Comparison

Countdown 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

Countdown

Easily track important dates and events with a customizable countdown timer. Set reminders, organize events with tags, and view upcoming dates on your home screen or Apple Watch. Syncs across devices and offers various counting options.

Highlights
  • Customizable countdown timer
  • Event reminders
  • Home screen widgets
  • Apple Watch support
  • Event sharing
  • iCloud sync
  • Repeatable countdowns
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Countdown is a free, super easy to use countdown timer and reminder for the important events & dates in your life. Features: • Check your events on the Lock Screen with our widget (Premium feature) • Glance at your events on your Apple Watch • Glance at your events using our widget in StandBy (Premium feature) • Place our Widget anywhere on your Home Screen to view your most important events (Premium feature) • Share your countdowns with friends and family • Auto Import (Premium): Connect your calendars to Countdown and automatically add new events. • Pick any color you'd like for your countdown background • In addition to receiving a notification when it is time for your event, you can receive reminders 1 day before or 1 week before the event. • Choose the format in which you want to see your countdown (Premium feature) • Create as many events as you'd like • Count up from past events (available on each countdown page) • Sync your events across your devices with iCloud • Set your countdowns to repeat yearly, monthly, weekly or daily • Sort your events from the closest to the most distant • Dark Mode • Add notes to your events • Count only working days • Have many events? Organize them with tags Add as many events as you want: Vacation, Birthday, Holiday, Party, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Cruise, Valentines, Wedding, Anniversary, Birth, Baby, Graduation, Pregnancy, Trip, New Home, Retirement, Game, Goals, Concert and many more. ——— QUESTIONS OR FEEDBACK? ——— We love hearing from you and we read every single email you send us! Have suggestions? Feel free to contact us at countdown@findappiness.co

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

Countdown4 screens
Time’s Up!4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Time’s Up! at none against Countdown's shown. Time’s Up! also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 72%) and device support (5 vs 3). Countdown's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (186K vs 435). On price, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Countdown sells 3 one-off in-app purchases 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

Countdown holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown has 186K ratings behind it against 435, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 72% of Countdown's written reviews are positive against 84% of Time’s Up!'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown ships an update every 4 days, Time’s Up! every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Countdown versus Time’s Up!: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdownTime’s Up!
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (186K ratings) — better4.6 (435 ratings)
Positive reviews71.9% of reviews84.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings186K — better435
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#32 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS17.015.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB60 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFind Appiness LLCOverdesigned, LLC

Customer experience

Countdown

All ratings186,316 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral2.1%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews2,474 reviews
Positive71.9%
Neutral5.7%
Negative22.3%

Time’s Up!

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

User reviews

Countdown

From 186K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Customizable colors and emojis
  • ⏰ Accurate countdown tracking
  • 🔔 Helpful reminders and notifications
  • 💰 One-time payment for premium features

Room to improve

  • 💸 Paid widget feature
  • 🔍 Lack of instructions/guidance
  • 🔀 Inconsistent countdown display on widget
  • 📅 Limited repeat options for events
  • 🖼️ No option to use custom photos

Time’s Up!

From 435 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helps with time blindness
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive UI
  • 👍 Customizable timer settings
  • 👍 Useful for ADHD and autism
  • 👍 Great for classrooms and kids

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and performance issues
  • 🔒 Paywall after limited free usage
  • 🔒 Lack of flexibility in timer settings
  • 🔒 Cannot move timer window freely

Bugs and requests

Countdown

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Widget not updating automatically
  • Countdown display issues after iOS 14 update
  • Inability to delete archived events

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to count up from past events
  • Provide more date/time format options
  • Implement calendar view for all events
  • Allow custom backgrounds for widgets
  • Add support for weekly/monthly repeating events

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

3 purchases

Countdown

One-time3
  • Start 7-Day Free TrialFree
  • Countdown Widget Offer$3.99
  • Countdown Widget$6.99
1 purchases

Time’s Up!

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

Questions

Is Countdown free?
Countdown 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, Countdown or Time’s Up!?
Countdown is rated higher. Countdown averages 4.8 out of 5 from 186K ratings, while Time’s Up! averages 4.6 from 435 ratings.
Do Countdown or Time’s Up! have ads?
Countdown shows ads; Time’s Up! does not.
Which is updated more often, Countdown or Time’s Up!?
Countdown ships an update every 4 days, and Time’s Up! every 6 weeks. Most recently, Countdown was updated on September 24, 2026 and Time’s Up! on September 23, 2026.

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