Barrier icon
Barrier icon

Barrier

 124 likes

Barrier is a cross-platform software utility for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk. It was forked from Synergy version 1.9's codebase.

Barrier screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Country of Origin

  • US flagUnited States

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows  64-bit versions of Windows 7 and up
  • Linux  Currently does not support drag-and-drop
  • FreeBSD
  • OpenBSD
Discontinued

The Barrier project has been unmaintained for a year and a half now, and efforts to continue developing the project have continued in this repo: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leapMore details can be found here: https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414

4.1 / 5 Avg rating (25)
124likes
22comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features
  1.  Mouse Sharing
  2.  Keyboard Sharing
  3.  Share Clipboard
  4.  SSL encryption
  5.  Copy & paste actions
  6.  Virtual KVM Switch
  7.  Cross-Platform
  8.  Preconfigurable auto-connect
  9.  Wayland Support
  10.  Drag and Drop

 Tags

Barrier News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

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Recent activities

  • App icon
    braky added Barrier as alternative to Deskflow
    23 days ago
  • bannert1337, thejfex and r3v0000 liked Barrier
    3 months ago
  • App icon
    BHznJNs added Barrier as alternative to InputShare
    7 months ago
  • drinkupthewine and hfsdysgtmn liked Barrier
    10 months ago
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Barrier information

  • Developed by

    US flagdebauchee
  • Licensing

    Open Source and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Rating

    Average rating of 4.1 (25 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    17 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Category

OS & Utilities

GitHub repository

  •  29,125 Stars
  •  1,557 Forks
  •  1041 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jun 22, 2024 
View on GitHub

Our users have written 22 comments and reviews about Barrier, and it has gotten 124 likes

Barrier was added to AlternativeTo by alpeg on May 2, 2018 and this page was last updated Aug 14, 2023.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Comment summary: Users generally view Barrier favorably, praising its open-source nature and cross-platform functionality, especially between Linux and Windows. It is seen as a better alternative to Synergy, offering free use without the additional features added by Symless in recent Synergy versions. Some users report issues with international keyboards and occasional system lockups, signifying ongoing development concerns. While Barrier works well most of the time, outdated releases and Wayland support limitations are noted.
Top Positive Comment
iknowzo
Aug 18, 2018
11

Works better than Synergy and its free & open source! You can download the compiled app under releases when you click on the github link.

Top Negative Comment
TBayAreaPat
Apr 26, 2023
0

Downloaded from SourceForge. Wasn't sure about using server or client option since this is for a home network with no server, but as server it requires installation of Bonjour, so I went with client. Still asks for Server IP, so I went w/auto config. Then I saw Mouse w/o Borders and went with that because the setup is less confusing.

Shaz Shah
May 31, 2024
0

Absolutely brilliant piece of kit to act as a KVM switch between my Linux and Windows machines. Simple and effective. I just hoped it's not been abandoned.

Tony Tuite
Apr 14, 2023
0

It works well... when it works. However it's prone to forgetting which system you're on when you switch.

At least once a week it will lock up when switching, and the only way to fix it is to ctrl+alt+del and reboot. This means you lose any and all data you were working on. If you're using this platform, you likely multitask a lot and that can be devastating for your day.

Essentially it will quit accepting input on either machine and if you do ctrl+alt+del (which suspends all applications, including Barrier) you get mouse control back. I reported this via their GitHub and they were not interested in fixing it.

Edit: There is a known clipboard issue, but this happens with that feature disabled.

Guest
Mar 15, 2023
0

Barrier works great across Linux systems (don't do windows) but beware that it currently is X11 only. Does not support Wayland at this time. This is really regrettable since the Linux move is toward Wayland.

wanwel
Oct 24, 2022
0

Works great, even between Ubuntu and Windows. I had a problem with the SSL option but it took a little research to fix it.

haubeben
May 15, 2022
0

This would be an amazing piece of software if it worked. Sadly, it is barely functional.

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7 of 22 comments

What is Barrier?

Barrier is a cross-platform software utility for sharing your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers on your desk. It was forked from Synergy icon Synergy version 1.9's codebase.

As a keyboard, video, and mouse utility, Barrier aims to maintain the simplicity found in Synergy icon Synergy versions released before 2.0. Barrier's goals are the following:

• Let you use your keyboard and mouse from machine A to control machine B (or more) • Hassle-free reliability • Compatibility, with the aim being to "just work" with Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD • Development communication by utilizing the open source development and release model

While focused on simplicity and ease of use, Barrier does support both clipboard sharing and SSL encryption.

Barrier currently does not support drag-and-drop on Linux kernel-powered operating systems, and it will not run at all on 32-bit versions of Windows. Windows 7 icon Windows 7 or later is required.