7 Best Widgy Alternatives for iPhone in 2026
Checked 20 October 2026. Every competitor detail below comes from that app's US App Store page and Apple's public lookup and search data, fetched that day. Left details come from the app itself.
Widgy is the power tool of iPhone widgets: a layer editor where you arrange text, shapes, charts and data into any design you like, for the Home Screen, the Lock Screen and Apple Watch. People look for an alternative when they want less building and more ready-made designs, when they want to write whole widgets in code rather than layers, or when they only used Widgy for one thing, such as a countdown or year progress. Here are seven alternatives, including ours, and when each one fits.
Disclosure: we make Left, so we have put it first. Here is why, and when another app suits you better.
Quick verdict
- Best if you used Widgy for countdowns, year progress or day progress: Left.
- Most-rated customizer here, with less building: Widgetsmith.
- Best for thousands of ready-made designs: Color Widgets.
- Best for writing widgets in code: ScriptWidget.
- Best for chart widgets from Shortcuts data: Charty for Shortcuts.
- Best for launchers on the Lock Screen, Dynamic Island and Watch: Launcher with Multiple Widgets.
- New and worth watching for web data widgets: Dashlet.
What Widgy does well
By Woodsign jdoo. Its App Store page describes community designs you can import and edit, layers of "text, photos, symbols, shapes and charts", clocks, weather, calendars and countdowns, Lock Screen widgets, Apple Watch widgets through "Watchy", and Live Activities and Dynamic Island layouts. It adds "charts, gauges and custom data sources" for dashboards, and designs can be shared with a QR code, a link or a file. Its release notes also describe a JavaScript editor for custom data and actions.
- Price: free to try. "Optional in-app purchases unlock additional widget slots and features": small, medium and large slots, Lock Screen slots and Watchy slots are separate purchases, and no subscription is listed.
- Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro.
- Recent changes: version 27 in September 2026 added widget variables, new chart and gauge layers, 44 live animation effects, widget schedules that change through the day, web data for charts with JSON or JavaScript, custom web requests with authentication and automatic iCloud sync.
- Privacy: its privacy label says Data Not Collected.
If you enjoy building, Widgy is hard to beat, and it keeps getting deeper. The alternatives below trade some of that power for speed, code or a single job done well.
Comparison table
Ratings and counts are from the US App Store, checked 20 October 2026; Left's is its worldwide average. "Not stated" means the listing doesn't mention it, not that the feature is missing.
| App | How you make widgets | Lock Screen | Apple Watch | Price model | Rating (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Widgy | Layer editor, data sources, JavaScript | Yes (slot purchase) | Yes (Watchy) | Free; slot purchases, no subscription listed | 4.6 (26,131) |
 Left | Ready-made time widgets with options | Yes (free) | Yes, with complications | Free; Left Premium for unlimited items | 4.7 (worldwide) |
 Widgetsmith | Templates with styles and actions | Yes | Not listed | Free; Premium monthly or yearly | 4.6 (776,423) |
 Color Widgets | Predesigned widgets plus a customizer | Yes | Not listed | Free; Color Widgets Pro | 4.6 (526,929) |
 ScriptWidget | JSX code with live preview | Yes (release notes) | Not listed | Free; no purchases listed | 4.5 (99) |
 Charty for Shortcuts | Charts built from Shortcuts | Not stated | Not listed | Free charts; widgets with Premium | 4.7 (342) |
 Launcher with Multiple Widgets | Launcher buttons | Yes (circular and rectangular) | Yes | Free; Premium for unlimited widgets | 4.5 (3,377) |
 Dashlet | Pick fields from web data, no code | Yes | Yes | Free; Premium monthly, yearly or lifetime | No ratings yet |
1. Left: time widgets without building them
Left is a time awareness app for iPhone, not a widget builder. If your Widgy designs were mostly year progress bars, countdowns, day progress or a clock, Left does those out of the box, with options instead of layers.
- Time Left widgets: Year, Month, Week, Day, Life and You on the Home Screen in small, medium and large, and on the Lock Screen as circular, rectangular and inline widgets. On the Home Screen, the Year widget lets you choose the unit (days, weeks, months, hours or minutes), show the amount left, the percentage left or nothing, and pick from 14 symbols and several backgrounds.
