Software Alternatives & Reviews

Polychromatic VS JoyToKey

Compare Polychromatic VS JoyToKey and see what are their differences

Polychromatic logo Polychromatic

Graphical front end and tray applet for configuring Razer peripherals on GNU/Linux.

JoyToKey logo JoyToKey

JoyToKey enables users to control the keyboard using any USB compatible controller (Dualshock 3, Xbox 360, etc.)
  • Polychromatic Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-14
  • JoyToKey Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-18

JoyToKey (or Joy2Key) enables PC game controllers to emulate the keyboard and mouse input, so that windows applications and web games can be controlled with your favorite joysticks! Whenever buttons and sticks are pressed on the controllers, JoyToKey converts them into keyboard strokes and/or mouse movements so that the target application will work as if a real keyboard and a mouse were used.

Polychromatic videos

Polychromatic Review | Show and Tell | Polychromatic Gameplay

More videos:

  • Review - Polychromatic Review
  • Review - Polychromatic Xbox One Review

JoyToKey videos

How to use any Controller on a PC - JoyToKey Guide/Tutorial

More videos:

  • Review - JoyToKey Review
  • Tutorial - [REVIEW]정말 간단하게 조이스틱으로 리듬게임 하는 방법! JoyToKey를 알려드립니다!(How to Play Rhythm Game with Joystick)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Polychromatic and JoyToKey)
Gaming
10 10%
90% 90
Note Taking
100 100%
0% 0
Controller Mapping
0 0%
100% 100
Automation
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Polychromatic and JoyToKey

Polychromatic Reviews

We have no reviews of Polychromatic yet.
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JoyToKey Reviews

Top 5 REWASD Alternatives in 2021
Overall, JoyToKey is a great tool, and you’re going to like it because of how simple and essential it is. And it serves its purpose of providing free key mapping well. So, getting it is undoubtedly going to be a good decision for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for advanced editing, perhaps you should choose another one of the tools in this list.
Fantastic Controller Mappers and Where to Find Them
JoyToKey is a fairly good and functional controller mapper with a bit weird interface, and lots of hidden treasures. The hierarchy is the following: you create the profile, then add your joysticks with different configs. You also can change stuff in Button mapping (which I’ve called a hidden treasure because it took me some time to find that useful section). This gamepad...
Source: www.rewasd.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Polychromatic seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 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.

Polychromatic mentions (4)

  • Hardware Brand
    I've tried multiple different brands of keyboards and mice and all of them worked well with Linux, often even if Linux wasn't advertised on the box (I wouldn't bet on that though). More well known brands have better support e.g. Razer has OpenRazer and Polychromatic. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Razer blackwidow keyboard backlights
    I re-installed open-razer on Ubuntu and also installed Polychromatic. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Work towards a standard appindicator protocol has started (with support from GNOME and KDE)
    Some apps are still using appindicator like Polychromatic (https://github.com/polychromatic/polychromatic) and it's a buggy mess. I hope this time they make something good and not something totally crap that is going to be a problem for the next few years that a new crew will have to fix. Source: over 2 years ago
  • DeathAdder Essential mouse: how to program buttons on Linux?
    I installed OpenRazer driver and Polychromatic. Also I see this maybe related issue. Source: over 2 years ago

JoyToKey mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of JoyToKey yet. Tracking of JoyToKey recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Polychromatic and JoyToKey, you can also consider the following products

OpenRazer - An entirely open source driver and user-space daemon that allows you to manage your Razer peripherals on GNU/Linux.

Xpadder - Xpadder simulates the keyboard and mouse using your gamepad What does Xpadder let you do?

Razer Synapse - Razer Synapse is unified configuration software that allows users to rebind controls or assign...

DS4Windows - DS4Windows is an open-source gamepad input mapper and virtual emulator designed to use and connect your PlayStation controller (DualShock 3/4 and DualSense 5) to a Windows 10 & 11 PC.

ckb-next - ckb-next is an open-source driver for Corsair keyboards and mice.

reWASD - First and only gamepad mapper to make Xbox Elite paddles separate buttons.