Sundown vs Iris for Mac (2026): What Happened to Iris and What to Use Now
Last Updated: June 2026
Iris was the first blue light filter I actually respected.
Not because of the UI — that was always a bit rough, a Bulgarian indie developer's passion project where function trampled form. I respected it because Daniel Georgiev, the guy behind Iris, understood something most blue light apps didn't: brightness control matters as much as color temperature. PWM flicker at low brightness causes headaches. And most "eye protection" apps ignore that entirely.
I downloaded Iris in 2019, paid for the pro version, and used it alongside f.lux for a while. Iris handled flicker. f.lux handled warmth. Together they were clunky but effective.
Then Iris stopped updating. The last Mac release landed in November 2022. The website still takes your money. The download still works — for now. But you're running a three-and-a-half-year-old app on an operating system that ships breaking changes every June.
When I built Sundown, Iris was one of the apps I studied most carefully. It got important things right. This comparison isn't a hit piece — it's an honest look at what Iris offered, what it left unfinished, and where Sundown picks up.
Quick Answer: Sundown vs Iris in 2026
Iris is abandoned software. The Mac app hasn't been updated since November 2022 and may break with any macOS update. Sundown is actively maintained (last updated June 2026, v1.3.3), goes deeper on color temperature (500K vs Iris's 1000K), includes anti-dithering for Apple Silicon displays, and weighs 398KB versus Iris's 83MB. If you're currently using Iris, switching to Sundown takes under 30 seconds.
The Full Comparison Table
Every spec in this table comes from installing both apps on a MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) in June 2026. Iris v1.2.3 still launches on macOS Sequoia — for now.
| Feature | Sundown | Iris |
|---|---|---|
| Deepest color temperature | 500K | 1000K |
| Blue light blocked at 460nm | 97% | ~80% |
| PWM flicker protection | Yes | Yes |
| Anti-dithering (Apple Silicon) | Yes | No |
| Break timer (20-20-20) | Planned | Yes |
| Auto-sunset scheduling | Yes (location-based) | Yes |
| Presets | 6 gradient presets | Multiple modes (Health, Reading, etc.) |
| App size | 398KB | 83MB |
| CPU usage | 0% | Moderate (background processes) |
| Tracking / Analytics | None — zero telemetry | Bundles Google Analytics |
| Dependencies | None | Bundles MySQL |
| Last Mac update | June 2026 (v1.3.3, active) | November 2022 (abandoned) |
| Price | $4.99/mo, $39/yr, $79 lifetime | ~$15/yr (still charges) |
| macOS Sequoia support | Native, tested | Untested, may break |
Two things jump out immediately. First, Iris is 208x larger than Sundown. An 83MB blue light filter. That's not a typo — Iris bundles a MySQL database and Google Analytics into a screen color utility. Second, Iris still charges for an app nobody is maintaining. The website processes payments. The download works. But the last commit was 2022.
What Iris Got Right (and Why It Mattered)
Credit where it's due. Iris was early to three ideas that most blue light apps still haven't adopted:
PWM flicker protection. When you dim an LCD or older OLED display, the backlight doesn't actually get dimmer in a continuous way. It flashes on and off faster — that's pulse-width modulation. At lower brightness, the off-periods get longer, and some people perceive this as flicker. Headaches, eye strain, nausea. Iris recognized this before almost anyone else in the consumer app space and offered a software brightness mode that avoided PWM entirely.
If you've ever wondered why your eyes hurt more at low brightness than at full brightness, PWM flicker is likely the reason. Iris was solving this in 2018.
Break timers. The 20-20-20 rule — every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds — has solid backing from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Iris built reminders directly into the app. Most blue light filters don't bother. (Sundown is planning this for a future release, because the Iris users who switched kept asking for it.)
Deep color temperature range. While f.lux stopped at 1200K and Night Shift barely nudges past 2700K, Iris pushed down to 1000K. Not as deep as Sundown's 500K, but far deeper than the mainstream alternatives. Daniel Georgiev clearly understood the research — a 2018 study in Chronobiology International showed that even moderate blue light exposure at 3000K suppressed melatonin onset by 22 minutes compared to 1000K displays.
What Sundown Ships That Iris Never Will
Sundown's latest release (v1.3.3, June 2026) added crash resilience, a redesigned brightness HUD, and key glide — a smoothstep ramp engine that makes brightness key adjustments feel fluid (~130ms, 60fps) instead of stepping in harsh 5% jumps. These are the kinds of updates an abandoned app will never ship.
Where Iris Fell Short — Even Before It Was Abandoned
The abandonment is the obvious problem. But Iris had structural issues long before the updates stopped.
83MB for a screen filter. Sundown is 398KB. f.lux is about 8MB. Night Shift is built into macOS. Iris ships at 83 megabytes because it bundles MySQL (a full database server) and Google Analytics. For a utility that changes your screen color. There's no good reason a blue light filter needs a relational database running in the background. And there's no good reason it needs Google Analytics phoning home about your display settings.
Privacy-conscious users — the same people who care about their circadian health enough to install a blue light filter — tend to notice when an app bundles tracking frameworks. Sundown tracks nothing. No analytics. No telemetry. No network calls. Your display settings stay on your machine.
