of writing) with a 45-day trial, it is easy to find out. It makes most sense if you will use more of it than the middle click. If the middle click is all you want, a ready-made Gesture Set gets you there with less to set up.

Does middle click work on a Magic Trackpad?

Yes, with either app. BetterTouchTool supports every generation of Magic Trackpad, and Trill’s gestures work on a MacBook’s built-in trackpad or a Magic Trackpad.

Can I keep using BetterTouchTool and try Trill’s middle click?

Yes, but give the gesture to only one of them. If both apps answer a three-finger tap, both will act on it, so turn it off in one app while you try the other. Trill does not import BetterTouchTool settings, so there is nothing to bring across for a middle click: switch on the Everyday set and it is there.