Frequently asked questions
Everything about the app, the purchase and your license. Didn't find your answer? Message support.
The app
BetterMacWidgets is a native macOS app that puts live-animated Liquid-Glass widgets straight onto your desktop — weather, now playing, reminders, photos, clocks, system stats and more. The widgets float freely: drag them anywhere and they settle onto an invisible snap grid. Built by the developer of MenuBarMonitor and Notchmate.
Yes! BetterMacWidgets includes 8 essential desktop widgets completely free forever: Clock (all sizes), Weather (up to 2×1), Calendar, Reminders, Timer, World Clock, Stopwatch, and Countdown. You can place and use them on your Mac desktop with no time limits, no subscription, and no account required.
8 essential desktop widgets are 100% free forever. Beyond that there are three one-time purchases, each with every future update and no subscription: Pro (€12.99, 1 Mac) unlocks all 36 widgets in every size, live weather animations, smart stacks and all themes. Lock Screen & Custom Widgets (€12.99, 1 Mac) adds widgets on the lock screen and building your own. The Bundle has both, for €19.99 on 1 Mac, €23.99 on 2 or €27.99 on 3.
macOS 15 (Sequoia) or newer, Apple Silicon only (M1 or later). The app is tuned for Apple Silicon so the live animations cost close to nothing; Intel Macs are not supported.
36 widgets total — 8 essential widgets are completely free, and all 36 are unlocked with Pro. Depending on the widget, there are up to nine individually designed sizes, from a compact 1×1 square to a 4×3 dashboard. Most widget kinds can be placed several times over.
There are 20 built-in themes that recolor your widgets — accent, glass tint, text. All 20 palettes are part of the app. The glass itself is separate: the Frosted look has its own 0–100% opacity slider, and the Clear look removes the tile entirely so only the widget's content floats on your wallpaper.
Licenses & pricing
Yes — 8 essential widgets are completely free on your desktop from day one. You can also preview every Pro widget, lock screen display, theme and animation live inside the Settings window at full size and fully animated before upgrading.
Every Pro purchase comes with a 14-day right of withdrawal — no hidden fees, lifetime updates included on lifetime tiers.
Everything the app can do. Pro unlocks:
- All 36 widgets (Battery, System, Now Playing, Notes, Photos, Apps, Clipboard and more), plus custom JSON widgets.PRO
- Live weather animations (rain, snow, sun) and weather display sizes up to 4×3.PRO
- All 20 themes, Clear and Frosted glass, and smart widget stacks.PRO
- Widgets on the macOS lock screen (macOS Standby).PRO
A one-time purchase for 1, 2 or 3 Macs. No subscription.
Drop a widget onto another of the same size and they merge into a single slot — one widget on show at a time. Hover the tile and use the ‹ › arrows to flick through; right-click offers "Show Next" and "Rotate Every" for automatic switching. Same size only — a 3×2 stacks with another 3×2, never with a 2×2; widgets that can't stack are pushed apart so nothing ever overlaps.
Yes — paid once for the whole app. No subscription, no recurring charges, and all future updates are included for life. After checkout you instantly receive your personal license key by email.
Performance & privacy
No — near-zero idle cost is a core design goal. Only widgets that are actually visible tick; panels pause completely while they are covered by other windows or a fullscreen app. In the default Balanced mode, widgets animate smoothly while you hover over them and rest otherwise, and the app honors the system's Reduce Motion setting. Measured idle CPU is effectively 0%.
BetterMacWidgets sends no telemetry, analytics or crash reports — your widget data stays on your Mac. Network access is limited to weather and location lookups, Now Playing artwork, license validation during activation, later app launches and every six hours while a key is stored, releasing the binding when you remove a license, and the Sparkle update feed. That is the complete list.
License & support
As many as the tier you bought: 1, 2 or 3 Macs. It is always the same key — enter it on each Mac, and each one takes one seat via an anonymous machine identifier. Replacing a Mac? Choose Remove License there and the seat is immediately free for the next one. If the old Mac is gone or broken, support can release its seat for you.
First check your inbox for the checkout email (search for "BWG-"). If it is gone, contact support with the email address you used for the purchase and we will resend your key.
Yes. You have 14 days from your purchase to withdraw, without giving a reason, even if you have already used your license key. Send one email to mail@nicosagolla.de and you get your full payment back within 14 days; the key is deactivated at the same time.
The app updates itself via the open-source Sparkle framework — every update is signed and notarized. All future updates are included for lifetime license holders with no upgrade fees.
That's by design, not a bug. All 36 widgets are managed inside BetterMacWidgets and live directly on your desktop — the app deliberately doesn't ship widgets for Apple's system gallery, because gallery widgets can't be live-animated or freely arranged the way desktop widgets can.