I’ve been a big fan of Synergy for years, using it for sharing the keyboard/mouse on my desk with multiple laptops, and often mixed OS’s (OSX, Windows, Linux). Combined with Quick Synergy, setup is super simple. With any application, there are always pain points. For me those pain points were most frequently about Shift keys and other Meta keys (Ctrl, CMD, etc.) sticking between machines. Caps-lock has been hellish too. Synergy has been a 1-man show for some time… maybe that is just my lack of awareness… but that caused for some slowness in bug fixes. Though Nick was always active in the forums. And with $10-$29 entry point for advanced features like file sharing, its a no brainer.

Now enter ShareMouse, hailing out of Germany. The first thing that hit me was setup was Easy. How Easy? There IS no setup. You just have ShareMouse running on 2 (or more) machines on the same network… and MAGIC. In the early versions, that was a bit concerning, as there were hardly any configuration options if you wanted them. Now you have quite a bit of control, even password-protected mode.

Now one ShareMouse feature is especially great for me since I have 2 laptops (personal and work) and a massive 3K (LG UM95 34UM95) Screen. The key part is that the main monitor sitting between them is connected to both (one-at-a-time) with Thunderbolt, and all my peripherals are connected through that. That means my keyboard and mouse mainly. When I disconnect thunderbolt from one and switch to the other (I use the main screen for work during the day, and personal after-hours), I lose which machine was the “Server” and which was the “Client” in Synergy. But with ShareMouse it just picks up the context of which is being used actively and adjusts. Before with Synergy I had to stop the service on both – specifically on the Client first, then the Server… else my lazy self has to reach over and touch each laptop. But then to start it again I have to reach over to each laptop anyways. A small thing, but its annoying when you have to think about it… and I whole heartedly admit to being lazy… my axiom being: “Lazy breeds Efficiency… or dies out”.

So while the price point is higher – over long usage (I was on Synergy for 5 years) – for ShareMouse ($19.99 a YEAR instead of $29 one-time), I’ve chosen ShareMouse. I am actually using the Free version still, since I’ve learned to live without File Sharing, and use Droplr for passing files around now. If they drop their price to be competitive, I’d totally switch… I just don’t want any more recurring charges to keep track of, especially for a niche utility.