- Countdowns: Ahead, Ahead Bars, Ahead Circle and the Time Ahead list (3 dates in medium, 7 in large), with photos and units from hours to years.
- Habits, streaks and goals: an interactive Habit widget you tap to log today, plus Streak, Aim and list widgets.
- Clocks and more: Digital Clock, Analog Clock, Dynamic Time, a Calendar widget and a Special note widget for up to 500 characters.
- Live Activities: final countdowns and habit reminders on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
- Left Wallpaper: a Lock Screen wallpaper that redraws your year or life grid every day through a Shortcuts automation.
Best for: Widgy users who mainly built time widgets and want them without the editing.
Price: free to download, with no ads. The time, countdown, habit, streak, Aim and clock widgets and Left Wallpaper are free; Fasting and Focus are Premium. The free plan includes 2 each of countdowns, habits, streaks and Aims, counted over every item you've ever created, so deleting one doesn't free a slot. Left Premium, a subscription or lifetime purchase, unlocks unlimited items. Prices are shown in the app before you buy.
Pros: dozens of free time widgets with no slots to buy; Lock Screen widgets in every shape; Live Activities; a self-updating wallpaper.
Cons: no free-form layout, custom data sources or scripting; only 2 free countdowns, habits, streaks and Aims; needs an iPhone with iOS 26 or later.
2. Widgetsmith
By Cross Forward Consulting, LLC. Its App Store page lists photo, clock, activity, countdown, solar and lunar, weather and time zone widgets, Lock Screen widgets, and widgets with Actions "to launch apps, run Shortcuts, send a text, and more". A widget can switch content through the day, for example weather in the morning and your calendar at work.
Best for: polished widgets with far less setup than Widgy.
Price: free, with "an optional premium subscription" monthly or annually. "Access to tide and weather data is only available to Widgetsmith Premium subscribers."
Pros: 776,423 ratings; Shortcuts actions; time-based switching; iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs.
Cons: no layer editor or custom data sources in the listing; weather needs Premium; Apple Watch isn't listed.
3. Color Widgets
By Digital Charms, Inc. Its App Store page invites you to "Browse thousands of predesigned widgets or, better yet, design your own with the easy-to-use widget customizer", for the Home Screen and Lock Screen. Widgets cover photos, time and date, battery, countdowns, weather, music, calendar, custom text, activity, sun and moon, with more than 15,000 themes and wallpapers.
Best for: picking a finished design and changing colors and fonts.
Price: "Enjoy Color Widgets for free, with an optional upgrade" to Color Widgets Pro, which the listing says starts with a free 3-day trial.
Pros: 526,929 ratings; a huge design library; Lock Screen widgets; recent iOS 27 extra-large widgets.
Cons: no layers, scripting or data sources in the listing; its privacy label lists data used to track you.
4. ScriptWidget
By 峰 朱. Its App Store page says "Build your own iPhone and iPad widgets with JSX, live previews, and built-in APIs. Start from a template and make it yours." One script can target iOS and macOS, and "Widgets run locally".
Best for: developers who would rather write a widget than drag one together.
Price: free; the page lists no in-app purchases.
Pros: code with a live preview; templates to start from; its release notes add Lock Screen widgets, Live Activities and Dynamic Island support; Data Not Collected; updated in September 2026.
Cons: only 99 ratings; Lock Screen and Live Activity support appear only in older release notes, not the description; you need to be comfortable with code.
5. Charty for Shortcuts
By Rapptor Desenvolvimento de Softwares LTDA. Its App Store page says "Turn any data into stunning charts right from Apple Shortcuts", with bar, line, scatter, area, pie, donut and ring charts, trend lines, moving averages and CSV import. Version 2.0 in June 2026 was a complete rebuild on Apple's Swift Charts.
Best for: Widgy users whose dashboards were mostly charts fed by Shortcuts.
Price: "Create unlimited charts with up to 2 series per chart", completely free. Charty Premium unlocks all 25 Shortcuts actions, unlimited series, area charts, CSV import and widgets. Its release notes say it is moving to a monthly or yearly subscription, and past Premium buyers keep full access.
Pros: strong charting; no coding; Data Not Collected.
Cons: widgets need Premium; charts only, not general layouts; Lock Screen widgets aren't mentioned.
