Question or issue on macOS:
This question has been asked before but with no answer. I’m running into brick walls with google too. Program can either be free or paid.
How to solve this problem?
Solution no. 1:
Keymando – $19, 30-day free trial. Uses Ruby as its scripting language.
AutoHotkey provides a simple, flexible syntax allowing you to focus more on the task at hand rather than every single little technicality. It supports not only the popular imperative-procedural paradigm, but also object-oriented and command-based programming.
IronAHK will run AHK scripts, but for its GUI it requires X11.app. I don’t believe it can automate regular Mac apps.
Check out Hammerspoon. It seems to be very fully featured and — like AutoHotkey — offers a programmatic way to do all sorts of OSX automation, in addition to key binding/remapping. (It takes a plugin based approach. Karabiner, mentioned in an answer above, can be used as a plugin too allowing its functionality to be enhanced in all sorts of. Quicksilver can be a partial solution for some functionality of autohotkey: it has shortcut key/trigger defining capabilities. For text expansion, mas os has text expansion built in. On the other hand, applescript/automator is the mac os native solution for some automation tasks. 4: Take a look at Butler. Free to try, $20 to buy. AutoHotkey for Mac. AutoHotkey by AutoHotkey is a powerful and easy-to-use program that will help you automate any actions that can be performed using your mouse and keyboard. However, you can't use it on Mac due to compatibility issues, but on this list of alternatives to AutoHotkey for Mac you can find many substitutes. A Pair of AutoHotKey Scripts for they who, being Mac Users, yet still insist on using Windows. One for an Apple keyboard, one for a PC keyboard. Also some arrange-windows-on-a-big-screen keys.
Solution no. 2:
What is is you’re trying to do?
IronAHK should work on a Mac – I’m not a Mac user so I’ve not tried it, but that would be my first choice for trying to get AutoHotkey scripts working.
alternativeTo.net lists a few Mac OS alternatives to AutoHotkey. The top result there is Project SIKULI which looks pretty similar to AHK in terms of features but with a different scripting language.
Solution no. 3:
Quicksilver can be a partial solution for some functionality of autohotkey: it has shortcut key/trigger defining capabilities. For text expansion, mas os has text expansion built in.
Autohotkey For Mac Download
On the other hand, applescript/automator is the mac os native solution for some automation tasks.
Solution no. 4:
Take a look at Butler. Free to try, $20 to buy.
I haven’t yet found an open source tool for Mac like AHK.
Auto Hot Key Download
Solution no. 5:
I currently use KeyRemap4MacBook which is greati for key mappings, including chords of keys. It doesn’t have a scripting language though. Keyboard Maestro seems a popular option with some scripting support (I have not tried it myself though).
Solution no. 6:
No one’s mentioned Quicksilver – free utility with tons of plugins for extendability.
Hope this helps!
What is the difference between the AutoHotkey and AutoIT? Both are similar Windows automation tools. Historically AutoHotkey was even a clone (“fork”) of AutoIT. It was created after the AutoIT team refused to add better keyboard shortcut support (“Hotkeys”). But the AutoIT developers did not like that AHK copied code from AutoIT. To avoid this, they made AutoIT closed source. From this point on the tools diverged in their feature set, syntax and user community.
AutoHotKey (AHK) vs AutoIT
The table below compares the key features of these two well-known Windows automation tools.
| Feature | AutoHotKey | AutoIT | Kantu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supported Platforms | Win only | Win only | Win, Mac, Linux |
| Open-Source | yes | no | yes |
| Security Rating | Very Good | Good | Very Good |
| Openness | Very high | Very high | Very high |
| Desktop Automation | |||
| Image Recognition | Only very basic | Only very basic | Yes |
| Text Recognition (OCR) | No | No | Yes |
| Keyboard Shortcuts | Yes (best) | Yes | Yes (via other extensions) |
| Web Automation | |||
| Supported Browser | IE | IE | Chrome, Firefox |
| Browser Recorder | No | No | Yes |
| Web Scraping | No | No | Yes |
| Selenium IDE compatible | No | No | Yes |
| Scripting | |||
| Script language | AHK Script | AutoIt Script (Basic) | Many (API) |
| Advanced Scheduling | With external tools | With external tools | With external tools |
| COM-automation support | Yes | Yes (best) | No, but command line API |
As third option the table includes Kantu, a computer-vision and AI powered lightweight RPA tool. It works visually and its supports Mac and Linux, too. Some use it as “AutoHotKey for Mac” and as “AutoHotKey for Linux”, even so technicallyit is quite different.
Security
AutoIT is a trustworthy project. But their code is closed source.So you must trust the developers that they do not send of critical corporate information to outsideservers. By contrast, the AHK and Kantu core is open-source, so you can easily check that no information is send anywhere. We require a software to be Open-Source to be eligible for a very good security rating.
Desktop Automation
Desktop automation is sometimes also called “RDA” (Robotic Desktop Automation). This sectionrates the usefulness of the tool to automate tasks on the users desktop. Note that UIPath and Blue Prism can only automate tasks on a Windows desktop, whereas Kantu works on Mac and Linux desktops as well.
Web Automation
Web automation means Browser Automation. It is the ability to automate tasks directly in the web browser. Typical tasks include form filling, data up- and download and web scraping, the extraction from information from websites. For web automation Kantu brings two key advantages to the table. First it has easy-to-learn Selenium-compatible commands. And second, it supports modern browsers. AutoIT and AHK only support the old Internet Explorer (IE) browser. That is a problem, as many modern websites no longer work in IE.
Scripting
All automation tools have one thing in common: Unless the task or test to automate is very basic, you must expect to have to “script” or “program” part of the solution. AutoIT and AHK are by design scripting languages. The app was no real user interface except an editor. Kantu exposes a command line API that allows you to use it with any programming or scripting language, for example (in alphabetic order) C#, Java, Node.JS, PowerShell, Python, VB.NET, VBS and to combine it with other tools like AutoHotKey.
Autohotkey Mac Os
AutoHotkey is very popular in the gaming community. So if your goal is to automate games, AHK is better than AutoIT because of the community.
AutoIT and AHK IDE
Short answer: There is no IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for AHK and AutoIT. You can create these scripts any text editor:
Longer answer: AutoIT and AHK are scripting languages and the IDE is a essentially an editor. This is the same as you find it in more famous, proper scripting languages like PowerShell or Python.
But with AHK you can also use AutoGUI. It is an IDE for AutoHotkey which combines a script editor with a GUI designer, debugger and tools.
Same for AutoIT. The IDE is an editor.
The Kantu IDE can also be described as editor. Its design is similar to the Selenium IDE. Kantu focuses on computer-vision and AI powered automation. For everything else, Kantu can be combined with any scripting or programming language like Powershell or Python.
A key differences between Kantu and AutoIT/AHK is that Kantu can not only do desktop automation but has good web automation support, too. Thus if you need to automate a task inside a web browser, the choice is clear, use Kantu.
What about AutoIT/AHK for Mac and Linux?
AHK and AutoIT are 100% Windows tools. There is no Mac or Linux version available or planned. So if you want your automation to work on these popular platforms, Kantu is your best (and only) option.
Autohotkey Mac Download Free
RPA Market Overview
For more RPA Market Overview blog posts please see
- AutoHotKey vs AutoIT (this post)