Softwr

Utilities · head to head

Magnet vs VTScada

Magnet logo

Magnet

Utilities

Mac App Store window manager sold as a one-time paid app, with no free tier

From
$4.99/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
VTScada logo

VTScada

Utilities

SCADA software for water, wastewater and remote telemetry with a published price list

From
$3395/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Magnet there is no free tier at all, so a user cannot try before buying beyond the Mac App Store return window.; VTScada licences are per installed PC rather than per system, so a redundant pair plus a development machine means paying three times unless you buy the discounted multi-server bundles.
  • They diverge on capability: Magnet covers Keyboard shortcuts, VTScada covers Automatic version control.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Magnet and VTScada actually diverge.

Attributes where Magnet and VTScada differ
AttributeMagnetVTScada
Starting price$4.99/one-time$3395/one-time
PlatformsMacWindows

Identical on both: pricing model (One-time purchase), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Utilities).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Magnet

  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Drag to snap
  • Multi-display support
  • Mac App Store distribution
  • Menu bar access
  • Third display layouts

Only in VTScada

  • Automatic version control
  • Bundled historian
  • Alarm notification
  • Driver set included
  • Redundancy and sync
  • Thin clients
  • Idea Studio
  • Slippy maps

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Magnet

  • A user who wants the App Store handling licensing, family sharing and updates automaticallynot VTScada
  • Someone who prefers paying a small one-time fee up front over evaluating a free tool firstnot VTScada
  • A less technical user who does not want to install from GitHub or Homebrewnot VTScada
  • A family sharing one Apple ID that wants one purchase to cover multiple Macs in the householdnot VTScada

VTScada

  • A municipal water authority with 60 remote pump stations on licensed radio that needs DNP3 polling and regulator-facing change recordsnot Magnet
  • An oil and gas gathering operator polling wellsite RTUs over intermittent cellular links with store and forwardnot Magnet
  • A small utility that must produce a defensible budget number before going to council for capital approvalnot Magnet
  • An integrator standardising on one product where historian, alarming and dialler costs are inside the licence rather than quoted separatelynot Magnet

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Magnet

  • There is no free tier at all, so a user cannot try before buying beyond the Mac App Store return window.
  • It offers fewer customisation options than Rectangle, such as fewer configurable snap zones and less granular per-app behaviour.
  • Update cadence has historically been slower than the actively developed open source Rectangle project.
  • It is Mac only and App Store only, so it cannot be scripted, redistributed internally by a company, or installed outside Apple normal channels.
  • Being a small independent app, support depends on the developer responding to App Store reviews or email rather than a dedicated support team.

VTScada

  • Licences are per installed PC rather than per system, so a redundant pair plus a development machine means paying three times unless you buy the discounted multi-server bundles.
  • Thin client licensing is by concurrent connection and is priced steeply at scale: unlimited thin clients on a 50,000 tag system costs 59,395 USD on top of the base licence, more than the base licence itself.
  • It is Windows only with no Linux or container deployment, which rules it out of modern edge and virtualised architectures that other SCADA products now support.
  • SupportPlus at 15 percent of the original software price must be maintained continuously; if you let it lapse you cannot simply resume, and reinstatement is negotiated rather than published.
  • The scripting environment and the integrator pool are both proprietary and small, so finding a second-source integrator in a region where Trihedral has thin coverage is genuinely difficult.

Pricing, plan by plan

Magnet

$4.99/one-time
  • Magnet$4.99/one-time
    • Full app unlocked immediately, no trial gating
    • Mac App Store purchase and family sharing
    • Free updates through the App Store

VTScada

$3395/one-time
  • Base licence up to 1,000 I/O$3395/one-time
    • Runtime and full historian
    • All I/O drivers included
    • Alarms and events
  • Base licence up to 5,000 I/O$4295/one-time
    • Runtime and full historian
    • Development add-on 4,100 USD
    • Alarm notification add-on 2,895 USD
  • Single Server bundle, 5,000 I/O$19095/one-time
    • Development node
    • Alarm notification
    • 2 thin clients
  • Single Server bundle, 50,000 I/O$32495/one-time
    • Development node
    • Alarm notification
    • 2 thin clients

Which should you pick?

Choose Magnet if

  • You need keyboard shortcuts.
  • You work on Mac.
  • You also want drag to snap.
Magnet review

Choose VTScada if

  • You need automatic version control.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want bundled historian.
VTScada review

Questions people ask

Is Magnet or VTScada better?
Neither clearly leads. Magnet starts at $4.99/one-time and VTScada at $3395/one-time, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Magnet or VTScada?
Magnet starts at $4.99/one-time and VTScada at $3395/one-time.
Does Magnet or VTScada run on more platforms?
Magnet runs on Mac. VTScada runs on Windows.
What is Magnet best used for?
Magnet is most often used for a user who wants the app store handling licensing, family sharing and updates automatically, someone who prefers paying a small one-time fee up front over evaluating a free tool first, a less technical user who does not want to install from github or homebrew, a family sharing one apple id that wants one purchase to cover multiple macs in the household. Of those, a user who wants the app store handling licensing, family sharing and updates automatically and someone who prefers paying a small one-time fee up front over evaluating a free tool first are not what VTScada is typically brought in for.
What can Magnet do that VTScada cannot?
Magnet covers Keyboard shortcuts, Drag to snap, Multi-display support, Mac App Store distribution. VTScada covers Automatic version control, Bundled historian, Alarm notification, Driver set included.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Magnet: Does Magnet have a free version?

No. It has always been a paid Mac App Store purchase with no free tier.

VTScada: Is VTScada perpetual or subscription?

Perpetual. Licences are one-time purchases per installed PC, with an optional annual SupportPlus contract at 15 percent of the original software price.

Magnet: Can I share one purchase across my family Macs?

Yes, through Apple Family Sharing on the Mac App Store, the same as any other App Store app.

VTScada: Are drivers extra?

No. Standard and proprietary I/O drivers, the historian, trending, reporting and security are all included in the base licence.

Magnet: How is it different from Rectangle?

Magnet is a paid App Store app from the start; Rectangle is free and open source, with paid Pro features sold as a separate app.

VTScada: What does support actually cost?

Annual SupportPlus is 15 percent of total software purchase price. Adding 24/7 emergency support is a further 5 percent with a 1,540 USD minimum.

VTScada: Does it run on Linux?

No. VTScada is Windows only.

Share

Related pages

More on Magnet

More on VTScada

Keep looking

Other head to heads