Software Alternatives & Reviews

BetterDummy VS Lunar.fyi

Compare BetterDummy VS Lunar.fyi and see what are their differences

BetterDummy logo BetterDummy

BetterDummy creates a virtual display which you can utilize as a mirror main for your display on the Mac.

Lunar.fyi logo Lunar.fyi

Control monitor brightness, adapt using the ambient light sensor, adjust volume, switch inputs and turn off displays without fiddling with clunky buttons.
  • BetterDummy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-23
  • Lunar.fyi Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-24

Native brightness control

macOS can't control external monitors brightness natively. Lunar adds that capability so you can use the same familiar brightness keys to adjust all monitors at once, or fine tune each one.

Volume keys also work for adjusting monitor volume, and there are hotkeys for switching between monitor inputs/ports.

Adaptive brightness

By using the MacBook and iMac integrated Ambient Light Sensor, Lunar can automatically adapt your monitor brightness and contrast throughout the day so you can forget about fiddling with buttons.

Even if you have monitors with different brightness capabilities, Lunar can learn the differences between them and compute a custom brightness curve for each one so they're always at the same perceived luminance.

Break brightness limits

Displays that have more than 500nits of brightness are limited by macOS so they can't reach their full brightness. Lunar unlocks that through its XDR Brightness feature so you can work in sunlight.

The Sub-zero Dimming feature allows you to lower the brightness below the usual 0% so you can work comfortably during the night.

Turn off displays

Lunar's BlackOut feature can turn off individual displays (even the built-in MacBook display) so you can focus on single tasks:

  • No need to close the lid or press power buttons
  • Webcam, keyboard and trackpad keep working as usual
  • Monitors can still be adapted through the MacBook light sensor

BetterDummy

Website
github.com
Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Lunar.fyi

Website
lunar.fyi
$ Details
freemium $23.0 / One-off (Pro)
Platforms
Mac OSX
Release Date
2017 November

BetterDummy features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Lunar.fyi features and specs

  • Adaptive Brightness: Yes
  • Native Brightness Control: Yes
  • XDR Brightness: Yes
  • Dim brightness below zero: Yes
  • Switch monitor inputs: Yes
  • Sync brightness between displays: Yes
  • Turn off individual displays: Yes
  • External light sensor support: Yes
  • Scheduled brightness presets: Yes
  • Command-line integration: Yes

BetterDummy videos

Follow-up: Fixing Hi-DPI Monitor Issues on macOS Using BetterDummy

More videos:

  • Review - Why you should still NOT buy an Ultrawide Monitor for your M1 Mac (P3421W & BetterDummy)

Lunar.fyi videos

Lunar 5 Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to BetterDummy and Lunar.fyi)
Productivity
18 18%
82% 82
Mac
9 9%
91% 91
Remote Desktop
100 100%
0% 0
Utilities
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare BetterDummy and Lunar.fyi

BetterDummy Reviews

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Lunar.fyi Reviews

  1. I can not live without Lunar.

    Have you ever felt down? Depressed? Like there's something missing?

    That's computing life before Lunar. You might still be depressed, but at least you'll feel control over your displays.

    Facelight, smart brightness sync across monitors, support for a DIY-ish light sensor, command line integration, APP SPECIFIC PRESETS (!) the ability to access the XDR brightness in your shiny new Macbook, and much more.

    Your screens deserve better, your eyes deserve better. There's simply no better way to manage how light gets into your eyes from your monitor.

    🏁 Competitors: DisplayBuddy, MonitorControl
    πŸ‘ Pros:    Cheap price|Great set of functions|Unique|Comprehensive functions
    πŸ‘Ž Cons:    You don't own it yet

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Lunar.fyi seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 77 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

BetterDummy mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of BetterDummy yet. Tracking of BetterDummy recommendations started around Nov 2021.

Lunar.fyi mentions (77)

  • Reverse Engineering a Software Crack
    It’s done in a similar way on macOS: a dylib is added to the bundle and an LC_LOAD command is added to the app binary. The dylib is the first thing that runs because of using the constructor attribute, like this: https://notes.alinpanaitiu.com/Injecting%20a%20DYLIB%20into%20a%20macOS%20app The nice thing is that a signed app will refuse to load a dylib that does not have the same signature. So crackers will be... - Source: Hacker News / 10 days ago
  • No I don't want 2, Emacs
    Pretty sure Lunar [0] can do this for you, and you can buy a lifetime license. [0]: https://lunar.fyi/. - Source: Hacker News / 18 days ago
  • Show HN: Multi-monitor KVM using just a USB switch
    I've had good luck with the Lunar app - it manages my Dell and LG monitors on an M2. (No affiliation) https://lunar.fyi. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • PHOLED Will Transform Displays
    Wild! I am working on exactly the same thing now for Lunar (https://lunar.fyi), and I'm also calling it Night Mode ^_^ what a coincidence I've been trying to make "white regions in dark backgrounds" less painful for months, but doing that at the system level on macOS is incredibly hard. I see you're doing it with CSS filters, which make sense in the limited scope of an article. But applying something like... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing
    I was comparing anti-piracy measures with DRM, I don't have actual DRM in my app. I can't block users that really bought the app from using it (which is what DRM is notorious for). But I do have a license verification for the Pro features (https://lunar.fyi/#pro), and that is what people are cracking in the app. I only added more protection around this verification. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing BetterDummy and Lunar.fyi, you can also consider the following products

Duet Display - With Duet Display, you can transform your iPhone or iPad into a second display to expand the screen space of your PC or Mac system.

DisplayBuddy - Control the real brightness of your monitors directly from your Mac - no need to touch the buttons on your Monitor.

rcmd - rcmd makes app switching instantaneous!When you have a lot of apps open, finding and switching to them might feel too slow using Command-Tab or the Dock.Hold down the right side |⌘ command| and press the first letter of the app name to focus it.

MonitorControl - Control your external monitor brightness&volume on your Mac

Air Display - Air Display allows extra screens to extend the display size of a Mac desktop. The company behind the product is Avatron Software, which was founded in 2008. Read more about Air Display.

Rectangle - Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.