Pool Clock vs Tide
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pool Clock
This app simulates a traditional swimming pace clock for interval training. It helps swimmers track intervals, set preparation times, and manage repetitions. Features include an optional digital clock and sound alerts.
- Interval training timer
- Customizable interval repetitions
- Preparation time setting
- Optional digital clock display
- Countdown beep sound
- Screen stays on during use
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Pool Clock is designed for interval-based training during swimming exercise. This app simply reproduces the traditional analog swimming pace clock found on the pool deck. By placing your device or a TV monitor connected to the device at the poolside, you can start swimming workouts wherever you are. Be careful to keep your electronic device waterproof when use it poolside. *** Interval *** With the interval function, you can easily track the interval on the pace clock. Once you set the Interval Time, Iteration (the number of interval repetitions), and Preparation time (time before the first start), a small triangle appears on the outside of the dial of the clock to indicate the next start time. *** Digital Clock *** The digital clock can be displayed or hidden using the ON/OFF button in the menu. The digital clock displays the current time of the device. You can choose between 12-hour or 24-hour display. *** Sound *** You can turn on/off the countdown beep sound in the menu. *** Notice *** This app prevents the screen from turning off while it is open.
Tide
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Tide is a breathing timer that opens ready to go, and lets you set anything you like. Resonance — even in, even out, no holding. The calm baseline. 4-7-8 — in for four, hold for seven, out for eight. A strong downshift. Box — equal on all four sides. Steady and level. Extended exhale — out for longer than in. Wim Hof — thirty deep breaths, then holding on a full one, over several rounds. Sit — nothing paced and nothing counted, for when you want no instruction. YOUR OWN PATTERN Set the inhale, the hold, the exhale and the second hold to any whole number of seconds you want, and it becomes a protocol like any other — same figure, same tone, same timer. Several of the best-known breathing apps put their patterns behind a subscription. These are decades-old public techniques with numbers for names. Nothing here is behind anything. WIM HOF, HANDLED PROPERLY Most breathing apps stop at box and 4-7-8. Tide includes the Wim Hof method, and puts a safety note in front of it that you have to read: never in or near water, never while driving, sit or lie down first, stop whenever you want. It says plainly that the breathing will probably make you light-headed and tingly, and that some people faint. If you are pregnant, or have a heart condition, epilepsy or high blood pressure, it tells you to speak to a doctor. WHAT EACH ONE DOES A Practice tab explains the mechanism behind every protocol — why a long exhale does the work in 4-7-8, why around six breaths a minute is where heart rate and breath fall into step. It describes what happens physiologically. It does not promise you an outcome, because nobody can. THE FIGURE You follow a figure of nine strata of light that rises as you breathe in and settles as you breathe out — not another expanding circle. You can run a session with your eyes shut and follow the sound alone. SOUND An optional guide tone marks each phase, and three field recordings can play underneath: rain, waves, and an open hearth. A struck singing bowl marks the couple of moments in a session that earn one. All are public-domain recordings, bundled with the app, with their provenance recorded in the app itself. QUIET BY DESIGN There is no streak to break, no notification telling you that you missed a session, and no library to work through. A session ends and closes rather than selling you the next one. Everything runs on the device, with no account and no connection required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Tide at Free against Pool Clock's $0.99. Tide also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 25 months). Pool Clock's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On 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
Tide is free to download; Pool Clock costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pool Clock ships an update every 25 months, Tide every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pool Clock | Tide |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 25 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sohta Itoh | Alexander Olsen |
In-app purchases
Pool Clock
No in-app purchases
Tide
No in-app purchases









