Roundup

Radial (pie) menu apps for Windows, Mac and Photoshop

Updated 2026-11-03 · by the mouzeclick team

A radial menu app puts a ring of actions around your pointer, and you pick a command by flicking in its direction. On a Mac, BetterTouchTool has circular launchers. Logitech's Actions Ring covers supported Logitech devices. AutoHotkey is the free, scripted route on Windows. mouzeclick, which we make, puts three wheels on any mouse on Windows and Mac, one only in Premiere Pro and After Effects.

BetterTouchTool lists circular app and action launchers, shown by gesture or long click, beside 600+ triggers and 600+ built-in actions.
Logi Options+ has Actions Ring, an on-screen overlay at the cursor, for supported Logitech devices; downloads are for Windows 10+, macOS 14+ and Googlebook.
AutoHotkey v2 is free and open source (GNU GPLv2); its home page shows no ready-made wheel.
mouzeclick (we make it): an Options wheel with 48 favourites per app on rings of 12, 16 and 20, the Orbit switch, and a Tool wheel only in Premiere Pro and After Effects, all on Windows and Mac.

What is a radial menu?

A radial menu, also called a pie menu, is a menu whose items sit in a circle around the pointer. You open it with a key, a button or a long click, move a short way in one direction and let go. The direction picks the command, so once you know the layout you rarely read the labels.

It feels quicker than a dropdown for a geometric reason. In a list, the tenth item is ten rows from the first. In a ring, every slice starts the same distance from the centre, and you aim for an angle, not a row. Interface researchers have studied pie menus against linear menus. We haven't checked their figures for this page, so we don't quote them.

The one number a maker publishes is Logitech's. On its MX Master 4 page, Logitech says Actions Ring reduces mouse movements by up to 63%, citing its own Ergo Lab study from 2025 with 37 MX Master users and 8 desktop actions. That is Logitech's claim about its own product; we haven't measured it.

Some wheels have one ring, some have several, some change with the app in front, and some lay your open apps out in a circle.

How did we pick these radial menu apps?

We make mouzeclick, one of the four apps here, so read its entry as the maker's own description. Everything about the other apps comes from their makers' pages, checked on 3 November 2026 and linked in the sources below.

An app made the list if its maker describes a ring or overlay of actions at the pointer, or, for AutoHotkey, if it is a free tool you can script with. We looked at four things:

which systems it runs on
which mouse or device it needs
whether the wheel changes per app
what the maker publishes about price

Where a page didn't show a price or a spec, the table says "Not published". The order is not a ranking, and there is no score behind it.

How do the radial menu apps compare side by side?

Checked on 3 November 2026. Prices are as each maker's page showed them that day.

App	Price as shown	Platforms	Where the wheel works	Best for
BetterTouchTool	Not published	Mac (its examples use the Dock, Spaces and Magic Mouse); no Windows version mentioned	Any app; circular launchers by gesture or long click	Mac users who want one app for every input
Logi Options+ (Actions Ring)	Not published	Windows 10+, macOS 14+, Googlebook	Supported Logitech devices; app presets including Photoshop and Premiere Pro	Owners of a supported Logitech mouse
mouzeclick (we make it)	$25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys	Windows 10 and 11, macOS 12+	Options and Orbit wheels in any app; Tool wheel in Premiere Pro and After Effects only	Editors on any mouse brand
AutoHotkey v2	Free, open source (GNU GPLv2)	Windows (no other system named)	Whatever you script; no ready-made wheel	People who want to build their own

Is BetterTouchTool the radial menu app to get on a Mac?

For a Mac user who wants a wheel plus control over most other inputs, BetterTouchTool has the widest published input list here. Its home page lists circular app and action launchers that open with a gesture or a long click, beside 600+ triggers across input devices and 600+ built-in actions.

The wheel is one feature among many. The same site describes:

Mouse chords: multi-button chords, button + scroll and modifier + button. Its examples include Button 4 + left click for a new tab, Button 4 + drag left or right to switch Space, and Button 3 + scroll for volume.
Drawn shapes: hold the right button and draw a heart, or any custom shape; its example adds a favourite.
Full Logitech control with no extra drivers.
Trackpad, Magic Mouse and normal mouse gestures, per the downloads page.
Global and per-app hotkeys, scoped to one app or a group of apps. They are left/right modifier aware, with short and long presses, key sequences and a configurable hyper key.

