Topit Is Free and Open Source. Why Do People Still Pay for the Same Job?

Topit is an open-source project on GitHub by lihaoyun6, AGPL licensed, free. It does what the paid tools do: pin any window above the rest, pin several at once, adjust opacity, three global hotkeys.

Functionally there is nothing wrong with it. So this article is not about features. It is about something more practical: what does free and open source actually cost you?

What it gets right

Credit where it is due:

• Actually free — not a “free tier”. No in-app purchase, no subscription, no locked features
• Auditable — AGPL, anyone can read what it does and whether it phones home
• Capable — multiple windows pinned at once, opacity control, ⌃⌥T to pin the window under the pointer, ⌃⌥P for the frontmost window, ⌃⌥U to release everything
• macOS 13 and later, around 20 MB, using ScreenCaptureKit rather than the old injection hacks

If all you want is a free, clean pinning tool, you can stop reading and go install it.

The other side of open source

The cost of free software is usually not money.

1. Installing is not one click

It is not on the App Store. You download a DMG from GitHub, or use Homebrew:

brew install lihaoyun6/tap/topit

No problem if you live in the terminal. A wall if you do not.

2. You have to grant both permissions yourself

It needs Screen Recording (to capture window content) and Accessibility (to control window levels). Miss one and the symptom is “nothing happens” or “the overlay is blank” — and open-source projects rarely ship a friendly onboarding screen telling you which one is missing.

3. Who do you ask when it breaks?

Open-source projects usually run on GitHub Issues, maintained by one person in their spare time. Your problem may already be reported. It may go unanswered. It may be fixed next release.

That is not a flaw, it is how open source works: you save money and spend your own time instead.

4. Polish depends on the author’s interest

Localisation, error messages, edge cases — commercial products pour months into these. Open-source projects put 90% of the effort into the core function and handle the rest as mood allows.

When Topit is the best answer

To be clear — for these people, Topit beats any paid tool:

• You are a developer or comfortable tinkering; a terminal command does not scare you
• You care whether the app secretly connects to the internet, and you want to read the source
• You only need pinning, nothing else
• You dislike subscriptions and will not pay for one small feature

When paying is the cheaper option

Conversely, if these describe you, you are not buying features — you are buying someone else worrying about it:

• You do not want to study permission settings; you want install-and-go
• You want an address to write to when something breaks, and an answer
• You care about interface detail and well-written copy
• You want more than pinning — you want seeing the detail to be effortless

That last one is the key. Topit, KeepTop and WindowPin all solve “do not cover me” — the window stays full size. If what actually bothers you is “it takes half the screen and I only need one line”, no amount of polish in this category helps. You need a different approach (this article explains the split).

PipNow takes that other path: the mini window shrinks into a corner, hovering pops a near-original-size preview, and you can operate inside it. What you pay for is that interaction — plus not configuring anything yourself, and having someone to email when something breaks.

Side by side

	Topit	PipNow
Get it	GitHub / Homebrew	Official site
Cost	Free, open source	Free tier, Pro from $9.9
Source	Public (AGPL)	Closed
Support	GitHub Issues	Email
Preview	None, window stays full size	Hover for a large preview
Full screen	No	No

The conclusion

This is not an argument about open source versus commercial. It is about where you spend your time.

If you like tinkering and only need pinning, Topit is free and clean — there is no reason not to use it. If you want install-and-forget, and you need to see details, the time you save is usually worth more than $9.9.

Both are free to try. Ten minutes gives you the answer.