I fixed my lifelong issue with macOS dock & multi-monitor setup

[imfrankkarro]

Hey!

I’m someone who runs 2 or 3 monitors daily: one for coding, one for chat apps, and one for design tools. But macOS only gives you a single Dock, which either stays on your main screen or auto-swaps wherever your mouse is. That felt clumsy. I just wanted an easy way to keep a “chat dock” on my side monitor, a “development dock” on my center monitor, and maybe another “utilities dock” somewhere else—without messing with some complex, heavy app.

I tried other so-called “dock replacements,” but they were either too bulky, too fancy, or cluttered with special effects. I wanted something minimal, practical, and not a resource hog. So I built ExtraDock. And, to my surprise, it actually worked better than anything I could find— I was able to have multiple mini-docks, each pinned exactly where I wanted them. Finally, I didn’t have to hunt for Slack or Terminal in one single crowded Dock, and fast-switching between applications became super convenient.

After a bit of personal usage, I’m excited to share ExtraDock with you — maybe it’ll help.

You can find site / demo @ https://extradock.app/

How do you guys have solved it for you?

With gratitude,
Frank Karro

 

[ignatius345]

This is a great idea. I'm currently using a single display, but when I've had a second one I've often struggled with differentiating them. Seems like different docks could be a good visual cue for which display is the "home" for each app.

 

[MacGreenPath]

This looks intriguing! Questions:
* Is ExtraDock sandboxed?
* Can we interact with the app icons in the regular Dock (e.g., right click/secondary click to see options and list of open windows, force click to open App Exposé)?
* Does ExtraDock show a dot below the app icon to indicate whether the app is open?
* Any chance you could make an App Store version? Our company's firewall is blocking extradock.app as a "Newly Registered Domain" and I can't access it from my computer.

Bonus Idea:
Could you make something like this that would keep desktop icons organized? It drives me crazy that my Mac keeps sticking my drive icons on my non-primary monitor, even though there is plenty of space on my primary monitor. I'd like a way to create a space on my desktop for drive icons (including mounted .dmg files) and force all of them to show up there. ... Maybe there is already an app that does that, but I haven't found it?

 

[imfrankkarro]

This looks intriguing! Questions:
* Is ExtraDock sandboxed?
* Can we interact with the app icons in the regular Dock (e.g., right click/secondary click to see options and list of open windows, force click to open App Exposé)?
* Does ExtraDock show a dot below the app icon to indicate whether the app is open?
* Any chance you could make an App Store version? Our company's firewall is blocking extradock.app as a "Newly Registered Domain" and I can't access it from my computer.

Bonus Idea:
Could you make something like this that would keep desktop icons organized? It drives me crazy that my Mac keeps sticking my drive icons on my non-primary monitor, even though there is plenty of space on my primary monitor. I'd like a way to create a space on my desktop for drive icons (including mounted .dmg files) and force all of them to show up there. ... Maybe there is already an app that does that, but I haven't found it?

Hey!

- I'm not sure what you mean by sandboxed. If the question is does extraDock interact with existing default mac dock in any way or influences it's behaviour - then no. ExtraDock is purely separate app to just display another dock-like bar where apps can be brought up.

- As of now and for the use case I built this app, was to just bring up apps - personally, I don't interact with apps from dock too much - every now and then, but minimal - then I did not build it in this version.

- App indicators - As of now and in this version, no. As this is the first version, there are deff a lot to be done.

- I can send a stripe link to the product - from there all should be able to get it right off - after purchase the link will be sent to your email with link to .dmg.

Here it is: https://buy.stripe.com/8wM8yb9RO0BU2FWbIJ


Hmm, interesting idea - yeah - those drive icons can drive crazy sometimes. Personally, I dont use desktop space AT all I do all with finder as it seems much more.... sophisticated. I eject all the drives from Finder, and hence have no issue with them, but I can surely see how a lot can have this issue.

I'd love to learn much much more about what kind of issues could be fixed in terms of using mac, especially for pro users / corporate use cases.

Thanks for the feedback and questions.
With Gratitude,
Frank

 

[imfrankkarro]

This is a great idea. I'm currently using a single display, but when I've had a second one I've often struggled with differentiating them. Seems like different docks could be a good visual cue for which display is the "home" for each app.

Agreed! Now in this version - it's not there, but in future, there is high probability of this happening!
Thanks for feedback!

With Gratitude,
Frank

 

[MikeDr206]

This looks great! One question. If I had the native dock and just use this, and maximize a window to the entire screen (not full screen), will the window overlap your dock, or maximize to the top of the dock like it does with the native dock?

Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to share on https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/

 

[kozz]

Interesting, I may just give it a try…while I typically use only my screen I have an idea I may like.

My one ask, please consider a true lifetime if you continue tweaking, as I despise subscriptions!

 

[imfrankkarro]

This looks great! One question. If I had the native dock and just use this, and maximize a window to the entire screen (not full screen), will the window overlap your dock, or maximize to the top of the dock like it does with the native dock?

Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to share on https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/

It's designed to be a extra for existing dock - which means your default one will be intact and the extras you can place to other monitors / locations. It's designed to also be on top of applications. Might take extra move to fine-tune windows just a bit, but I have not found yet a good solution to this...

 

[imfrankkarro]

Interesting, I may just give it a try…while I typically use only my screen I have an idea I may like.

My one ask, please consider a true lifetime if you continue tweaking, as I despise subscriptions!

Hey!

I totally get where you’re coming from—subscriptions can be annoying, and I want to keep things as simple and fair as possible.

About the “true lifetime” idea—I’ve thought about it, and I completely agree it’s a great concept. But the reality is that ongoing development—like updates, compatibility fixes, and new features—does come with costs. To make a true lifetime license sustainable, it would need to be priced higher.

Right now, I’m focused on making the app accessible to as many people as possible, so I’m keeping the cost low for early adopters. Current users will get free updates for at least the next year (probably longer), which I think makes it a steal. The next more polished version might be at a bit higher price point.

I feel like this is a win-win, but tell me if I’m wrong!

Thanks for the feedback!

With gratitude,
Frank

 

[kozz]

Hey!

I totally get where you’re coming from—subscriptions can be annoying, and I want to keep things as simple and fair as possible.

About the “true lifetime” idea—I’ve thought about it, and I completely agree it’s a great concept. But the reality is that ongoing development—like updates, compatibility fixes, and new features—does come with costs. To make a true lifetime license sustainable, it would need to be priced higher.

Right now, I’m focused on making the app accessible to as many people as possible, so I’m keeping the cost low for early adopters. Current users will get free updates for at least the next year (probably longer), which I think makes it a steal. The next more polished version might be at a bit higher price point.

I feel like this is a win-win, but tell me if I’m wrong!

Thanks for the feedback!

With gratitude,
Frank

Simple and fair is the way to go! I'm all for paying a little more for a lifetime license if its something that I end up liking but that's just me, I have seen some apps that have a lifetime or subscription based offering and if its something I like I end up going lifetime or not at all.

I can use the popular iMazing that I used to love until they decided to change up their licensing and say they offer subscription and lifetime and then turned around and defined lifetime as the device lifetime, meaning if I upgrade my iPhone yearly which I do then I have to buy a new device license...and they had the nerve to say its not subscription...tomato, tomato...end rant...

What you are doing now is great, dropped the $5 today and got to play with it a bit as my normal job and life took priority, if I could offer a suggestion now would be able to hide the added dock(s), with a name showing or one of the app icons to indicate what it is (hope that makes sense) I suggest this as I usually only use my MacBook Pro screen and rarely connect others. If I ever find the motivation to build an app which I would love to I defiantly see where you were going with your inspiration which is awesome.

Happy to test future releases and send over logs is that's something you need just reach out (I did have one notification of it quoting unexpectedly today but in my haste I forgot to save the info, happy to send over also if it happens again.

Last question, aside from watching your site, how will I know when there is an update? I ask only because my purchase email went to junk mail.

Sorry for the long post!

Thanks,

Keith

 

[imfrankkarro]

Currently working on:

- Renaming;
- Colour labelling the docks;
- auto hide for the + icon;
- getting the positioning more consistent;
- drag / drop reordering of app icons (which is quite difficult, too);
- app status icons (white dots displaying wether app is open);
- and some more stuff I can not name - because these are so hard to implement without bugs - I feel like mac has done displaying notifications & context menus specific to the app so damn hard (whoops, named them) - can not find a way as of now.

All in all - working on much stuff, but I'll only release working stuff. If something is not working, it will not be implemented as of now.

All in all - even with these little changes I think it's going to be much better, even if I wont get the notifications working.

If anybody has any idea on how to make those work, I'd be glad!

With gratitude,
Frank

 

[MacGreenPath]

Currently working on:

- Renaming;
- Colour labelling the docks;
- auto hide for the + icon;
- getting the positioning more consistent;
- drag / drop reordering of app icons (which is quite difficult, too);
- app status icons (white dots displaying wether app is open);
- and some more stuff I can not name - because these are so hard to implement without bugs - I feel like mac has done displaying notifications & context menus specific to the app so damn hard (whoops, named them) - can not find a way as of now.

I've started using extraDock. I like it so far, and I like the features on your roadmap. I would really like to see the following:
* Option to hide the extraDock app icon in the real macOS Dock. I would like for extraDock to show up in the Menu Bar and not take up real estate in my Dock.
* Some method of rearranging apps is a must. Unless I'm missing something, if I want an app to be in the middle of one of my extraDocks, I have to remove all of the apps to the right/below, add the app I want, and then add back the others.
* Ability to resize the extraDock would be great.

Thanks, @imfrankkarro!

 

[SoldOnApple]

Summoning the dock on multi monitor setup is a bit annoying sometimes.