BetterTouchTool Can Pin Windows — Here's What That Costs You

Search for “keep a window on top on Mac” and BetterTouchTool shows up in every list. That’s not wrong — BTT genuinely has the feature. What those lists rarely mention is the trade-off: you install an entire automation platform to get one action.

What BTT actually offers

In BTT’s action list there’s Pin/Unpin Window to Float on Top. It raises the focused window to a floating level so it sits above other windows, and pressing again releases it. You can bind it to any keyboard shortcut, trackpad gesture, or Stream Deck button.

It even exposes parameters: titlebar style, margin, background colour, opacity, and whether clicking the window changes focus. For someone who enjoys tuning, that’s generous.

So let’s be clear: BTT can do this. It’s not a “won’t work” situation.

What you pay for it

One: $22 buys hundreds of features you won’t use. BTT is a Swiss Army knife — gestures, shortcuts, Touch Bar, clipboard history, window snapping, scripting. Pinning is one action among many. If you already live in BTT, the feature is free. If you only want pinning, you’re buying a full toolbox to drive one screw.

Two: it needs setup. Install, open preferences, add a shortcut, pick an action, choose the Floating level. Five minutes for a tinkerer; a wall for someone who just wants a window to stop disappearing.

Three: it can’t cross full screen. This is the shared limitation of every window-level approach: BTT raises the window within the current Space only. Enter a full-screen app and the pinned window is gone. Rectangle Pro’s always-on-top toggle behaves the same way.

Four: it solves “floating”, not “glancing”. The window floats, but at full size. To read small text you resize it; to check something and get back to work, there’s no middle state.

When BTT is the right answer

Two cases, honestly:

1. You already use BTT for gestures or window snapping. Bind one more action and you’re done — no reason to install anything else.
2. You want a big window floating, and you’ll interact with it normally. BTT’s floating window keeps full interactivity, which suits a reference doc you keep open.

When it isn’t

If your actual need is “I don’t want to switch, but I want to see it” — you don’t want “always on top”, you want a status light.

Typical targets: an AI agent mid-task, a build running in the terminal, a livestream, a market chart, a group chat. What you need there is a small window you can glance at, hover for detail, and click into when necessary — not a full-size window taking up real estate just to avoid being covered.

PipNow takes that route: it mirrors the window into a floating mini window, shrinks it to a corner, pops an enlarged preview on hover, and lets you click and type inside that preview. ⌘⌥P converts the current window in one press.

	BTT	PipNow
Keep on top	✅ any hotkey	✅ as a mini window
Screen footprint	Full window size	Shrunk to a corner
Seeing detail	Resize the window	Hover for enlarged preview
Interacting	✅ full window	✅ inside the preview
Multiple at once	Each takes space	Unlimited
Price	$22	Free tier available

The short version

BTT is “I want to automate everything”, with pinning as a bonus. PipNow is “I want to keep one window in sight”, and nothing else.

If BTT is already part of your setup, stay there and bind a key. If you only heard of BTT because you searched for window pinning, it probably isn’t what you need.

More on the alternatives: five ways to keep a window in front and the PipNow tips.