Comparison
WheelClick vs Middle
Two ways to bring middle click back to macOS — here’s what actually differs.
macOS has never shipped a native way to middle-click, middle-click-drag, or autoscroll the way Windows and Linux users take for granted — anyone who switches platforms and loses that muscle memory ends up searching for a third-party fix. 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 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 13 (Ventura) 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. | 1.1.4, 26 August 2026 GitHub Releases |
| Distribution | Direct download | Mac App Store, direct download, Homebrew The App Store build has no Magic Mouse gestures — the same sandbox limit every App Store app hits |
| Maintenance | Active | Active Five releases in August 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 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 are free forever — no trial needed for those.
More comparisons: vs MiddleDrag · vs MiddleTouch · vs Multitouch · vs BetterTouchTool · vs MiddleClick · all of them at once