Mac desktop widget apps, compared

There is no single best Mac desktop widget app in 2026 — four families exist, and what sorts them is where the widget sits once a window covers it. Apple's widgets and Mac+ hide behind windows, WidgetWall pins above them, Kepo opens on a shortcut, Orbl and Plash take over the wallpaper. Below: eight real options, the limit each one doesn't advertise, and every price as its publisher lists it on 28 August 2026 — WidgetWall's pinning included, reported from its own pages, not from a machine test here.

Updated 2026-08-28 · 8 min read

The question every roundup skips: where does the widget go when a window covers it?

Roundups open on the catalogue: how many widgets, which sizes, which colours. That part is reversible: you can add a widget next month. The layer an app draws on is not. Sort on that first.

• Desktop layer, behind your windows: Apple's gallery, Übersicht, GeekTool, Mac+.
• Above your windows: WidgetWall, via “Pin to Top” — the only app here whose publisher documents such a setting.
• On demand, on a shortcut: Kepo; nothing lives on the desktop.
• The wallpaper layer itself: Orbl and Plash, which replace the background rather than decorate it.

Apple is blunt about where its own widgets land: “If your desktop widgets are hidden by other windows, click the wallpaper to move the open windows away so you can see the widgets.”

What macOS already gives you free — and the two settings that decide whether it's enough

Desktop widgets arrived with macOS 14 Sonoma, meant to “blend seamlessly with the wallpaper while users work in apps”. Adding one takes a single instruction: “On your Mac, Control-click the wallpaper, then choose Edit Widgets.” The walkthrough is in our guide to adding widgets to your Mac desktop.

Limit one: windows win. Apple's own page says the widgets get hidden, and that the fix is to click the wallpaper.

Limit two: that fix is itself a setting. In System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Desktop & Stage Manager, macOS 26 Tahoe lists Show Desktop — “Choose when clicking the wallpaper moves windows out of the way” — as Always on Wallpaper Click or Only in Stage Manager on Click. On the second, Apple's remedy never fires and the widgets stay buried. Alongside, Show Items and Show Widgets each offer On Desktop or In Stage Manager.

Two smaller controls: Dim widgets on desktop (Automatically, Always, Never) and, in macOS 26, widgets “crafted from multiple layers of Liquid Glass”.

Ready-made libraries: WidgetWall and Color Widgets

WidgetWall (Amico Apps LLC), version 4.1.3, “Requires macOS 12.0 or later”, free with in-app purchases: $1.99 monthly, $19.99 yearly, plus two lifetime tiers, $39.99 and $49.99 (checked 28 August 2026). Its size is 289.3 MB on the App Store, 449.3 MB on Setapp.

It earns a section for one line on Setapp: “You can even pin the widget to the top so it always floats above other windows.” The App Store release notes name a “Pin to Top” setting too — no machine test on our side. Setapp gives the cost: “To keep your desktop widgets visible, you need to have the app running.” Setapp itself: $14.99/month for Mac, $18.99 with iOS, $22.99 Power User, plus tax, 7-day trial. Already subscribed, it's included; otherwise a bundle for one widget app is a poor trade.

Color Widgets — Icon Changer (Digital Charms) is the aesthetic pack: iOS-first, the Mac at macOS 12.0 or later, free with “Color Widgets Pro” purchases from $4.99 to $49.99 (28 August 2026). A pack changes what a widget looks like, not where it sits: via the native gallery it inherits the native layer, behind your windows.

Write it yourself: Übersicht, GeekTool, and Kepo's panel on a shortcut

Übersicht — 1.6.82, macOS 12 or later, GPL v3, free — makes a widget a single file: the repository says they “need to be defined in a single file with a .jsx extension”, exposing command (a shell command), refreshFrequency (ms, 1000 by default), render (React) and className (CSS). If a command line can print it — a build queue, a remote server's free space — an Übersicht widget can show it. Nothing else here does. The repository shows 537 commits, 165 open issues, and no macOS requirement of its own.

GeekTool is the same bargain, older: 3.4, free with a PayPal donation link, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, four modules — Logs (“Specifically designed for log files”), Script, Image (webcams, graphs, photo folders) and Web. It publishes no macOS compatibility at all — verify before committing an evening to it.

Kepo turns “RSS, social feeds, news, prices, monitoring, and tools” into widgets, some AI-built from a description. A shortcut opens a panel of your views: nothing sits on the desktop to be covered — and nothing to glance at either. Direct DMG, Darwin ARM64, no minimum macOS version published. Free: one panel, 200 AI points a month. Pro: $4.95/month or $59.40/year. Lifetime: $36.99 with your own model key (checked 28 August 2026).

The wallpaper as the dashboard: Orbl and Plash

Orbl rules itself out for a large group in one line: macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon only, no Intel support announced. On an Intel Mac this option does not exist. Past that, the most ambitious idea here — “Your Mac desktop, a live dashboard” — with free widgets for clock, weather, air quality, focus and activity, machine stats, batteries and notes. Premium adds the integrations: Stripe, ChartMogul, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, Polar, GitHub, RSS/Atom, a custom API and more. Price, verbatim, checked 28 August 2026: “$29 for the first 50 buyers, then $49”, and “There is no subscription.”

