TrayDisclosure: we make Tray. Yoink’s details below were checked against its official product page on 31 October 2026. Where that page does not document something, this says so rather than guessing — and Yoink is a long-established app whose author has been shipping it since 2012.
At a glance
| Tray | Yoink | |
|---|---|---|
| Appears | From a screen corner you choose | At the screen edge while dragging |
| Opens without a drag | Yes — rest or shove into the corner | Documented as appearing when you drag |
| Accepts text and images | Files and folders | Almost anything draggable |
| Preview | Space, Quick Look | Icon previews and Quick Look |
| Shows recent downloads | Yes, and any folder you name | Not documented |
| Originals | Left in place by default | Copies by default; ⌘ to move |
| macOS | 14.1 or later | 10.13 or later |
| Price | Free tier; £9.99/year or £79.99 once | $8.99 once, 28-day trial |
Where the shelf appears
Yoink is summoned by the drag itself: start dragging and the shelf slides in at the edge of the screen. Its settings let you choose whether that happens immediately, only as you approach the edge, or at the pointer. The shelf is a place to put the thing already in your hand.
Tray opens from a corner, and opens whether or not you are carrying anything — rest the pointer there, or shove into the edge. That matters because half of what a shelf is for is the return trip: going back for a file you put down ten minutes ago, with nothing in your hand yet. It also means the shelf is somewhere you can simply look at.
What each one accepts
Yoink takes “virtually anything you can drag” — files, a paragraph out of a word processor, an image off a web page. If you collect fragments as well as files, that breadth is the reason to choose it, and Tray does not match it.
Tray holds files and folders. A folder dropped on it opens as a pile you can fan out, and a pile can become a real folder on disk. It is narrower on purpose: every card is a file that exists somewhere, which is what lets it leave your originals alone.
Files that arrive on their own
This is the clearest split. Yoink’s documentation describes a shelf you put things on, plus a clipboard history for things you have copied. Folder watching is not among its documented features.
Tray shows recent downloads without being asked, and will watch any folder you point it at — a screenshots folder, an export folder, a project you are living in this week. Nothing is dragged to get them there. If most of what you reach for arrived rather than being chosen, that is the difference that will decide it. See watching folders.
What happens to your files
Yoink behaves like Finder: it copies by default, and holding ⌘ while dragging forces a move instead. Files you put on it are in it.
Tray holds a reference. A card is the file where it already lives, so putting something on the shelf copies nothing and taking it off again leaves the original untouched. Three things write to disk, and each is asked for: making a folder from a pile, moving a file to the Bin, and dropping a file into a pile that is already a folder.
Price and requirements
Yoink is $8.99 once, with a 28-day trial, and runs on macOS 10.13 or later — which matters if you keep an older Mac alive. It is also on Setapp.
Tray needs macOS 14.1. It is free to download and keep — three pinned files and one watched folder — then £9.99 a year or £79.99 once. On the direct download the yearly plan has three free days in front of it.
Which one to get
- You collect text and images as well as files. Yoink. Tray does not take them at all.
- You are on macOS 10.13 to 14.0. Yoink. Tray will not run.
- Most of what you need just arrived in a folder. Tray, because it is already showing it.
- You go back for files as often as you put them down. Tray — the corner opens with empty hands.
- You want nothing copied anywhere. Tray holds references; Yoink copies by default.
They are not really rivals for the same minute of the day. Yoink is the better hand while you are carrying something; Tray is the better shelf for things that landed on their own. Dropover and Dropzone sit at other points on the same spectrum.