MaxTo 3.1, and a lower price for Home

This post is late. MaxTo 3.1 came out in early August, and I never got around to writing about it. Since then, I’ve also changed the price of the Home license, so here is both at once: what’s new in 3.1, and why MaxTo Home now costs less.

MaxTo remembers where your windows belong

If you put the same window in the same place every time you open it, MaxTo 3.1 can now do that for you.

Open the resize window as usual, and hold Shift while you drag across the grid (or Shift+click a preset). The window is moved there like always, but MaxTo also remembers that position for the application. The next time that application opens a new window, it is moved to the remembered position automatically — on the same monitor you remembered it on.

A few things make this work day to day:

• Recall window moves the active window back to its remembered position, for when something has wandered off.
• Recall all windows does the same for every open window at once. It is also in the tray menu.
• Fit to grid snaps the active window to the closest grid cells, no remembered position needed.

All three can be bound to hotkeys. Remembered applications are listed on the new Settings → Applications page, where you can forget one, narrow it to only similar windows, or turn off its Automatic toggle so it’s only moved when you ask.

If you want to try it, Remember where windows go walks you through it, and how remembering works explains what goes on behind the scenes.

Also in 3.1

• Command line. MaxTo.exe open resize, recall window, recall all, fit window and friends can be run from a script, AutoHotkey, or the extra buttons on a programmable mouse (Logitech Options+, Razer Synapse and the like). See the command-line reference.
• Portable zip downloads for every release, also installable through Scoop.
• More presets. The resize window used to show only the first five; it now shows up to 100.
• Elevated windows. Windows doesn’t let MaxTo move windows running as administrator. The resize window now tells you when that’s the case, instead of silently doing nothing.
• Fixes for a missing tray icon after starting with Windows, Tab not switching monitors on some machines, and the app briefly starting in the wrong language.

If you already have MaxTo 3, it updates itself in the background, so you’re probably running 3.1 already.

A lower price for Home

When MaxTo 3 launched in July, I raised the prices — a lot. I explained why at the time: MaxTo had been running at a loss, and something drastic had to change for it to survive.

A few months later, I have a clearer picture, and part of that decision was wrong. MaxTo Home is now cheaper:

• Home subscription: €29/year → €19/year, still covering up to 5 machines.
• Home lifetime license: €99 → €79, still covering up to 5 machines.

Prices in local currencies have been lowered by the same proportion.

What happened

After the new pricing went into effect, Home sales dropped significantly.

Some drop was expected. A price increase that large will always lose some buyers, and the question was whether the ones who stayed would make up for it. For Home, the numbers say they didn’t. The price put MaxTo out of reach for too many of the people it’s built for: individuals who just want their windows to go where they tell them.

A small utility lives or dies by people trying it, liking it and buying it without thinking too hard. At €29 a year, too many of them were thinking too hard.

What isn’t changing

• Business stays at €39/year per machine. The reasoning from the launch post still applies to business use.
• The managed-computer rule stays. Home licenses still don’t work on domain-joined, Entra ID-joined or MDM-managed PCs; those need a Business license.
• Old lifetime licenses still work. If you bought a lifetime license for an earlier version, it covers MaxTo 3, exactly as before.

If you already bought at the old price

If you already have a Home subscription, your next renewal will be charged at the new €19 price. You don’t need to do anything.

Thank you

I’d rather admit a mistake than defend it. The point of raising prices was to keep MaxTo alive, and a price that stops people from buying doesn’t do that. Thanks to everyone who bought MaxTo 3 at launch prices, and to everyone who waited for a better price — this one is for you.

MaxTo 3.1 has a 14-day free trial with full functionality and no signup. Download it and see if it fits the way you work.