Comparison
The best way to control Mac brightness
Several apps can push a Mac brighter than macOS allows. Only one also dims below the minimum. Here's the honest, sourced comparison — so you can pick the right tool, even if it isn't ours.
Verified June 2026 · Prices change — check each store
How LUMEL compares.
A focused, private brightness utility at a small price. Here is the honest picture against the apps people ask about — including where we trade a feature away.
| Capability | LUMEL | Vivid | BrightIntosh | LumiMax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direction | Both — boost + dim | Brighten only | Brighten only | Brighten only |
| Price | Free; Pro unlock $2.99 | €10 direct; $24.99 on the App Store | $1.99 in-app | $16.35 + 10% fee direct |
| Brightness claim | Up to ~1600 nits peak | 1000 nits sustained; App Store references XDR up to 1600 | Up to 1000 nits | Up to 1600 nits |
| Below-minimum dimming | Yes — Eclipse | No — brighten only | No — brighten only | No — brighten only |
| Battery automation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Configurable auto-off timer | Yes | No public evidence | Yes | No public evidence |
| Free tier / trial | Free tier: Compare boost + full Eclipse | Unlimited split-screen trial | 3-day trial | 3-day trial |
| Native brightness keys | No (sandbox tradeoff) | Yes | Yes, after activation | Yes, Pro |
| Privacy | Sandboxed, no network entitlement | App Store: data not collected | App Store: data not collected | States: no data collected |
"No public evidence" means we could not confirm the capability from public sources at the time of writing, not that it is necessarily absent.
Last verified: June 20, 2026.
The honest rundown
Each of these is a real, working option. We'd rather point you to the right one than pretend we're the only choice.
Vivid
The best-known name, and it hooks into your native brightness keys. Brighten-only, paid (~$10–$25 by store/region), no below-minimum dimming. A solid pick if native-key control is your must-have.
BrightIntosh
Open-source and the cheapest at $1.99. Brighten-only, with a short trial. Great if you want open source and only ever need to go brighter.
LumiMax
Brighten-only, around $16 plus a fee on the direct version, with a 3-day trial. Targets the same ~1600-nit peak headroom on supported displays.
Manual tricks
Terminal commands, HDR-video workarounds, and third-party menu apps exist, but they're fiddly, easy to break across updates, and none of them dim below the minimum.
Where LUMEL fits
If you want the full brightness range — brighter than the max for sunlight, darker than the minimumfor night — in one private, free-to-download app, that's LUMEL. If you only ever brighten and you love native-key control, Vivid or BrightIntosh may suit you better, and that's fine.
Quick answers
What's the best app to control Mac brightness?
It depends what you need. For boosting an XDR display, Vivid, BrightIntosh, LumiMax, Lunar, and LUMEL all work. To also dim below the minimum, LUMEL and Lunar are the two that go both ways — LUMEL is the simpler, free-to-start, $2.99 option; Lunar is a heavier $23 power-user tool. Vivid, BrightIntosh, and LumiMax only brighten.
Which Mac brightness app is free?
BrightIntosh is open-source with a small one-time fee; the others sell paid licenses or trials. LUMEL is free to download and its free tier never expires — Compare boost on the left half of the screen plus unlimited Eclipse dimming — with a one-time $2.99 unlock for full-screen boost.
Is there a Mac brightness app that both brightens and dims?
Yes — LUMEL. Vivid, BrightIntosh, and LumiMax only brighten. LUMEL brightens beyond the macOS maximum and also dims below the minimum with its Eclipse mode, so one app handles both sunlight and night.
Can't I just change brightness in macOS settings?
Only within the range macOS exposes — roughly a 500-nit ceiling for everyday content and a fixed minimum floor. These apps render through Apple's Extended Dynamic Range path (for brightness) or a dimming layer (for darkness) to go beyond both ends. There's no built-in macOS setting for either.
Try the two-way one. It's free.
Download LUMEL free, then unlock full-screen boost for a one-time $2.99.