Sidecar requires macOS Catalina, so you'll need to update to macOS Catalina first if you want to use that feature. If your Mac is running anything older than macOS Catalina, and will do so for the foreseeable future, then Luna Display is your only choice of these two. That means you'll be taking up two of your Mac's ports, though this might not be much of a difficulty depending on how you're using Luna Display and which model of Mac you're using. Even when using a wired connection, you'll still need to have the Luna Display hardware plugged into your Mac. The other limitation is one that only applies to Luna Display. This means that you'll need to have at least one USB port open in order to get Sidecar or Luna to work. You need to plug your iPad directly into your Mac, rather than indirectly through a dock or hub. The first limitation of a wired connection applies to both Sidecar and Luna Display. But there are certain caveats that you need to understand before you plunge on in.
This is achieved by some version of USB-to-USB-C or USB-to-Lightning cable. Though both Sidecar and Luna Display seem to prefer wireless connections to your Mac, both can be used in a wired configuration. Luna gets the benefits of graphics acceleration because it works properly with your GPU.
This is opposed to different software-based second display solutions that trick your Mac's graphics card into thinking that a second display is connected. Luna Display works by plugging into your Mac and uses its GPU directly to provide a smooth user experience no-to-very low lag. It's also a hardware product, and the two really can't be separated.
It's important to note here that Luna Display isn't just a free iPadOS app with a companion on macOS. While Sidecar also allows for multitouch, and has unique controls of its own, its support for using multitouch functionality with macOS isn't as robust. Luna has been engineered to take advantage of your iPad's large touchscreen and apply its utility to the Mac. Both of them work wirelessly (though you need a dongle to achieve this with Luna Display) or over a wired connection.īoth also allow you to use touch, and it's in this area that Luna is actually the more full-featured product. Sidecar and Luna Display are, at a conceptual level, the same sort of thing: they turn your iPad into an extension or mirror of your Mac's display.