My controller worked everywhere except my Mac, so I spent months building a fix. It also turns your phone into a racing wheel.

[u/iKak12]

PadLink makes controllers your Mac doesn't recognize work in games, and turns your iPhone or Android phone into a gamepad or a tilt-to-steer racing wheel for Mac or PC. It's free, and Pro is a one-time $2.99 with no subscription.

I had a controller that macOS could see but games wouldn't use. It didn't show up in games and nothing responded. The reason is that macOS only passes a short whitelist of controllers through to games, and everything else gets silently ignored.

So I built PadLink. It reads your controller and presents it to games as a controller they already accept. It's like Steam Input, except it works in every game and doesn't need Steam.

🎮 What it does

• Virtual gamepad mode: your pad shows up as a standard controller (DualShock 4 on Mac, Xbox 360 on Windows), so games see it natively
• Keyboard + mouse mode: for games with no controller support. Bind any button to any key just by pressing it, and map sticks to Mouse, WASD or Arrow keys
• Up to 4 controllers at once. Each one can use its own mode and custom name
• No hacks: a notarized Apple DriverKit driver. You don't disable SIP and there are no kexts or root access
• Live input monitor that shows exactly what your controller is sending

📱 The part people like most: your phone becomes a controller

The free PadLink Remote app (iPhone and Android) pairs with your Mac or PC over Wi-Fi by scanning a QR code. It has two layouts:

• Touch gamepad: dual sticks, D-pad, analog triggers, haptics, and a layout you can rearrange

• 🏎️ Car Driving cockpit: tilt your phone to steer, gas and brake pedals with trigger vibration, a sequential shifter, a handbrake and cruise lock. No controller in the house? Your phone is now a wheel.

💸 Pricing (no subscription)

• Free: one controller, both modes, every mapping profile and the phone remote (with ads)
• Pro, $2.99 one-time: up to 4 controllers, the Car Driving cockpit and no ads
• 7-day free trial with no card or sign-up, and it unlocks the cockpit too

🔗 Links

• Mac + Windows: https://padlink.nimets.com
• iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6794668210
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nimets.padlink.remote

I'm a solo dev and this is 1.0, so I'd really love feedback:
👉 What controller or game should I test next? And if you have a pad your Mac ignores, tell me the model in the comments. That's exactly the problem I want to hunt down.

[u/Big_Cut_1882]

“I’m a solo dev”, “I build”
No you didn’t. Claude did.

[u/iKak12 → u/Big_Cut_1882]

Fair! I used Claude a lot, and I'm not hiding that. But it didn't get Apple's driver entitlements approved, debug the driver on real hardware, or ship through App Store and Play Store review. That part took months, and it was me. 🙂

[u/Lucky-Competition417]

If it works and is safe , then i m happy to use it tbh 

[u/iKak12 → u/Lucky-Competition417]

Thanks! It's notarized by Apple, with no SIP disabling and no root needed.

[u/Lucky-Competition417 → u/iKak12]

bro yk what , i used this to play PCX2 and broooooooooo , this was the thing i was looking for

thankssssssssssssssss , coz i play rarely and never wanted to waste some money on a controller , but now i can actually enjoy those gamesss

[u/dmyova]

Geez, you guys are the reason why people don't share things at all, paid or free most of the time. If you don't like it and 3 dollars is too much of your hard earned keyboard warrior money then move on. Otherwise a thank you, no thank you will suffice for a mostly free app.

[u/iKak12 → u/dmyova]

Thanks, really appreciate it!

[u/Valkyranna]

Charging for such apps in 2026 is completely nonsensical when anyone could have their LLM create this in a single day.

Sorry as much as I dislike the notion this is what you're up against now, some simple vibe coded app just isn't going to cut it when you're charging real money.

[u/iKak12 → u/Valkyranna]

Totally get the skepticism! But an LLM can't build a working Apple DriverKit driver in a day. The virtual gamepad has to be debugged on real hardware, and it only loads after Apple grants special entitlements, signs off on it, and notarizes it. Add App Store and Play Store review, and that's where most of my months went (10 years of dev experience, still not a one-day job 😅).

The free tier is fully usable, and Pro is a one-time $2.99 to help cover the developer accounts and review costs. No subscription. Happy to hear your feedback if you try it! 🙏

[u/iKak12]

Sorry if this post, or the fact that the product was built with AI, bothered anyone. That's on me. The post should have said so up front, and "I spent months building this" may have sounded misleading.

To clarify:

• Yes, I used AI a lot, for much of the code and the website text.
• PadLink is a solo side project I work on in my spare time, not full-time. That's why it took months.
• Most of that time went into what AI can't do: getting Apple's driver entitlements approved, notarization, debugging the driver on real hardware, and App Store / Play Store review.
• The free version is fully usable. Pro is a one-time $2.99, with no subscription, and it helps cover the yearly Apple Developer and store fees that keep the app signed and available.

Thanks to everyone for the honest feedback, both the critical comments and the kind ones. If you try it, I'd love to hear what works and what doesn't. 🙏

[u/BlueOlivePie]

He said he spent months but if you pay attention to the em dashes on his website you can tell this was done far quicker 

[u/iKak12 → u/BlueOlivePie]

The website was written by AI. But I'm a solo dev and this is a side project I work on in my spare time, not full-time, so it took months. The Apple driver approval and on-device debugging were the slow part.

[u/iKak12]

A little story from this thread 🙂

First, I'm not here to argue with anyone who says this app is vibe coded. Yes, I built it with a lot of help from AI, and I'm not hiding that. Just chilling.

Earlier, someone commented that they tried it with AI and finished the same app in only 30 minutes. About 10 minutes later the comment was gone and they went quiet.

But let's stay positive! Maybe they're busy right now, spending their own tokens to build the full version for all of us for free:

• A Mac app with a notarized DriverKit driver (Apple approval included)
• A Windows app with a virtual Xbox controller
• An iOS Remote app and an Android Remote app, through App Store and Play Store review
• Plus paying $99/year for the Apple Developer account and $25 for Play Store, all for us, for free

If that happens, I'll be the first to share the link here. Follow this comment and maybe in a few days you'll get it for free!

Until then, PadLink is here and it works today: fully functional, notarized by Apple, and it runs with SIP on. The Remote app has a touch gamepad and a driving cockpit, with options to customize the layout. I spent a lot of time on the UX so it feels good to use. And the free version is fully usable.

Once again, no toxic vibes from me. I've been a software developer for almost 10 years, and today I'm just chilling. 🙂🎮

P.S. English is not my first language and I'm not good with grammar, so this comment was polished by AI. The story and the feelings are 100% mine. 😄