What BetterTouchTool costs, and what you actually need
At the time of writing (October 2026), BetterTouchTool sells two licences: Standard at $15, which includes two years of updates and lets you keep the last version you received, and Lifetime at $25, which receives every update for as long as BetterTouchTool exists. Both cover all your personal Macs, the exact price depends on your country and taxes, and there is a 45-day free trial with no account required. It is also available through Setapp, a subscription service.
Whether that is money well spent depends less on the price than on how much of BetterTouchTool you would use. Here is what each option buys, what macOS already does without any app, and when a narrower app is the better fit.
BetterTouchTool’s prices at the time of writing
These figures come from the buy page on folivora.ai, read in October 2026. Prices change, and the page says the exact amount for your country, with tax, is shown in the purchase dialog.
| Standard | Lifetime | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 | $25 |
| Updates | Two years | All updates while BetterTouchTool exists |
| After the update period | Keep using the last version you received, forever | No end to the update period |
| Other apps included | None | Any other Mac apps the developer releases in the two years after you buy |
| Macs covered | All your personal Macs | All your personal Macs |
Licences are sold through Paddle.com. The free trial runs for 45 days and needs no account, which is long enough to find out whether you reach for the app every day or forget it is there.
There is a third route. BetterTouchTool is also included in Setapp, which the same buy page describes as a subscription service for a monthly fee. If you already pay for Setapp for other apps, it may cost you nothing extra. If you would be subscribing for BetterTouchTool alone, compare that monthly fee with a one-off $15 or $25.
Standard or Lifetime
The main difference the buy page describes is how long you receive updates. Lifetime also covers any other Mac apps the developer releases in the two years after your purchase, if there are any. Two questions settle it.
How often do you update macOS? Apple releases a new version of macOS every year. An app that reads the trackpad, presses keys and moves windows works closely with the system, so a new macOS release is the moment you are most likely to want a newer version of any such app. If you install each new macOS soon after it arrives, the Lifetime licence means you never have to think about whether your copy is still inside its update window.
How long will you use it? If you are trying BetterTouchTool for one job, or you keep a Mac on the same macOS version for years, Standard is enough. Two years of updates covers roughly two macOS releases, and the version you have at the end is yours to keep.
The gap between the two is $10. For anyone who expects to be using the app three or four years from now, Lifetime is the simpler choice.
What the price covers
BetterTouchTool is broad, and its price should be judged against that breadth. Its own site describes it as a way to “customize trackpad gestures, the mouse, keyboard shortcuts, the menu bar, Stream Deck and more”, then automate with chainable actions.
On the device side, it works with MacBook trackpads, every generation of Magic Trackpad and the Magic Mouse; mouse buttons and Logitech devices; keyboards, with shortcuts, key sequences and a Hyper Key; the Touch Bar and the Apple and Siri Remote; its BTT Mobile app on iPhone and iPad; Stream Deck and other macro pads; game controllers; MIDI controllers; and generic HID and Leap Motion devices.
On the feature side, folivora.ai lists more than 600 triggers and more than 600 built-in actions, which can be chained into sequences. Beyond gestures and shortcuts there is window snapping and management, a clipboard manager, a screenshot tool, a Spotlight-style launcher, custom AI agents and assistants, menu bar customisation, floating menus and widgets, text-selection actions, scripting and remote control.
Its trackpad support alone covers taps, clicks, swipes and tip-taps with one to five fingers, corner clicks, edge swipes, drawing gestures and gestures that only work in particular apps.
If you would use three or four of those areas, $15 or $25 is a modest price for what you get, and a 45-day trial gives you time to set it up properly.
What macOS already does without any app
Before paying for anything, it is worth checking what is already on your Mac. Some of what people buy a gesture app for is a setting away.
- Trackpad gestures. Open System Settings and choose Trackpad. The Point & Click, Scroll & Zoom and More Gestures tabs list the gestures macOS offers, with a short video for each. You can switch them on or off and, for some, choose how many fingers they use. What you cannot do is give a gesture a new job.
- Keyboard shortcuts for menu commands. In System Settings, Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts and choose App Shortcuts. Click the add button, pick an app, type the exact name of a menu command and press the shortcut you want. This works for any command that appears in an app’s menus.