BTT Mobile is free to use if you have bought BetterTouchTool. The pages we read didn't show licence prices, licence types or a Windows version. For a cross-platform comparison, see BetterTouchTool against a mouse app for Mac and Windows.

Best for: Mac users who want a radial launcher alongside trackpad, Magic Mouse, keyboard and mouse triggers in one app.

How does Logitech's Actions Ring work as a radial menu?

Actions Ring is Logitech's customisable on-screen overlay that brings tools to the tip of your cursor, set up in Logi Options+. Options+ customises supported Logitech devices, so the ring is for people who already own one.

What Logitech publishes:

Devices and systems. Options+ covers supported Logitech mice, keyboards, lights, webcams, touchpads, presentation remotes and the MX Creative Console. Downloads are for Windows 10 or later, macOS 14 or later and Googlebook.
MX Master 4. You can personalise Actions Ring shortcuts and download plugins for third-party apps.
Easy-Switch. Actions Ring bubbles can handle it on any MX mouse.
App-specific settings. Presets, or your own actions, for apps including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Chrome, Edge, Safari, Zoom, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Teams.
Gestures on any mouse button. Hold it and move up, down, left or right to navigate windows or control songs.
Flow. Work across computers and move text, images and files between them.
Other features. Smart Actions, a Marketplace and Spotlight effects.
Haptics. Only with MX Master 4 for now.

These pages don't give the Actions Ring's default trigger, its number of slots or a price for Options+. Featured devices include MX Master 4, MX Master 3S, Lift and Signature M650; the full list is behind a "View all supported devices" link.

Our MX Master setup for Premiere Pro and After Effects covers the editing side. Logi Options+ against an app for any mouse brand covers the trade-offs.

Best for: owners of a supported Logitech mouse, especially MX Master 4, who want the ring, haptics and Easy-Switch from the maker's own software.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

mouzeclick is our app, so weigh this section with that in mind. It puts three wheels on any mouse your computer sees, wired, wireless or Bluetooth. It runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 12 or newer (Apple Silicon and Intel). There is no driver, and it never touches your mouse's DPI, polling rate or firmware.

Options wheel (`F8`)

48 favourites per app, on three rings of 12, 16 and 20. Middle-click steps out to the next ring.
Slots hold keys, macros, typed text, launches and your own shortcuts, including any of the 309 built-in shortcuts on Windows.
Open it with F8, Ctrl + right click or a side button: one trigger for every app, or one per app.
Hold and release, or press once and pick. The same button or Esc cancels.

Orbit switch (`F9`)

Every open app sits on a wheel as its icon, the last used first, up to 12 on one ring.
Rest on an app and the wheel becomes its windows, or a browser's tabs.

Tool wheel (`F10`, Premiere Pro and After Effects only)

Opens with F10, any key or mouse button, or a held right button after a delay you set from 80 to 600 ms. A quick right click still opens the app's own menu.
Premiere Pro: 112 tools in 12 segments. After Effects: 114 tools in 13 groups, walked through on the After Effects radial menu page.
Scroll between layouts, for example editing, colour and motion. Sizes S, M or L, with a Soft, Pop or Chime sound.
It needs the bridge, installed once from the app's Tool wheel page. Restart the editor after installing it, and keep mouzeclick running while you work.

Platforms and setup

Ready-made wheels for Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and CapCut mean a new setup doesn't start empty.
The wheels, buttons and gestures run on Windows and Mac. The two workspace panels, captions, Retakes, cloud sync and in-app updates are Windows only.
Apple hasn't notarized the Mac app yet, so the four-step Mac install includes allowing it once.
mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs. If it drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse works normally.

It costs $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. See plans and the 3-day free trial, which needs no card.

Where another app is the better pick:

mouzeclick lists no trackpad or Magic Mouse gestures, so BetterTouchTool covers more of a Mac's inputs.
It has no haptics, Easy-Switch or Flow, which Logitech's software offers on its own devices.
It isn't free or open source, as AutoHotkey is, and it needs a connection while it runs.

Best for: editors on any mouse brand who want per-app wheels on Windows and Mac, and a Tool wheel inside Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Can you make a radial menu on Windows with AutoHotkey?

