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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Mac App

MonitorControl

Control your external display's brightness and volume on a Mac like a native Apple display.

Visit MonitorControl4.8

  • Rating

    4.8 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    macOS

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What is MonitorControl?

MonitorControl lets you adjust the brightness and volume of external monitors on macOS using the Apple keyboard keys or custom shortcuts, complete with the native macOS on-screen displays. It talks to monitors over DDC/CI and also syncs with your built-in display.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what MonitorControl does well

  • Native keyboard brightness and volume keys work on external monitors
  • Shows the real macOS on-screen display overlays
  • Free, open source and trusted by tens of thousands of Mac users

Cons: where it falls short

  • macOS only
  • Requires the monitor to support DDC/CI control

Who MonitorControl is for

Mac users with external monitors who want hardware keys to control brightness and volume.

Who can skip it

People using only a laptop screen or Apple Studio Display.

Compare MonitorControl

See how MonitorControl stacks up, side by side, plus the lists it made.

MonitorControl alternatives

Not sold on MonitorControl? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Personal Productivity resources

Loop

Focus: window manager, productivity and keyboard. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Same 4.8 rating.

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.8Visit

Karabiner-Elements

Focus: keyboard remapping, shortcuts and hyper key. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.7 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit

PureMac

Focus: cleaner, privacy and swiftui. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.6 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.6Visit

Dayflow

Focus: time tracking, work journal and daily standup. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.5 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.5Visit

hop

Focus: menu bar, utilities and pomodoro. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.5 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.5Visit

Free alternatives to MonitorControl

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

yabai

Focus: window manager, tiling and keyboard. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.5 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.5Visit

Blurt

Focus: dictation, speech to text and accessibility. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.4 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.4Visit

Kap

Focus: screen recorder and gif. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.4 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.4Visit

vphone-ws

Focus: ios, virtual machine and research. Shares macos and open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.3 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.3Visit

iTerm2

Focus: terminal, mac and command line. Shares open source with MonitorControl. Rated 4.7 (MonitorControl: 4.8).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit
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