6. Launcher with Multiple Widgets
By Cromulent Labs, Inc. Its App Store page describes launcher widgets for the "Home Screen, Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Apple Watch": buttons for apps, contacts and Shortcuts, circular and rectangular Lock Screen widgets, and Live Activities that keep launchers in the Dynamic Island.
Best for: Widgy users who mostly built tap targets rather than displays.
Price: free, and you can "Launch every app on your device". Launcher Premium adds an "Unlimited number of widgets", folders, stacking and iCloud backup.
Pros: Lock Screen, Live Activities and Apple Watch, like Widgy; launching any app is free.
Cons: a launcher, not a data or design tool; unlimited widgets need Premium.
7. Dashlet: Custom Data Widgets
By Ziga Dolar. Its App Store page says it builds widgets "from almost any online data source" for the Home Screen, Lock Screen and Apple Watch, with "No coding. No accounts. No cloud." It reads JSON, XML, RSS and images over HTTPS, supports bearer tokens, basic authentication and custom headers, and offers value, dashboard, list, image, chart, gauge and map widgets.
Best for: people who used Widgy's web data sources, for example for a home server or Home Assistant, and want a simpler setup.
Price: free to download, with Dashlet Premium monthly, yearly or lifetime. Free limits aren't stated.
Pros: authenticated web data with no code; Lock Screen and Apple Watch; Data Not Collected.
Cons: first released in July 2026 and not yet rated; not a layout designer; free limits aren't stated.
What about Scriptable?
Scriptable is the most-rated JavaScript widget app we found, with 4.7 stars from 3,960 US ratings. We left it out of the list because its last update was in September 2024. If your scripts still run, there's no need to move.
How we chose
- Search first: we searched the US App Store for widget builders, scripting and data widget apps on 20 October 2026, and looked at what currently ranks for "Widgy alternatives".
- Kept: apps updated in the last 12 months that cover a reason people leave or supplement Widgy: less building, code, charts, launchers or web data. Left is included because we make it.
- Also considered: iScreen and Photo Widget (ready-made designs, like Color Widgets), Widget Wizard (57 ratings, and it requires iOS 26) and Lock Screen 27. Data Jar and Widget Box were left out because they haven't been updated in over a year.
- Sources: each app's own App Store page, including release notes and privacy labels, and Apple's lookup and search data. No paid placements, and no developer reviewed this page.
Which one should you pick?
- You built countdowns, year progress or clocks in Widgy: Left.
- You want great widgets with less effort: Widgetsmith.
- You want a finished design to tweak: Color Widgets.
- You want to write code: ScriptWidget.
- You want charts from Shortcuts: Charty.
- You want launchers on the Lock Screen and Watch: Launcher.
- You want web data with no code: Dashlet.
For more, see our Widgetsmith alternatives and aesthetic widgets guide.
See more examples on the Left year progress widget page and the countdown widget page.
Questions
What is the best alternative to Widgy?
It depends on why you're leaving. Widgetsmith is the closest mainstream app with far less building. ScriptWidget suits you if you want to write widgets in code, Charty if you mostly built charts, and Left if your Widgy widgets were mainly countdowns, year progress or clocks.
Is Widgy free?
Widgy is free to try. Its App Store page says optional in-app purchases unlock more widget slots and features, with separate purchases for small, medium and large slots, Lock Screen slots and Watchy slots. No subscription is listed.
Is there a Widgy alternative with Apple Watch widgets?
Launcher with Multiple Widgets and Dashlet list Apple Watch support, and Photo Widget lists Apple Watch faces. Left has an Apple Watch app with complications.
Can I write iPhone widgets in JavaScript?
Yes. ScriptWidget builds widgets from JSX with a live preview, and Widgy's own release notes describe a JavaScript editor. Scriptable is the most-rated JavaScript widget app we found, but its last update was in September 2024.
What is the easiest way to get a year progress widget without building one?
Left's Year widget shows how much of the year is left on the Home Screen or Lock Screen, in days, weeks, months, hours or minutes, and it's free. See the year progress widget page for examples.
Start noticing what matters.
Download Left on your iPhone to see the time you have left, dates you are looking forward to, build the habits you want to keep, and become a better version of yourself.
Scan or search "Left" on the App Store.