30 Best Desktop Widgets for Mac: Free and Paid

Widgets are small, self-contained GUI elements that not only provide specific functionality but also set the tone for on-display aesthetics. Undoubtedly MacBook displays are already eye-pleasing. However, these bite-sized components on the home screen can just make actions more convenient plus uplift the at-a-glance experience. Now that being said, whether your PC is running on macOS Monterey, Ventura, or Sonoma, we’ve brought to you, some of the best Mac desktop widgets, both free and paid. Let’s get straight into it.

Best Desktop Widgets for Mac

You might have heard them say this – sometimes you ought to work smarter, not harder. And what’s better than widgets that serve as shortcuts for users to access certain features or data on the PC? Often used for checking the weather, tracking time, getting news highlights, adding notes, or managing music play, there is a widget for every purpose. Step ahead to turn your mighty MacBook into a productivity generator with the best ones listed below.

1. Color Widgets: Custom Widgets

Color Widgets app in the Apple App Store offers eye-pleasing, handy, and customizable widgets, which you can add to the Mac’s notification center. It allows you to add your pictures, change the date, countdown, battery, weather, quotes, and more. Moreover, you can choose from a wide range of colors, fonts, and designs. 

• Pre-designed widgets available in multiple sizes
• Easy to use widget creator for custom widgets
• Offers tons of attractive backgrounds
• Can change the app icons
• In-app purchases: Monthly plan: $1.99; Unlock all: $4.99

2. Dash Dot Dash

Dash Dot Dash is a user-friendly widget that helps you create several widgets for your Mac desktop. Its library is packed with amazing features that add an interactive touch to your desktop. It allows users to put a picture or a drawing on a widget on their friend’s home screen or widget area if both have the app installed.

You can install this app for free but there’s a $2.99 fee to unlock all the features.

• Add images to your monthly calendar
• Add comments to your pictures.
• Vibrant yellow sticky notes for shopping lists.
• Share your creations directly with your friends
• Free to use and In-app purchases: $2.99

3. WaterMinder- Water Tracker

In the everyday hustle, you might often forget to keep track of your health and especially to drink water. WaterMinder comes in the form of a widget for Mac users to help them keep track of their water intake and set personalized reminders to stay hydrated throughout the day.

• Set water intake goals based on your body weight, age, gender, and activity level.
• Predefined cups of all sizes
• Allows creation of custom cups
• Log your water intake manually
• Visual representations of daily, weekly, or monthly water intake
• Price: $4.99

Also Read: 15 Best Auto Clickers for Mac

4. Fantastical – Calendar

As the name suggests, Fantastical is a fantastic, award-winning calendar app. Even though it has a simple user interface, it is wholly feature-packed. Moreover, it can be used as a schedule management widget to help you create tasks and keep track of your events. 

• Natural language text parsing
• Full calendar window for detailed view and a mini window for quick access
• Task support including Todoist and Google Tasks
• 3-day weather forecast
• Bunch of attractive templates
• Can add Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls
• Price: Flexibits Premium ($6.99/month; $56.99/year)

5. Bear Countdown

It’s fun to do a countdown, isn’t it? Whether it’s for a birthday, anniversary, or any deadline that you don’t want to miss out on, the Bear app widget on your Mac notification center will help you. Not only it is cute & cool but also quite useful.

• Many hand-drawn bear artworks with vibrant pastel colors
• Write notes for your events and important pointers for work deadlines
• Saves countdown and event history
• Allows you to set goals and intentions with no date
• Adjustable countdown pop-up size
• In-app purchases start at $0.99.

6. Dark Noise

Sound sleep is highly important and non-negotiable when it comes to good health. Dark Noise is a very popular ambient noise app for Mac that aims to help you focus, relax, and sleep better.

• Over 50 in-built soothing sounds
• Allows you to create custom mixes
• Resizeable mini player widget with quick access to all controls
• 10 themes to choose from
• Keyboard shortcuts and menu bar support
• In-app purchases start at $19.99

7. Look Up

Why go searching for a word in a thick physical dictionary when you can just LookUp?  LookUp comes with interactive widgets for Macbook users that not only help them find out the meanings of different words but also build vocabulary. 

