Your colour, any theme
Most themes take a new accent: curated choices like ice-blue nixie tubes for Hi-Fi or magenta for Overdrive, or any colour you like.
Free for macOS 14 and later
Your desktop,
dressed for the occasion.
WidgetThemes puts live widgets on your Mac desktop: clocks, system meters, weather, music, a focus timer and more. Every one is drawn by hand in 30 complete themes, from a 1970s hi-fi to iridescent black glass.
30themes
20widgets
~8%CPU with animation on
0trackers or accounts
Themes
Thirty themes.
Each one a complete design.
A theme isn't a colour swap. Each one draws its own version of every widget, lays them out in its own composition, links them with its own desktop decoration, and comes with a matching wallpaper.
Playground
Arrange a desktop.
Right here.
Pick a theme and drag its widgets around, just as you would on your Mac. Add or remove widgets from the tray below.
Widgets
Twenty widgets,
drawn for every theme.
From system meters to a focus timer, each widget comes in 1:1 and 2:1 sizes, scales from 75% to 200%, and never draws text smaller than 10.5 points.
Features
Made to live on
a real desktop.
Light by day, dark by night
Field, Lumen and Paper each have a partner theme. Turn on Match system appearance and your widgets and wallpaper switch when macOS does.
Drag the handle to compare.
Focus timer
Pomodoro sessions with short and long breaks, a chime and a notification, styled to match every theme.
Click to open
Widgets are doors: CPU opens Activity Monitor, Weather opens Weather, Battery opens its settings.
Smart fade
Widgets you pin above your windows fade away when a window slides under them, and come back on Show Desktop.
Every display
Each display can wear its own theme. Unplug a monitor and its widgets wait for it to come back.
Subtle motion
Sonar sweeps, flickering neon and dancing VU needles. Motion pauses when widgets are covered and respects Reduce Motion.
Share your setup
Save a desktop under My Themes and export it as a file, accent colours included. Double-click to import.
Native and light
Written in Swift and SwiftUI. It lives in the menu bar, uses about 8% of one core with animation on, and less when covered.
Private by design
No account, no analytics, no tracking. Your calendar, reminders and activity never leave your Mac.
Download WidgetThemes
Free. Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
Paste this into Terminal and press Return. It downloads WidgetThemes, checks it, puts it in Applications and opens it, with no security prompts to click through.
curl -fsSL https://widgetthemes.example/install.sh | bash
No password needed. Read the script first; it's short.
Download the disk image
- Open the disk image and drag WidgetThemes into Applications.
- Open WidgetThemes. macOS will say it can't check it for malicious software, because WidgetThemes is a free app that isn't registered with Apple's paid developer programme.
- macOS 15 or later: open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.
macOS 14: right-click WidgetThemes in Applications and choose Open.
You only need to do this the first time.
Version 1.3 · It lives in your menu bar, not the Dock.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. No trial, no subscription and no account.
Will it slow my Mac down?
Widgets update a few times a second at most and animate at a low frame rate. Animation pauses whenever widgets are covered by windows, and you can switch it off entirely in Settings.
What permissions does it ask for, and why?
Only what a widget you add needs: Calendars for Events, Reminders for Reminders, Location for local weather (or type a city instead), and Automation to read and control Music or Spotify. Each one is requested the first time that widget appears, and you can decline it.
Where do the widgets sit: behind my windows or on top?
Your choice. By default they sit on the desktop, behind your windows. You can raise all of them, or pin individual widgets above your windows.
Why install with a Terminal command?
macOS shows a warning for apps downloaded in a browser unless the developer pays for Apple's developer programme. WidgetThemes is free and isn't registered, so the Terminal command is the smoothest way in: it downloads the app over a secure connection, checks it matches the published checksum, and installs it. If you'd rather not use Terminal, the disk image works too, with one extra click the first time.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit WidgetThemes from its menu bar icon (right-click, then Quit) and move it from Applications to the Trash. To remove its settings as well, delete its file in ~/Library/Preferences; its name contains "WidgetThemes".
Can I use my own wallpaper?
Of course. Every theme looks good on its own wallpaper, but you can add any image under Wallpapers, or shuffle between them on a schedule.