Comparison
Wallpaper Animator vs Wallpaper Engine
Wallpaper Animator is not Wallpaper Engine and can't play Wallpaper Engine or Steam Workshop wallpapers. They are separate apps from different developers. If you came looking for Wallpaper Engine, it has its own page on Steam.
What each app is
Wallpaper Engine is a wallpaper app on Steam for Windows. It plays wallpapers from its Steam Workshop, which include videos, animated scenes, web pages and applications, and it has an editor for building your own.
Wallpaper Animator plays seamless video loops and still images as your wallpaper, on Windows and Linux. The wallpapers come from its community gallery, from its Studio, where you make your own with AI, or from your own files.
Where Wallpaper Engine is stronger
- Its Workshop library is much larger and covers far more styles and fandoms.
- More kinds of wallpaper. Scene, web and application wallpapers, and wallpapers that react to the mouse or to the music you play. Wallpaper Animator plays video loops and stills only.
- Its own editor, for people who want to build a wallpaper by hand.
- Your existing library. If you already own Wallpaper Engine and have Workshop subscriptions, nothing here replaces them.
Where Wallpaper Animator is different
- Make your own by describing it. In the Studio you describe a scene in a chat. It makes a picture, edits it when you ask (time of day, style, colors) and animates it into a seamless loop, usually in a few minutes. How it works
- Animate your own photo or artwork the same way.
- 10,000+ community wallpapers made in the app, ranked by how many people keep them.
- A native Linux app for KDE Plasma (including Steam Deck desktop mode), GNOME through XWayland, Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE, Hyprland and sway. Linux details
- Pictures shaped like your screen (Windows). Portrait and ultrawide monitors get new pictures made in their shape.
- A depth effect (Windows). Still wallpapers shift in 3D as you move the mouse.
- Offline playback. Downloaded wallpapers keep playing without a connection.
Side by side
| Wallpaper Animator | Wallpaper Engine | |
|---|---|---|
| Plays Wallpaper Engine / Workshop wallpapers | No | Yes |
| Wallpaper types | Video loops and still images | Video, scene, web and application wallpapers |
| Interactive or audio-reactive wallpapers | No | Yes, for wallpapers built that way |
| Making your own | AI Studio: describe a scene or import a picture, then animate it | Built-in editor |
| Official platforms | Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit Linux, SteamOS 3 | Windows (plus an Android companion app) |
| Price | $4.99 (US store), a one-time purchase on Steam; regional prices and sales vary. Optional energy packs | Paid app on Steam |
| AI creation | 100 energy a day, up to 100 saved; a picture costs 15, an animation 25 | – |
| Different wallpaper per monitor | Windows only | Yes |
| Pauses while a game covers the screen | Windows only | Yes |
Which should you pick?
Pick Wallpaper Engine if you want the Workshop library, interactive or audio-reactive wallpapers, or its editor, or if you already own it. On Linux, the community projects described on our Linux page can play some of its content.
Pick Wallpaper Animator if you want to turn a sentence or a photo into a living wallpaper of your own, browse a gallery of loops that other people chose to keep, or run a native app on Linux. You can look through the gallery before you buy.