Best for

Mac users on external monitors who are tired of reaching for the monitor's own buttons.

Why it deserves attention

MonitorControl talks DDC/CI to external displays and intercepts the standard brightness and volume keys, showing macOS's own OSD so the shortcut feels native. It supports custom per-display shortcuts, software dimming beyond the hardware minimum, contrast and input switching where the monitor supports it, and a menu bar slider, and it can combine Apple and third-party displays in one control scheme. It is MIT-licensed with about 34,600 GitHub stars. It depends on each monitor's DDC implementation, so some models need quirks or do not expose every control, and macOS updates occasionally break the key interception until the app catches up.

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Can replace

Lunar
DisplayBuddy

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