BetterDisplay: two download lines, a Pro feature list with no published price, and no source in the repository

The repository is one README on a branch called landing

Start with the thing that will surprise you if you click through from the search result: the repository contains a single file. The top level entry list is README.md and nothing else. There is no source directory, no build file, no licence file, and the language field is empty.

The default branch is called landing, which tells you what the repository is for. It is a landing page for the downloads, the feature list and the warnings, not the place the application is developed. Anyone who wants to read the code is not going to read it here.

That has a direct consequence for how you evaluate the project. You cannot check what the app does with your display's EDID, you cannot audit what it sends over the network when it controls a television, and you cannot confirm which licence the binary is under from the repository. The last point is worth flagging plainly: the README describes a free app and a paid Pro tier, and the repository carries no licence document at all. If licence terms matter to your organisation, that is a question for the vendor rather than something the repository answers.

Your macOS generation decides which build you download

The download block at the top of the README is organised by macOS version, not by product version, and it points at two live lines. For macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe the README links BetterDisplay v5.0.6. For macOS Sequoia, Sonoma and Ventura it links BetterDisplay v4.3.7. Below that sit the previous versions, v3.5.6, then v2.3.9 for macOS Monterey, then v1.4.15 for Big Sur, Catalina and Mojave, and a link to browse all releases.

So there is no single current build, and picking the wrong one is the first mistake available to make. The two lines are not the same product at different ages; they are the same product maintained for two macOS generations, and a feature described in the list may exist in one and not the other.

One more detail. The three most recent releases are v5.1.0 published on 2026-09-23, v5.0.6 on 2026-09-22 and v4.3.7 on 2026-09-11, and the last push to the repository was 2026-09-22. So the newest tag is 5.1.0 while the README's own download link points at 5.0.6. The link is the safer thing to follow, because it is the one the project chose to publish as the download for those two macOS versions.

The first warning in the file is about lookalike websites

Before anything else, the README carries a warning in a callout: beware of lookalike websites offering downloads or asking for payment, and note that the only official site is betterdisplay.pro and the GitHub repository is waydabber/BetterDisplay.

That warning exists for a specific reason. This is a paid product distributed as a disk image from GitHub releases, in a category where a search for a display utility surfaces a lot of pages built to look official, and where the failure mode is a user typing a credit card into a page that has nothing to do with the developer. There is no app store in the path, so the download is a file from a URL rather than an install from a vetted storefront.

The practical rule that follows is narrow. Take the disk image from the releases page in this repository, or pay through betterdisplay.pro, and treat any other page asking for money on the app's name as hostile regardless of how official it looks. The README also points at a Discord server, which is the support channel rather than a download source.

Pro is a list of gated features, and the README gives no price

The feature list marks newer items with NEW for things introduced or substantially expanded in BetterDisplay 5, and it uses an asterisk on many entries whose meaning is defined further down in the text. The explicit Pro requirements are the ones stated in the bullets themselves, and they are worth collecting because they are the actual decision input.

Forced HDR switching on supported displays requires Pro. EDID overrides, on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, require Pro. Automatic profile switching between SDR and HDR modes requires Pro. Advanced display synchronisation features require Pro, as do advanced virtual screen capabilities, and per-display command integration for connection, disconnection, sleep and wake events requires Pro.

Against that, the free list is substantial: flexible HiDPI scaling including notched displays, HDR, HDCP and high refresh rates; brightness, volume and colour control through software, DDC, sliders and keyboard shortcuts, with software dimming down to black; display groups and brightness syncing; connection management including disconnecting and reconnecting a display without unplugging it; picture-in-picture and local streaming; DDC hardware control with automatic capability detection; and network control of supported LG webOS, Samsung Tizen and Philips Android televisions along with Yamaha AV receivers.

The README does not publish what Pro costs. So the only way to decide is to list the six gated features above and check which of them you actually need.

The 1600 and 2000 nit figures are ceilings, not guarantees

The brightness feature is described as XDR and HDR brightness upscaling, giving access to additional brightness on compatible displays, including up to 1600 or 2000 nits on supported Apple XDR displays, with the methods that are available depending on your Mac, your display and your macOS version.

Three conditions in one sentence, and each one is a reason the headline number will not be what you get. It is a ceiling for a compatible panel, not a target. The method depends on the Mac, so the same display behaves differently on different hardware. And it depends on the macOS version, which is also the axis along which the two download lines are split.

That is the honest shape of a feature that pushes a display past what its brightness slider allows. The same caution applies to the other hardware-adjacent items in the list. HDR and high refresh rate virtual screens are described as available on compatible Macs, additional refresh rates are limited to supported Apple Silicon configurations, and custom resolutions and display overrides are the general case while EDID overrides are the Pro part. Read each of these as a feature that either works on your machine or does not, and check before you pay for the one that does not.

DDC, HDMI-CEC and network control are three paths to the same television

The list covers display control in three separate ways, and the difference matters more than it first appears.

DDC hardware control automatically detects what a connected display supports and controls brightness, volume and input selection on compatible displays, including through supported built-in HDMI ports on the Mac. That is the direct hardware path over a display's own control channel.

HDMI-CEC is the consumer control channel that lets one device change another over HDMI without a network. The README says the app can control TV volume, mute, power and input selection through compatible HDMI connections, including through the CLI. That is how you get a television's volume keys from a menu bar item.

Network device control is the third path, covering supported LG webOS, Samsung Tizen and Philips Android televisions, and Yamaha AV receivers, which are controlled over the network rather than over HDMI.

The consequence is that a single television may be reachable by one of these and not the others, and the reason is the television's firmware rather than the app. If the volume control does nothing, the more likely explanation is that the set does not implement the channel you expected, and the app's own diagnostics reports are where you would look.

The app grew a console, a diagnostics view and per-display commands

Several of the BetterDisplay 5 additions point the same way, from an app you configure by clicking to something you can inspect and script.

There is a built-in console and expanded automation, which puts the CLI features and the app logs inside the application itself, and adds per-display commands for connection, disconnection, sleep and wake events, with that per-display command integration marked as requiring Pro. There is expanded display diagnostics, which exposes connection, bandwidth, compression and tiling information, plus EDID, DPCD, DSC, HDMI-CEC and Apple brightness reports through the CLI.

The image side follows the same pattern. Advanced image adjustments apply expanded compositor filters for sharpening, geometry and colour adjustments, with support for display group syncing, the CLI and macOS Shortcuts, and custom 3D LUTs can be imported and applied to image adjustments and to picture-in-picture and stream video filters. Selected-window streaming creates picture-in-picture views of individual windows or window groups, with filters, presentation options and target frame-rate controls.

For anyone automating a desk setup, that is the part worth following. A display utility that can be told what to do on a sleep event, and that can print its own bandwidth and EDID reports, is a different kind of tool from one that only offers sliders.

Editorial conclusion

Use BetterDisplay if you want HiDPI scaling on an external display, brightness above what the slider allows on an XDR panel, a virtual screen for a headless Mac, or DDC and HDMI-CEC control of a television, and you are willing to install a disk image and keep it current for your macOS generation. Do not adopt it expecting an auditable codebase, because the repository holds a README and nothing else, and do not expect a published price, because the README itemises which features need Pro without saying what Pro costs. Before you install: take the build that matches your macOS, since macOS 26 and 27 use the 5.x line while Sequoia, Sonoma and Ventura use 4.3.7; download only from the releases page or betterdisplay.pro, because the README warns about lookalike sites; and check the hardware requirement for the specific feature you want, since the brightness figure is described as depending on your Mac, your display and your macOS version.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official documentation
2. Official README
3. Project repository
4. Release notes