Comparison

MarkDays vs Big Day

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

Head to head
About

MarkDays

This tool helps you remember and count down to significant life events like anniversaries, birthdays, and important schedules. Receive timely reminders so you never miss a special occasion. Track both past and future important dates.

Highlights
  • Mark important life days
  • Count down to events
  • Track past events
  • Timely reminders
  • Anniversary tracking
  • Birthday reminders
Features
Read full description

Markdays is a small, focused tool for remembering the days that matter. Mark a birthday, an anniversary, an exam, a first meeting, or any date you do not want to lose. When the day comes, a timely reminder helps you notice it—not after it has already passed. For example: How many days until a birthday? How many days until the exam? How many days until the next wedding anniversary? How many days has the baby been in the world? How many days have we known each other? Every important day is worth keeping. DAYS REMAINING AND DAYS PASSED See how many days remain until the next marked day, or how many days have already passed. The list is sorted by closeness, so today, upcoming, and past events are easy to tell apart. GREGORIAN AND LUNAR CALENDARS Create an event on the Gregorian calendar or the Chinese lunar calendar. Lunar birthdays and traditional festivals can repeat on the calendar you actually use. In non-Chinese languages you can also choose a second calendar, such as Buddhist, Islamic, Hebrew, or Japanese. REPEAT AND ALERTS Repeat never, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Alerts can fire at the event time, or 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 1 day, 2 days, or 1 week before. Add a second alert, and snooze for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or 1 hour. COLOR AND ORDER Give each day a color so the important, the gentle, and the urgent are easy to spot. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Small, medium, and large widgets can show the nearest event, the next upcoming event, the newest event, or one event you choose. Pin a favorite day to the widget and see the countdown whenever you glance at the Home Screen. APPLE WATCH Check your marked days, remaining or elapsed days, and dates from your wrist. ICLOUD SYNC The main app stores your events with iCloud, so they stay in sync across your devices. Widgets read the same shared data. Change phones or use more than one device—the days you marked are still there. TIME ZONE Follow the system time zone, or pick one yourself, so the day count stays accurate when you travel. The trial version can create 5 events. Upgrade to Professional to add more. We would love for you to try Markdays, and we welcome your feedback. Your support is what keeps us improving.

About

Big Day

Features
Read full description

Count down to what matters. See it on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Apple Watch. Countdown turns any date into a live countdown you can actually see — no opening an app, no digging through a calendar. Your next trip, your wedding, your exam, your due date. Always one glance away. FREE, AND ACTUALLY FREE No ads. Not on the free tier, not ever. No banners, no video walls, no "watch this to unlock." WIDGETS THAT DO MORE • Home Screen widgets in every size — small, medium, large, and inline • Lock Screen widgets so you see it without unlocking • Live Activities — watch the final hours tick down in real time on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island • Interactive widgets — mark events done or snooze right from the Home Screen • Apple Watch complication showing your next event COUNT DOWN — OR COUNT UP Days until your holiday. Or days since you quit smoking, since the baby arrived, since you started. Both directions, same app. BUILT FOR REAL LIFE • Recurring events that reset themselves — birthdays, anniversaries, rent, monthly deadlines • Weekday-only counting for work deadlines (17 working days, not 24 calendar days) • Multiple alerts per event — a week out, a day out, an hour out • Categories with colors and icons — travel, family, work, health • Custom photo backgrounds from your library or our gallery • Choose exactly what shows: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds • Share a countdown to iMessage in one tap YOUR APPLE WATCH, INCLUDED Your countdowns sync to your Watch automatically — no iCloud account needed, no subscription, on the free tier. COUNTDOWN PRO — ONE PAYMENT, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION Unlimited events, iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad, unlimited custom backgrounds, and all widget styles. Pay once. Keep it forever. Free tier includes 5 events, all widget sizes, Apple Watch sync, and zero ads. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your events stay on your device and in your own iCloud. No accounts, no servers, no tracking. EULA: Apple’s Standard License Agreement applies.

Screenshots

MarkDays3 screens
Big Day4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Big Day at every 2 weeks against MarkDays's every 70 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MarkDays sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Big Day sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MarkDays ships an update every 70 months, Big Day every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
MarkDays versus Big Day: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarkDaysBig Day
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 70 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer昊罡 姚Damien Asseya

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MarkDays

One-time1
  • Unlock MarkedDays Professional$4.99
1 purchases

Big Day

One-time1
  • Countdown Pro$5.99

Questions

Is MarkDays free?
MarkDays is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Big Day free?
Big Day is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MarkDays or Big Day have ads?
Neither MarkDays nor Big Day shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MarkDays or Big Day?
MarkDays ships an update every 70 months, and Big Day every 2 weeks. Most recently, MarkDays was updated on October 13, 2026 and Big Day on October 12, 2026.

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