Free for macOS 15 and later
Mac widgets that live on your desktop
Apple keeps its widgets in Notification Center, or on the desktop where they turn grey the moment you open a window. BetterMacWidgets puts 53 widgets anywhere on your Mac or MacBook desktop, in full colour, most of them animated. 10 are free for good.
- Version 2.14.0
- macOS 15+
- Apple Silicon
- no account needed
What is free, what is Pro
Free
€0no time limit
- 10 widgets on your desktop
- Clock in every size, Weather up to 2×1
- Calendar, Reminders, World Clock, Timer, Stopwatch, Countdown, Trash
- Drag anywhere, invisible snap grid
- No account, no subscription
Pro
€15.99once, updates included
- All 53 widgets
- Live weather: rain, snow, sun and clouds
- Stacks and all 20 themes
- Lock screen and Custom Widgets in the Bundle, €19.99
Live Weather
Weather that plays the sky.
Forecasts are real: Open-Meteo data for your precise or approximate location, or any custom city you type in.
GLASS
SOLID, CLEAR AND LIQUID ARE PROPick your glass.
Frosted is the soft dark blur that comes free. Solid is a tile that ignores your wallpaper completely, dark or white with dark writing, so it stays readable on any desktop. Clear takes the tile away, Liquid is a lens that bends the wallpaper behind it, the way the new macOS glass does.
Frosted
A soft smoked-dark blur, fixed at 50 %. Free, and readable on most wallpapers.
Solid
A fully solid tile, dark or light. In light it is plain white with dark writing. The wallpaper cannot show through, so nothing fades into it.
Clear
The tile disappears. No fill, no rim, no card, just the widget floating on your wallpaper with a soft shadow so it stays readable.
Liquid
The tile becomes a lens. Its curved rim bends the wallpaper, the middle magnifies it a little and the edge catches the light.
WIDGET STACKS
PROOne slot. As many widgets as you like.
Drop a widget onto another of the same size and they merge into a single stack. Flick through the members whenever you like.
How it works
- 1Drag one widget on top of another on your desktop.
- 2They merge into a single slot, with one widget on show at a time.
- 3Hover the tile and use the ‹ › arrows to flick through; the dots show where you are.
- 4Right-click for “Show Next” and “Rotate Every” to switch automatically.
The rules
A 3×2 stacks with another 3×2, never with a 2×2. Mixed sizes would leave the smaller widget rattling around inside the bigger slot, so they're pushed apart instead.
Drop a tile on a neighbour it can't stack with and it slides to the nearest free spot.
How to put widgets on your Mac desktop
- 1
Download and open
Get the app on the homepage and open it. It runs on any Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 15 Sequoia or later.
- 2
Pick a widget
Choose one in the sidebar. The preview is live, so you can try sizes and themes before anything touches your desktop.
- 3
Drag it onto the desktop
Drop it wherever you like. An invisible grid keeps things tidy, and every widget stays put through restarts, sleep and monitor changes.
Themes
20 themes. One click.
Pick a palette and every widget on your desktop retints at once. Surfaces, accents, text, hairlines: one theme, everywhere.
EVERY SIZE
One widget. Six shapes.
A bigger tile is not the same tile stretched. Every size is drawn for the room it has. Pick one and watch the System widget rebuild itself.
Gigabytes instead of percentages, peak and average beside them.
Live components at app-exact pixels, the same views the app renders.
Apple's widgets and BetterMacWidgets
| Apple widgets | BetterMacWidgets | |
|---|---|---|
| Where they sit | Notification Center, or the desktop | Anywhere on the desktop, per display |
| While you work | Turn grey by default when an app is in front | Stay in full colour |
| Movement | Static, refreshed now and then | Live: second hands, charts, falling rain |
| Sizes | Up to four | Up to nine, from 1×1 to 4×3 |
| Look | System style | 20 themes, Clear or Frosted glass (Pro) |
| Cost | Built in | 10 free, all 53 for €15.99 once |
All 53 widgets
Most come in several sizes that are each drawn on their own, not one design stretched to fit.
Essentials
7- ClockFree
- WeatherFree
- CalendarFree
- RemindersFree
- Music
- Audio
- Sound Mixer
System
6- Battery
- System
- Temperature
- Devices
- Network
- Speed Test
Workspace
6- Sticky Note
- Quote
- Photos
- Apps
- Shortcut
- Web Page
Clocks and timers
9- Flip Clock
- Word Clock
- World ClockFree
- TimerFree
- StopwatchFree
- Pomodoro
- CountdownFree
- Year Progress
- Day Progress
Tools and data
11- Clipboard
- Drop Zone
- Folder
- Calculator
- Unit Converter
- Currencies
- Stocks
- Crypto
- Password Generator
- Toolbox
- Terminal
Ambient
14- World Map
- Starfield
- Mirror
- Simple ClockFree
- Air Quality
- Disks
- Activity
- App Time
- GitHub
- Smart Home
- TrashFree
- Moon
- Companion
- Ambient Sound
GET STARTED · INSTANT ACCESS
Your Mac Desktop. Elevated.
Bring live, interactive Liquid-Glass widgets to your Mac desktop and lock screen. 10 essential widgets free forever, or unlock full Pro access.
Download BetterMacWidgets
- 10 widgets
- No subscription
- No account
- Free forever
Unlock Pro
- All 53 widgets in every size
- Live weather animations
- Smart stacks and Clear Glass
- All 20 themes
Lock screen and custom widgets come with the Bundle.
See all optionsQuestions people ask
Does it work on a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac mini?
Yes, on every Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. Intel Macs are not supported.
Are the free widgets really free?
Yes. The 10 free widgets stay free with no trial period, no account and no subscription. You can also preview every Pro widget live inside the app before deciding anything.
Do live widgets slow down my Mac or drain the battery?
Only what you can see does any work. A widget behind a window or on another Space stops completely. In the default Balanced mode widgets animate while your pointer is over them; Energy Saver turns them into still images. Reduce Motion is always respected, and measured idle CPU is close to zero.
What does Pro cost?
Pro is €15.99 once for 1 Mac. The Bundle adds the lock screen and Custom Widgets for €19.99, and covers 2 or 3 Macs too. No subscription, and every future update is included.
What happens to my data?
Your widget data stays on your Mac. There is no telemetry, no analytics and no crash reporting. The app only goes online for things that obviously need it: weather, cover art, exchange rates, licence checks and updates.
It looks better in motion
The homepage shows every widget running live: the weather scenes, the glass, stacks and the lock screen.