Comparison

Cuckoo Timer vs BlockyTime Lite

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

Head to head
About

Cuckoo Timer

This app helps you manage tasks and cultivate skills by tracking time spent on each activity. It links tasks to specific skills, allowing you to visualize your progress towards mastery and achieve your 10,000-hour goals.

Highlights
  • Classical time tracking for tasks
  • Task management with skill attribution
  • Skill cultivation progress visualization
  • Daily beautiful background pictures
  • Full-screen focus mode
  • Task priority setting
  • iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Task management combined with 10,000 hours rule. It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in a field. We work not just for work, we complete our tasks not just for tasks themselves. In fact, what we want are SKILLS! Every task completed should end up with a better SKILL. ***What Cuckoo Can Do For You*** 1. Classical Time Tracking: Track time spent for every task you created. 2. Task Management: Shake your device to quickly add new Tasks, attribute your Task to a certain Skill that you want to cultivate. 3. Skill Cultivation: Tasks are for improving your skills. You can link multiple Tasks to one Skill, and time spent on those tasks will be summed as the total time of the Skill. So that you can see clearly how your skills grow towards 10,000 hours. ***More Features*** 1. A new beautiful background picture everyday; 2. Full-screen focus mode to focus on your work; 3. Advanced features such as task priority setting, iCloud sync. Privacy Policy & Use of Terms Link:https://cuckoo2017.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/布谷布谷隐私政策/

About

BlockyTime Lite

Effortlessly log your time without manual start/stop. Categorize events, add comments, and visualize your time usage with insightful charts. Set goals and back up your data to improve productivity.

Highlights
  • Rapid time tracking by blocks
  • Custom event classification
  • Event and object linking
  • Detailed event comments
  • Pie and bar chart statistics
  • Line chart trend analysis
  • Goal setting
  • iCloud data backup
Features
Read full description

BlockyTime, A simple time logger no need to tap Start/Stop. ### App Store Featured of 2016 in China & HongKong ### ### Top 10 Productivity apps in China ### Everybody has his own demand on tracking time, but most people can't persist on it for long time because the traditional time-tracking App is way too professional, and it costs too much energy to use a stopwatch. BlockyTime is very different from traditional time-tracking App, it never needs to tap "Start/Stop". Months of research of users experience made us to work out a better tracking method which is more suitable for people's thinking. No worries to forget to start or stop stopwatch, just take a few seconds in leisure time, like playing game, select, tap, a whole day is tracked. When tracking time no longer has pressure but becomes relaxing, it solves the persistence problem easily. Even people don't has huge perseverance can be good at time management. [Features] • Super easy and rapid method to track time spending on every event • Custom classification of event Not only by event type (eg. work, rest), but also by specific details (eg. Game, music), also by priorities (such as four quadrants) • Unique link of event and object, analyze event from different angle • Comment, record details of event like writing a diary • Statistics, analyze time occupation by pie or bar chart • Trend, check and compare events time spending in line chart by day or month • Goal, such as reach 10000h in 5 years on drawing • Backup data to iCloud or computer, never lose it • Selected color themes, and colorblind mode is added [Suitable for] • Students Track time spending on subjects, analyze it and make a better study plan • Researchers Track time spending on research, analyze and make a more efficient research plan • Managers Who have many projects to do and needs to know time spending on every project • People with part-time jobs Track time on every work and analyze earnings • Salespeople Record time and frequency of contacting clients • New moms and dads Get to know baby's regular life and make a plan to rest • People haven't know the value of time Keep tracking time for a while, the statistics will shock you • People want to analyze time and make him better • People want to know what costs time • People are not satisfied with current situation, want to learn how to manage time and improve himself [Q & A] Q: Why named "BlockyTime"? A: Though time is continuous, for rapid tracking, we separate time into blocks by half an hour at the expense of accuracy. This period not only meets the need of statistics, but also is convenient for people to remember event. Q: Why make 30 minutes a block? This is not accurate. A: Statistics is meaningful only when people persist for a long time. Look at statistics in week or month, 30 minutes a blocks hardly make negative effects on analysis. Compared to spending more energy to make it accurate, track time quicker, take advantage of saved time on other things makes it better. Q: I have OCD, inaccuracy makes me uncomfortable. A: Just stand back and think about it, if you pursue the accuracy, after every time of record, should you add an event called "Tracking time"? Then it takes some time to track this one, so you have to record again, and then, endless loop… Never spend much time on tracking time, this is truly using time effectively. [Users' comments] “The most time-saving tool ever” “It makes me not to spend time on recording, reveals the essence of tracking. I must rate this truly efficient app” “One of my favourite time management/tracking apps!” “Very easy to use and intuitive” “Easiest time tracking tool I ever used” “Milestone app of time tracking” -- zhihu.com If you like this app, just take one minute to rate it, we'll appreciate it! [Contact me] Got some ideas in your mind? Let’s get in touch! Say hello to hi@anniapp.com

