Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

NightOwl VS Userscripts

Compare NightOwl VS Userscripts and see what are their differences

NightOwl logo NightOwl

Easily toggle your Macs Dark Mode with this menubar app.

Userscripts logo Userscripts

An open-source userscript editor for Safari.
  • NightOwl Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-10
  • Userscripts Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-10

NightOwl features and specs

  • Free to Use
    NightOwl is available for free, allowing users to utilize its features without any financial commitment.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The application is designed with a simple and intuitive interface, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.
  • Customizable Settings
    NightOwl offers various customization options that allow users to tailor the dark mode settings according to their preferences.
  • System-wide Dark Mode
    NightOwl enables dark mode across all applications and the macOS interface, providing a consistent visual experience.

Possible disadvantages of NightOwl

  • Limited to macOS
    The application is only available for macOS users, restricting accessibility for Windows or Linux users.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    Some users may experience compatibility issues with certain third-party applications that do not fully support dark mode.
  • Resource Usage
    Running NightOwl as a background process may lead to additional resource consumption, potentially impacting system performance on older devices.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    While NightOwl provides basic dark mode functionalities, it may lack more advanced features that some users might expect, such as automation based on the time of day.

Userscripts features and specs

  • Customization
    Userscripts allow for extensive customization of web experiences, as users can write scripts in JavaScript to modify the behavior and appearance of websites according to their needs.
  • Enhanced Productivity
    By automating repetitive tasks and adding useful shortcuts, userscripts can significantly enhance productivity for users who interact frequently with specific web applications.
  • Open Source Nature
    Being hosted on GitHub, Userscripts is open source, allowing developers to contribute, review the code for security purposes, and fork the project for personal use.
  • Community Support
    Userscripts have a strong community backing, with many scripts readily available through various online repositories, providing users with a wide array of pre-made scripts to choose from.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Many userscripts are designed to be cross-browser compatible, functioning in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and others that support userscript managers like Tampermonkey or Greasemonkey.

Possible disadvantages of Userscripts

  • Security Risks
    Userscripts can pose security risks, as malicious scripts could potentially capture sensitive user data or perform harmful actions on behalf of the user.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    As websites update their structures and functionalities, users may need to frequently maintain or update their scripts to ensure continued compatibility and performance.
  • Technical Barrier
    Creating and managing userscripts often requires a certain level of technical knowledge, particularly in JavaScript, which may not be accessible to non-technical users.
  • Browser Deprecation Concerns
    Future browser updates might deprecate some functionalities that userscripts rely on, potentially rendering some scripts useless unless updated.
  • Performance Impact
    Poorly written or overly complex scripts might lead to performance issues, slowing down browsers or websites as they perform additional processing on pages.

NightOwl videos

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Userscripts videos

5 Recommended Tampermonkey Userscripts in 2022

More videos:

  • Review - Creating TamperMonkey Userscripts | Augmented Browsing

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NightOwl and Userscripts)
Communication
100 100%
0% 0
Browser Extensions
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Dark Mode
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Userscripts should be more popular than NightOwl. It has been mentiond 14 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.

NightOwl mentions (8)

  • New To Mac
    I use dark mode, but there are some apps which are (IMO) just plain ugly in dark, like the calendar and mail. You could use an app like NightOwl. But there is a command for that. It's got two steps, firstly find the app's bundle id, using osascript -e 'id of app "App_Name"'. Then pass this result into: defaults write NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance -bool Yes. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Mac won't switch to dark mode
    I had this issue a lot - instead of relying on the auto mode I went ahead and installed NightOwl. Now the theme changes correctly at the appropriate time. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Automatic Dark/Light Mode based on sunset/sunrise?
    Sadly, this functionality isn't built-in to Windows and (unlike macOS) there doesn't appear to be any decent third-party utilities to sort this out for you. To date, I've been using an Open-Source offering named Luna. Source: over 4 years ago
  • No "Night Shift" in preferences for my Mac Mini M1?
    For changes at exact times, use a third party util like NightOwl. Source: almost 5 years ago
  • [macOS 11.4, MBP M1] Been dark for a while outside, but the auto appearance still goes to light mode, but it works correctly on iOS.
    I just gave up with the default Mac settings downloaded NightOwl. Night Shift works as normal but NightOwl ensures that dark mode turns on at sundown. Source: almost 5 years ago
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Userscripts mentions (14)

  • Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo
    The looking icon is the Userscripts extensions. https://github.com/quoid/userscripts. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Show HN: My first programming project โ€“ userscripts to change forum UIs
    Hi, I'm Will. I'm 24, autistic, and have OCD tendencies. I'm learning to code and this is my first public project. Iโ€™d really appreciate your feedback and encouragement! This project lets me solve some of my OCD problems online. There are a couple of parts of the forums that I visit โ€“ Space Battles, Sufficient Velocity, and Questionable Questing โ€“ that I want to remove. Specifically, I hate seeing indicators of... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Show HN: HNRelevant โ€“ Explore Related Discussions on HN in an Integrated Sidebar
    You can use userscripts [1] which is a safari extension which allows you to add userscripts, and the author of this work have an userscript [2] that you can use with safari (or any other browser) [1] https://github.com/quoid/userscripts. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Apple and Safari playing catch-up?
    That Safari also supports UserScripts and Extensions also somewhat mutes some of Arc's benefits, so it will be interesting to see how/if Arc responds. Source: about 3 years ago
  • HN: Thank you for being fast, ad-free and text only
    }` In Safari, using Userscripts extension: https://github.com/quoid/userscripts#userscripts-safari. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing NightOwl and Userscripts, you can also consider the following products

Dark Mode List - A list of apps that support ๐ŸŒƒ dark mode

Violentmonkey - Violentmonkey is a userscript manager to support running userscripts in web pages.

ShadowFox - This project aims at creating a universal dark theme for Firefox while adhering to the modern...

Greasemonkey - Customize the way a web page displays or behaves, by using small bits of JavaScript.

Darkmode Widget - Add a dark-mode to your website in a few seconds ๐ŸŒ“

Tampermonkey - Greasemonkey compatible script manager.