Software Alternatives & Reviews

Lunar.fyi VS Rectangle

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

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.

Rectangle logo Rectangle

Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.
  • 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
  • Rectangle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-20

Lunar.fyi

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

Rectangle

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

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

Rectangle features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Lunar.fyi videos

Lunar 5 Demo

Rectangle videos

SKYWALKER RECTANGLE TRAMPOLINE REVIEW!!!

More videos:

  • Review - Skywalker Rectangle Trampoline Review #1
  • Review - Marvin Malton 160 Rectangle Flying Hour Watch Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Lunar.fyi and Rectangle)
Mac
100 100%
0% 0
Mac Tools
4 4%
96% 96
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Window Manager
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Lunar.fyi and Rectangle. 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 Rectangle

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
    👍 Pros:    Cheap price|Great set of functions|Unique|Comprehensive functions
    👎 Cons:    You don't own it yet

Rectangle Reviews

Best 6 Mac Window Managers
Rectangle shows that you don’t need to dip into your bank account to get window resizer tools. This free Mac window manager lets you manage multiple windows using keyboard shortcuts, menu options, or by dragging and dropping. Just like Magnet, you can split your screen up into quarters, thirds, or halves.
Source: mackeeper.com
Top 6 Window Manager Apps for Mac
Most window manager apps for Mac support multiple monitors. They can help you move windows between screens and create custom layouts for each monitor. Many window manager apps – such as BetterSnapTool, Magnet, and Rectangle – offer this functionality.
The 6 Best Mac Window Management Tools
However, it might take some time for you to get used to the shortcuts in the Rectangle app since there are many. Furthermore, you can also add some of your apps to exceptions if you want to keep them away from Rectangle's shortcuts.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Rectangle should be more popular than Lunar.fyi. It has been mentiond 447 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 (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
View more

Rectangle mentions (447)

  • Updating My Mac Window Shortcuts Strategy for Optimal Workflow
    Rectangle’s installation is incredibly straightforward. Its immediate out-of-the-box functionality was a pleasant surprise. For anyone seeking to reduce the friction of window management on their Mac, Rectangle is a solution I wholeheartedly recommend. - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
  • How I stay (more) focused with ADHD
    Tip: I use Rectangle app to set up keyboard shortcuts to resize windows (I only have three shortcuts there: left/right half of the screen and full screen). - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Best Hacks for a Ultrawide Monitor?
    If you are using MacOS, I recommend these 2 apps 1. "Rectangle" for window management https://rectangleapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Working in the Vision Pro [video]
    Use tiling window manager + one large or ultrawidescreen monitor. If you have Mac, rectangle is good free software (https://rectangleapp.com/). - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
    But Raycast also has some functionality in that direction. [1] - https://rectangleapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Lunar.fyi and Rectangle, 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.

Magnet Window Manager - Magnet Developers

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.

yabai - A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning

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

Moom - Move your mouse over the green zoom button in any window, and Moom's mouse control overlay will appear (as seen in the above animation).