Pure Countdown vs Time’s Up!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pure Countdown
A simple and minimalist countdown timer designed for games and quizzes. Easily set timers with a clean interface. Ideal for situations where precise timing is crucial.
- Minimalistic design
- Easy to use
- Countdown timer
- Game timer
- Quiz timer
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Easy to use countdown timer with minimalistic design. Perfect for quiz or board games where time does matter.
Time’s Up!
This app offers a fun and engaging way to track time with visually appealing countdowns. It's perfect for managing tasks, study sessions, or bedtime routines for both children and adults. Choose from unique visual styles or traditional clocks, and customize alerts for a personalized experience.
- Visual countdown styles (Reveal, Pixelate, Puzzle)
- Customizable alert sounds and colors
- iCloud timer syncing across devices
- Live Activities for Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
- Guided Access for child lock
- AirPlay and tvOS support for TV display
- Minute-by-minute audio updates
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Time’s Up! is a fun, visual timer that you’ll actually want to use. Whether it’s for you, your kids, or someone else, Time’s Up! will make counting down much more engaging. Timers can be used at work and at home, whether you’re making sure you take a break or telling kids it’s bedtime. Timers exist everywhere, but none of them are fun and visually appealing — and that can be important when you’re dealing with kids big and small! Time’s Up! has the features you need to make time fun again — try it for free, NO ADS. Time’s Up! isn’t just for kids and workaholics, though. The possibilities are endless: • Adults who need to set timers to stop them from working for too long without a break. • Kids who don’t want to do their homework but can be convinced to work in smaller chunks. • Setting reading or other activity timers before bed time. • Helping bigger kids focus on an activity for a set amount of time. • Setting timers for exercises — put Time’s Up! on your TV screen using AirPlay and turn a timer into the focal point for your exercise group. • Anything that’s based on a specific amount of time! What makes a timer fun? Time’s Up! has 5 fun styles to choose from, including: • “Reveal” a photo from your Photo Library as the seconds tick down. • “Pixelate” makes a photo more clear as a timer gets closer to completion. • “Puzzle” breaks a photo into jigsaw puzzle pieces and then puts the pieces into their places as time progresses. Alternatively, there are more traditional clock faces if you just want a simple timer. Timers can be customized with their own alert sound and color, too. Other key features include: • Sync your timers between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV using iCloud. • See your timers on your Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Apple Watch with Live Activities (requires iOS 18). • Guided Access to prevent kids from switching apps and changing timers, making sure only you have the power to control time. • Airplay and tvOS support so you can put a timer up on a TV screen. • Get audio updates each minute or countdown the last 10 seconds. • On macOS, you can float the timer window above other apps so it’s always visible. Time’s Up! is a free download with a trial limit of five countdowns. After that, there is a small one-time purchase that unlocks the app on all your devices, forever. ——————— What’s the difference between “Time’s Up! — Visual Timer” and “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)”? You are looking at the free-to-download version of Time’s Up! that lets you try the app five times before upgrading via in-app purchase. “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)” is the same app but available paid-upfront with no limits in the app itself. “Time’s Up! Timer (VPP)” exists so educators can purchase the app through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP) for Education. ——————— Time’s Up! has no ads or data trackers. We believe your data is your own and we don’t collect any of it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pure Countdown at 5.0 against Time’s Up!'s 4.6. Pure Countdown also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 6 weeks). Time’s Up!'s advantage is ratings volume (435 vs 1) and device support (5 vs 3). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Pure Countdown sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Time’s Up! sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Pure Countdown holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Time’s Up! has 435 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Pure Countdown ships an update every 9 days, Time’s Up! every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 17, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pure Countdown | Time’s Up! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.6 (435 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 84.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 435 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tomasz Powalka | Overdesigned, LLC |
Customer experience
Pure Countdown
Time’s Up!
Bugs and requests
Pure Countdown
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Time’s Up!
Reported bugs
3 issues- Hotkey functionality broken after update
- Timer not working after app update
- No sound at the end of timer
Requested features
5 requests- Allow longer timer durations
- Add ability to set multiple timers
- Improve customization options
- Provide more sound/alert options
- Add child-proof timer lock feature
In-app purchases
Pure Countdown
- Remove Ads from Pure Countdown$0.99
Time’s Up!
- Time’s Up! Unlimited$5.99
Questions
Is Pure Countdown free?
Is Time’s Up! free?
Which has better reviews, Pure Countdown or Time’s Up!?
Do Pure Countdown or Time’s Up! have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pure Countdown or Time’s Up!?
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