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One of the most versatile and popular wallpaper apps ever made is unfortunately only available to Windows users. This has been a sore point for Mac users for a while, and with good reason, given what this app offers in terms of collections and functionality.
However, not everything is bleak: there are a few good alternative apps that, despite not being identical to Wallpaper Engine, still offer you something different and better than your built-in wallpaper options. Here is all you need to know.
What Is Wallpaper Engine?
Wallpaper Engine is a wallpaper application for Windows on Steam that boasts a vast collection of live, dynamic, interactive, and customizable wallpapers. The app offers animated screen savers, aspect ratio accommodations, multi-monitor support, and video formats for wallpapers. You can even create and upload custom wallpapers. Once you choose your favorite wallpapers and add them to your catalog, you can set them to shuffle in custom rotations (“playlists”). Wallpaper sounds, scheme colors, playback rate, alignment, and position can be adjusted for each wallpaper, and you can search for wallpapers by tags, age rating, and resolution.
It is widely regarded as one of the most versatile wallpaper apps available, and has a one-time purchase cost of $4.99. Wallpaper Engine also offers a free companion app for Android to wirelessly transfer wallpapers onto your tablet or mobile device. Unfortunately, Wallpaper Engine is not available for Mac or iOS, which led me down a rabbit hole to discover more, better options for built-in wallpapers.
Your Mac offers built-in wallpaper options, including dynamic, landscape, dark, and light wallpapers that can be customized to be shuffled. You can also upload a custom image and adjust its size, add an album or folder for shuffling, and use slow motion for aerial wallpapers.
However, built-in wallpapers may not be to your taste, and can feel repetitive after using them for a while. In the past, I’ve also faced problems with custom wallpapers that I’ve downloaded from external sites, because despite the image crop, some images can go through distortion or stretching. This is where external wallpaper apps like Wallpaper Engine, which contain a large library of live and dynamic wallpapers that fit your screen perfectly, come in.
Here are some free and paid alternatives to Wallpaper Engine that you can download if you want to explore options outside uploading your own wallpapers or sticking to a small library of built-in wallpapers.
1
Equinox
Equinox is a free, open-source wallpaper app that lets you create dynamic wallpapers for your Mac. The app lets you upload multiple wallpapers and set them to rotate according to your liking. Equinox supports several image formats, and after you upload your images, you can immediately set them to your screen.
You can create wallpaper rotations based on criteria like solar rotations, time, and appearance (dark and light). Equinox is a good option to consider if you want to switch up your wallpaper rotations from how your Mac shuffle works.
2
Hologram Desktop
If you’re looking for wallpapers that offer more widget options, Hologram Desktop has a huge library of wallpapers and widgets to choose from. This app uses royalty-free images from websites like Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixaby for high-resolution wallpapers. Apart from these, you can pick from several widgets and dashboards that can be added to your desktop. You can also create templates and build your own widgets.
Hologram Desktop’s widgets include a variety of functions, from reminders and clocks to astronomy and weather. These widgets are also different from native widgets that you can find on your Mac. While a free version of the app is available (five wallpaper and ten widget downloads), a subscription ($2.99/month or $14.99/year) is required for unlimited access.
3
Basic Apple Guy
For aesthetic wallpapers that you can download for your Apple devices (Mac, iPad, and iPhone), try Basic Apple Guy. This blog features various wallpaper collections, including dynamic, OS-specific wallpapers, that can be downloaded for free. You can also choose to donate a small, optional fee for wallpapers you download.
Basic Apple Guy’s wallpapers, while simple and minimalist, are perfect for you if you’re trying to expand your collection of aerial, landscape, and dynamic wallpapers. Collections are regularly uploaded and updated with fresh options, and I found that the wallpaper resolution was higher than I expected.
Apart from wallpapers, Basic Apple Guy offers holographic inside stickers for Mac and silicon-powered devices.
4
Wallpaper Wizard 2
Wallpaper Wizard 2 (one-time payment of $9.99) is a high-resolution wallpaper app with over 25,000 wallpaper options that are regularly updated. The app offers 4K wallpapers that can be shuffled throughout the day, spread across several categories, so you don’t have to search for wallpapers on your own. Once you find a wallpaper or collection you like, it can be added to a “Roll” that constantly rotates on your desktop according to the time you’ve set.
Wallpaper Wizard 2 can be used on multiple displays, including an iMac, with options to set the same or different wallpapers on each display.
5
iWallpaper
A close alternative you can find for Wallpaper Engine is iWallpaper, a free Mac Store app that features live, animated, and dynamic wallpapers. In terms of variety and collection, iWallpaper offers similar wallpapers to Wallpaper Engine, including anime, art, and other aesthetic wallpapers (although the collection is not as vast as the latter’s). You can also upload your own wallpapers to add to the rotation.
iWallpaper only requires an iCloud sign-in, and can be used for different aspect ratios with multi-monitor support. While not all wallpapers offer 4K resolution, I find the wallpaper quality to be crisp and optimized for my display screen. Some wallpapers also come with sound. iWallpaper supports battery optimization, helping you conserve battery even when high-quality, live wallpapers are on shuffle.
iWallpaper’s wallpapers come with a small watermark that can be removed for a one-time fee of $4.99, which helps you try out wallpapers before committing to the app.
6
Unsplash Wallpapers
One of the most popular royalty-free image and video websites, Unsplash, offers a free wallpaper app called Unsplash Wallpapers for your Mac. After downloading it, Unsplash Wallpapers can be used from your Mac’s toolbar. You can generate random wallpaper options, or browse through different categories to find your favorite wallpapers. Once you find what you like, you can instantly set a wallpaper or download it. You can also use a URL from the Unsplash website if you are looking for something very specific.
What I love about Unsplash is that beyond the aesthetic options, you’re also able to access the work of independent photographers and creatives, which you may not be able to find on other wallpaper apps.
7
Backdrop
Another live and animated wallpaper app that feels similar to iWallpaper, Backdrop is a wallpaper engine featuring 4K video and dynamic Rive animation wallpapers for your Mac. Wallpapers range from categories like anime, gaming, film, and fantasy to nature, animals, technology, and sports. The collection feels exhaustive, with most wallpapers ranging between 10–30 seconds. You can create your own wallpaper to be used for personal or community use.
Backdrop is designed and optimized for Mac, which is evident in its native performance and aspect ratio optimization. I find the preview feature to be very useful while picking my favorite wallpapers, alongside the category sorting, which makes finding new wallpapers a quick process.
Backdrop also offers lock screen support, multi-monitor support, and energy efficiency for your battery life. It offers a free seven-day trial, following which a premium purchase (between $2.17-$32.60, including monthly, yearly, and one-time purchase options) is required to remove watermarks and access the entire library.
While these apps and resources may not be true Wallpaper Engine replacements, they still offer an opportunity for you to explore more options when it comes to dynamic and live wallpapers. Since some of them are also free to use, you have the opportunity to try out different apps before making a purchase.
