Razer Synapse alternatives
Four ways to configure a Razer mouse without running Synapse 4. Which one works depends on your operating system and your mouse; each row says what it does not do.
Side by side
| What | freenapse | OpenRazer and Polychromatic | Razer Synapse Web | Razer Synapse 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Windows 10 and 11 | Linux | Chrome, Edge and Opera (WebHID); Firefox does not support it | Windows |
| Devices | Viper V3 Pro, verified. Other Razer mice open read-only until an owner tests them | Hundreds of Razer devices; the Viper V3 Pro since OpenRazer 3.9.0 | In the beta, three Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards; no mice yet | Every current Razer device |
| Sets | DPI stages, polling rate, buttons on both layers, Dynamic Sensitivity, lift-off, sleep and low power, dongle LED, pairing; macros and per-game profiles in the tray app | DPI, polling rate, lighting, battery, and more per device; no button remapping | A simplified set; Razer points to Synapse 4 for the rest | Everything, plus cloud profiles and Chroma |
| Afterwards | Nothing has to run. The tray app is optional, 10 MB | A kernel driver and a daemon | A browser tab while you configure | 11 Electron processes and 2 services, about 1.5 GB |
| Account | None, no internet | None | Loads from the internet, then works offline for the session | Razer ID |
| License | MIT, free | GPL, free | Razer’s, free | Razer’s, free |
Sources: the OpenRazer and Polychromatic sites, Razer’s Synapse Web announcement and support page, and the Synapse 4 numbers measured on one PC for the home page.
The fifth option: set it once, remove everything
The Viper V3 Pro keeps its settings in onboard memory. Whatever tool writes them, the mouse keeps working the same way afterwards with nothing installed, on Windows, Linux or a Mac. So a Mac user can configure the mouse once on a Windows PC with freenapse, or on Linux with OpenRazer, and never run anything on the Mac. What you give up is the software-side extras: battery in the tray, per-game switching, macros.
Questions
- Is freenapse a Razer Synapse alternative for every Razer mouse?
- No. It is verified on one mouse, the Viper V3 Pro, wired and on its dongle. Other Razer mice are detected and opened read-only;
freenapse probeprints what they answer, and an issue or pull request with that output is how a mouse gets added. - What about Synapse 3?
- Razer’s older app still supports the mouse, and reviewers have found it detected the Viper V3 Pro when Synapse 4 would not. It is still Razer’s software, with the account and the background services, and Razer is moving devices to Synapse 4.
- Does OpenRazer work on Windows?
- No, it is a Linux kernel driver. On Windows the choices are Razer’s own software, Synapse Web for the devices it supports, or freenapse for the Viper V3 Pro.
Related
- Uninstall Razer Synapse and keep your settings
- The order to do it in on Windows.
- Set the DPI and polling rate without Synapse
- The commands, with what the mouse does with each value.