Comparison
WheelClick vs Middle
Both sell a one-time license and support the Magic Mouse, WheelClick in its direct build. Middle runs back to macOS 10.15 and has a 7-day trial. WheelClick needs macOS 12 or later, costs $4.99 after a 14-day trial, keeps three-finger click and tap on the trackpad free forever, and has autoscroll, per-app lists, swipe gestures and a Homebrew install.
macOS understands a middle click everywhere, but Apple’s trackpads and the Magic Mouse have no way to make one, and macOS has never had the autoscroll Windows and Linux users take for granted. Anyone who switches platforms with that muscle memory ends up looking for an app. WheelClick and Middle are two independent answers to that same gap, built by different developers with different approaches; neither is a copy of the other. Below is an honest, attribute-by-attribute comparison so you can pick the one that fits how you work.
Middle is by Ryan Hanson (the developer of Rectangle) — its site is here. Middle is a paid, closed-source app by Ryan Hanson — best known for the free window manager Rectangle. It covers the full trackpad set (three-finger click/tap, four-finger tap, Force Touch, fn+click) and the full Magic Mouse set, marketed for CAD panning.
Side by side
| Middle | WheelClick | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 one-time US price, currently down from $9.99; Paddle localizes it elsewhere | $4.99 one-time Trackpad three-finger click & tap free forever |
| License | Closed source | Closed source |
| Free trial | 7 days | 14 days No account needed |
| Free tier | No Paid, after a 7-day trial | Free tier Three-finger click and tap, permanently — no account, no countdown |
| macOS support | macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and later | macOS 12 (Monterey) and later |
| Input method | Not documented Not stated. It ships outside the App Store, and its Magic Mouse gestures need touch data no public API exposes | Public Accessibility API (CGEventTap) One exception: Magic Mouse touches, which no public API exposes. Those come from a separate unsandboxed helper, in the direct build only |
| Trackpad | Yes | Yes |
| Magic Mouse | Yes | Yes Paid — touch gestures in the direct build; fn+click everywhere |
| Middle-click-drag | Yes Marketed for panning in CAD | Yes Opt-in Middle-Drag plugin for CAD, plus a configurable modifier-key + click (paid) |
| Autoscroll | Not documented | Yes System-wide, opt-in (paid) |
| Swipe gestures | No | Yes Three-finger swipes (paid) |
| Per-app rules | Not documented An open request on its own tracker since 2024 | Yes Per-app allow and ignore lists (paid) |
| Where bugs go | Public issue tracker rxhanson/Middle-Community on GitHub | Public issue tracker WheelClick-Community on GitHub |
| Last release | 1.14, 20 December 2025 The date carried by the app inside the disk image its own site still serves. Support is live — its developer was answering the tracker this month. | 1.1.10, 17 October 2026 GitHub Releases |
| Distribution | Direct download | Mac App Store, direct download, Homebrew Magic Mouse gestures come with the direct download: the App Store sandbox hides the mouse’s touches from every app |
| Maintenance | Active | Active Three releases in September 2026 |
Cells marked “Not documented” mean Middle’s own materials don’t state it either way — we would rather leave a blank than publish a guess about someone else’s app. Every cell was re-verified against Middle’s own current materials on 31 August 2026; if something has gone stale since, tell us and it gets fixed. Comparing more than one alternative? See the full comparison — WheelClick and every middle-click app in one table.
A naming note, since it confuses people: Middle lives at middleclick.app, which is not related to MiddleClick — the long-running free app whose author went on to build WheelClick.
Which one fits you
Pick Middle if you run an older Mac — Middle supports macOS back to 10.15, three releases further than WheelClick — or you want a slightly cheaper one-time price from a developer with a long, trusted track record.
Pick WheelClick if you want autoscroll, per-app allow/ignore lists, swipe gestures, a longer 14-day trial, a free-forever tier for the two core trackpad gestures, or Homebrew installation.
Either way you end up with a middle click your Mac should arguably have shipped with — see why macOS never did.
Three-finger click and tap on the trackpad are free forever — no trial needed for those.
More comparisons: vs MiddleDrag · vs MiddleTouch · vs Multitouch · vs BetterTouchTool · vs MagicPrefs · vs Jitouch · vs MiddleClick · all of them at once