be quiet! IO Center vs HYTE Nexus
be quiet! IO Center
bequiet.comHYTE Nexus
hyte.comSide by side
| Figure | be quiet! IO Center | HYTE Nexus |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Keyboard and Mouse Customization Software | 8.9 (#3) | 8.7 (#8) |
| Founded | 2001 | 2021 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Glinde, Germany | City of Industry, California, United States |
| Lighting | Users can customize individual LEDs and choose preconfigured RGB effects. | Its GPU-rendered lighting engine offers more than 75 shader effects plus screen, audio, and game sync features. |
| Macro support | Yes | Yes |
| Onboard device memory | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The manufacturer’s contact page provides a dedicated topic for software issues and directs users to FAQs or direct contact. | Support is provided through setup and troubleshooting documentation, an FAQ, and Discord where users can contact the community and Nexus team. |
| Supported operating systems | cross-platform | cross-platform |
Plans
In their own words
be quiet! IO Center
be quiet! IO Center configures supported be quiet! keyboards, mice, and coolers. It lets users customize individual LEDs or select preset RGB effects, set keybindings, record macros, and manage profiles. Keys can be assigned functions such as media controls, mouse buttons, Windows tools, files, and applications; macros can include editable delays and action order. Profiles can be switched manually, launched when an application runs, or imported and exported as files. For supported cooler screens, users can select preset or uploaded images and videos, or browse GIPHY for animations and memes. Cooling controls include presets and PID control, which continues working after IO Center closes. Custom keyboard lighting effects require the software to remain running in the background. The Windows desktop app is compatible with Windows 11 Dynamic Lighting. IO Center Web works on Windows, macOS, and Linux in a Chromium-based browser without an account. Settings can be saved to keyboard onboard memory. The software is free.
HYTE Nexus
HYTE Nexus brings PC monitoring, cooling controls, RGB lighting and panel displays together in one app. It shows live CPU, GPU, RAM, network, disk, fan and temperature readings, with historical sensor graphs. Users can build fan and pump curves from temperature sensors or select Silent, Balanced or Turbo presets. Its GPU-rendered lighting engine includes more than 75 shader effects, plus screen, audio and game synchronization. Nexus also checks storage, memory, GPU and cooling health, and records per-game frame-rate history on Windows. A phone can pair with a PC by QR code for remote monitoring, lighting and controls; the relay connection is end-to-end encrypted. The app can work offline without an account, and optional anonymous telemetry can be disabled. Profile sync is optional and stores up to five profiles of 512 KB each. Nexus supports selected devices through first-party drivers and broader third-party RGB support through a bundled headless OpenRGB build. It is free, open source under AGPL-3.0, and available for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows, with some platform exclusions.