Free Alternative to BetterDisplay (Pro)

MonitorControl is the free app to use when the goal is keyboard brightness and volume on an external display, not BetterDisplay Pro's HiDPI, XDR upscaling, or picture-in-picture. Its README, fetched 3 October 2026, says it controls brightness, volume, and contrast, shows a native OSD, and can use DDC on external displays, Apple's protocol on Apple and built-in displays, gamma-table dimming, and a shade overlay for AirPlay, Sidecar, DisplayLink, and other virtual screens. It also describes smooth brightness transitions, combined hardware and software dimming, dimming to full black, sync from built-in and Apple screens, and custom keyboard shortcuts. The README calls the app completely free. Those items sit in BetterDisplay's free column, so MonitorControl replaces the free brightness tool, not the Pro column. The README says DDC on the built-in HDMI port of the 2018 Intel Mac mini, all M1 Macs, and the entry-level M2 Mac mini is not supported, and it points to BetterDisplay for DDC over those HDMI ports. BetterDisplay's free column lists DDC through those ports. Release v4.4.0, published 15 September 2026, says it addresses compatibility with macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe, restores a traditional OSD for macOS 26 and macOS 27, and fixes Settings appearing on every interaction with the macOS 27 Siri app plus shortcut recording on macOS 27. The README says v4.4.0 or newer is required for macOS 27 Golden Gate, and that current versions have limited native macOS OSD support on macOS Tahoe: the Control Center brightness or volume OSD appears, but the percentage does not show or update. The README does not describe flexible HiDPI scaling, EDID overrides, virtual screens, XDR brightness upscaling, or picture-in-picture. It points readers who want XDR/HDR upscaling and support for more Macs to BetterDisplay.

Lunar's free tier is a brightness app, not a stand-in for BetterDisplay Pro's flexible HiDPI scaling, EDID overrides, or virtual screens. On lunar.fyi, fetched 3 October 2026, DDC hardware brightness, native control of Apple displays, manual keyboard brightness and volume, input hotkeys, sub-zero dimming, gamma-table fallback, network control through a Raspberry Pi, Apple silicon hardware controls, and the Lunar CLI are labeled free features. The comparison table on that page lists Manual Mode as 100 adjustments per day on the free version and unlimited adjustments on Lunar Pro, Shortcuts as 100 action calls per day versus unlimited actions, and Pricing as Free versus $23. The buy line says a lifetime license costs $23, with a 14-day trial. The page footer reads Lunar © 2023. The same page labels Sync Mode, XDR Brightness, Sensor Mode, Auto BlackOut, BlackOut, FaceLight, Clock Mode, and Location Mode as Pro features. A Shortcuts section above the table is also labeled Pro, while the table still gives the free column 100 action calls per day. The GitHub README on master says to download Lunar.dmg from lunar.fyi or run brew install --cask lunar, and it says the app has native support for Intel and Apple silicon. That README also lists screen orientation and hidden resolutions without a free or Pro label, so this page does not assign those two to the free tier. The GitHub README and lunar.fyi describe the XDR brightness range differently. Because those two Lunar pages disagree, this page does not quote a nit figure for Lunar. The README says Pro feature code is encrypted and Lunar cannot be built from that repository. The fetched Lunar pages say the app is compatible with macOS 11 or newer. They do not name macOS 26 Tahoe or macOS 27 Golden Gate. The fetched Lunar pages do not describe flexible HiDPI scaling, EDID overrides, or picture-in-picture. Lunar's own XDR control is labeled Pro at the $23 lifetime price.

displayplacer is a command-line stand-in for the arrangement and resolution part of BetterDisplay, not for brightness or XDR. The master README, fetched 3 October 2026, calls it a macOS utility to configure multi-display resolutions and arrangements. The documented command can set resolution, refresh rate, color depth, scaling on or off, origin, rotation in 90-degree steps, mirroring, and enabled false to disable a screen. displayplacer list prints the current layout so you can save a profile. The README's order of operations is rotation first, resolution second, and arrangement third, with the note that list and System Preferences only show resolutions for the current rotation. It also warns that macOS sometimes changes persistent screen IDs when external displays wake in a different order. That overlaps BetterDisplay's free visual arrangement and free resolution controls, and it can reapply a layout from a script. It is not the same feature as BetterDisplay Pro's configuration protection or adaptive layout protection, which the guide lists as Pro. GitHub's repository API, fetched the same day, reports license MIT, archived false, and pushed_at 2024-06-05. The latest release API reports v1.4.0, published 2023-06-11. Neither the README nor the v1.4.0 notes name macOS 26 Tahoe or macOS 27 Golden Gate. The README does not describe DDC brightness, XDR upscaling, virtual screens, picture-in-picture, or EDID overrides.

one-key-hidpi is a public GitHub script aimed at the Pro row BetterDisplay calls flexible HiDPI scaling, plus the EDID-override row. The master README, fetched 3 October 2026, says the script can simulate macOS HiDPI on a non-retina display and add a native scaled option in System Preferences. It says some devices have a wake issue, and that the script's second option may help by injecting a patched EDID, with the warning that another problem may exist. It also says logo scaling may stay unresolved because the higher resolution is faked. That is a narrower tool than BetterDisplay Pro: the README does not describe DDC brightness, XDR upscaling, virtual screens, picture-in-picture, or display arrangement. Documented use is either a remote terminal command that downloads hidpi.sh, or a local run of hidpi.command from a downloaded ZIP. Recovery is option 3 in the script, or a Recovery-mode terminal if the Mac will not boot. The GitHub repository API reports archived false, license null, and pushed_at 2025-04-05. The commits API shows that push as a merge of pull request 259, message Update hidpi.command. A request to the latest-release API returned HTTP 404 on 3 October 2026. The fetched README does not name macOS 26 Tahoe or macOS 27 Golden Gate. Treat it as a HiDPI experiment with a documented recovery path, not as a current macOS 27 replacement for BetterDisplay Pro.