Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Lunar.fyi VS GitHub Codespaces

Compare Lunar.fyi VS GitHub Codespaces and see what are their differences

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.

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.

GitHub Codespaces logo GitHub Codespaces

GItHub Codespaces is a hosted remote coding environment by GitHub based on Visual Studio Codespaces integrated directly for GitHub.
  • 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
  • GitHub Codespaces Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-01

Lunar.fyi

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

GitHub Codespaces

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

Lunar.fyi features and specs

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

GitHub Codespaces features and specs

  • Instant Setup
    GitHub Codespaces allows for quick setup of development environments, enabling developers to start coding within minutes.
  • Consistency
    By using Codespaces, all team members can work in consistent development environments, avoiding the 'works on my machine' problem.
  • Scalable
    Codespaces can easily scale up or down resources based on the needs of the project, offering flexibility in resource allocation.
  • Integrated with GitHub
    Seamless integration with GitHub means that Codespaces takes advantage of all GitHub features like pull requests, issues, and workflows directly within the development environment.
  • Customizable Environments
    Developers can define the configuration of their development environments using devcontainer.json files, making it easy to set up tailored workspaces.
  • Remote Development
    Codespaces allows developers to work from virtually anywhere without needing to rely on the power of their local machines.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Codespaces

  • Cost
    Using Codespaces incurs a cost based on compute and storage resources, which can add up, especially for larger teams or more intensive projects.
  • Internet Reliance
    Codespaces are cloud-based, so a stable internet connection is required. Any disruption in connectivity can hinder development progress.
  • Customization Limitations
    While customizable, Codespaces may not support all specific or advanced development setups or niche tools as effectively as local environments.
  • Performance Variability
    Performance might vary depending on the selected instance type and current load on GitHub's infrastructure.
  • Dependency on GitHub Ecosystem
    Codespaces are tightly integrated with GitHub, which could be a downside for teams that use other platforms or who prefer a more platform-independent solution.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers unfamiliar with cloud-based environments may face a learning curve when first transitioning to Codespaces.

Analysis of GitHub Codespaces

Overall verdict

  • GitHub Codespaces is considered a good tool for developers looking for convenience, consistency, and speed in their workflow. It's particularly valued for its ability to streamline onboarding and its seamless integration with GitHub repositories.

Why this product is good

  • GitHub Codespaces offers a cloud-based development environment that enables developers to code directly in the browser without the need to set up a local development environment. It integrates seamlessly with GitHub, allows for quick setup, provides consistent environments across teams, and is particularly useful for remote collaboration.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a cloud-based development solution
  • Teams working remotely who need consistent development environments
  • Project maintainers who want to simplify setup for contributors
  • Developers who frequently switch between projects and need quick environment setups

Lunar.fyi videos

Lunar 5 Demo

GitHub Codespaces videos

Brief introduction of GitHub Codespaces

More videos:

  • Review - GitHub Codespaces First Look - 5 things to look for

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Lunar.fyi and GitHub Codespaces)
Mac
100 100%
0% 0
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Programming
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Lunar.fyi and GitHub Codespaces. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

Lunar.fyi Reviews

  1. Robert Randolph
    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.

    ๐Ÿ Competitors: DisplayBuddy, MonitorControl
    ๐Ÿ‘ Pros:    Cheap price|Great set of functions|Unique|Comprehensive functions
    ๐Ÿ‘Ž Cons:    You don't own it yet

GitHub Codespaces Reviews

12 Best Online IDE and Code Editors to Develop Web Applications
Beginners who want to try their luck can use GitHub Codespaces for free with limited benefits, but you will have enough features to carry on. If you are a team or an enterprise, you can start using GitHub Codespaces at $40/user/year.
Source: geekflare.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GitHub Codespaces should be more popular than Lunar.fyi. It has been mentiond 152 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.

Lunar.fyi mentions (80)

  • macOS 26 breaks custom DNS settings including .internal:(
    MacOS 26 has to be the most breaking version so far, its problems and intended breaking changes making my app dev life so hard this year. Just to name a few: - Reference Presets no longer allow setting arbitrary SDR nits, making it impossible to natively unlock 1600nits of brightness on MacBook Pros or 2000nits on Studio Display XDR which breaks my Lunar app [0] (this seems to be intended, no idea what hurt Apple... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • KVMs with DisplayPort and USB over USB-C
    I had a similar issue, but I chose to solve it another way. I connected both computers directly to the monitor and used lunar[0] to use a keyboard command to switch inputs. I then used a Deskhop[1][2] to share the KB and mouse between both computers. It sounds awful, but in practice it was surprisingly nice. My monitor (LG Ultragear+) switches inputs fairly quickly. The process was something like this: hit the... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Sourcegraph Went Dark
    Damn, I use Sourcegraph so much for my reverse engineering efforts on macOS. They index all those private framework symbols that people extract on every macOS release, and allow searching for headers and even how they are called by other developers that were ahead of me. A big part of https://lunar.fyi exists thanks to Sourcegraph search. Even now I'm using it to find a way to enable the second monitor on M3... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Reverse Engineering a Software Crack
    Itโ€™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 / about 2 years 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 / about 2 years ago
View more

GitHub Codespaces mentions (152)

  • OpenCode Hit 140K Stars. Why Terminal Agents Won 2026.
    First, remote dev environments became table stakes. GitHub Codespaces, Gitpod, and self-hosted dev containers became how serious teams worked. Every engineer I know who ships to production now SSHs into a box they didn't provision, edits files with whatever editor is installed, and commits from a terminal. An IDE-bound agent requires you to also forward your IDE to the remote box, which most people don't bother... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Introducing codespaces.el: The Best Way to Use GitHub Codespaces
    This package provides support for managing GitHub Codespaces in Emacs and connecting to them via TRAMP. It provides a handy completing-read UI that lets you choose from all your created codespaces. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Don't get scammed on an interview.
    GitHub Codespaces provides 60 hours of free compute time every month, which is more than enough for scoped home assignments or interviews. Itโ€™s a full VSCode in the browser at github.dev or vscode.dev. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Stop Wasting Hours on Environment Setup - These Tools Will Save Your Sanity
    GitHub Codespaces - Cloud development. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • VSCode's SSH Agent Is Bananas
    https://github.com/features/codespaces All you need is a well-defined .devcontainer file. Debugging, extensions, collaborative coding, dependant services, OS libraries, as much RAM as you need (as opposed to what you have), specific NodeJS Versions โ€” all with a single click. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

replit - Code, create, andlearn together. Use our free, collaborative, in-browser IDE to code in 50+ languages โ€” without spending a second on setup.

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 |โŒ˜ command| and press the first letter of the app name to focus it.

StackBlitz - Online VS Code Editor for Angular and React

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

CloudShell - Cloud Shell is a free admin machine with browser-based command-line access for managing your infrastructure and applications on Google Cloud Platform.