Shelf vs Widget Playground
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shelf
Pin photos, text, or app shortcuts to your iPhone's Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Customize the appearance with themes, colors, and fonts. Access content with a tap or use Siri and App Shortcuts for automatic launching.
- Pin photos, text, and app shortcuts
- Dynamic Island and Home Screen support
- Customizable themes, colors, and fonts
- Always-on display integration
- App Shortcuts and Siri integration
- Quick access with a tap
Read full descriptionHide full description
Shelf lets you pin content to the Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Home Screen! Create shelves that display a photo, text, or quick links to open apps, shortcuts, or websites. Each are visually customisable; apply themes or manually change colours and fonts. Thanks to the iPhone 14 Pro’s always-on-display, shelves can be viewed at a glance - with actions a simple tap away. Automatically launch shelves with App Shortcuts support, such as when a Focus is turned on, or ask Siri "Create a Text Shelf" to quickly pin a spoken comment to your Lock Screen. More types of shelves will be coming soon, such as; a Timer, Checklist, and Weather. If you have any questions, please reach out to shelf@michaeltigas.com.au Privacy Policy: https://michaeltigas.notion.site/Shelf-Privacy-Policy-d1eee01d6bc845b29052d1d75de8968f Terms of Use: https://michaeltigas.notion.site/Shelf-Terms-of-Use-0f7815e773e3420db9a5e6b1cdddbd54
Widget Playground
Read full descriptionHide full description
Your home screen is prime real estate — so build something fun and useful on it. Widget Playground is a design studio for widgets that do more: craft photo and text art, play tap-to-answer quizzes, and chart your Apple Health data your way. Start with a photo, an AI image, or a blank canvas, then drag, pinch, and twist every element until it's exactly, delightfully yours. GET CREATIVE • Start from a library photo or a plain canvas, or generate one with Apple Image Playground • Direct-manipulation editing: drag to move, pinch to resize, twist to rotate, double-tap to type • Around 25 font families, sizes from 8 to 600 pt, true bold and italic faces • Four color modes: solid, gradient, rainbow, and per-letter — give every single letter its own color and size • 3D extruded text with adjustable depth, plus text that curves along an arc • Speech bubbles and rounded containers with tails, padding, and fills • Subject lift: your photo's subject rises into its own layer, so text weaves behind a person and in front of the sky — move and scale the subject and the background fills itself in • Background tricks: blur, black & white, hue shift, or swap in a solid or gradient fill WIDGETS THAT DO THINGS • Countdowns to any date ahead, plus a live ticking timer with steady monospaced digits • Tap counters: tap the widget itself to count laps, coffees, or days — no app launch needed • Auto-updating dates in your pick of format, length, and case • Quotes in a range of tones — including one that riffs on your own photo, so every image gets a different take (on devices that support Apple Intelligence) QUIZ YOURSELF FROM THE HOME SCREEN • 12 topics: Geography, Flags, Math, Science, Space, Memory, and more • Answer by tapping the widget — instant green-or-red feedback, then the next question • Difficulty levels and per-topic colors, with scores, streaks, and accuracy tracked in the app • Fresh questions from Apple Intelligence, backed by a curated bank so there's always a next question YOUR HEALTH, CHARTED YOUR WAY • 14 health metrics (integrates with the Health app and uses data stored in the Health app) — steps, heart rate, sleep, workouts, mood, and more • Multiple chart styles: trend lines, hourly ranges, sleep hypnograms, top-days medals, and beyond • Latest Workout shows a map snapshot of your recorded GPS route • Log water, caffeine, weight, and mood with one tap, straight from the widget • Custom accent colors on your charts, plus light or dark looks per widget A FEW MORE THINGS • Up to 30 widgets at once, each in its own slot, in small, medium, and large sizes • A rectangle crop mode tailors each square design for medium widgets, element by element • Widgets render with the same math as the editor — what you design is what you get • Tap any widget to jump right back into its editor, and share any design as an image PRIVACY • We do not collect any data from this app. • Privacy Policy: https://sydvesti.com/privacy-policy Note: AI image generation requires iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 and a device that supports Apple Intelligence. AI quotes and quiz generation also use Apple Intelligence where available. Health widgets need permission, granted once in the app. Please note that some features require a subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula If you have any questions, we're happy to help: contact@sydvesti.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Shelf at 16.1 against Widget Playground's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Shelf sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Widget Playground sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | Shelf | Widget Playground |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (280 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 57.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 280 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.1 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Michael Tigas | Sydvesti Oy |
In-app purchases
Shelf
- Shelf Pro - Monthly$1.991 Month
- Shelf Pro - Yearly3 Days trial$12.991 Year
Widget Playground
- Monthly Premium$1.991 Month
- Yearly Premium$9.991 Year









