Best desktop pets for Mac
Take Pets Therapy if you want the most animals for nothing: 37 are free for good and it is rated 4.8 across more than 3,600 Mac App Store ratings. Dockitty at $5 if you want one pixel cat in your Dock and nothing else. Mac Pet at $9.99 if you want the pet in the menu bar next to a pomodoro timer. Desktop Goose if you want your Mac sabotaged, knowing the Mac build has been stuck for years. And Mossy if you want the pet to be doing something: it wilts the longer you sit.
By Alban. I make one of these five, so weigh the last two sections accordingly. Prices, system requirements and version numbers read on each app's own page on 11 September 2026.
What a desktop pet is actually for
Nothing, mostly, and that is fine. A desktop pet is a small animated creature that lives on your screen, walks along your window edges or sits in your Dock, and asks nothing of you. People install one for the same reason they put a plant on a desk. It makes a working day feel less like a spreadsheet.
Which makes the category easy to shop for, because there are only three real questions. Where does it live on screen, since that decides whether it charms you or covers your work. What does it cost, since half of them are free and half are not. And does it do anything, since exactly one of the five below does.
The five, side by side
| App | Where it lives | What it does | Price | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pets Therapy | Walks along window edges and across the desktop. | Nothing, on purpose. Over 100 animals, plus pets you draw yourself. | Free, 37 pets for good. Paid extras beyond that | macOS, Apple Silicon and Intel |
| Dockitty | In the Dock, and occasionally out on the desktop. | Nothing. Right click to make it jump or sleep. Squad mode for several cats at once. | Free version, $5 for the rest | macOS 14.6+ |
| Mac Pet | In the menu bar, or tucked beside the notch. | A pomodoro timer, streaks and activity stats, with the pet reacting to them. | $9.99 | macOS 10.15+ |
| Desktop Goosev0.22 on Mac | Anywhere it likes. It walks over your windows. | Steals your cursor, tracks mud across the screen, drops notes. Mods are Windows only. | Pay what you want, zero included | macOS 10.10+ |
| Mossy0.2.17, mine | One corner of the desktop, on top of everything. | Wilts the longer you sit, then offers a break with an exercise written for you. | Free | macOS 12+ |
Only Mossy publishes a download size, 1.8 MB. Desktop Goose's Mac build is v0.22 while the Windows build is v0.31. Pets Therapy's rating is the one shown on its own page, 4.8 across more than 3,600 Mac App Store ratings.
Pets Therapy, if you want to choose the animal
This is the one to install first if you are not sure what you want. Over a hundred animals, 37 of them free for good, and you can import your own drawings as pets. They walk along the edges of your windows rather than sitting in one place, which is the version of this idea most people picture. Apple Silicon and Intel both.
It is also the one that does the least, deliberately. There is no timer, no counter, nothing that notices how your day is going. If the appeal of a desktop pet for you is that it is not another productivity app, that is the right answer and you can stop reading here.
Dockitty, if you want one cat and no decisions
Dockitty puts a single pixel cat in your Dock, where it stays. Right click it and it jumps or goes to sleep, and squad mode lets several of them roam. The animations are drawn by hand, which the author says on the page, and it shows. Five dollars, with a free version, macOS 14.6 or later.
The Dock is a real design decision and not everyone will like it. A creature in your Dock is always exactly where you expect it, and it never once covers what you are reading. It also means you only see it when you look down.
Mac Pet, if you want it near the clock
Mac Pet lives in the menu bar, or beside the notch on a newer MacBook, with a black background that makes it look like it is standing in the cut out. It costs $9.99 and runs on macOS 10.15 and up, which is the widest reach in this list by a distance.
It is also the closest thing here to Mossy in intent, because there is a pomodoro timer attached and the pet reacts to your sessions. The difference is which way the clock runs. A pomodoro asks you to commit to 25 minutes of work first. Mossy counts what you have already done and does not ask you to promise anything.
Desktop Goose, if you want to be interrupted badly
A goose walks out onto your screen, steals your mouse, tracks muddy footprints over your windows and drops notes on your desk. It is the most famous thing in this category and still the funniest. Pay what you want, and zero is a price the page accepts.
