Cal Countdown vs TimeDraw
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cal Countdown
This app automatically displays a color-coded countdown to your next calendar event. It's designed for quick glances on your Apple Watch face or iPhone "Today" screen, helping you manage your schedule efficiently without manual calculations.
- Automatic countdown to next calendar event
- Color-coded urgency indicators
- Apple Watch complication support
- iPhone "Today" widget
- Calendar data integration
- Option to skip specific events
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"Cal Countdown" is a free, simple iOS & Apple Watch app that automatically creates a color-coded countdown to the next event on your calendar and displays it on your Apple Watch face and/or your "Today" screen. The app is primarily intended to be used as a complication on your Apple Watch or as a widget. If your days are anything like ours, packed with various meetings scattered throughout the day, every time you check your calendar, you're trying to figure out one thing: How much time do I have until my next appointment? So, you glance at your watch, note the start time of your next appointment, and calculate the difference between the current time and your next event. We got tired of doing this mental calculation many times a day, but much to our surprise, we could not find an existing iOS application that would do this chore for us. So we decided to build it ourselves. Now, every time we glance at our watch, it immediately tells us what we want to know: How much time do I have until my next appointment? The app's color changes from blue to green to yellow to orange to red as you approach the start of your next event. (6+ hours = Blue, 2-6 hours = Green, 1-2 = Yellow, 30-60 mins = Orange, 0-30 mins = Red) Cal Countdown supports all the different Apple Watch complications. All Apple Watch complications that support multi-color will be color-coded (but not all watch complications support multiple colors.) Using "Cal Countdown" is as easy as it gets. It uses the calendar data already on your phone; no signing in; no entering any usernames or passwords. The app lets you select the calendars you want to include or not in your calendar countdowns. Don't have an Apple Watch? You can still use Cal Countdown on your phone as an iPhone/iPad app with a "Today" widget. Cal Countdown does not require an account. It does not even require an internet connection. The app uses the calendar data already on your iPhone. It's completely secure. Your calendar data remains completely private, and never leaves your phone. Cal Countdown also has the ability to ignore or skip certain events on your calendar. This feature is especially useful if you have shared calendars with your family, friends, or colleagues. We often have events on our calendars that we need to know about, but may not be attending ourselves. If you want Cal Countdown to ignore or skip these events and start counting down to the following event on your calendar, just tap the "Ignore" button, and Cal Countdown will immediately start a countdown to the following event.
TimeDraw
This app transforms your calendar and reminders into a visual clockface, making your schedule easy to understand at a glance. Create and customize events with notes and recurrences directly from the main screen.
- Clockface schedule visualization
- Easy event and reminder creation
- Customizable display options
- Smart recurrence and notes
- Clean, modern interface
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Visualize your time. TimeDraw transforms your calendar and reminders into an intuitive clockface display. Instantly understand your schedule at a glance. Events and reminders before noon are displayed as lines inside the clock, while those after noon appear outside. It’s a whole new way to understand your time. Key Features - Clockface Visualization: See all your events and reminders mapped onto an analog clock. Instantly spot your free time and busy hours. - Easy Event & Reminder Creation: Add new events or reminders right from the main screen. Set recurrences, add notes, choose custom calendars, and more—all in a few taps. - Customizable Experience: Open the settings page to personalize TimeDraw to fit your workflow. Choose which calendars to display, adjust visual preferences, and make the app truly yours. - Smart Recurrence & Notes: Support for recurring events and reminders, with the ability to add detailed notes for every item. See your day in a new way. Download TimeDraw and visualize your time!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cal Countdown at 5.0 against TimeDraw's 4.4. Cal Countdown also leads on ratings volume (21 vs 5) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). TimeDraw's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Cal Countdown holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 95% of Cal Countdown's written reviews are positive against 100% of TimeDraw's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Cal Countdown ships an update every 3 months, TimeDraw monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and August 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cal Countdown | TimeDraw |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (21 ratings) — better | 4.4 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 94.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Franck Reyherme | Michael Ellis |
Customer experience
Cal Countdown
TimeDraw
In-app purchases
Cal Countdown
No in-app purchases
TimeDraw
No in-app purchases