• Powered by the Oxford English Dictionary
• Supports Thesasurus, audio punctuations, example sentences, and images.
• Word of the Day illustrations
• Spaced Repetition technique for vocabulary builder
• Translation for over 20 languages
• Learn Tab can help in preparing for English proficiency exams like TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, and SAT
• Price: Monthly: $2.99; Yearly: $29..99; Lifetime: $59.99

Also Read: Is Babbel or Duolingo Better for Learning a Language?

8. Widgy

Widgy can help you turn your boring homescreen into an aesthetic desktop as you can create and tweak the look of your widgets as per your taste. And the good part is that it is very easy to use. All it takes is for you to add an element of your choice, pick a data source, add some effects, and that’s it. 

• Preview layer to show live display of how the widget would look on the home screen
• Share your widget as a URL, QR Code, and JSON data
• Publish your designed widget for other Widgy users to see.
• In-app purchases start at $0.99

9. AirBuddy 2

AirBuddy 2 allows you to monitor and manage all your wireless devices on macOS. You can get an overview of the status of all their nearby devices, as well as that of all Macs in the peripheral, running AirBuddy.

• Set a custom keyboard shortcut to see the state of your AirPods or Beats
• Battery alerts notify when is low on battery or has charged fully
• Per device customizable thresholds
• Can share your Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, or Magic Trackpad with another Mac running AirBuddy.
• Quick actions to toggle listening modes
• Price: $9.99 (Five activations)

10. MD Clock

MD Clock widget adds an advanced look to the Mac desktop with its intriguing design and multiple themes from professional to creative supported on macOS Monterey and subsequent generations.

• Over 22 themes with new additions coming
• Variety of widgets for quick access
• Set multiple alarms
• Customizable alarm tones, snooze durations, and sound effects
• In-app purchases start at $0.99

11. Exchange Rates 3

Do you travel a lot or work in a sector that requires you to know about the currencies of different countries? If so, the Exchange Rate 3 widget will prove very helpful to you. It targets business professionals, traders, and markets who seek information about world currencies, euro-predecessor currencies, and cryptocurrencies. 

• Easy currency converter at the latest exchange rates.
• Set personalized rate alerts for specific currency pairs.
• Rates of precious metals including gold, silver, platinum, and palladium
• Built-in support for BitCoin, BitCoin Cash, Litecoin, and more
• Price: $4.99

Also Read: 29 Best Motivational Podcasts on Spotify: Get Inspired Anytime, Anywhere

12. Parcel

Do you also feel curious about the delivery of your package once the order is placed? Well, we understand that and hence we suggest you download the Parcel widget on your Mac. Parel’s purpose is to track deliveries that include UPS, USPS, FedEx, Amazon Logistics, and many other postal services. Users can get access to accurate data about their packages with just a click.

• Track over 300 delivery services
• Sends convenient push notifications such as delivering soon, item shipped and has been successfully delivered.
• Real-time delivery location on map
• Web Access to manage deliveries
• Amazon integration in Parcel allows you to get your packages added automatically from your Amazon account.
• In-app purchases at $4.99

13. Card Pointer

CardPointers is here to simplify your money management. The widget helps you save money by earning cash back, points, and welcome bonuses. Going by their claim, most users save over $750 per year. Moreover, it helps you find new cards with its annual fee tracking, renewal recommendations, and personalized offers based on your existing cards.

• 20 interactive widgets
• Tracks bonus and recurring bank credits from more than 5,000 credit cards and 900 banks.
• Supports quick notes, swipe actions, pull-to-refresh, and more Search views.
• VoiceOver and voice control support
• New Hierarchical SF Symbols
• Price: Free, Cardpointers + ($6.99/month; $59.99/year; $199.99 for lifetime)

14. Widget Art Gallery

Widget Art Gallery is for art lovers, for those who want to add an artistic touch to their Mac Sonoma or higher. Users can view pieces from a gallery, collections, or specific works.

