6 niche iPad widget apps I wish everyone knew about

Apple’s software ecosystem is home to many a good widget app, with plenty of options to choose from, and styles and designs to suit everybody’s individual fancy. On the iPad, countless standard applications come bundled with home screen widgets of their own, and the App Store is filled with dedicated widget apps that specialize in customization, too.

Some iPad widget apps feature their own bespoke library of widgets, while others offer full-blown widget creation systems with curated collections pooled right from their user bases. Here are six of my personal favorite widget apps from the App Store, each of which brings a unique aesthetic and tons of functionality to the table.

Pre-designed widgets in the thousands

Color Widgets features a catalog of thousands of pre-configured widgets to choose from, with the ability to dial in each template’s background colors, theme, and font. Widget options range from data and time options, to aesthetic photos, quotes, the weather, calendars, countdowns, and everything in between. Some of the included widgets are free to use, while others require a recurring paid subscription to unlock. This paid mode also removes in-app ads, incorporates additional themes, and more. Color Widgets’ interface itself is pleasing to look at and fairly intuitive, and there are separate themes and icons sections to play around with outside the widgets section itself.

ScreenKit

Give your home screen a makeover

ScreenKit is teeming with not only widgets, but also themes, wallpapers, and even adorable pixelated pets that can live on your lock screen via Apple’s Live Activities feature. Within the app’s widgets tab, there are a range of applet choices to pick from, along with a dedicated custom mode for crafting your own widget from scratch. The process is streamlined and intuitive, and the user interface here is clean and easy to work with. ScreenKit requires a small one-time fee to unlock all available widgets, themes, and features, while a smaller selection of applets can be used right out of the gate for free.

Unleash your widget-powered creativity

From the makers of the excellent MD Vinyl application that my colleague Kelsey Fogarty recently wrote about, MD Widgets is a well-crafted widgets application with a wide variety of options to choose from. Widgets extend across every major category, like clocks, calendars, forecasters, and music players, and the selection on deck here is visually pleasing to say the least. A few of the widgets within MD Widgets are free to get started with, but you’ll have to pay either a lifetime license fee or a recurring payment fee to unlock the majority of them within the app.

Lockera

A gorgeously crafted set of widgets

Lockera’s selection of widgets is stellar. The collection on offer ranges from QR codes, to birthday countdowns, to a full-blown calculator with interactive elements, and just about everything in between. I absolutely love the app’s clean user interface, which follows Apple’s own software design guidelines, and I appreciate the customization options available across each of the suite’s widgets. As with other entries on this list, some of Lockera’s widgets are free to use from the get-go, while others require a one-time payment to unlock.

Widgy

A robust widget design platform

Widgy is a full-blown widget design platform, with a staggering number of user-created options to choose from. Once you’ve selected a widget from the collection presented on screen, you can further adjust metrics like transparency and more. All widgets within Widgy are free to make use of, but a single one-time payment is required to unlock the lability to place more widgets on your home screen at the same time.

Tailor your widgets to your liking

As its name implies, Widgetsmith lets you craft your own home screen widgets via a dedicated in-app interface. The UI is a bit on the basic side, but it’s certainly functional and easy enough to get started with. There are plenty of options to choose from here, including photos, weather, health, and tools, all of which can be sized in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes. The app’s basic feature set is available for free, but a recurring Widgetsmith Premium subscription is required to benefit from the full breadth of available widget categories.