No chimney required
Light the room.
A small fire for your Mac, with the crackle to match.
£2.99 once on the Mac App Store · macOS 14 or later · No data collected
What is Wicklet?
Wicklet is a small, living fire for your Mac. It's a menu bar app that lights a real fire on your desktop: flames that rise, lick and sway, with embers drifting up out of them, drawn fresh every moment in front of whatever you're doing. It isn't a wallpaper and it isn't a looping video. It burns on every desktop you use while you work, study and play.
Light it from the menu bar, pick a size, and then forget about it. Clicks go straight through the flames to whatever is underneath, the Dock stays in front of them, and the fire steps aside whenever a full-screen app takes over.
How the fire works
The flames aren't a recording. Wicklet draws them live on your Mac's graphics chip, so they keep rising, breaking apart and drifting from side to side the way a real fire does. The fire has the shape of a log fire, tallest in the middle, and it throws off embers that float up and fade as they go.
One slider does the rest. Size makes the fire taller and wider, and it eases to the new size instead of jumping, so you can settle anywhere between a small flicker and a proper blaze. Switch it off and it dies down gently; switch it back on and it kindles again.
Each desktop gets its own fire, so when you swipe between desktops the fire slides along with the one it belongs to. It burns on your main display, and it stays out of the way of anything running full screen.
The sound matters as much as the picture. Wicklet mixes a roar, a crackle and a soft hiss, with the odd pop and the sound of a log settling now and then, and a bigger fire roars more. Sound has its own switch and volume, so you can have the crackle without the flames, or the flames in silence.
The fire at the top of this page is the same one, running in your browser, so you can see how it moves before you install anything.
No logs. No permissions.
Wicklet asks for no permissions. It collects no data, and it can't go online at all.
It runs in Apple's app sandbox, so it can only do what a small fire needs to do. The privacy policy has the details.
Questions
Is it a wallpaper or a screen saver?
Neither. A wallpaper sits behind your windows, and a screen saver only appears once you've stopped using your Mac. Wicklet's fire burns in front of your windows while you're using it, and your clicks go straight through.
Will it slow down my Mac or drain the battery?
Wicklet is made to sit quietly in the background. It only draws the part of the screen the fire covers, and it stops completely when you switch the fire off, lock your Mac or the display goes to sleep. With the fire and the sound both off, it does nothing at all.
What happens with full-screen apps?
The fire steps aside while a full-screen app is showing, so films, games and presentations get the whole screen. It comes back as soon as you leave full screen.
Does it work on more than one display?
The fire burns on your main display, the one you choose in System Settings > Displays.
Can I have the sound without the fire?
Yes. Fire and Sound have their own switches, so you can have the crackle on its own, the flames in silence, or both together.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Wicklet runs in Apple's app sandbox with no network access at all, so it never goes online and never sends anything anywhere.
Pull up a chair.
£2.99 once, on the Mac App Store. No subscription. Pricing has the details.
Get it for Mac