Curflow vs the alternatives: why not BetterTouchTool or Keyboard Maestro?

When someone discovers Curflow, the first question is usually the same: “Doesn’t BetterTouchTool do that?” The short answer is no. The long answer is about what problem you are actually trying to solve.

There is a mature ecosystem of automation tools for Mac. Keyboard Maestro has twenty years of history. BetterTouchTool has a community of hundreds of thousands of users. The operating system’s keyboard shortcuts have been there for decades. All of them work. None of them solves the same problem as Curflow.

The criterion that matters: cognitive friction

Most comparisons between productivity tools measure features: how many actions it supports, how many apps it integrates with, how flexible the configuration is. Those metrics matter, but they sidestep the central question: how much do you have to think to use it?

Cognitive friction is the mental cost of operating a tool. A shortcut you remember without thinking has zero friction. A shortcut you have to search for in your memory has high friction. A tool that requires configuring 47 options before doing something has an entry barrier that most people never cross.

The ideal tool has no visible learning curve. It simply works the way your brain already expects it to work.

Native system keyboard shortcuts

macOS native shortcuts and per-app shortcuts are the starting point for any power user. They are fast, integrated, and require no installation. Their limitation is structural: each app speaks a different key language.

Cmd+Shift+D closes a tab in Arc, searches in Figma, and does nothing in VS Code. That fragmented mapping means your brain does not store a vocabulary — it stores dozens of local dialects. The more apps you use, the more conflicts and exceptions you have to manage.

• Speed: maximum when the shortcut is memorized
• Consistency: low across different apps
• Cognitive load: grows with every new tool
• Configurability: limited to what each app exposes

BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool is, by a wide margin, the most powerful input customization tool in the Mac ecosystem. It supports trackpad gestures, function keys, mouse buttons, the Touch Bar, and dozens of other devices. It can trigger virtually any system action.

The price of that power is a configuration interface that intimidates. Setting up a basic gesture involves navigating multiple menu layers, understanding the trigger hierarchy, and choosing among dozens of action types. For a power user who wants total control, that is exactly what they are looking for. For someone who wants to reduce friction, the initial configuration is itself an enormous source of friction.

BetterTouchTool also supports cursor gestures, but with a different philosophy: you define exact paths, speed thresholds, and activation zones. It is precise. It also requires you to design the entire gesture vocabulary from scratch.

• Power: no practical limit
• Configuration complexity: very high
• Cursor gestures: supported, but with full manual design
• Philosophy: tool for power users who enjoy configuring

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is a macro engine. Its mental model is different: you define sequences of actions that trigger under specific conditions. It is extraordinarily capable for complex workflows that involve multiple steps, conditions, and variables.

Its learning curve is the steepest of the group. Mastering Keyboard Maestro thoroughly is itself a skill that requires time. For the user who builds elaborate automation flows — moving files, transforming text, interacting with APIs — that investment pays off. For the user who simply wants to execute an app action without lifting their fingers from the mouse, it is overkill.

What makes Curflow different

Curflow does not compete in the “do more things” space. It competes in the “do one thing without noticing you did it” space.

Curflow’s gesture engine works on cursor movement while holding the mouse button. No menu layers. You do not define exact paths — the engine interprets intent, not coordinates. Per-app configuration exists but is optional: global gestures work from the moment you assign them.

• Time to first working gesture: less than 2 minutes
• Type of memory required: procedural (movement), not declarative (key combination)
• Latency: native Swift, no runtime layers between gesture and action
• Configuration: minimal by design, not by technical limitation
• Per-app context: the same gesture can do different things in Figma and VS Code

Per-app configuration in JSON

An example of how a gesture with app context is defined in Curflow. The same gesture (swipe-right) executes different actions depending on the active app:

{
  "gestures": [
    {
      "id": "swipe-right",
      "global": "forward",
      "overrides": {
        "com.apple.Safari":   "forward",
        "com.figma.Desktop":  "component.detach",
        "com.microsoft.VSCode": "workbench.action.navigateForward"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The honest trade-off

Curflow does not do everything BetterTouchTool does. It does not have multi-step macros. It does not support thirty types of input device. It does not have a scripting API. Those limitations are deliberate.

Every feature that is not in Curflow is a decision not to add complexity that would dilute the main use case: executing app actions with cursor movements that become automatic over time. When something solves a specific problem exceptionally well, adding adjacent functionality turns it into something that solves many problems mediocrely.

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Which should you use?

If you need complex multi-step automation, Keyboard Maestro is the right tool. If you want total customization of every input device with fine control over every parameter, BetterTouchTool is the answer. If you want native keyboard shortcuts of your favorite app to work better, you already have them.

If what you are looking for is a way to execute frequent actions without interrupting your train of thought — without remembering combinations, without looking at the keyboard, without leaving the context you are working in — Curflow is built exactly for that.

One final note

Many Curflow users also use BetterTouchTool for other things. They are not mutually exclusive. The question is not “which is better?” — it is “which is the right tool for this specific problem?” For the problem of cognitive friction in the daily workflow, Curflow is the answer we built.