Lunar Alternatives

Lunar is described as 'Intelligent adaptive brightness for your external display' and is an app in the system & hardware category. There are more than 10 alternatives to Lunar for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, openSUSE and Python apps. The best Lunar alternative is Twinkle Tray, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Lunar are Dimly, Crisp - Monitor Control, MonitorControl and Monitorian.

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Alternatives
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Alternatives list

  1. Twinkle Tray icon
     50 likes

    Twinkle Tray enables brightness control on external displays in Windows 10 & 11. Even th Windows is capable of adjusting the backlight on most monitors, it doesn't support external monitors natively.

    33 Twinkle Tray alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
  2. Dimly icon
     8 likes

    Open-source macOS menu utility for unified brightness, blackout, and sleep control of external monitors, using hybrid DDC/CI and software overlays, per-display settings, custom profiles, hotkeys, panic shortcut, privacy by design, and secure signed builds.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  3. Open-source macOS menu bar app enabling HiDPI scaling on external monitors, DDC brightness with software dimming, icon-based display presets, virtual displays, drag-to-arrange multi-monitor layouts, ICC profile switching, auto-brightness sync, and quick access toggles for display modes.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  4. MonitorControl icon
     20 likes

    🖥 Control your external monitor brightness & volume on your Mac.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  5. LumiMax icon
     3 likes

    XDR brightness boost app for Mac — push your display to 1600 nits using native EDR overlay, with color accuracy preserved and better battery efficiency.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  6.  2 likes

    Most monitors, other than laptop displays, have a Virtual Control Panel (VCP), which implements features defined in the Montor Control Command Set (MCCS). Typically, ddcutil communicates with the monitor's VCP over an I2C bus, as per the Display Data Channel/Command...

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  7. Brightintosh icon
     4 likes

    BrightIntosh is lightweight, works system-wide, has optional launch-at-login functionality and includes a global hotkey to toggle the extra brightness.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  8. DisplayBuddy icon
     2 likes

    DisplayBuddy lets you control external displays connected to your Mac right from your menu bar! No need to touch your clunky monitor buttons!

    22 DisplayBuddy alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  9. BetterDisplay icon
     4 likes

    Unlock your displays on your Mac! Smooth scaling, HiDPI unlock, XDR/HDR extra brightness upscale, DDC, brightness and dimming, virtual screens, PIP and lots more!.

    24 BetterDisplay alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  10. DDCcontrol icon
     2 likes

    DDCcontrol is software for controlling monitor parameters such as brightness, contrast, and RGB color levels. It includes a command-line tool and a GUI tool.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • openSUSE
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    Good alternative?
     
  11. The app lets you control the brightness of all your screens (both laptop and desktop) by a single click on a tray icon. Its look goes nicely with the system icons and it supports both light and dark mode.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
12 of 22 Lunar alternatives