• Offers more than 10,000 artworks for the notification center.
• Features artwork from world-famous galleries like the National Gallery of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Rijksmuseum.
• Add overlays for time, battery, date, or any text as preferred
• Play a slide show containing pieces from your collection.
• Price: Free; Art Gallery Premium: $2.99; Art Gallery Premium Retail: $4.99

15. TrashMe 3

Often junk files, corrupt cache data, and duplicate files consume the disk space of the PC and ultimately lead the system to slow down. Insufficient storage space is a common concern. TrashMe 3 is one of the must-have utility software that works as a powerful cleaner & uninstaller for your Mac and the good part is, it also comes with a widget.

• Easy installation of any app or extension with all its files
• Deletes junk, old, and broken files to free up disk space
• Provides an overview of your system disk file structure
• Helps manage favorite apps and store registration info securely
• Shows detailed information about the processor, battery, and memory
• Price: $14.99

16. Orbit: Time-based Invoicing

Orbit is for businesses and organizations who want to keep track of clients, projects, working hours, and invoices. Basically, it helps users analyze their schedules and keep a check on the time spent on different activities.

• User-friendly interface
• Can generate automatic invoices from all the logged time entries.
• Crew Plans for small teams
• Focuses on privacy with zero ads, no metadata tracking, and no selling of personal data.
• In-app purchases start at $7.99

17. GameTrack

Does it happen that you played a game a long while ago but are not able to recall its name? GameTrack is a free widget for Mac that helps gamers keep track of their gaming activities, achievements, and progress with a super easy interface.

• Add games to your wishlist to keep track of the titles you want to play next.
• Easy filters to search your gaming library based on different platforms, genres, and release dates.
• Helps connect with other players, share your rating and review with them, and even follow their activity.
• Personalized profile to keep stats of favorite games, achievements, and rankings
• Link with PS, Xbox, and Steam game libraries

18. MindNode

With MindNode you can keep all your thoughts, ideas, and important notes at one click away. It helps you organize your notes and even create a picture of it. Additionally, you can pick from the small and large widget sizes that suites best on your home screen.

• Multiple themes and custom stickers to personalize your document 
• Send your tasks to Apple Reminders, Things, or OmniFocus.
• Export your idea as text, images, and many other file formats.
• MindNode Plus with additional premium features starting at $2.99/month

19. Crypto Pro

Are you in the virtual currency market? Crypto Pro is a one-stop shop for cryptocurrency tracking. It provides information about recent prices, lets you track your portfolio, and sets price alerts. Moreover, you can view real-time cryptocurrency prices and interactive charts.

• Supports all publicly traded cryptocurrencies, metals, and flat currencies
• Automatically imports your data using wallet addresses and exchange API keys.
• Offers a seamless switch between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
• No distractions, pop-ups, or 3rd party data sharing.
• Customizable widgets that display prices, charts, news, etc
• Crypto Pro Premium starts at $7.99

20. WidgeTunes – Music Widget

If you also love to manage music from your Mac homescreen, Widget Tunes lets you create profiles where you can add an unlimited number of music widgets. You can add selected playlists, albums, and single tracks. It can be placed in the Notification Center widget panel, so you can choose your music in one click.

• Two sizes of widgets – larger one can add up to 16 albums and a smaller one up to 8
• Widget layout editor
• Easy to update widget content
• Change the background color and add grayscale artwork images for playlists and albums.
• Price: $3.99

21. TiMe – Timer Widgets

As the name suggests, the TiMe widget offers efficient time management with a super easy interface. With it, you can create, run, and reuse unlimited timers and monitor your work more efficiently.

• Create timers for workout sessions, project durations, and daily chores
• Siri integration allows you to start TiMes with your voice.
• Multiple app icons and presets to match your style.
• Custom sound notifications
• iCloud sync for muti-device access

Also Read: 40 Best Productivity Apps to Work Faster

23. News Explorer

If you’re someone who does not want to miss out on current affairs and updates, News Explorer is a feature-packed news widget with an easy-to-use RSS, JSON, Atom, Reddit, and Mastodon newsreader on Mac and other Apple devices.

