teleport is a free, open-source Mac utility that lets you control multiple Apple computers from a single keyboard and mouse by moving your cursor across an invisible boundary between screens.
What is teleport?
teleport turns your Mac setup into a software KVM switch — no hardware dongle, no USB hub, no extra cables required. You designate one Mac as the "host" and arrange your other Macs around it in a simple drag-and-drop layout panel inside System Settings. The moment your cursor slides off the edge of the host screen in the direction of a neighbour, control transfers seamlessly to that machine. Keyboard input, clipboard contents, and even file drag-and-drop follow you across the boundary.
The project lives on GitHub under the abyssoft organisation and has been around long enough to have a loyal following among multi-Mac power users who would rather not pay for a commercial solution.
What does teleport do best?
teleport excels at zero-friction cursor handoff between Macs on the same local network. The transition is near-instantaneous — there is no perceptible lag on a wired or fast Wi-Fi network, which makes it feel more like a multi-monitor setup than a remote-control tool.
- Shared clipboard: copy on one Mac, paste on another without any manual sync step.
- Drag-and-drop file transfer: grab a file on the host, drag across the screen edge, and drop it directly onto the client Mac's desktop or an open Finder window.
- Layout editor: the preference pane lets you position client Macs above, below, left, or right — matching your physical desk arrangement exactly.
- Hot-key override: a customisable key combination lets you lock control to one machine when you need to type without accidentally wandering onto a neighbour.
I use teleport daily to share a single mechanical keyboard between a MacBook Pro and a Mac mini sitting side by side. The clipboard sync alone has saved me from dozens of tedious AirDrop transfers.
Is teleport free?
Yes — teleport is completely free to download and use. The source code is publicly available on GitHub, so there is no paywall, no subscription, and no freemium tier with features locked behind a purchase.
That said, the trade-off is support cadence. As a community-maintained open-source project, major macOS updates occasionally break functionality until a volunteer lands a patch. If you need guaranteed same-day compatibility with every macOS release and a support email to call, commercial alternatives like Synergy or Barrier (also open-source, cross-platform) may suit you better — though neither feels as native on macOS as teleport does.
Who should use teleport?
teleport is ideal for anyone who operates two or more Macs in the same room. The sweet spot is the developer or creative who keeps a personal MacBook alongside a work Mac mini, or the editor who runs a MacBook Pro next to a Mac Studio. If your Macs are on the same subnet and you want a keyboard-and-mouse handoff that feels like moving between monitors rather than switching machines, teleport is the right tool.
It is not a remote-desktop solution — you need a direct line of sight to each display. If you want to control a Mac in another room or over the internet, look at Apple Remote Desktop, Royal TSX, or Jump Desktop instead.
What are the best teleport alternatives?
The closest competitors split into two camps. Synergy is the veteran cross-platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) paid option — polished, actively maintained, and worth considering if your desk mixes operating systems. Barrier is a free, community fork of the older Synergy 1 codebase that also works cross-platform, though setup is more involved. Apple Universal Control is the obvious comparison for anyone running recent macOS: it is baked into the OS, requires no installation, and supports iPads. For pure Mac-to-Mac use on modern hardware, Universal Control is hard to beat. teleport shines on older hardware or in cases where Universal Control's Handoff prerequisites are a nuisance to meet.
How does teleport compare to Apple Universal Control?
Apple Universal Control, introduced in macOS Monterey, does everything teleport does — and integrates iPad support too. For most users on supported hardware, Universal Control is the default recommendation: zero setup, no third-party binary, automatic pairing via your Apple ID.
teleport remains relevant for a few specific reasons: it runs on older macOS versions that predate Universal Control; it works between Macs that are not signed into the same Apple ID (useful in office environments); and some users report more consistent clipboard sharing behaviour with teleport on networks that struggle with the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi pairing handshake Universal Control relies on. It is a niche advantage, but a real one.
