Our take
Pick Hammerspoon if mac users who will stay on Free while they tick Show menu icon, grant Accessibility, and reload a first init.lua hotkey — then keep it at $0, not Keyboard Maestro US$36 first unless they want a GUI action list, and not if they refuse to write Lua. Pick Keyboard Maestro if mac users on macOS 10.13+ who will run the fully-functional trial while they bind a first Paste Selection macro — then v11 at
Best for
Hammerspoon A script you start at a public $
Keyboard Maestro A macro you start at a public $
Free plan
Hammerspoon No free plan
Keyboard Maestro No free plan
Lowest paid
Hammerspoon Not published by the vendor
Keyboard Maestro Upgrade to 11 $25
Next step up
Hammerspoon
Keyboard Maestro Keyboard Maestro 11 $36
Watch out
Hammerspoon Lua required
Keyboard Maestro macOS-only
Last checked
Hammerspoon 2026-10-23 · hammerspoon.org
Keyboard Maestro 2026-10-23 · keyboardmaestro.com
mac users who will stay on Free while they tick Show menu icon, grant Accessibility, and reload a first init.lua hotkey — then keep it at $0, not Keyboard Maestro US$36 first unless they want a GUI action list, and not if they refuse to write Lua.
Read the Hammerspoon pagemac users on macOS 10.13+ who will run the fully-functional trial while they bind a first Paste Selection macro — then v11 at US$36 once (up to 5 Macs per user), not Alfred Powerpack £34 first unless they want a launcher, and not if they need Windows / iOS.
Read the Keyboard Maestro page