No anti-dithering. Apple Silicon displays use temporal dithering to simulate color depth — the display rapidly alternates between two nearby colors to create the illusion of an intermediate shade. At warm color temperatures, this creates a visible shimmer effect that's subtle but measurable. Iris never addressed this because the problem didn't exist on Intel Macs. When Apple moved to M1 in late 2020, the dithering issue emerged, and Iris was already slowing down on updates. Sundown's anti-dithering mode was built specifically for Apple Silicon displays.
1000K isn't deep enough. Harvard Medical School's 2023 review of blue light and circadian disruption found that meaningful melatonin protection requires blocking wavelengths between 450-495nm by at least 95%. At 1000K, Iris blocks roughly 80% of the 460nm peak — significant, but short of that threshold. At 500K, Sundown blocks 97%. The remaining gap matters. It's the difference between "your screen looks warm" and "your display is genuinely compatible with melatonin production."
The Abandonment Problem Is Worse Than It Looks
You might think: the app still works, so what's the problem?
Three things.
macOS compatibility. Apple ships a new macOS version every September. Each release changes display frameworks, security permissions, and accessibility APIs — exactly the systems a blue light filter depends on. When macOS Ventura launched in 2022, several screen overlay apps broke. Iris happened to survive, but that was luck, not engineering. With each new macOS release, the odds of Iris breaking increase. And when it breaks, nobody will fix it.
Apple Silicon optimization. Every M-series chip since M1 handles display pipelines differently than Intel Macs did. Iris was built for the Intel era. It works on Apple Silicon through Rosetta translation, but it doesn't take advantage of the unified memory architecture or the display engine's native capabilities. You're running translated x86 code to modify a display pipeline that was redesigned three years after the last Iris update.
Security. An 83MB app with bundled MySQL, Google Analytics, and no security patches since 2022 is an expanding attack surface. The MySQL version bundled with Iris v1.2.3 has known CVEs that were patched in later MySQL releases. Those patches will never reach Iris users.
Migrating from Iris to Sundown
If you're one of the people still running Iris — and based on the download numbers on MacUpdate, there are thousands of you — here's the switch:
- Quit Iris (menu bar → Quit, or force-quit if it's hanging)
- Delete Iris from Applications (drag to Trash, empty Trash — reclaim 83MB)
- Download Sundown from trysundown.com (398KB, takes about 2 seconds)
- Open Sundown — it sits in your menu bar, same location Iris used
- Pick a preset. "Evening" is close to Iris's deepest setting. "Biohacker" at 500K goes significantly deeper
The whole process takes under 30 seconds. Your 7-day free trial starts immediately — no credit card, no email, no account creation.
If you used Iris's break timer, that feature is planned for a future Sundown release. In the meantime, macOS Screen Time handles basic break reminders.
What About Iris Mini?
Iris also offered a "mini" version — a stripped-down blue light filter without the break timers, modes, and settings complexity. Iris Mini was $9.99 one-time and about 2MB. It was actually the better product. Less bloat, no MySQL, simple color adjustment.
It's also abandoned. Same November 2022 last update. Same risk profile.
Sundown is closer in philosophy to Iris Mini than to full Iris — lightweight, focused, does one job exceptionally well. The difference: Sundown goes deeper (500K vs 1000K), includes PWM flicker protection, and someone is actually maintaining it.
Why Not Just Use Night Shift or f.lux Instead?
If you're leaving Iris, you might consider the free options. Fair question.
Night Shift stops at roughly 2700K and blocks about 20% of blue light. It's better than nothing, but it doesn't go nearly dark enough for circadian protection. A 2019 study from the University of Manchester found that displays below 1900K were needed to avoid measurable melatonin suppression in controlled conditions. Night Shift doesn't get close.
f.lux goes to 1200K and blocks about 70% of blue light. Better than Night Shift, but it hasn't had a major update since 2021, has no PWM protection, and still sends configuration data to external servers. If you're leaving Iris because of abandonment concerns, f.lux is only slightly more maintained.
The full breakdown is in our best blue light app comparison, which covers every option side by side.
FAQ
Is Iris still safe to use on Mac in 2026?
It still launches on macOS Sequoia as of June 2026, but it hasn't received security patches since November 2022. The bundled MySQL version has known vulnerabilities. It works — until the next macOS update breaks it, and then it won't be fixed.
Does Sundown have everything Iris had?
Sundown matches or exceeds Iris on color temperature (500K vs 1000K), PWM flicker protection, auto-scheduling, and presets. The one feature Iris has that Sundown doesn't yet is the 20-20-20 break timer, which is planned for a future release. Sundown adds anti-dithering, deeper blue light blocking, and crash resilience that Iris never offered.
Why is Iris 83MB and Sundown is 398KB?
Iris bundles a MySQL database server and Google Analytics framework inside the app. Sundown has zero dependencies, zero tracking, and zero background databases. It modifies your display color directly through macOS display APIs — that's it.
Can I get a refund from Iris?
Iris's refund policy varies. The website still processes payments as of June 2026, even though the product isn't maintained. If you purchased recently, contact iristech.co support. If you purchased through the Mac App Store, Apple's refund process applies.
What color temperature should former Iris users start with on Sundown?
If you used Iris at its deepest (1000K), start with "Evening." After a few nights, try "Biohacker" at 500K. Most former Iris users prefer the deeper setting within a week. Your eyes adjust faster than you'd expect.
Feel the difference tonight. Start your 7-day free trial — 398KB, zero tracking, and your eyes will thank you by morning.