- Window snapping. On macOS 15 and later, dragging a window to the edge of the screen tiles it. The switch is “Drag windows to screen edges to tile”, in System Settings, Desktop & Dock.
- Caps Lock. In Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Modifier Keys, Caps Lock can be turned into Control, Option, Command or Escape, or switched off.
What macOS has no setting for: a middle click on the trackpad, a gesture that opens a new browser tab or runs a shortcut you chose, and a Hyper Key (one key that sends Control, Option, Shift and Command together). Those are the usual reasons to buy an app.
When a narrower app is enough
Plenty of people buy BetterTouchTool for one or two of those reasons and never touch the Stream Deck, MIDI or launcher side of it. If that sounds like you, the question is less “which app is cheapest” and more “which app gets me there with the least setting up”.
Trill is built for that narrower job: trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts with a Hyper Key, and window snapping, in one menu bar app. It does not cover the Touch Bar, remotes or Stream Deck. Instead it starts you off with six ready-made Gesture Sets (Everyday, Browser, Windows, Media, Writing and Developer), each a few gestures for one kind of work, switched on with one click. The Everyday set, for instance, makes a three-finger tap a middle click, and the Browser set gives you a four-finger tap for a new tab in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge, Brave and Orion.
When you want your own gesture, you press New gesture and do it on the trackpad. Trill names the gesture it saw, you pick what it does, and the rule reads back as a sentence. On a Force Touch trackpad you feel a tick under your finger the moment a gesture is recognised. If one of your gestures is the same as one macOS already uses, Trill keeps yours off, says “Blocked by macOS”, and offers the fix in one click.
If you are weighing the two apps on more than price, a BetterTouchTool alternative for people who just want gestures goes through the trade-off in more detail.
The two side by side, on cost
| BetterTouchTool | Trill | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 Standard or $25 Lifetime | $29 once |
| Free trial | 45 days, no account | 24 hours from first launch, no card |
| Macs per licence | All your personal Macs | Up to 3 Macs |
| Where to buy | folivora.ai (through Paddle.com), or Setapp | everydaymactools.com (through Dodo Payments) |
| Devices | Trackpads, Magic Mouse, mice, keyboards, Touch Bar, remotes, Stream Deck, controllers, MIDI and more | Trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts, plus mouse buttons 4 and 5 for back and forward |
On price, BetterTouchTool costs less, its trial is longer, and one licence covers every personal Mac you own. Trill costs more for less breadth; what it offers in return is a shorter path from installing to having gestures that work.
A few details about Trill’s side, since they affect what you pay in practice. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later. The 24-hour trial includes every feature, and the menu shows the hours left. When it ends, gestures, shortcuts, the Hyper Key and drag to snap stop until a licence key is entered, but everything you set up is kept. A key works on up to three Macs, and “Deactivate this Mac” frees a seat when you replace one. If it turns out not to suit you, there are 30 days to get a refund, for any reason, by emailing hey@everydaymactools.com.
Questions
Is BetterTouchTool a subscription?
Not if you buy it from folivora.ai: the Standard and Lifetime licences are priced as single payments of $15 and $25 at the time of writing. The subscription route is Setapp, which charges a monthly fee and includes BetterTouchTool among its apps.
Does one licence cover my laptop and my desktop?
For BetterTouchTool, yes: one licence covers all your personal Macs. Its licence terms spell that out as every Mac where you are the main user, plus one shared family computer. A Trill licence covers up to three Macs, and you can move a seat by choosing “Deactivate this Mac” on the one you are retiring.
Which BetterTouchTool licence should I buy?
Standard if you want it for a specific job and are happy to keep the version you have after two years. Lifetime if you update macOS every year and expect to use the app for a long time; the $10 difference buys you updates for as long as BetterTouchTool exists, plus any other Mac apps the developer releases in the two years after you buy.
Can I bring my BetterTouchTool setup into Trill?
No. Trill does not import BetterTouchTool presets or settings. The practical route is to switch on the Gesture Set closest to how you work and record the two or three gestures you used most, which usually takes a few minutes.