Not out of the box. AutoHotkey v2 is a free, open-source (GNU GPLv2) scripting language for desktop automation, and its home page shows no ready-made wheel. It gives you building blocks:

Hotkeys for the keyboard, mouse and joystick, and remapped keys or buttons.
Abbreviations that expand as you type (AutoText) and autocorrect-like replacements.
Imperative-procedural, object-oriented and command-based programming.
Examples on the home page: hotstrings and hotkeys, a clipboard example, a short GUI and a simple array.

The page calls it small, fast and ready to run out of the box. It names only Windows, and publishes no system requirements, version number or limits. Any ring would be your own script built from those parts, so every layout change is a code edit. For a simpler first step, see our guide to remapping mouse buttons on Windows 11.

Best for: Windows users who would rather build their own menu than buy one, and who are happy editing a script.

Is there a radial menu for Photoshop?

Yes, through an add-on app. Of the apps checked here, mouzeclick comes with a ready-made Photoshop wheel. Logi Options+ lists Photoshop among its app-specific presets on supported Logitech devices, though its pages don't say whether those presets include an Actions Ring layout. We don't cover a wheel built into Photoshop itself, because our research didn't include one.

In mouzeclick, Photoshop gets its own profile:

If Photoshop has no wheel yet, it gets the ready-made one once, with all three Options-wheel rings filled with everyday editing actions.
A wheel you've set up is never changed. Profiles & tools › Ready-made editing wheel puts the defaults back any time.
The Windows shortcut library holds 48 Photoshop shortcuts. Each can go on a wheel slot, a button, a gesture or a hold-and-scroll.
The Tool wheel doesn't open in Photoshop.

Logitech's MX Master 3S page lists predefined settings for Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, among others. To decide what goes on the ring, start with our list of Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.

Which radial menu works on Windows, and which on a Mac?

On Windows, the options here are:

Logi Options+ (Windows 10 or later, with a supported Logitech device)
AutoHotkey, if you script it
mouzeclick on Windows 10 and 11

On a Mac, they are:

BetterTouchTool
Logi Options+ on macOS 14 or later
mouzeclick on macOS 12 or later

Three details catch people out:

Minimum macOS differs. Logi Options+ asks for macOS 14; mouzeclick runs from macOS 12.
BetterTouchTool stays on the Mac. The pages we read mention no Windows version.
Admin apps on Windows. Apps running as administrator ignore apps that aren't elevated. mouzeclick's tray menu has Restart as administrator for that case, and Ctrl+Alt+F12 stops it at once.

With mouzeclick, the key, the price and the app are the same on both systems, and one key runs on one computer at a time. On a MacBook keyboard the wheels use Fn + F8 and Fn + F9, or you can turn on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys".

For gestures without a wheel, see mouse gestures on Windows 11 and mouse gestures on a Mac with any mouse.

What about Wacom's Radial Menu, the Surface Dial and Karabiner?

They aren't in the table because the pages we checked on 3 November 2026 don't describe a radial menu for them. That says nothing about whether they work for you; we just can't write them up from published facts.

Wacom. Its driver page lists driver 6.4.15-1, updated 06 Oct 2026, for:

Windows 10 and 11 (x64) and Windows 11 (ARM64)
macOS 13-26 and 27

Updates come through Wacom Center › Settings › General settings while the tablet is connected. Neither that page nor the support site mentions a Radial Menu, how to set one up or which tablets have it.

Surface Dial. None of the Microsoft Surface pages we checked mention it, including its price or whether it's still sold.

Karabiner-Elements. Its documentation covers changing input events on a layer closer to the hardware, using HID usage names for keys. The pages we read describe no radial menu.

How do I choose a radial menu app?

Start with your system and your mouse. Those two answers cut the list before features matter.

Your system. Check the Windows and Mac lists above. If you use both, one app on both means one layout to learn.
Your mouse. Actions Ring needs a supported Logitech device. BetterTouchTool mentions normal mouse gestures, and mouzeclick works with any mouse your computer sees.
Per app or global. If you edit in three apps, a wheel that changes with the window in front matters more than its slot count.
How it opens. A side button, a held right button or a long click keeps your other hand on the keyboard.
Price and trial. AutoHotkey is free. BetterTouchTool and Logi Options+ showed no price on the pages we checked. mouzeclick has a 3-day trial with no card.

