Rainmeter vs Paul’s Dashboard.
Two free ways to put widgets on a Windows desktop, built on opposite philosophies. Rainmeter is a toolkit: infinitely skinnable, and you do the building. Paul’s Dashboard is an app: 83 widgets that work the moment they land on the board. Here is the difference, axis by axis, including the ones Rainmeter wins.
Free · Windows 10 and 11 · No account required
Which one is for you?
Get Rainmeter when
- You want pixel-level control over every element on the desktop
- You love the community skin scene and want to run or remix its work
- Memory footprint matters more to you than setup time
- Open source is a requirement
- Tinkering with config files is the fun part, not the obstacle
Get Paul’s Dashboard when
- You want a working board tonight, not a project
- You would rather change a setting than edit an .ini file
- Your widgets need live data, and your API keys deserve better than a text file
- You want native notifications when a todo comes due or a server goes down
- You want schedules, hotkeys and webhooks driving the board, not just showing on it
The whole comparison
Both columns written by the Paul’s Dashboard side, so read the left one as the steelman: where Rainmeter is better, it says so.
| Axis | Rainmeter | Paul’s Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price and license | Free, open source (GPL) | Free · no account, no subscription |
| First widget on screen | Install a skin suite, then edit .ini files to make it yours | Add Widget, drag it where you want |
| The catalogue | Thousands of community skins; quality and upkeep vary | 83 built-in widgets, one design language |
| Styling | Any pixel, if you write the config (and some Lua) | Settings panels · 20 themes, any Google Font, per-widget overrides |
| Live data | WebParser and plugins; keys pasted into text files | 17 services with 60 ready views, plus custom REST · keys in an encrypted store |
| Hardware monitoring | CPU and RAM built in; temperatures usually need a helper like HWiNFO | CPU, GPU, disk, network and temps out of the box |
| Notifications | None built in | Native Windows toasts, with quiet hours |
| Automation | Lua scripting inside a skin | Workflows: schedules, hotkeys, webhooks, clipboard triggers |
| AI | None | Optional and off by default · local via Ollama, or your own key |
| Memory footprint | Very light | Heavier (it is an Electron app); wants about 4 GB free |
| Learning curve | Steep, and the depth is the point | Minutes |
A toolkit, and an app
Rainmeter has earned fifteen years of loyalty by refusing to decide what your desktop should look like. A skin can be anything: an analog clock the size of the wallpaper, a launcher drawn as a constellation, a whole cockpit. The cost of that freedom is that somebody has to build it, and that somebody is you, in .ini files and occasionally Lua. For a lot of people the building is the hobby, and this page will not talk them out of it.
Paul’s Dashboard decides more so you do less. A widget is a finished thing with a settings panel; a theme restyles the whole board at once; two copies of the same widget can behave completely differently without either one touching a config file. The trade is real: you cannot redraw a widget from scratch here, and an Electron app will never sip memory the way a native one does.
The gap widens where a skin engine stops. Widgets here can hold credentials in an encrypted store and poll 17 services (60 ready-made views, or any REST endpoint you type in). Workflows run on schedules, hotkeys, webhooks and clipboard matches, whether the window is open or minimised to the tray. A todo coming due raises a native Windows toast. None of that is a skin’s job, and that is the actual line between the two: Rainmeter shows your desktop things, this one also does things.
Rainmeter questions, answered straight
Is Paul's Dashboard a Rainmeter alternative?
For putting useful widgets on a Windows desktop, yes: 83 widgets, 20 themes, live data from 17 services, workflows and native notifications, with no config files. For full desktop skinning artistry, Rainmeter remains the tool of choice.
Can it run Rainmeter skins?
No. They are different engines, and .ini skins do not transfer. Paul's Dashboard ships its own 83 widgets and styles them with themes rather than skins.
Which one is lighter on resources?
Rainmeter, and it is not close: it is a native app famous for sipping memory. Paul's Dashboard is an Electron app and trades some memory for settings UIs, integrations and workflows. On a machine with 4 GB free you will not feel it; on a very old machine, Rainmeter is the kinder choice.
Are both free?
Yes. Rainmeter is free and open source under the GPL. Paul's Dashboard is free with no account, no subscription and no paid tier.
Try the twenty-minute version tonight
One installer, 83 widgets, 20 themes. If it is not for you, Rainmeter will still be there, and it is also excellent.
Download for Windows