JoyToKey vs LEA Extended Input

JoyToKey converts game-controller buttons and stick input into keyboard strokes or mouse actions for Windows applications and web games. A joystick button can be assigned a key, key combination, mouse movement, wheel movement, or click. Users can make multiple profiles and have the active profile switch based on the application in focus. An Auto Setting Wizard helps configure basic assignments, while advanced settings let a button rotate among two or three assignment sets based on rotation, press duration, or analog input level. Button Alias can create virtual buttons, combine functions for one input, or trigger an input when two buttons are pressed together. Profiles can be associated with target applications, and command-line arguments can refresh joystick devices or switch profiles. JoyToKey supports Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Vista, and is offered as an installer or ZIP archive, with a separate ASCII-only build. The shareware can be evaluated without functional limits. The JoyToKey License Key is listed at $7.50 a month for continued use after the trial period. The download page states that the product has no warranty.

LEA Extended Input lets users emulate keyboard and joystick inputs from mobile client devices connected to a PC. The clients are available for Android and iOS, and the standalone server runs on 64-bit editions of Windows 7 and higher. The server emulates four joysticks and one keyboard, can redirect gamepad and joystick inputs to them, and supports multiple clients connected to one PC with synchronized client statuses.

Users can choose from 13 standard controls, create their own, or import controls shared by the community. Controls can be customized by shape, size, orientation, color, and texture, and the client includes a macro editor. In Extended mode, a compatible PC game can send information such as inventory, a mini-map, or radar to the client UI. Users can export projects through LEA Resources Manager on PC to share them with the community. The maker offers a C# SDK; its SDK page lists a C++ SDK as available soon. The clients and server are free.