How Parallel Spaces compares to Parall, Parallel Space, and the manual workarounds — so you can pick the right tool.
macOS won't normally open two copies of one app, so people reach for a multi-instance tool. Here's an honest comparison of the real options for running two or more accounts of the same app side by side on a Mac.
| Feature | Parallel Spaces | Parall | Parallel Space | Terminal / duplicate app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | macOS 14+ | macOS | Android (phones) | macOS |
| Runs native Mac apps as multiple instances | Yes | Yes | No | Some apps |
| Fully isolated data per instance (separate logins) | Yes | Optional | Yes | No |
| Turn any website into an isolated web app | Yes | No | No | No |
| Native notifications for web apps | Yes | — | — | No |
| Custom per-instance icon, colour & badge | Yes | Icon | Themes | No |
| Erase-on-close (disposable instances) | Yes | No | No | No |
| No virtual machine / no container | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Distribution | Mac App Store | Mac App Store | Google Play | Built-in |
| Price | Free | Paid (one-time) | Free / IAP | Free |
Both are native macOS apps that let you run multiple instances of the same app. Parall focuses on generating shortcut launchers for app instances. Parallel Spaces goes further for multi-account workflows: every space gets fully isolated storage, you can turn any website into its own isolated app with native notifications, colour-code and badge each instance, and set spaces to erase their data on close. If your goal is keeping several accounts of the same app — messaging, browsers, web apps — cleanly separated, Parallel Spaces is built for exactly that, and it's free on the Mac App Store.
These are easy to confuse but completely different. Parallel Space is an Android phone app for cloning apps. Parallel Spaces is a native macOS app for running isolated copies of Mac apps and web apps on your Mac. If you're on a Mac, Parallel Space won't help — you want Parallel Spaces.
You can run a second copy of some apps with the Terminal command open -n /Applications/AppName.app, or by duplicating and renaming the app bundle. These work occasionally but share the same data — both copies are signed into the same account, which defeats the point for multi-account use. They also break on app updates and require fiddling every time. Parallel Spaces isolates each instance's data so two accounts stay genuinely separate, and it survives updates.
Apps like AccountKit and the various "Dual Messenger" tools focus on cloning a single messaging app — usually WhatsApp — to give you a second account. Parallel Spaces is broader: it's a general multi-account, multi-instance launcher that isolates any Mac app or website, not just one messenger. You get separate data and isolated sessions per instance, a distinct Dock icon and badge for each, support for unlimited instances, and isolation modes for Chromium, Firefox and Electron apps — so the same tool handles dual WhatsApp, multiple Slack workspaces, multiple Chrome profiles, and more.
open -n trick.Get Parallel Spaces — free on the Mac App Store
See the full list of 100+ compatible Mac apps or read the FAQ.