Chorus vs BlackHole: which one do you need?

The short version

These two solve different layers of the same problem, so this is less about which one wins and more about which layer you need. Chorus is a complete answer: outputs, inputs, groups, per-app routing and shortcuts, all in one menu-bar panel. BlackHole is a single, well-made piece of plumbing, a virtual audio device that other software, or you yourself in Audio MIDI Setup, can plug into. It does that one job with zero added latency, and stops there.

Chorus vs BlackHole at a glance

What Chorus is

Chorus is a native macOS menu-bar app for the devices already attached to your Mac. It groups outputs so several of them play as one, with a single volume that actually moves the sound rather than a slider that has quietly stopped working, and balance between the devices in the group so a quiet speaker can be brought up to meet a loud one.

Around that sits the rest of the job. You choose your input in the same panel, and send individual apps to different outputs, so a call can stay on your headphones while music plays across the room. You save the arrangements you use and switch between them with a keyboard shortcut, and your volume keys drive a whole group with an on-screen readout. Chorus notices devices as they connect and disconnect and adjusts, and it automates through Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.

There is no driver and no kernel extension. Chorus uses the audio grouping macOS already has, so nothing is installed into the system and dragging the app to the Trash leaves your Mac as it was. It is $4.99 once, free for 30 days with no account and no card details, and one licence covers up to three Macs. It needs macOS 13 or later and runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon.

What BlackHole is

BlackHole, from Existential Audio, is a different kind of thing altogether. It is not an app: it is a virtual audio driver, open source on GitHub, that you install into macOS. Once it is in, it shows up as a device inside macOS's own Sound settings and Audio MIDI Setup, the same list your real speakers and microphones appear in, except nothing is physically attached to it. Audio sent to it goes straight through to whatever is listening, with no added latency.

It comes in 2, 16 and 64 channel versions, customisable to 256 or more, with sample rates from 44.1kHz up to 192kHz, and it is a universal build for Intel and Apple Silicon. That is the whole feature list, deliberately. BlackHole has no menu bar icon, no settings window, and nothing to click. It gives you the virtual device and stops. Grouping it with your real speakers, controlling per-app volume, or switching setups is something you have to build yourself, in Audio MIDI Setup or by installing a separate app on top of it.

That is precisely why it is popular. Developers, audio engineers and DIY routing setups reach for BlackHole because it is a free, dependable, low-level building block, not because it tries to be a finished product. It is genuinely excellent at the one job it does.

Where Chorus wins

• It works in two minutes, out of the box. Install it, group your outputs, done, with nothing to configure in Audio MIDI Setup.
• A real interface. One menu-bar panel covering outputs, inputs, groups and per-app routing, with nothing else to learn.
• Setups on a keyboard shortcut. Save the arrangements you actually use, then switch between them with a shortcut, or from Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.
• It follows your desk. Devices are picked up as they connect and dropped as they go, so a group survives the daily unplugging.
• Nothing installed into the system. No driver, no kernel extension, and no trace left behind when it goes.
• Three Macs on one licence, and 30 days free before you decide.

Where BlackHole is the better choice

• It costs nothing. Free and open source, with no paid tier to run into later.
• It is the right raw material for developers. If you are building your own routing tool, or scripting audio between apps, BlackHole is the standard, well-trusted virtual cable to build on.
• Zero-latency, high channel count. Up to 256+ channels and sample rates to 192kHz, for setups that need more than a stereo pair.
• It plugs into other free and paid tools. Plenty of DIY routing chains and third-party apps assume BlackHole is already there.
• You genuinely do not need a finished app. If the job is a single virtual audio cable and you are happy wiring the rest up yourself, paying for anything is unnecessary.

So which should you pick?

Pick Chorus if you want the everyday problem solved without any of the plumbing: two displays that should sound like one, a mic you keep having to reselect, a call that belongs on headphones while everything else plays out loud, and a setup you would like to change with one keystroke. That is the whole job, it is $4.99, and you can try it for a month before paying anything.

Pick BlackHole if you are the one building the routing, not looking for someone to have built it for you: a developer who needs a virtual audio cable, or a tinkerer assembling a chain in Audio MIDI Setup or another app. It is free, well respected, and there is no reason to pay for Chorus if that is genuinely the job.

Some people legitimately use both, with BlackHole sitting quietly inside a bigger DIY audio chain while Chorus handles the everyday work of grouping speakers and routing apps. They are not competing for the same job, so there is nothing odd about running them side by side.

For the technical detail on how the driver works, see BlackHole's own GitHub repository.

Frequently asked questions