Last Window Quits

About

On a Mac, closing an app's last window doesn't quit it. The app keeps running in the background and uses memory. Last Window Quits quits the app for you, the way Windows does. It notices every way a window can close, including the red button, ⌘W, and a menu command, so an app quits whenever its last window goes.

You can add apps to a blacklist so they keep running after their last window closes. The app waits a short timer, 2 seconds by default, so an app that closes a splash screen on launch isn't quit by mistake. It also detects background apps, such as VPNs, and leaves them running. Every window closure and quit is written to a text log, so you can see which apps Last Window Quits quit.

Last Window Quits can start at login and runs quietly in the background. You can pause it whenever you like. It requires macOS 10.13 or later and is free, and it can be installed with Homebrew using brew install --cask last-window-quits. Since macOS 15 Sequoia, macOS occasionally doesn't tell apps that a window was closed, so an app may rarely stay open after its last window closes. The site describes this as an Apple bug with a fix planned.