Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Karabiner VS Input Director

Compare Karabiner VS Input Director and see what are their differences

Karabiner logo Karabiner

Karabiner, previously called KeyRemap4MacBook, is a very powerful keyboard remapper for Mac OS X.

Input Director logo Input Director

Control multiple windows systems with one keyboard/mouse. Share a keyboard and mouse across multiple windows system.
  • Karabiner Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06
  • Input Director Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-22

Karabiner videos

REVIEW: Should you play the Vetterli 71 Karabiner? [Hunt Gun Review #1]

More videos:

  • Review - Vim screencast #59: Karabiner Elements
  • Review - Evolution of the Karabiner 98k, From Prewar to Kriegsmodell

Input Director videos

How to use one Mouse & Keyboard with two Computers - Input Director Tutorial

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Control Multiple Computers at Once! | Input Director Showcase and Tutorial
  • Review - Control Multiple Machines with Input Director

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Karabiner and Input Director)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Remote Desktop
0 0%
100% 100
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
Remote PC Access
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 Karabiner and Input Director

Karabiner Reviews

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Input Director Reviews

Top spacedesk Alternatives & Similar Software (2020)
Input Director, like Spacedesk helps you gain control over multiple computers while having to use just a single mouse or keyboard. You’ll just have to install the software on all the computers you wish to work on simultaneously. The computer that has the keyboard and the mouse attached to it is the master computer that controls the others. Once you’ve made the necessary...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Karabiner seems to be a lot more popular than Input Director. While we know about 271 links to Karabiner, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Input Director. 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.

Karabiner mentions (271)

  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    Besides the usual Firefox/Chrome, Spotify, etc I use the following: - Karabiner-Elements for key remapping, specifically, for making caps lock into ctrl/esc. I don't know of anything else that does this job. Everyone who remaps keys seems to use this. - Kitty as my terminal of choice. I spend most of my time logged in remotely to a server via ssh where I attach to a tmux session. Kitty was easy enough to... - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago
  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    If I had to recommend 1 app/script that I use daily: https://github.com/banga/git-split-diffs) to disable things like "Apple + Q" -> nothing worse than going to close a single tab and then your whole app quits. Also able to re-map caps-lock into escape, ect `iterm2` for terminal (colored tabs are great; albeit I disable the hell out of many of the options like "clickable urls" ect) for cli, I try to gnu... - Source: Hacker News / 5 days ago
  • Ask HN: What if we wrote HTML with [brackets][/brackets]?
    I have been using Karabiner elements (https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org), they allow keyboard customization, I have switched the colon and semicolon key, by default without pressing shift, the key will output colon (:) , I find this useful as I type lot of colon daily. Maybe you can use this software to set "<" and ">" to be the default text output without using Shift. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Remote desktop from Windows to Mac, native keys and function
    In the settings of chrome remote desktop there is an option to not send modifier keys etc to the host system. I've also heard of https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/. Source: 7 months ago
  • DOS_deck: Play DOS games in the browser with full controller support
    Possible karbiner but I've never looked into doing specifically that, so I may be wrong https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
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Input Director mentions (6)

  • Dual Computer Battlestations? Good idea? Bad idea?
    For the win8 tablet, I wanted to use it as an extra monitor but none of the normal options for doing it was working, so what I use now is Input Director. If you want to use multiple computers with dedicated screens per computer, this is the way! It allows you to control any of the running machines with the same mouse and keyboard by simply moving your mouse over to the corresponding screen. There are quite a few... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Any ideas on good ways to be able to switching between my pc and laptop on these 2 monitors + M&K USBs?
    If you are looking for a software solution, https://inputdirector.com/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Easily switch between work and personal PC?
    There are various software solutions (eg.: Input Directorbut using a proper hardware switch is most likely the better option. And there are always the remote desktop options…. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • WFH Gamers that use KVM/USB Switch, what do you use?
    I have a 3 PC home setup, so, like you, I didn't need to worry about monitors for my switching solution. First off, I HIGHLY recommend Input Director (Windows only) or other software KVM for the keyboard and mouse. No hitting a button and waiting a couple of seconds, and you can even copy/paste text between the machines. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Not exactly a cyberDeck, but this is what I have. VAIO VGN-P21ZR.
    A friend recently gave me a box of their old hardware. It included an old Toshiba Encore 2 tablet running Windows 8.1. It's the first time I've used Windows on a ARM device, and it's been pretty amazingly usable. Not enough RAM or storage, but it has a single microSD card slot, at least. It works well for low-demand things. It's now mounted on a wall, running Media Monkey, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Pocket... Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Karabiner and Input Director, you can also consider the following products

BTT Remote - A remote control for you Mac, using your iPhone or iPad

Synergy - Cross-platform software for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers

SharpKeys - SharpKeys is a utility that manages a Registry key that allows Windows to remap one key to any...

DisplayFusion - DisplayFusion will make your multi-monitor life much easier.

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

Barrier - Barrier is a cross-platform software for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers...