Vivid Walls vs Plash
These two get compared a lot and they do genuinely different things. One puts a web page on your desktop. The other runs Wallpaper Engine scenes.
The 30-second answer: If you want a web page on your desktop, a dashboard, a live clock, a photo feed, a shader toy, pick Plash. Plash is free, it is very good at that, and nothing here will change your mind. If you want animated wallpapers with particles, characters and audio reactivity, especially Wallpaper Engine scenes you already own on Steam, Plash cannot load those at all and Vivid Walls is built for exactly that.
What each one is, exactly
Plash
Plash makes any website your desktop wallpaper. You give it a URL, remote or local, and it renders that page full screen behind your icons. It can reload on an interval, hold several websites you switch between, accept custom CSS and JavaScript, lower its opacity, invert colors for a fake dark mode, and it has a browsing mode so you can actually click around on the page. It is scriptable and supports Shortcuts. It is free on the Mac App Store, from developer Sindre Sorhus, and its source is public on GitHub with over four thousand stars. Two things worth knowing before you install it: its own description states that audio is muted, and the version currently on the Mac App Store requires macOS 26.4 or later.
Vivid Walls
Vivid Walls is a native macOS app that reads and plays Wallpaper Engine scene files on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later. It renders the real-time particle effects, visual effects and animated characters the scene author built, rather than a video recording of them. Scenes can react to whatever your Mac is playing, and wallpapers with music widgets show live Now Playing album art from Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube. Video, web, GIF and static image wallpapers work too, per display. Eight animated wallpapers are included and load the first time you open it. A free Windows companion transfers an existing Steam Wallpaper Engine library to the Mac over your local network with a four character code. Free to download, with a 3-day trial; $9.99 unlocks the full library, no subscription.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Vivid Walls | Plash |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, $9.99 unlocks full library | Free |
| Any website as wallpaper | Yes, web wallpapers are supported | Yes, this is the whole app and it does it best |
| Interact with the page (click, scroll) | No | Yes, browsing mode |
| Custom CSS and JavaScript injection | No | Yes |
| Scriptable, Shortcuts support | No | Yes |
| Source code public | No | Yes, on GitHub |
| Runs Wallpaper Engine scene files | Yes | No, they are not web pages |
| Library transfer from a Windows PC | Yes, free companion over local network | No |
| Audio reactive wallpapers | Yes | No, its description states audio is muted |
| Live Now Playing album art | Yes | No |
| 4K video wallpapers | Yes, natively | Only by pointing it at a page that plays video |
| A different wallpaper on each display | Yes | Not yet, its description calls this planned |
| Wallpapers included | Eight, on first launch | None, you supply the URL |
| macOS required | 14 or later | 26.4 or later for the current version |
| Mac hardware | Apple Silicon (M1 or later) | Apple Silicon and Intel |
| On battery | Drops to 15 FPS by default | Can deactivate automatically |
When Plash wins
- You want a web page on your desktop. A dashboard, a calendar, a stock ticker, a live camera, a WebGL shader, your own HTML. That is what Plash is for and it is free.
- You want to tinker. Custom CSS, custom JavaScript, Shortcuts, a scriptable interface and public source code are all things Vivid Walls does not offer.
- You have an Intel Mac. Vivid Walls is Apple Silicon only.
- You want to spend nothing. This is a real advantage and it is worth saying plainly rather than talking around it.
When Vivid Walls wins
- You own a Wallpaper Engine library on Steam and want those scenes on your Mac. Plash cannot open the format, because scene files are not web pages. This is the case nothing else here solves.
- You want the wallpaper to react to your music. Plash mutes audio by design, so this is not a gap in its build, it is outside what it does.
- You want a different wallpaper on each display today rather than when it ships.
- You are on macOS 14 or 15. The Plash build currently on the Mac App Store lists macOS 26.4 as its minimum, so on an older system you would be relying on the App Store offering you a previous version.
- You want wallpapers to exist the moment you open the app. Plash starts empty by design, waiting for a URL. Vivid Walls ships with eight.
Common questions
Is Plash free?
Yes. It is listed on the Mac App Store at no cost and its source is public on GitHub. If price is the deciding factor and a web page is what you want on your desktop, Plash is the answer and this page is not going to argue with that.
Can Plash run Wallpaper Engine scenes?
No, and this is a format question rather than a missing feature. Plash renders a web page. Wallpaper Engine scenes are not web pages, they are scene files carrying their own materials, particle systems and shaders, so a browser engine has nothing to load. Vivid Walls reads that format directly.
Could I just point Plash at a video file?
You can, with an HTML page that plays it, and people do exactly that. Plash is a reasonable free route to a looping video wallpaper. What it will not get you is a Wallpaper Engine scene, audio reactivity, or a separate wallpaper per display.
Can I use both at once?
Yes. They are independent apps and do not conflict. Each manages its own desktop window, and whichever was applied last is the one you see. Plenty of reasonable setups use a free web dashboard on one machine and animated scenes on another.
Keep reading
- Vivid Walls vs Wallper → The same side by side, against a curated 4K video library instead.
- Vivid Walls vs Backdrop → Backdrop is the other name that comes up most in Mac wallpaper roundups.
- All Mac live wallpaper apps compared → Every option we know of, including the free ones.
- How to Get Animated Wallpapers on Mac → Five ways to do it, including the free built-in route.