Wallper is a curated live wallpaper app with roughly 700 loops at $9.99. MacWall costs less at $7.99 one-time and adds a community-driven catalog across 9 categories, video imports, and a refund program that can pay the license back. Here's the honest breakdown.
Quick verdict
MacWall wins for most users. It costs $2 less, covers 3 Macs, pauses intelligently to protect battery and CPU, and, critically, its Lock Screen and Screen Saver integration keeps working on the new macOS 27 beta, where many competitor apps currently break.
Feature comparison
- Price: MacWall is $7.99 one-time (early bird). Wallper is $9.99 one-time.
- Catalog: MacWall offers community uploads plus curated lanes across 9 categories, ranked by likes. Wallper has ~700 curated loops.
- Imports: both support MP4/MOV imports; MacWall adds GIF.
- Macs covered: MacWall licenses up to 3 personal Macs.
- CPU & battery: MacWall pauses on battery, in full screen, and even on high CPU load (auto-pauses at 80%, resumes at 55%), plus quality capping on battery.
- Lock Screen & Screen Saver: MacWall plays video natively on macOS 26+, with dedicated macOS 27 beta support.
- Refunds: MacWall's Reel Refund: 50% back at 2,000 views, 100% at 20,000.
Performance on Apple Silicon
Both apps use hardware video decode. MacWall layers smarter pause policies on top: it suspends playback when the screen is locked, when a full-screen app covers a display, on battery (optional), and when system CPU spikes. The result is live wallpaper beauty without the fan noise.
macOS 27 beta: the dealbreaker
Apple's macOS 27 beta changed system wallpaper behavior, and most wallpaper apps' Lock Screen features stopped working. MacWall shipped support for the new beta first, so live Lock Screen and Screen Saver keep working natively. If you run beta builds, this alone decides the comparison.
Bottom line
MacWall is a single $7.99 payment for everything, and a Reel with #macwall can earn it all back. Cheaper than Wallper, covers 3 Macs, and it's the only one working on the macOS 27 beta Lock Screen.