GrowingUp Watcher vs Cross+Reference
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
GrowingUp Watcher
Track the exact age of loved ones, from children and partners to pets, down to the second. Visualize milestones with a photo mosaic and receive birthday reminders. Offers customizable widgets for home and lock screens.
- Exact age tracking (down to the second)
- Photo mosaic of loved ones
- Birthday countdowns and celebrations
- Home and Lock Screen widgets
- Customizable date tracking
- iPad support
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Kids grow up fast. GrowingUp shows exactly how old everyone you love is: your children, partner, parents, even your cat or dog. Down to the second. • Everyone in one photo mosaic. Touch and hold a tile to put the people who matter most first. • Open anyone full screen to see their age as one big milestone, such as 5 years, with a live ticker counting the rest to the second. • Add a time of birth for a newborn to follow the hours and minutes too. • Never miss a birthday: a countdown in the week before and a celebration on the day. • Home Screen widgets with full-bleed photos for up to six people, in small, medium and large sizes. • Lock Screen widgets: a ring that fills up towards the next birthday, age with days to go, or one line above the clock. • Edit names, dates and photos right where you see them. No photo? A colourful initial takes its place. • Count from any date, not just a birthday: how long since you quit smoking, went sober or moved in together. • Made for iPad too: the mosaic fills the screen, the photo sits beside the age, and there is an Extra Large widget, keyboard shortcuts and pointer support. • Light and dark appearance, VoiceOver, large text and iPhone Duo support. Private by design. There is no account and no ads. Names, birthdays, ages and photos stay on your device. Only anonymous usage statistics and crash reports are sent, to help fix problems faster.
Cross+Reference
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Cross+Reference is a new way to Study the Bible. Read+Research+WriteItDown The App focuses on having a selected verse. This Sync verse gives context to what you are reading. The Sync Verse updates the content in other panels allowing them to be updated in the context of the Verse. Are you a Diligent Seeker? Cross+Reference is designed to help both the novice and experience Bible Scholars in research and improving their understanding of scriptures. You may display content to fill from one to ten Panels. Each Panel contains any of several content types from Bible verses to Notes and Videos. The full list of Panels is listed below by category. The Panel layouts are highly customizable and may be saved and recalled for quick access. Automatically Sync your Study (collection of notes, videos, etc.) between iPhone and iPad. Key Concepts: - Reading - Using the sync verse (see above) gives the Cross+Reference user the ability to quickly lookup a person or location without going to another App or the Web to get the details. The cities and kings of Israel are very important to understanding the deep details of how and why certain things happened the way they did through out the Bible. Using a research tool like the built in Easton Dictionary allows you to get context for the people and places of the selected verse. Cross+Reference quickly looks up each word in the selected verse and displays the found entries in a list. Selecting an entries displays the details. Additionally, Naves and Thompson concordances give similar ability with their content. - When taking notes simply typing a Book:Chapter:Verse reference (1Sam:16:15 for example) highlights as a link that when tapped immediately updates the Primary Bible sync verse to that verse. These links can even be copied into other Applications such as Apple Notes and can be tapped on there and opened in Cross+Reference - The Study - A Cross+Reference Study is a user document that contains Notes, web pages, documents, Videos links and a variety of other content that relates to a specific Bible topic. Whether it is for a personal study, Bible Study notes or the outline for an upcoming sermon, Cross+Reference provides many of the tools to aid in reading and research. Loads of features with lots to explore With 14 different Panel Types (see panel help for details) Reading Panels Primary Bible Panel - the Bible version that updates the Sync verse. It has 3 variations - Primary Bible - Select the Header to select the Version, Book Chapter and verse - Alternate Bible - Same as Primary but displays two Bible version side by side - Verse Selection - Same as Primary but the Version, Book Chapter and verse overlay remains available while scrolling the Bible Standalone Bible - same as Primary Bible except it does not update the Sync Verse Reader Version - Chapter based instead of verse base. allows reading in a more traditional way Multiple Bible Version - Allows displaying a the current Sync verse for Bible Version available Favorite - Create and maintain favorite verses for easily recalling the verse text. Research Panels Chapter Overview - provides a short write up for quick access to the major events and topics in a chapter. Based on the Westminster Reference Bible summaries. Search - Detailed search for finding specific word searches topics within the Bible. Also provides a convenient Web Search tab for searching the Web for a topic. Verses Reference - See all the text related to the sync verse Easton Dictionary Thompson Topics Naves Topical Concordance WriteItDown Panels Tag Bookmarks - Tag verses and research tools search terms for a Study Notes - with Bible verse link detection Notations - Notes Notation - Note taking - Bible Link Notation - A verse - Image with Note Notation - Web Notation - Web page - Document Notations - PDF, Office, iWork Docs, and other doc types - Video Notations - YouTube Video Links, Web Video URLs, video files from Photos and Files
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: GrowingUp Watcher at every 3 weeks against Cross+Reference's every 5 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.
GrowingUp Watcher ships an update every 3 weeks, Cross+Reference every 5 months. Both last shipped on November 7, 2026.
| Parameter | GrowingUp Watcher | Cross+Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (9 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.1 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 153 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Danis Ziganshin | Odeon Software Inc. |
In-app purchases
GrowingUp Watcher
No in-app purchases
Cross+Reference
No in-app purchases





