Comparison

Binary O'Clock vs Needless Clock

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Binary O'Clock

Features
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There are only 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't. Binary O'Clock is a glowing binary clock for your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Six columns of LEDs show the time as hours, minutes and seconds, ticking away in ones and zeros. HOW TO READ IT Each column is one digit of the time: HH MM SS. Read each column from the bottom up. The LEDs are worth 1, 2, 4 and 8, so add up the ones that are lit to get the digit. For example, a column with the 2 and 4 LEDs lit shows 6. FEATURES • Full-screen 24-hour clock with hours, minutes and seconds • Widgets for the Home Screen, Lock Screen and StandBy • An Apple Watch app, and complications for your watch face • Keeps the screen on while the clock is showing • No ads, no accounts, no data collected BINARY O'CLOCK PRO Tap the clock to open Settings, and try any of it first: a live preview shows your clock before you buy. A one-time purchase unlocks, on Apple TV, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch alike: • Themes: White, Aviation green, and Dust, with dark dots on sand • Round LEDs • Learning mode: shows what each LED is worth and the number in each column • 12-hour time • A speaking clock: touch and hold the clock to hear "14:32 and 20 seconds", then a beep exactly on the second No subscription. The classic blue clock stays free, widgets and complications included. Also on Apple TV and Mac. Perfect on the nightstand in StandBy, on your wrist, or as a daily brain teaser for anyone learning binary.

About

Needless Clock

This app offers a collection of living, animated clocks that display time through unique visual narratives. Interact with the scenes to alter elements and enjoy a calming visual experience that goes beyond simple timekeeping.

Highlights
  • Living, animated clock designs
  • Interactive visual elements
  • Customizable clock scenes
  • Scheduled display dimming
  • Short clock film creation
  • No ads or third-party tracking
Features
Read full description

People do not open Needless Clock merely to find out the time. More often, they want the glowing screen beside them to grow quiet without becoming empty: something to glance at between tasks, a little light at night, time passing without hurrying anyone along. Needless Clock is a collection of living, animated clocks. They all keep the same real time, but each inhabits a world of its own. Fish turn through water, birds arrive from far away, ants hurry under the weight of a treat, cars follow the painted lines of a car park, and a brush writes numerals in water. At the turn of a minute the picture wakes; once everything has found its place, only small movements, wings, shadows and breathing remain. TIME HAS THIRTEEN PLACES TO GO Fish gather into figures. Touch the water and those nearby scatter, then swim home along their own curved paths. Birds perch on five wires. Some leave at the next minute, others find a new place, and now and then a distant bird crosses the clouds. Tap once and the sky sinks beneath the sea, the flock becoming fish of different forms. Ants carry biscuits, rock sugar, dried fish, winter-melon candy and leaves. Cars pull into bays. Metal blocks fall one by one. These digits are not displayed; they are made. Lotus Pond, Starry Night and Auspicious Cranes share one frame: brushstrokes paint the time across the water, and cranes fly out of the painting to form the figures. White sand crabs climb out of their burrows and line up as figures, while a few red crabs wander the beach, slipping into a burrow or strolling past. Water runs from a brush onto stone and disappears first from the finest ends of the strokes. Oracle bone, bronze, seal and clerical scripts sit beside the hands of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing and Huang Tingjian, letting one numeral travel through centuries. A gnomon casts its shadow among the twelve Earthly Branches, its length changing through the twenty-four solar terms. There is also a wall of cooperating clock faces, a luminous word clock, figures revealed by paper and shadow, and mechanical flaps that fall like those once heard in stations and airports. GOOD JUST LEFT THERE Swipe to move between clocks. Tap to change a material, colour or world. Or choose a few favourites and let them rotate by themselves, from every minute to every hour. At night the display can dim on your schedule. Keep the screen awake, or hide the title, date and time zone until only time remains. It belongs on an iPhone stand, across an iPad, beside a Mac workspace, or spread quietly over the television in a living room. A MOMENT YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU On supported devices, Share waits for the next minute. It keeps the stillness before the change and stops after the movement has come to rest, making a short clock film to save or send. No account, no advertising and no third-party tracking. The clocks and their calculations stay on the device. Location is off by default and, if enabled, is used only to let the car park grow dark near your own sunset. Supports Reduce Motion and VoiceOver. Made for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. All clocks now support portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad, including upside-down portrait. May it do more than tell the time. May it keep the time with you for a while.

Screenshots

Binary O'Clock4 screens
Needless Clock4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Needless Clock at every 4 days against Binary O'Clock's every 3 weeks. Needless Clock also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Binary O'Clock ships an update every 3 weeks, Needless Clock every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Binary O'Clock versus Needless Clock: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBinary O'ClockNeedless Clock
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBackslashed路 林

In-app purchases

None

Binary O'Clock

No in-app purchases

None

Needless Clock

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Binary O'Clock free?
Binary O'Clock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Needless Clock free?
Needless Clock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Binary O'Clock or Needless Clock have ads?
Neither Binary O'Clock nor Needless Clock shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Binary O'Clock or Needless Clock?
Binary O'Clock ships an update every 3 weeks, and Needless Clock every 4 days. Most recently, Binary O'Clock was updated on October 29, 2026 and Needless Clock on October 24, 2026.

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