Synergy for Mac

CNET Editors' review

by: Chris Page on May 06, 2013

Open-source and usable across platforms, this utility application lets you share a single mouse and keyboard across more than one computer at a time. Even though Synergy for Mac is an easy-to-use utility concept, it could use some additional improvements with its setup process and execution.

Upon downloading and installing Synergy for Mac, the user will find that the mouse and keyboard sharing concept is based on the user's knowledge and ability to either set up a server for all the computers that will be sharing or to access a client base already established. Synergy could have done a better job facilitating an easier, more guided and descriptive setup and for its users, though. Once we completed setup on a local server, we were able to share our mouse and keyboard between our desktop and our MacBook, but the transference of the keyboard inputs between the two screens, and separate applications being used at the time, created some lag time. We only had this problem with the keyboard inputs, though. Synergy is a free application but the developers encourage the purchase of Premium accounts to support the project. It is not clear what the user gets if they contribute less than $10, but for a contribution of $10 they can get a premium vote that they are able to cast on any feature or bug that needs fixing.

Overall, Synergy for Mac seems to be suitable for individuals needing more than one computer to work with at a time because it allows users to eliminate the hassle of using separate mice and keyboards for separate systems.