Happy Valley

Beam vs Tower

Beam and Tower are both developer tools tools. Beam is aimed at developers and creators, while Tower is aimed at developers and freelancers. Tower costs less, from $5.75/mo versus $12/mo for Beam. Only Beam has a free plan.

Beam

Open individual windows from one Mac as native windows on another

Tower

Desktop Git client for Mac and Windows with undo and PR workflows

PricingFreemium · $12Paid · $6
Starting price$12/mo$5.75/mo
Free planYesNo
Free trial—30 days
Built forDevelopers, Creators, Freelancers, Small businessesDevelopers, Freelancers, Small businesses, Enterprise
Platformsmacosmacos, windows
Country—DE · 2010
Rating——

Choose Beam if

Developers and creators with two Apple silicon Macs who want a remote app to behave like a local window instead of a full screen share.

  • Uses one remote app without taking over the whole desktop
  • Window traffic goes directly between your Macs, not through Beam's servers
  • Free plan has no card requirement and no limit on host Macs

Look elsewhere if: People who need to reach Windows or Intel machines or control a whole remote desktop across platforms (Jump Desktop, Parsec).

Choose Tower if

Developers and small teams on Mac or Windows who use Git heavily and want a fast, full-featured GUI with safe undo.

  • One license works on both macOS and Windows
  • Undo covers mistakes that are hard to fix on the command line
  • Exposes advanced Git features without hiding how Git works

Look elsewhere if: Linux users or anyone who wants a free or one-time-purchase Git GUI (GitKraken, Sourcetree, Fork).

Beam vs Tower pricing

Beam

  • Free$0Host unlimited Macs, join share links, 20 minutes a day of use
  • Monthly$12/moUnlimited use on every Mac you own, send share links
  • Yearly$84/yrSame as Monthly; works out to $7/mo billed annually
  • Lifetime$199One-time payment, all future updates, direct connections
  • Team$12/seat/moOr $84/seat/yr; 20% off from 10 seats, one invoice

Tower

  • Basic$5.75/seat/mo$69/yr, annual only; 1 user, cloud-hosted PRs
  • Pro$10.75/seat/mo$129/yr; workflows, stacked branches; 10% off 10+ seats
  • Enterprise$12.42/seat/mo$149/yr; SAML SSO, invoicing, priority support

Beam · Key features

  • Single windows from another Mac open as native windows with Dock and Command-Tab entries
  • Beam several windows at once or share an entire display
  • Direct typing, shortcuts, two-way resizing, app audio and clipboard sync
  • Works with headless Mac minis and Mac Studios that have no display
  • Encrypted Mac-to-Mac connection on local Wi-Fi or over Tailscale
  • Guest share links open one window in any browser, view-only by default

Cons

  • macOS only, with Apple silicon and Sonoma or later required on both Macs
  • Free use is capped at 20 minutes a day
  • Devices without the Mac app, such as phones, only get browser links

Tower · Key features

  • Undo for commits, branch deletions, discarded changes and more
  • Pull requests for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOps
  • Interactive rebase, single-line staging and drag-and-drop actions
  • Conflict wizard plus external diff tools such as Kaleidoscope
  • Worktrees, submodules, Git LFS and built-in git-flow support
  • Stacked branches, advanced custom workflows and Graphite support in Pro

Cons

  • No Linux version
  • Subscription only, with no perpetual license or monthly billing
  • No free plan for commercial use

Beam vs Tower: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Beam or Tower?

Tower starts at $5.75/mo and Beam at $12/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Beam and Tower have a free plan?

Beam has a free plan. Tower has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.

Not sure yet?