Screenshots

Cuckoo Timer4 screens
BlockyTime Lite4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BlockyTime Lite at none against Cuckoo Timer's 1. BlockyTime Lite also leads on review sentiment (89% vs 71%) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 13.4). Cuckoo Timer's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 4 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Cuckoo Timer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BlockyTime Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Cuckoo Timer against 4.8 for BlockyTime Lite. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 319 and 374 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Cuckoo Timer's written reviews are positive against 89% of BlockyTime Lite's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cuckoo Timer ships an update every 4 days, BlockyTime Lite every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Cuckoo Timer versus BlockyTime Lite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCuckoo TimerBlockyTime Lite
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (319 ratings)4.8 (374 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.1% of reviews88.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings319374 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.410.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGuangzhou Xiaorichang Technology Co., Ltd.妮 安

Customer experience

Cuckoo Timer

All ratings319 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral3.8%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews135 reviews
Positive71.1%
Neutral10.4%
Negative18.5%

BlockyTime Lite

All ratings374 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral2.9%
Negative1.6%
Written reviews169 reviews
Positive88.8%
Neutral6.5%
Negative4.7%

User reviews

Cuckoo Timer

From 319 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Clean, minimalist, and beautiful interface design
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive to use
  • ⏱️ Effective Pomodoro timer functionality
  • 💡 Innovative 10,000 hours tracking concept
  • 🎵 Calm and soothing audio experience

Room to improve

  • 🌐 Incomplete English translation throughout app
  • 🐛 Language setting doesn't fully apply to all text
  • 🔧 Multiple bugs on Mac M1 devices
  • ⏸️ Timer stops when phone is locked
  • 🎵 Music cannot be disabled (only 4 preset options)

BlockyTime Lite

From 374 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and intuitive user interface
  • 🎨 Beautiful, minimalist design with customizable colors
  • ⚡ Fast and lightweight app
  • 🆓 Free with no ads or paywalls
  • 📊 Effective time tracking and visualization

Room to improve

  • 🕐 24-hour military time format only (no 12-hour AM/PM option)
  • 📱 iPad app doesn't support landscape orientation
  • 🔄 No cross-device synchronization
  • ⚙️ Reminder notification prompts appear too frequently
  • 🐛 Home screen icons cannot be removed

Bugs and requests

Cuckoo Timer

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Skill recording time sync issue with manually uploaded tasks
  • Timer freezes and requires manual time entry
  • Language setting reverts to Japanese unexpectedly
  • Data loss after app update
  • Skills option disappeared after update
Show 4 more
  • Notification sound doesn't work when muted
  • Manually entered tasks don't appear in daily reports
  • iPad text cutoff and layout issues
  • Music interruption during timer countdown

Requested features

12 requests
  • Complete English translation for all UI elements
  • Customizable number of tasks per Pomodoro session
  • Widget support for home screen
  • Focus mode that discards time if app is switched
  • Task deadline reminder notifications
Show 7 more
  • Daily recurring task functionality
  • Time-block calendar view showing task allocation
  • Ability to toggle/mute notification sounds
  • Mac version of the app
  • Undo/delete functionality for completed tasks
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • Badge notifications for pending tasks

BlockyTime Lite

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Home screen icons cannot be removed after deletion
  • M1 Mac version fails to open
  • Reminder notifications cannot be disabled without clicking 'nope' repeatedly
  • App does not work beyond 2024 (year limitation)

Requested features

20 requests
  • 12-hour time format (AM/PM) option
  • iPad landscape orientation support
  • Cross-device iCloud synchronization
  • Home screen widget
  • Smaller time block options (5, 10, 15 minutes)
Show 15 more
  • Data export to Excel/CSV
  • Google Calendar integration
  • Apple Watch support
  • Customizable day reset time
  • Recurring/template time blocks for daily routines
  • Ability to disable reminder notifications by default
  • macOS and Windows desktop versions
  • Android version
  • Weekly view with all days visible
  • Multiple activities per time block
  • Custom icons or labels for activities
  • Statistics and trend analysis improvements
  • Drag-and-drop functionality for time blocks
  • Activity grouping/categorization
  • Landscape mode for iPad

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Cuckoo Timer

One-time1
  • Pro Account$1.99
None

BlockyTime Lite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cuckoo Timer free?
Cuckoo Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BlockyTime Lite free?
BlockyTime Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Cuckoo Timer or BlockyTime Lite?
BlockyTime Lite is rated higher. Cuckoo Timer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 319 ratings, while BlockyTime Lite averages 4.8 from 374 ratings.
Do Cuckoo Timer or BlockyTime Lite have ads?
Neither Cuckoo Timer nor BlockyTime Lite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cuckoo Timer or BlockyTime Lite?
Cuckoo Timer ships an update every 4 days, and BlockyTime Lite every 4 weeks. Most recently, Cuckoo Timer was updated on October 12, 2026 and BlockyTime Lite on October 2, 2026.

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