• Built-in browser for viewing inline links, RSS and Atom engine, Matstadon user timelines, YouTube feed, etc
• Multiple themes, article list with adjustable thumbnails & fonts
• Reader view to download and read the text version
• Keyboard and text search integration
• Drag and drop to rename and reorder folders and feeds
• Built-in support to share news on other platforms
• Price: $9.99

24. Money Manager – MoneyCoach

Money Manager MoneyCoach helps users get financial guidance, develop healthy financial habits, reduce money-related stress, and improve knowledge & skills. It’s like your personal consultant but on your Mac, where all you can learn on your own.

• Creates Personalized Smart Budgets to help you save money every month
• Interactive widget for Mac Ventura, Sonoma, and macOS Monterey
• Predefined as well as custom keyboard shortcuts to add incomes, expenses, and more
• Track real-time net worth and progress to measure your financial improvements
• Sync data across all Apple devices
• Live & custom exchange rates
• In-app purchases start at $4.99 per month

25. Bigin by Zoho CRM

Bigin is a sales customer relationship management software that helps users manage pipelines, update records, add notes, and schedule follow-ups with leads in order to generate sales and build interaction with existing and potential customers. 

• Easy contact management and overview at a glance
• Manage deals and track progress across all stages
• Schedule tasks, events, calls; and events as well
• Split screen feature for better productivity
• Keyboard shortcuts, hover actions, touch bar, and menu bar functions
• Premium plans start at $8.99/month/user

26. Smart Tasks – Lists Made Easy

Smart Tasks is another simple, easy-to-use yet intuitive app that helps users improve their efficiency and productive capabilities with ease, straight from a widget on their Mac. You can save schedules for your entire week, things you do not want to forget, targets, and a lot more.

• Drag and drop function to quickly add, reorder, delete, or import tasks
• Over 40 funky colors to divide tasks into categories
• Quick home screen actions
• Works with Apple Calendar events and Apple Reminders app
• Smart notifications, VoiceOver support
• Link, email, and phone number detection feature
• In-app purchases start at $1.99

Pre-Installed Apple Widgets for Mac

Apple Macbooks come with a handful of pre-installed, free, and highly functional widgets for macOS Monterey, Sonoma, and Ventura. Let’s take a look at some of them:

1. Apple Weather Widget

Apple Weather is one of the most reliable weather widgets which provides all the info you need about temperature and forecast at one glance and saves you a lot of time. Additionally, it’s available in three sizes such as small, medium, and large which you can choose depending on the amount of info you need.

• Quick overview of the current weather conditions, accurate temperature, and the chance of precipitation.
• Can automatically detect your location
• Allows you to add multiple locations to track the weather at different places.
• Send weather alerts faster for severe weather conditions.
• Forecast conditions for the next 4 days with expected maximum and minimum temperatures.

2. Apple Reminders

Apple Reminder is also available in widget form and has several useful features that will never let you miss any of your tasks. With this, you can categorize their importance with a flag, add photos particular ones, and even hyperlink websites. If you tend to often forget your chores or meetings, this one is for you.

• Allows you to customize sizes as preferred and required
• Sync your iCloud with this widget to ensure that all reminders are up to date across all devices.
• Intelligently suggests reminders based on your activity and context

Also Read: Top 18 Best Apple AirPods Pro Accessories

3. Apple Notes

The Apple Notes widget on your Mac allows you to make lists, write down your thoughts, and even create separate folders. Additionally, it syncs across all the Apple Devices.

• Create smart folders based on your categorization.
• Create checklists in your notes to keep track of tasks and to-dos.
• Scan a document or picture and add it to your notes.
• Built-in drawing tools that allow you to create sketches and drawings.

4. Apple Photos

Apple Photos has several key features designed to help users organize, edit, and share their photos and videos. It automatically creates an interface of special memories and feature images.

• Create albums and folders to organize your media.
• Create shared albums to collaborate and share photos with your friends.

We hope you liked our picks of the best widgets for Mac and found them helpful for you. If you have any queries or suggestions for us, do let us know in the comments section below. Stay tuned to TechCult for more such app suggestions.