Software Alternatives & Startups

BetterDisplay VS TaskbarTools

Compare BetterDisplay VS TaskbarTools and see what are their differences

BetterDisplay

Unlock your displays on your Mac!

No screenshot yet
Rating
0 reviews
TaskbarTools

Set the Windows Taskbar to any opacity and colour desired.

Rating
0 reviews
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, BetterDisplay seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 4 times since March 2021.

social mentions
4 vs 0
Productivity popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
23 vs 9

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

BetterDisplay
TaskbarTools
Website betterdisplay.pro github.com
Listed in

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

BetterDisplay
TaskbarTools

Overall verdict

  • BetterDisplay is a highly regarded macOS utility that gives users powerful control over their displays, offering flexible resolution scaling, brightness management, and virtual screen creation that Apple doesn't provide natively. It's well-maintained, actively developed, and widely praised by the Mac community.

Why this product is good

  • Enables custom and HiDPI resolutions on external monitors that macOS normally restricts
  • Provides software brightness and dimming control for displays that lack native adjustment
  • Lets you create virtual displays useful for streaming, screen sharing, or headless Mac setups
  • Offers XDR/HDR brightness enhancements and fine-grained per-monitor settings
  • Has a generous free tier with an affordable one-time Pro upgrade rather than a subscription
  • Lightweight, actively maintained, and trusted with a strong reputation among Mac power users

Recommended for

  • Mac users with external monitors who want better resolution and scaling options
  • People who need software brightness control for monitors without hardware buttons
  • Developers and content creators needing virtual or headless displays
  • Power users who want granular control over their display setup
  • Anyone frustrated by macOS's limited native display management

Overall verdict

  • TaskbarTools is a solid, lightweight open-source utility for Windows that lets users customize the taskbar's appearance, offering transparency and color tweaks that Windows lacks natively, making it a good choice for those wanting a cleaner desktop look.

Why this product is good

  • Free and open-source, so it's transparent and community-verifiable
  • Lightweight with minimal system resource usage
  • Allows fine-grained control over taskbar transparency, color, and accent effects
  • Simple, portable tool that doesn't require complex installation
  • Actively used by the Windows customization community

Recommended for

  • Windows users who want to customize taskbar transparency and appearance
  • Desktop customization enthusiasts and rice communities
  • Users seeking a lightweight, free alternative to paid customization tools
  • Those comfortable running open-source utilities from GitHub

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

BetterDisplay 2 videos + Add
TaskbarTools 0 videos + Add

BetterDisplay Mac Tutorial: Fix Display Resolution & Refresh Rate

More videos

  • - BetterDisplay Resolution Scaling Fix For Mac HiDPI mode

No TaskbarTools videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
BetterDisplay
TaskbarTools
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
Mac
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using BetterDisplay and TaskbarTools. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

BetterDisplay 4 mentions
TaskbarTools 0 mentions
  • Ask HN: Is anyone working at least 4 hours daily on an Apple Vision Pro?
    > it's important to use Better display to upscale the output to the XReals to high DPI I got excited for a second but then read Better Display[0] is only available for MacOS? :( [0]: https://betterdisplay.pro/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues
    For the first one (and all other screen-related bugs) you can use BetterDisplay to fix it: https://betterdisplay.pro/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing
    Thanks for sharing this! My main issue with the windowed projectors is that you can't force them to have the proper size for the resolution of the OBS canvas which causes the result to be scaled and it has window borders. I've worked... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago

View more

Tracking TaskbarTools since Mar 2021.

Alternatives to BetterDisplay and TaskbarTools

When comparing BetterDisplay and TaskbarTools, you can also consider the following products.