Work and personal apps on one Mac, kept apart
On one Mac, each app runs once per user, signed in to one account. Keeping work and personal apart means choosing what to separate: everything (a second user account), what reaches you (Focus), where windows go (Spaces), websites (browser profiles), or the apps themselves (a second copy of each, signed in to the other account). They combine well.
Every way, side by side
| Way | What's kept apart | Both sides open at once | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| A second macOS user account | Everything: apps, sign-ins, files, settings, Apple Account | No, you switch between them | Free |
| Focus (Work, Personal) | Which notifications reach you, and with Focus filters, what some apps show | Yes | Free |
| Spaces (desktops) | Where windows are | Yes | Free |
| Browser profiles | Sign-ins, cookies and history for websites | Yes | Free |
| Separate copies of apps (Parallex) | Each app's sign-in, data, notifications and Dock icon | Yes | Free to try |
A second user account
System Settings › Users & Groups adds an account with its own home folder, apps, settings and Apple Account. It's the most complete separation macOS has, and the right one for a Mac you share or a work setup your employer manages. The cost is that you see one side at a time: messages from the other wait until you switch. Parallex or a second user account.
Focus and Spaces
A Work Focus lets through only the people and apps you choose, and Focus filters can show only your work calendars and mail in Apple's apps. Spaces put work windows on one desktop and personal ones on another. Neither signs anything out: they change what you see, so the same Slack still holds both sides.
Browser profiles
Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox and Safari keep a profile's sign-ins, cookies and history apart, so a work Google account and a personal one can both be open. They cover websites, not Mac apps. Parallex or browser profiles.
A second copy of each app
Parallex makes a second copy of an app, signed in to the other account: Slack Work beside your Slack, a work Claude beside your own, two WhatsApp numbers. Each copy is its own app to macOS, with its own Dock icon, notifications and notification settings, so you can keep personal apps quiet during work and still have both open. Every app it has a guide for.
Workspaces group them: a Work workspace opens Slack Work, Claude Work and your work Chrome together with one click or shortcut, and can hide the others. A workspace can also have an identity for command-line tools (its own git name and gh sign-in), a network of its own through a proxy, and a browser its links open in.
Which to choose
- A shared Mac, or a work setup that must stay separate in everything: a second user account.
- One set of apps, and fewer interruptions while you work: Focus, with Spaces for windows.
- Two accounts of websites you use in a browser: browser profiles.
- Two accounts of the same Mac apps, both open: separate copies of the apps, grouped in workspaces.
Questions
Is a second user account better for keeping work and personal apart?
It keeps more apart: files, settings and every app. You see one side at a time, though, so if you want messages from both as they come, separate copies of the apps in one account suit better. The two can be combined.
What about Apple's own apps, like Mail, Messages and Calendar?
Parallex can't copy Apple's apps. Mail and Calendar take several accounts each, and Focus filters can show only the work ones during work. For a second Apple Account, use a second user account.
Can Focus silence my personal Slack but not my work one?
Only if they're different apps: with one Slack signed in to both, macOS sees one app. A Parallex copy has notification settings of its own, so Slack Work and your Slack can be treated differently.
Get Parallex
Free to try, for macOS 14 and later. In Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://parallex.mandip.dev/install | shOr download the disk image, or with Homebrew: brew install --cask mandipadk/parallex/parallex.