shareclick / vs Universal Control
ShareClick vs Universal Control
Apple's Universal Control lets one keyboard and mouse roam across a Mac and an iPad — but only inside Apple's ecosystem. There is no Universal Control for Windows. ShareClick gives you that same seamless feel between a Mac and a Windows PC — free, open source, and encrypted.
| Feature | ShareClick | Universal Control |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free & open source | Free (built into macOS) |
| Works with Windows | Yes | No (Apple devices only) |
| Mac ↔ Windows | Yes | No |
| Mac ↔ Mac / iPad | Any two computers | Yes |
| Clipboard (text + images) | Yes | Yes |
| File transfer | Yes (any pair) | Drag & drop (Apple only) |
| Setup | Shared passphrase + screen edges | Same Apple ID / iCloud |
| Open source | Yes (MIT/Apache) | No |
| Encryption | X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305 | Apple end-to-end |
which should you pick?
Choose ShareClick if one of your machines is a Windows PC — Universal Control simply doesn't support Windows. It's the practical "Universal Control for Windows".
Choose Universal Control if you only ever move between Apple devices (Mac and iPad) on the same Apple ID.
Universal Control is a lovely feature, but it stops at the edge of Apple's ecosystem. ShareClick delivers the same "push your cursor to the next screen" experience across Mac↔Windows, with clipboard sync, file transfer, encryption on every channel, and a UDP input path (~6 µs transport overhead) for the lowest possible lag.