If you'd rather click a docked toolbar than flick a wheel, read toolbars against a mouse wheel. For buttons and gestures without a wheel, see the best mouse button mapping software.

How do I lay out a radial menu so it stays fast?

Put your four most-used actions on up, down, left and right. Keep them in the same place in every app, and move the rest outward.

Start small. Fill the inner ring first. In mouzeclick it has 12 slots, and you don't need all of them on day one.
Same job, same direction. If left is undo in Premiere Pro, make it undo in Photoshop and Resolve too. mouzeclick's "Add editing gestures" follows the same idea: up plays, down splits, left undoes, right moves one frame forward.
Group by task. Keep cutting actions together, colour together and text together. In the Options wheel, middle-click steps out to the 16-slot ring, then the 20-slot ring, for rarer actions.
Flick, don't read. Eight to twelve actions you flick without looking beat forty you have to read. If you still read labels after a week, the ring is too busy.

Our Premiere Pro mouse shortcuts guide turns this into a working setup. The Premiere Pro and After Effects tools page shows both Tool wheels.

Put a 48-slot wheel on the mouse you already own, free for 3 days. One plan with everything included, $25 a month, or $249 for a year.

See the price

Questions people ask

What is the difference between a radial menu and a pie menu?

None that matters. Both names describe commands arranged in a circle around the pointer and picked by direction. Apps tend to say wheel or ring: Logitech calls its version Actions Ring, BetterTouchTool describes circular app and action launchers, and mouzeclick has an Options wheel, an Orbit switch and a Tool wheel. Some wheels have more than one ring, with the outer rings holding extra actions.

Is there a free radial menu app?

AutoHotkey is free and open source under the GNU GPLv2, but its home page offers no ready-made wheel, so anything ring-shaped would be your own script. BetterTouchTool and Logi Options+ showed no price on the pages we checked on 3 November 2026. mouzeclick is paid, with a 3-day free trial that needs no card and starts the first time you open the app with your key.

Can I get a radial menu on a mouse that isn't a Logitech?

Yes, though not with Logi Options+, which customises supported Logitech devices. BetterTouchTool's site mentions normal mouse gestures as well as Logitech control without extra drivers. mouzeclick works with any mouse your computer sees, wired, wireless or Bluetooth, on Windows and Mac. It uses up to five standard buttons plus scroll and tilt. AutoHotkey supports mouse hotkeys on Windows if you script them.

Do I need a side button to open a radial menu?

No, though a side button is a comfortable trigger. BetterTouchTool opens its circular launchers with a gesture or a long click. mouzeclick's Options wheel opens with F8, Ctrl plus right click or a side button. Its Tool wheel opens with F10 or a held right button after a delay you set from 80 to 600 ms, so a quick right click still opens the app's normal menu.

Is a radial menu faster than keyboard shortcuts?

For a shortcut you already know, one key press is hard to beat. A wheel earns its place for commands you use often enough to want close but not often enough to memorise, and when one hand stays on the mouse. The only published figure we found is Logitech's own claim of up to 63% fewer mouse movements with Actions Ring. We haven't measured anything ourselves.

Can I have a different wheel in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop?

In mouzeclick, yes. Each app has its own Options wheel of up to 48 favourites, and Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop each get a ready-made wheel to start from. The Tool wheel is separate and opens only in Premiere Pro and After Effects. Logi Options+ also offers app-specific settings for Photoshop and Premiere Pro on supported Logitech devices.

Does mouzeclick's radial menu work on a Mac?

Yes. The Options wheel, the Orbit switch and both Tool wheels run on macOS 12 or newer, on Apple Silicon and Intel. On a MacBook keyboard the wheels use Fn + F8 and Fn + F9, or you can turn on standard function keys. The workspace panels, captions, Retakes, cloud sync and in-app updates are Windows only. macOS asks you to allow the app once, because it isn't notarized yet.

Does mouzeclick's wheel work without internet?

No. mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs, because the licence and profiles live in your account. If the connection drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse acts as a normal mouse until the connection returns. If you often edit without a connection, test that during the 3-day trial, which needs no card, before you pay.

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.