Comparison

Cal Countdown vs Funnel

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

"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.

About

Funnel

Quickly capture thoughts, tasks, notes, photos, sketches, and songs to your favorite apps. Integrates with popular productivity tools and offers convenient widgets for instant access.

Highlights
  • Capture tasks to multiple to-do apps
  • Send notes and photos to PKM apps
  • Capture sketches and calendar events
  • Home Screen and Lock Screen Widgets
  • Shortcuts and Share Sheet support
  • Built-in document scanner
  • Song capture via Shazam integration
Features
Read full description

Funnel allows you to effortlessly capture your thoughts and moments to various apps and services. The inspiration to capture something quickly comes from ideas written by David Allen, in his book Getting Things Done. Features: ======= • Capture tasks to Reminders, Todoist, OmniFocus or Things with due dates in natural language. • Capture notes and photos to a variety of popular note taking and personal knowledge management apps. • Capture sketches and calendar events • Beautiful Home Screen and Lock Screen Widgets • Shortcuts Support • A built in document scanner. • Use Shazam to capture your songs directly to your apps. • iCloud Sync for your Destinations • A timeline showing your recent captures • A selection of delightful app icons to pick from. • A lock screen widget to easily access Funnel from your lock screen. • Drag and drop images or text from other apps into Funnel. • Once you capture something with Funnel, Funnel also provides you with a link to easily switch to the newly captured item. • Long press the Funnel icon for quick home screen actions. • Integration with the iOS Share Sheet (currently within the Funnel app only) • Dynamic Island/Live Activities Support • Control Center Widgets Creating Destinations: ================ To link Funnel to your note-taking or task management apps, navigate to the 'Destination' Tab, select 'Add New Destination', and choose an app from the provided list. After adding a Destination, you can click on it for further customization. You can also define templates that get appended or prepended along with your capture. Your Destinations and the order of your Destinations are all synced to your private iCloud account. Funnel offers 30 captures for free, and then requires a subscription or a lifetime purchase. All Yearly Subscriptions come with a 1-week free trial. Enjoy Funneling! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Cal Countdown4 screens
Funnel4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cal Countdown at none against Funnel's 4. Cal Countdown also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (95% vs 80%). Funnel's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, 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. Funnel sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Cal Countdown asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cal Countdown holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 43 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 95% of Cal Countdown's written reviews are positive against 80% of Funnel's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cal Countdown ships an update every 3 months, Funnel every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and July 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Cal Countdown versus Funnel: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCal CountdownFunnel
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (21 ratings) — better4.6 (43 ratings)
Positive reviews94.7% of reviews — better80.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2143 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB36 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperFranck ReyhermeNoteSight Labs ApS

Customer experience

Cal Countdown

All ratings22 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive94.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.3%

Funnel

All ratings43 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral2.3%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative16.0%

In-app purchases

None

Cal Countdown

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Funnel

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime: Early Discount$39.99
  • Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Cal Countdown free?
Cal Countdown is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Funnel free?
Funnel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Cal Countdown or Funnel?
Cal Countdown is rated higher. Cal Countdown averages 5.0 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Funnel averages 4.6 from 43 ratings.
Do Cal Countdown or Funnel have ads?
Neither Cal Countdown nor Funnel shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cal Countdown or Funnel?
Cal Countdown ships an update every 3 months, and Funnel every 6 weeks. Most recently, Cal Countdown was updated on September 19, 2026 and Funnel on July 11, 2026.

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