Two honest warnings. It is designed to get in your way, so it is a thing you run on a Friday and not during a demo. And the Mac build is v0.22 against the Windows build's v0.31, with mods Windows only. The note on the page about Mac mod support reads "Wait for 2023". Read that date again and set your expectations accordingly.
Mossy, if you want the pet to be doing something
I built this one. Everything below can be checked in about a minute, which is the only reason to believe any of it.
Mossy is a small plant that sits in one corner of your desktop and dries out the longer you go without a break. It counts your keyboard and your trackpad rather than the clock, so a meeting away from the Mac does not make it wilt. When it gets thirsty it asks, waits a while if you say no, and you can ignore it. Ignoring it is a normal way to use it rather than a failure to correct.
If you say yes, the break is not a countdown. You write one sentence about what your breaks should be, and each break is written from that sentence, one instruction at a time, with a timer that runs it. "Stretch my back." "Twenty push ups." "Teach me a Spanish word."
Four species: moss, a cactus, an amanita mushroom and a pumpkin. The mushroom is there because people voted for it, in a vote that closed on 7 September 2026. The drawing on the website is not an illustration of the app, it is the same code that draws the creature on your desktop, which is why the plant you download looks exactly like the one you clicked.
Numbers instead of adjectives. Across 43 machines that left the counters on, over 182 machine days, 51 % of the breaks Mossy offered were taken, measured on 10 September 2026. At least one break has been asked for from 25 countries. And 18 versions shipped between 12 August and 8 September, which is the only honest proof that an app is alive. An architecture agency runs it across four desks in one office, and a teacher uses it in front of a class where the pupils think the plant is cute.
When not to use Mossy
If you want a pet that only decorates, take Pets Therapy or Dockitty. Mossy has an opinion about your day, and a counter under the plant showing the minutes you have been at it. Some people find that counter is the thing they look at most. Some people would find it nagging, and there is no setting to hide it.
If you want to pick your animal, Pets Therapy has over a hundred and takes your own drawings. Mossy has three and that will not change soon.
If you want an app that talks to nothing, none of this is for you: Mossy sends one request per break, because the exercise is written on the fly instead of picked from a list. There is no account and no tracker, and the privacy page lists everything that leaves your Mac, but one request is not zero. And if you want the pet on Windows or Linux, Mossy is macOS only.
What I cannot tell you yet
Whether people keep a desktop pet once the novelty goes. For Mossy, on 10 September 2026: of 89 machines with a usage row, 2 span more than fourteen days, and both are ours. Of the four machines that first appeared over three weeks ago, two were still active in the last seven days. Four machines is an anecdote, not a retention rate. Ask me in November.
I have also not lived with Pets Therapy, Dockitty or Mac Pet for a full week. What is above was read on their own pages on 11 September 2026, and how a creature feels on day five is not something you can read off a page.
FAQ
Are there free desktop pets for Mac?
Four of the five here. Pets Therapy gives 37 animals free for good, Desktop Goose is pay what you want with zero as a valid price, Dockitty has a free version, and Mossy is free with no paid tier behind it. Only Mac Pet asks up front, at $9.99.
Does Desktop Goose still work on a Mac?
It runs. The page says macOS 10.10 and up. But the Mac build is v0.22 while Windows is on v0.31, and mods are Windows only. The site's note about Mac mod support reads "Wait for 2023", which tells you how long that sentence has been sitting there.
What is the difference between a desktop pet and a break reminder?
A desktop pet decorates your screen. A break reminder interrupts it. Mossy is the only one in this list that sits in both: it looks like a pet, it dries out the longer you sit, and then it offers a break you are free to refuse. About half get refused.
Will a desktop pet get in the way during a video call?
Only if it stays put. Mossy hides itself while your microphone is live or something is playing, and comes back after. The other four sit where you left them, which with Desktop Goose means on top of whatever you were sharing.
Free, no account, 1.8 MB, macOS 12 or later. Or read what the plant actually does, or how it compares with the break reminders people already use on a Mac, or with Stretchly.