Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Rectangle VS Lunar.fyi

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

Rectangle logo Rectangle

Window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.

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 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-20
  • 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

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Lunar.fyi

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

Rectangle features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Rectangle offers an intuitive user interface that makes window management straightforward and user-friendly.
  • Customizable Shortcuts
    Users can easily configure keyboard shortcuts to better suit their workflow, making window management faster and more efficient.
  • Free
    Rectangle is available for free, making it accessible to anyone without the need for a financial investment.
  • Frequent Updates
    The app receives regular updates, introducing new features and ensuring compatibility with the latest macOS versions.
  • Lightweight
    Rectangle is a lightweight application that doesn't consume many system resources, ensuring smooth performance even on older Macs.

Possible disadvantages of Rectangle

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Rectangle lacks some of the more advanced features found in paid window management applications, such as multiple monitor support and more complex window arrangements.
  • MacOS Only
    Rectangle is only available for macOS, so users of other operating systems are unable to take advantage of its features.
  • Occasional Bugs
    Some users report occasional bugs or unpredictable behavior, which might require troubleshooting or waiting for a future update.
  • Learning Curve for Shortcuts
    While customizable shortcuts are a benefit, there is an initial learning curve for users to memorize and effectively use these shortcuts.
  • Basic Aesthetic
    The app's design and aesthetic are quite basic, lacking the polish and visual appeal found in some other similar tools.

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

Analysis of Rectangle

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Rectangle is highly regarded for its ease of use, extensive customization options, and the fact that it is free and open-source. It provides essential functionality without unnecessary complexity, making it suitable for both casual users and power users who need efficient window management.

Why this product is good

  • Rectangle is a popular window management tool for macOS, known for its simplicity and ease of use. It allows users to efficiently organize and resize application windows using customizable keyboard shortcuts or by dragging windows into pre-defined areas of the screen. This can enhance productivity by minimizing the time spent arranging windows and improving multitasking capabilities.

Recommended for

    Rectangle is recommended for macOS users looking for a straightforward, lightweight solution to manage application windows. It is particularly beneficial for those who frequently work with multiple applications at once, including developers, designers, and anyone who values a tidy and organized desktop environment.

Rectangle videos

SKYWALKER RECTANGLE TRAMPOLINE REVIEW!!!

More videos:

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

Lunar.fyi videos

Lunar 5 Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Rectangle and Lunar.fyi)
Mac Tools
96 96%
4% 4
Mac
72 72%
28% 28
Window Manager
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
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 Rectangle and Lunar.fyi

Rectangle Reviews

Best 6 Mac Window Managers
Rectangle shows that you donโ€™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 โ€“ such as BetterSnapTool, Magnet, and Rectangle โ€“ 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.

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Rectangle should be more popular than Lunar.fyi. It has been mentiond 479 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.

Rectangle mentions (479)

  • Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Released
    As a both old Linux and now decade user of MacOS, after I got used to no middle-click paste and no focus-follows-mouse: 1. Keyboard shortcuts are Emacs, Ctrl-A: start of line, E: end of line, K: kill selected or to end of line, Y to paste, etc. https://support.apple.com/en-au/102650#text 2. Karabiner elements (FOSS) fixes keyboard mappings outside of the Settings: https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ 3. I have the... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Native Instant Space Switching on macOS
    Every macOS user uses Rectangle.app โ€” https://rectangleapp.com The ones who don't use it is because they donโ€™t know it exists. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Native Instant Space Switching on macOS
    I use https://rectangleapp.com/ and enjoy it. I have shortcuts to move windows to the left/right half of the screen, and cycle between monitors. This, combined with native cmd+tab and cmd+` is enough for me. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Make macOS consistently bad (unironically)
    Rectangle [1] is pretty much essential for me because of this. I use only a few keypresses (maximize window, move to one of the halves of the screen horizontally) but that is enough. My mouse very rately interacts with the borders of any window, or those buttons. I had to click on the green one that you mentioned in order to see what it did (yuck). [1] https://rectangleapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Make macOS consistently bad (unironically)
    I use Rectangle [1] for window management. I only use three shortcuts: full screen, left half of the screen, and right half of the screen. My editors and chrome are always running in one of these modes. But for other apps like Messages, Notes, Music, etc - yeah I don't usually expand them to full screen. [1] https://rectangleapp.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
View more

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 / 3 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
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

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

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

f.lux - f. lux is a piece of software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android that provides a blue light filter over your screen. Research suggests limiting our exposure to blue light in the hours before bedtime can help us fall asleep faster.