Reduce Mac Dock Clutter with Workflow-Based Tabs

Most Dock advice says "remove the apps you do not use". That works for a week, until the apps you removed are annoying to reach and you pin them back. The fix is to keep those apps reachable but out of the Dock: group them by workflow and open them from somewhere else.

Short answer: the best app for keeping workflow groups outside your Dock, in my opinion as its developer, is Jetty: it adds up to four extra docks to the edges of your screen, or floating anywhere, each with tabs of one-click tiles for apps, files, folders, websites and Shortcuts. It is a $9.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.

Disclosure: I build Jetty.

Why "just remove apps" does not last

Removing an icon is easy: Control-click it, choose Options, then Remove from Dock. The app stays on your Mac. But the Dock offers an all-or-nothing choice. An app is either a permanent icon or something you search for. There is no middle state such as "show me this app when I am doing design work".

So the cycle repeats. You remove ten apps, you reach for them through Spotlight or Finder for a week, you pin a few back, and the Dock grows again. Our guide on removing apps from the Dock covers the steps.

Workflow-based tabs

Jetty is built around that middle state. Instead of one flat list, a bar has tabs, and you make a tab for each way you work. A tab holds tiles for apps, files, folders, websites and Shortcuts. The tab strip appears when a bar has more than one tab, and right-clicking a tab lets you rename or remove it.

Example setup

• Creative: your design apps and the assets folder.
• Dev: your editor, Terminal, a repository folder and a local website tile.
• Communication: chat, video calls, Mail and Calendar.
• Media: music, Photos and a downloads folder.
• Utilities: the system tools you need occasionally.

Five tabs with a handful of tiles each is 20 to 30 items, organized, while the Dock itself can hold just the apps you use all the time. How small your Dock gets is up to you.

Also by me: if calls and music fight over volume, SoundDial is a volume mixer for Mac that sits in the menu bar, sets the volume of each app separately and lowers other apps during calls.

New apps have a home

When you install a new app, you add it to the tab where it belongs instead of letting it stay in the Dock. The Dock does not keep growing, and each tab stays focused.

Drag and drop to set up

Drag apps, files or folders from Finder onto a bar, or use the Add Tile button. Drag tiles to reorder them. Right-click a tile to edit it, reset its icon or remove it. You can change the tile size, the rows or columns, and show or hide labels per bar. There is no file to edit by hand.

Where the bars go

You can put a bar on any edge of your main screen, and align it to the start, centre or end of that edge. Up to four bars can be active, and two bars pinned to the same edge cannot occupy the same slot. If you want it out of the way, switch on auto-hide: the bar fades when you move the pointer away, and you bring it back from Jetty's menu-bar item.

Which edge to use, including the top, is covered in move the Dock to the top or side of the screen.

What this does not do

Jetty does not remove anything from the macOS Dock for you, and it does not show running-app indicators. You make the Dock smaller yourself in System Settings > Desktop & Dock and with Remove from Dock. Bars are placed on your main screen.

You can compare this approach with others in our Dock apps roundup, or read about too many apps in the Dock.

If the Dock still feels the wrong size afterwards, see Mac Dock too small or too big?.

How we checked

Jetty's details on this page were checked against the app's source code and its App Store listing on 2026-10-10 and are collected on the facts page; I build Jetty. For built-in macOS steps, Apple's Mac User Guide is the reference for your version of macOS.

FAQ

How do I reduce Dock clutter on a Mac?

Remove the apps you do not open daily with Control-click > Options > Remove from Dock, then keep them reachable as grouped tiles on a Jetty bar, our pick (I build it).

Will removing apps from the Dock delete them?

No. The app stays in the Applications folder. Just the Dock shortcut is removed.

How many tabs and bars can Jetty have?

You can have up to four bars at a time, and each bar can have as many tabs as you like. Each tab holds the tiles you add.

Does Jetty clean up my Dock automatically?

No. You choose what to remove from the Dock and what to add as a tile.

Get Jetty on the Mac App Store. $9.99 one-time purchase, macOS 14 or later.