Desktop pets for Mac: an honest look at what else is out there
We are not the only small character you can put on your Mac, and pretending otherwise would be silly. Here is what else exists, what it costs, and the honest answer to where My Dock Buddies sits — including the places where something else is the better pick for you.
| App | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop Mate | Free, characters sold as DLC | Characters that sit on your windows and play with the cursor. Apple silicon only, macOS 12+ |
| Desktop Goose | Name your own price, free to take | A goose that wanders the screen, steals your mouse and leaves muddy footprints |
| BongoCat | Free, open source | A cat that drums along with your keyboard and mouse. Universal Mac build |
| Shimeji | Free, open source | The classic sprite that clings to window edges. The original is Windows-only; Mac needs a fork |
| App Store pets | Mostly free with $0.99–$3.99 extras | Dozens of them: Dockitty, Pets Therapy, Wallpets, lil guy, Pico and more |
| Agent pets | Free, open source | Pixel pets that watch Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and react. clawd-on-desk, OpenPets, CATAI |
| My Dock Buddies | $5 a month, $20 a year or $50 once, buddies $9.99 each | Rigged 3D characters that live on the Dock, with activities, stories and moods |
Desktop Mate is the closest thing to us, and it is free
It puts a character on your desktop who plays with your cursor and reacts when you pat their head, and it makes its money selling more characters as add-ons rather than charging for the app. Two caveats worth knowing before you go: its Mac build requires Apple silicon, so an Intel Mac is out, and its characters sit on and around your windows rather than standing on the Dock. Its Steam reviews sit at around six in ten positive, which is a real mix of delight and complaint.
Desktop Goose is the funniest thing on this list
It is not really a companion, it is a prank that lives on your computer: the goose drags your mouse where it wants, drops muddy footprints across your desktop and shoves memes at you. It is pay-what-you-want, so it costs nothing if you want it to, it runs on Macs, and it is beloved — close to five stars across nearly two thousand ratings. If what you want is chaos rather than company, take the goose. We are not trying to compete with the goose.
BongoCat and Shimeji are the open-source classics
BongoCat is a cat that drums in time with your typing, free, MIT-licensed, and by some distance the most-starred project in this whole space; it ships proper Mac builds for both Apple silicon and Intel. Shimeji is the sprite many people remember clinging to the edges of their windows — but the original needs Java and runs on Windows only, so Mac users depend on community forks, and the most convenient Mac build we found was last released in 2022. Both are free. Neither is 3D, and neither is maintained on anybody’s schedule but their author’s.
The App Store shelf is large, cheap and mostly 2D
Search the Mac App Store and you will find dozens: Dockitty sits a pixel cat in the Dock, Pets Therapy offers dozens of small pixel animals, Wallpets, lil guy, Pico, Rebel Goose and more. Almost all are free with small in-app purchases, or cost a pound or two outright. If you want a cheap animated cat today, this is the shelf to browse, and we will not pretend otherwise.
The newest corner: pets that watch your coding agent
This is the fastest-moving part of the space, and the part closest to our own newest feature. clawd-on-desk is a pixel pet that watches Claude Code, Codex and Cursor and reacts to what they are doing; it is free, open source, installs on a Mac through Homebrew, and is easily the most popular thing of its kind. OpenPets does something similar with a plugin system for wiring in your own tools. CATAI is the one whose premise is nearest to ours: free, open source, and its pixel cats genuinely walk along the Dock, which almost nothing else does.
Those are good, and they are not the same thing
All three are 2D, all three are free, and each is very good at one job. Ours reacts to Claude Code and Codex too, but that is one feature among dozens rather than the whole product — the same buddy also takes breaks, tidies the desk, naps at night and plays longer stories, in 3D, from any angle. If a small sprite that shows what your agent is doing is exactly what you want, take one of theirs; it costs nothing and it does that job well.
So where do we fit?
One place, honestly: nobody else we could find is doing rigged 3D characters that stand on the Dock as a paid product. The free options are almost entirely 2D sprites or loops. Ours are built as 3D models with skeletons, dozens of activities, longer stories, eight moods, hands that hold their props, and they can follow along with what your Mac is doing. That is the difference you are paying for, and if it does not sound worth it, one of the free ones above will make you perfectly happy.
Where somebody else is the better answer
If you have an Intel Mac and want Desktop Mate, you cannot have it — but ours runs on Intel. If you want something free, take BongoCat or the goose. If you want fifty different pixel animals for three pounds, the App Store shelf beats us. And if you want a character that answers you in conversation, we do not do that at all. We would rather send you somewhere else than sell you the wrong thing.