Software Alternatives & Reviews

thinkfan VS SSD Fan Control

Compare thinkfan VS SSD Fan Control and see what are their differences

thinkfan logo thinkfan

Thinkfan is a simple, lightweight fan control program.

SSD Fan Control logo SSD Fan Control

Sometimes Mac users have to heavily rely on the external hardware system in order to control and monitor the performance of the fan of the Mac.
  • thinkfan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-16
  • SSD Fan Control Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-02

thinkfan videos

Lenovo W520 Fan Control using thinkfan

More videos:

  • Review - Thinkfan on Thinkpad T410 - thinkpad_acpi doesn't seem to support fan_control (2 Solutions!!)
  • Review - Ubuntu: thinkfan control doesn't use the fan full potential when needed (2 Solutions!!)

SSD Fan Control videos

Solving Heating Issue in Macbook using SSD Fan Control App

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to thinkfan and SSD Fan Control)
Monitoring Tools
52 52%
48% 48
Log Management
57 57%
43% 43
Device Management
61 61%
39% 39
OS & Utilities
33 33%
67% 67

User comments

Share your experience with using thinkfan and SSD Fan Control. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, thinkfan should be more popular than SSD Fan Control. 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.

thinkfan mentions (14)

  • [Linux@T460] Fan running non-stop (every now and then)
    I use Thinkfan on my T420, T440, X230 and X1 that run Linux. I linked the author's github page, but I believe it's available straight from the package manager in Ubuntu/Mint, so elementary might have it too. Source: 10 months ago
  • Fans issue on my Lenovo Thinpad P16s AMD on Ubuntu
    I have found Thinkfan seems to be a good way to control Thinkpad fans on Ubuntu. Https://github.com/vmatare/thinkfan. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Black screen after suspend resume - gnome wayland
    Solved that with Thinkfan (https://github.com/vmatare/thinkfan). Source: over 1 year ago
  • The minimum viable fan control script
    The second solution on this page probably isn't reliable, because hwmon paths like `hwmon3` depend on module load order. That's likely the same reason for the `card*` workaround mentioned above. I am using thinkfan for this and it works really well: https://github.com/vmatare/thinkfan. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Problem building thinkfan from source: DSO missing from command line
    As thinkfan (https://github.com/vmatare/thinkfan) doesn't come prepackaged with my Debian version I tried to build it myself. I installed all the libraries as instructed in the README file, and followed the build instructions. Running cmake works fine, but then when I run make I get the following linker error that I cannot solve no matter what I try (this is actually my first time building a project!):. Source: over 1 year ago
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SSD Fan Control mentions (4)

  • Questions about saving/re-using an old Mac.
    5) your fans may run on high after replacement of the drive because the lack Apple specific temp sensors. You can get a utility called ssd fan control set it to smart control and to start up with the system. You won’t have to worry about loud fans after that. Source: over 1 year ago
  • 2011 iMac - 10.13.6 This starts on part of or entire display. Relaunch of Finder stops it sometimes. Any ideas what's causing it ?
    Keep in mind that when you swap the HDD on these iMacs, you'll lose the thermal control on the hard disk. Download this app and run it using the default settings. This will prevent your iMac from sounding like a jet engine and run the fan speeds to default. Source: over 2 years ago
  • What solid state hard drives are compatible with Macs?
    You may also find that the fans spin up loud and persistently if all you do is a straight swap. The app "SSD Fan Control" will sort this out for you. https://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Dell fan control?
    It's possible to switch between two fan modes with "SSD fan controll" in macOS. Not sure if it'll work with FakeSMC, I'm on VirtualSMC. But I can't turn off EC. The only thing it does is that it writes fan values faster than the EC. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing thinkfan and SSD Fan Control, you can also consider the following products

SpeedFan - Hardware monitor for Windows that can access digital temperature sensors located on several 2-wire SMBus Serial Bus. Can access voltages and fan speeds and control fan speeds. Includes technical articles and docs.

Open Hardware Monitor - Monitors temperature sensors, fan speeds, voltages, load and clock speeds, with optional graph.

iMac HDD Fan Control - iMac HDD Fan Control is an HDD fan control for the Mac operating systems by using which the Mac users can control the speed and noise of the fan of the Mac.

smcFanControl - [Download] smcFanControl 2.

Argus Monitor - Argus Monitor is for monitoring and analyzing the temperature and the health status of the hardware parts of the system.

xScan - xScan is an application for viewing the behavior of your computer and Mac.