Frequently asked questions
Everything about the app, Pro 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. The core app is free — no trial timer, no account, no ads. You keep the free widget collection, all sizes, drag & drop and three themes forever. Pro is an optional one-time upgrade that unlocks the rest.
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.
18 widgets at launch, all live-animated. Each comes in up to seven sizes — from a compact 1×1 square to a large 3×3 board — and every size is designed individually, not just scaled. Most widgets can be placed multiple times.
There are 25 built-in themes. Midnight, Graphite and Ocean are free; the other 22 unlock with Pro. Themes recolor your widgets — accent, glass tint, text — while the glass itself stays adjustable between Frosted and Clear with its own opacity control.
Pro & pricing
Pro unlocks six additional widgets:
- Sticky NotePRO
- System StatsPRO
- Bluetooth DevicesPRO
- App LauncherPRO
- StarfieldPRO
- Password GeneratorPRO
Plus all 25 themes and the animated live scenes for Weather and Battery. Everything in Pro is visible and previewable inside the app before you pay.
Yes — €9.99, paid once. No subscription, no recurring charges, and all future updates are included for life. After checkout you instantly receive your personal license key in the format BWG-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX 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, no analytics and no crash reports — your widget data stays on your Mac. The only network requests are the ones features need: weather data from Open-Meteo (plus an approximate IP-based location lookup, only if macOS cannot provide a location), album-artwork lookups for the Now Playing widget, a license check when you activate Pro, and the Sparkle update feed. That is the complete list.
License & support
One license unlocks Pro on exactly one Mac; the key binds to the machine automatically on first activation using an anonymous machine identifier. Moving to a new Mac? Write to support with your key and we reset the binding — usually within a day.
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.
A license key is digital content: during checkout you expressly consent to immediate delivery and acknowledge that this ends your 14-day EU right of withdrawal once the key is delivered (Section 356(5) of the German Civil Code). That is why there are, as a rule, no refunds after delivery — but because the whole app is free to use first, you can evaluate everything before buying. If something is genuinely wrong, contact support and we will find a fair solution.
The app updates itself via the open-source Sparkle framework — every update is signed and notarized. Updates are free for everyone, and Pro is a lifetime license: every future Pro widget and feature is part of your one-time purchase, with no upgrade fees.
That is expected — BetterMacWidgets does not live in the system widget gallery. Its widgets float directly on your desktop and are managed from the app's own window: add, resize, theme and arrange them there. On some macOS betas Apple's gallery additionally hides third-party entries, which is one more reason everything is rendered by the app itself. If a widget ever misbehaves, the built-in Guide and our support page are the fastest routes.