Vivid Walls vs 24 Hour Wallpaper
These two apps are less alike than the category suggests. One tracks the sun. The other moves.
The 30-second answer: If you want a beautiful photograph of a real place that shifts from dawn to dusk in step with your own clock, 24 Hour Wallpaper is built specifically for that and Vivid Walls does not do it. If you want a desktop that is actually in motion, rain falling, characters animating, scenes reacting to the music you are playing, that is Vivid Walls. Most people who compare these two are really deciding between a still image that changes and a moving image that does not stop.
What each one is, exactly
24 Hour Wallpaper (Jetson Creative)
24 Hour Wallpaper has been on the Mac App Store since 2017 and is still actively developed, with its current version released in August 2026. It ships a curated library of photographic wallpapers of real locations, nature scenes like Yosemite, Joshua Tree and the Grand Canyon, and cities like Tokyo, Paris and San Francisco, at 5120x2880 or higher. Each wallpaper is a set of images that changes through the day to match the time at your location, using either Apple's own Dynamic Desktop format or the app's ProTime engine, which lets you stretch sunrise and sunset or invert the day entirely. The download is free with eight wallpapers included, 165 more are in-app purchases, and the current version adds a 14-day trial of the full app plus an import feature for building your own. It requires macOS 15.0 or later.
Vivid Walls
Vivid Walls is a native macOS app for wallpapers that animate in real time. It runs Wallpaper Engine scene files on Apple Silicon, the same scene format used on Windows, which means real-time effects, animated characters and scenes that react to whatever your Mac is playing. It also handles 4K video, web, GIF and static image wallpapers, per display, with automatic pausing so it is not working when you are not looking. Eight animated wallpapers install on first launch, so it is not an empty app on day one, and a free Windows companion transfers an existing Steam Wallpaper Engine library across your local network with a four-character code. It is free to download, with a 3-day trial of the complete app; a single $9.99 in-app purchase unlocks the full library, no subscription, and it requires macOS 14.0 or later.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Vivid Walls | 24 Hour Wallpaper |
|---|---|---|
| Wallpaper animates continuously | Yes | No (photographs that change with the time of day) |
| Time-of-day photo sets synced to your location | No | Yes (Apple Dynamic Desktop and ProTime) |
| Custom sunrise and sunset timing | No | Yes |
| Runs Wallpaper Engine scene files | Yes | No |
| Scenes that react to audio | Yes | No |
| 4K video, web and GIF wallpapers | Yes | No |
| Curated 5K photographic library | No | Yes (173 wallpapers) |
| Multi-monitor, different wallpaper per display | Yes | Yes |
| Works with the app closed | No | Yes (via Apple Dynamic Desktop) |
| Minimum macOS | 14.0 | 15.0 |
| Pricing | Free download, 3-day full trial, $9.99 in-app purchase unlocks full library | Free download, 165 wallpapers by in-app purchase, 14-day full trial |
| Disk footprint | Eight wallpapers on first launch, then whatever you add | Up to 15GB per the developer |
| Interface languages | Nine | Not stated |
When 24 Hour Wallpaper wins
- You want your desktop to feel like a window. A photograph of Monterey Bay that is dark at 6am and golden at 6pm is a genuinely lovely thing, and no animated scene replicates it.
- You want the wallpaper to keep working with nothing running. Set through Apple Dynamic Desktop, it continues after you quit the app, which no live wallpaper app can offer.
- You care most about still-image sharpness. 5120x2880 and up is more resolution than animated wallpapers generally carry.
- You want to try before paying. The download is free and the current version includes a 14-day trial of everything.
When Vivid Walls wins
- You want motion. Rain that falls, snow that drifts, characters that move, scenes that respond to the music playing on your Mac.
- You own a Wallpaper Engine library on Steam. Nothing else on the Mac runs those scene files, and the companion app brings them across without an account or a cloud service.
- You want one price after trying it. A 3-day free trial, then a single $9.99 purchase covers the whole app with no bundle to unlock afterwards.
- Your Mac is on macOS 14. The current 24 Hour Wallpaper requires macOS 15.
- You want video, web or GIF wallpapers as well, which are outside what a Dynamic Desktop app does.
Common questions
Is 24 Hour Wallpaper free?
The download is free and includes eight wallpapers: Above the Clouds, Big Sur, Canyonlands, Hergiswil, Monterey Bay, Mt. Hood, Tahoe Blue and Tokyo Anime Mix. A further 165 are in-app purchases, sold as a bundle or individually, and the current version also offers a 14-day trial of the full app. Vivid Walls now works the same way: free to download with a 3-day trial of everything, and a single $9.99 in-app purchase unlocks the full library.
Do 24 Hour Wallpaper's wallpapers move?
Not continuously. They are photographs that change through the day to match the time at your location. The image is still at any given moment, which is the point of the format rather than a shortcoming: Apple's own Dynamic Desktop wallpapers work the same way. Vivid Walls plays wallpapers that animate in real time. Different thing, not a better one.
Can I run both at once?
They do not conflict, but they compete for the same desktop, so whichever applied last is what you see. Both apps support per-display wallpapers, so one workable arrangement is 24 Hour Wallpaper through Apple Dynamic Desktop on one screen and Vivid Walls on another.
Which runs on an older Mac?
Vivid Walls requires macOS 14.0 or later. The current version of 24 Hour Wallpaper requires macOS 15.0 or later. On macOS 14 the App Store will offer you the last 24 Hour Wallpaper release that supported your system, which will not be the current one.
How much disk space does each one use?
24 Hour Wallpaper states its downloads can consume up to 15GB, which is what a large library of 5K-plus photo sets costs. Vivid Walls installs eight animated wallpapers on first launch and grows only with what you add or import.
Keep reading
- Vivid Walls vs Backdrop → The closest comparison to this one, against another native Mac live wallpaper app.
- Vivid Walls vs Wallper → The same side by side, against Wallper.
- Animated Wallpaper on macOS Sequoia → What the built-in macOS wallpaper features do and where they stop.
- How to Get Animated Wallpapers on Mac → Five ways to do it, including the free built-in route.