Comparison

Marbles in a Jar vs Time’s Up!

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

Head to head
About

Marbles in a Jar

This app allows you to create a virtual marble jar to track progress, rewards, or habits. Customize jar and marble sizes, and enjoy realistic 3D physics for interactive play. It's a versatile tool for personal motivation or as a virtual swear jar.

Highlights
  • Virtual marble jar for tracking
  • Customizable jar and marble sizes
  • Realistic 3D physics
  • Interactive marble play
  • Progress tracking for rewards
  • Virtual swear jar functionality
Features
Read full description

PUT MARBLES IN A JAR: Use the marble jar to keep track of whatever you like, e.g when you do something good, feel good or deserve a boost by gradually building towards a reward! Break things down into small pieces and track your progress. Or use it as a virtual swear jar. The uses are limited only by your imagination. VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE MARBLE JAR: Marble jar reward system. Excellent for parents, teachers or families. Customizable jar sizes from five to one hundred marbles! Number and color of marbles is stored on the phone. LOSE YOUR MARBLES... AND GET THEM BACK AGAIN! Realistic 3D physics! Marbles respond to gravity. Play with the marbles and rattle them around in the jar! FREE! NO ADS! Fully functioning free app! Optional in app purchase to unlock choice of marble colors and support development. Preview music by audionautix.com.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Marbles in a Jar4 screens
Time’s Up!4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Time’s Up! at 4.6 against Marbles in a Jar's 3.5. Time’s Up! also leads on ratings volume (444 vs 6) and device support (5 vs 3). Marbles in a Jar's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 6 weeks) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.4). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Marbles in a Jar 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Time’s Up! holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Time’s Up! has 444 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Marbles in a Jar's written reviews are positive against 84% of Time’s Up!'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Marbles in a Jar ships an update every 4 days, Time’s Up! every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Marbles in a Jar versus Time’s Up!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarbles in a JarTime’s Up!
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (6 ratings)4.6 (444 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews84.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6444 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.4
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB60 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThomas ArefOverdesigned, LLC

Customer experience

Marbles in a Jar

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

Time’s Up!

All ratings435 ratings
Positive89.4%
Neutral3.9%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews121 reviews
Positive84.3%
Neutral6.6%
Negative9.1%

Bugs and requests

Marbles in a Jar

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

1 purchases

Marbles in a Jar

One-time1
  • Choose Marble Color$2.99
1 purchases

Time’s Up!

One-time1
  • Time’s Up! Unlimited$5.99

Questions

Is Marbles in a Jar free?
Marbles in a Jar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Time’s Up! free?
Time’s Up! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Marbles in a Jar or Time’s Up!?
Time’s Up! is rated higher. Marbles in a Jar averages 3.5 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Time’s Up! averages 4.6 from 444 ratings.
Do Marbles in a Jar or Time’s Up! have ads?
Neither Marbles in a Jar nor Time’s Up! shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Marbles in a Jar or Time’s Up!?
Marbles in a Jar ships an update every 4 days, and Time’s Up! every 6 weeks. Most recently, Marbles in a Jar was updated on October 24, 2026 and Time’s Up! on October 25, 2026.

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