Plash has no widget system at all: Sindre Sorhus's subtitle is the product, “A website as desktop wallpaper.” Version 2.17.2, 5.4 MB, free, no in-app purchases — and the highest entry bar here, “Requires macOS 26.4 or later.” It lands on the wallpaper layer, under your icons and windows. One correction: Plash is no longer open source, its README citing “no contributions while facing challenges with App Store clones”.

Widgetsmith, and the widgets that come from your iPhone

Widgetsmith is the name people type, and there is no Widgetsmith for macOS. Its site names the iPhone, the iPad and the Apple Watch only, and its download button points at the iPhone App Store listing. Not a verdict — just what the publisher publishes.

Apple documents another route: iPhone-app widgets appear on the Mac when the iPhone runs iOS 17 or later, both devices use the same Apple Account, and the iPhone is near the Mac or on its Wi-Fi network. Nothing here claims a given app behaves through it.

Dash Dot Dash (EFRAC) is what does exist on the Mac: 1.6 MB, macOS 12.0 or later, free with an “Upgraded Version” purchase at $4.99, version 3.3.1, last released in 2022 (checked 28 August 2026). A photo plus your text or the date, on a widget. In this corner the last release date tells you as much as the widget count.

Price, requirements and display layer, side by side

Prices are from US listings; local amounts vary by store and tax.

Where Mac+ sits: the first family. Its twelve widgets, in three sizes and four shapes, draw under your windows like Apple's, remembered per display. From the menu bar, not the Dock; macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon and Intel — the widest requirement set here — rendered locally, no ads or telemetry, published by PENRA in France. Free with 2 widgets, €1.99/month with a 7-day trial, or €9.99 for life.

What it does not do: no Stripe or MRR integration, no custom API, no scripting, no web embed, no thirteenth widget, no pinning above windows. For revenue on the wallpaper the answer here is Orbl; for a value only a shell command produces, Übersicht. For whole suites, see best Mac desktop customization app and customize your Mac desktop.

The question that settles it: do you need to see the widget while you work, or only when the desktop is clear?

Pick a Mac widget app in five checks

1. Settle the layer first: do you need the widget while an app fills the screen, or is a clear desktop enough? Only pinning to the foreground or a panel on a shortcut answers the first case.
2. Check the chip and the macOS version before downloading: Orbl is Apple Silicon and macOS 14; Kepo ships an ARM64 DMG with no published minimum; Plash asks for macOS 26.4; WidgetWall, Übersicht, Color Widgets and Dash Dot Dash list macOS 12; Mac+ covers macOS 13 on Apple Silicon and Intel; GeekTool publishes nothing.
3. Look at where the data comes from: the native gallery and the aesthetic packs show what an app publishes, Übersicht and GeekTool show what a command prints, Orbl and Kepo pull from services such as Stripe, RSS feeds and market data.
4. Match the payment model to how long you'll use it: subscriptions (WidgetWall $1.99/month, Kepo Pro $4.95/month), one-time purchases (Orbl $29 then $49, Kepo $36.99 with your own model key, WidgetWall $39.99 and $49.99, Mac+ €9.99), or free (built-in gallery, Übersicht, GeekTool, Plash). All checked 28 August 2026.
5. Check the last release and the published compatibility: Dash Dot Dash is still on a 2022 version, and GeekTool publishes no macOS compatibility at all. In this category that's a criterion, not a detail.

macOS 13 or later. Apple Silicon and Intel. 2 widgets in the free tier, no account required.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

Sources

• Apple Support — Add and customize widgets on Mac
• Apple Support — Change Desktop & Dock settings on Mac (Show Desktop, Show Items, Show Widgets)
• Apple Newsroom — macOS Sonoma brings new capabilities for elevating productivity and creativity (5 June 2023)
• Apple Newsroom — Apple introduces a delightful and elegant new software design (9 June 2025)
• Orbl — official site (macOS 14+, Apple Silicon, free widgets, one-time Premium)
• Kepo — official site (panel on a shortcut, ARM64 DMG 1.1.11, pricing tiers)
• WidgetWall on the Mac App Store (Amico Apps LLC, 4.1.3, macOS 12.0+)
• Setapp — WidgetWall listing (pinning above windows, app must stay running)
• Setapp — pricing
• Übersicht — tracesof.net (version 1.6.82, macOS 12+, GPL v3)
• Übersicht — source repository (.jsx widget model, 537 commits, 165 open issues)
• GeekTool — tynsoe.org (v3.4, four modules, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Plash on the Mac App Store (Sindre Sorhus, 2.17.2, 5.4 MB, macOS 26.4+)
• Plash — repository README (“The app is no longer open-source”)
• Widgetsmith — official site (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch)
• Color Widgets — Icon Changer on the App Store (Digital Charms, Mac requires macOS 12.0+)
• Dash Dot Dash on the Mac App Store (EFRAC, version 3.3.1, macOS 12.0+)

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