Comparison

Time Left vs Finalist

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

Head to head
About

Time Left

This app helps you visualize the finite nature of your time, displaying the remaining days, months, and years. It encourages a more present and creative life by emphasizing the preciousness of each moment. Your data remains private, with no notifications or ads.

Highlights
  • Displays remaining days, months, and years
  • Emphasizes the preciousness of time
  • Encourages a happy and creative life
  • No notifications, ads, or sign-up
  • Private data storage
  • Unlockable widgets and customization (Pro)
Features
Read full description

No notifications. No ads. No sign-up. Just you and your time. TIME LEFT DESCRIPTION Sometimes life seems really short, and other times impossibly long. This app will help you to emphasize that it’s most certainly finite. Time Left shows you, the days, months, and years you have left and that they are all you have got. Don’t be afraid, that means the only appropriate word to describe your time left is “precious”. So I hope this app will enable you to create a life in which you will be happy and creative. WHAT ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY? I think Privacy is a fundamental human right. To that end, I have designed Time Left from the ground up without any external framework. In this way, your data, like your birthdate, stays entirely private. HOW CAN YOU HELP ME? As I don’t collect any data on this app, to improve it I need your help! You can send me an email to julien@lacroix.dev for any feedback, issues, or bugs on this app or just to say “Hello!”. I answer every email! ********** A special thank you to Wait But Why for this amazing article (https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html). Without their work, this app would not have seen the light of day. ********** TIME LEFT PRO - Unlock widgets & skins. - Unlimited moments. - Live Photos in Life Calendar. - Automatically access all future features and widgets. - Support an indie developer. ********** Terms of Use: https://gettimeleft.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://gettimeleft.app/privacy

About

Finalist

This app combines your calendar, tasks, reminders, and weather into a single, visually appealing timeline. It integrates with your journal and activity data to inspire your planning. Enjoy a beautiful and joyful planning experience without complex workflows.

Highlights
  • Unified timeline view
  • Calendar, task, and reminder integration
  • Weather forecast display
  • Journal and activity ring integration
  • Customizable themes
  • Native Apple technology integration
Features
Read full description

Inspired by paper planners, Finalist shows your calendar, tasks, notes, reminders and weather forecast in one beautiful timeline. It even pulls in your Journal Suggestions and Activity Rings to keep you inspired. Gorgeous themes make planning a joy, not a chore. Finalist is built for people who finish things, no complex workflows or productivity theater. NOTES, IN YOUR PLANNER Your planner remembers what you wrote. A dedicated Notes tab gives you notebooks, tags and search. Keep native notes that sync over iCloud, or connect a folder of plain markdown files, including your Obsidian vault, and edit them in place. Tasks inside your markdown files become real Finalist tasks: dated, tagged and checkable anywhere in the app. YOUR DAY, ON YOUR WRIST The Apple Watch app puts your whole day one glance away: events, tasks, reminders and habits in one scrollable view, topped by a Now card that always knows what matters next. Check off pinned lists from the wrist, grocery list included, and add tasks by keyboard, scribble or dictation. Complications and a Smart Stack widget round it out. (Requires watchOS 26.) DESIGN YOUR DAY Choose between two Daily designs: Daybook, the classic stacked layout, or Broadsheet, a newsprint-inspired look that shines on iPad and Mac. Rearrange sections with the layout editor and save your own presets. On the rebuilt Timeline, drag tasks onto the grid to sketch your day in pencil, then commit when it's real. "I've tried dozens of planning apps, this is the one that finally works." - Beta user "The integration of Reminders and Lists reduces the apps I need daily and makes planning actually fun." - Beta user Built with native Apple technologies: no accounts to create, syncs over iCloud, supports Family Sharing, and runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro and Mac. Full database backup, export and import via JSON and OPML. Finalist is a love letter to paper planners. Give it a try, it feels great :) Purchasing information To get the full functionality in Finalist you will need to either purchase a subscription or a one time In-App Purchase for Lifetime access. The purchase amount will be applied to your iTunes account. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Lifetime purchase is a one-time fee. For more information, see our Terms of Use at https://finalist.works/eula/ and our Privacy Policy at https://finalist.works/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Time Left4 screens
Finalist4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Finalist at #201 against Time Left's unranked. Finalist also leads on device support (5 vs 1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Time Left sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days and Finalist sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Finalist holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 245 and 519 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Time Left's written reviews are positive against 76% of Finalist's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Time Left ships an update every 6 days, Finalist every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Time Left versus Finalist: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTime LeftFinalist
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (245 ratings)4.7 (519 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.5% of reviews76.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings245519 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#201 — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB121 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJulien LacroixDiversion Marketing Inc

Customer experience

Time Left

All ratings237 ratings
Positive89.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative8.4%
Written reviews113 reviews
Positive73.5%
Neutral8.0%
Negative18.6%

Finalist

All ratings519 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.7%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews126 reviews
Positive76.2%
Neutral6.3%
Negative17.5%

User reviews

Time Left

From 245 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Innovative memento mori concept
  • 🎨 Beautiful and elegant design
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive user interface
  • 🆓 Free app with no ads or data collection
  • 📱 Effective widget implementation

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive premium subscription ($260/year)
  • 🐛 Widget functionality broken after updates
  • 🐛 Display rendering issues (upside-down text, missing elements)
  • 🐛 App crashes and fails to load on some devices
  • 🐛 Slow performance and laggy navigation

Finalist

From 519 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Intuitive day-based organization system
  • ✨ Beautiful, thoughtfully designed interface
  • 📅 Excellent calendar and reminders integration
  • 🎯 Perfect balance of simplicity and functionality
  • 📝 Effective task management with bring-forward feature

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes on macOS and when accessing settings
  • 🐛 App crashes when opening preferences
  • ⚠️ Inconsistent subscription recognition issues
  • ⚠️ Confusing pricing structure with multiple tiers
  • ⚠️ Limited event creation capabilities

Bugs and requests

Time Left

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Widget not updating daily after recent updates
  • Display text rendering issues (font size problems)
  • App fails to load past welcome screen on some devices
  • Widget incompatibility with iOS 18.4
  • Years and months numbers displaying upside down
Show 4 more
  • Days not appearing in display
  • Laggy page transitions
  • Current day needle stuck and not moving
  • Developer unresponsive to support requests

Requested features

11 requests
  • Lock screen widget support
  • Apple Watch widget integration
  • Multiple time granularity options (weeks, days, hours)
  • Life expectancy limit increased beyond 90 years
  • Customizable row lengths in calendar view
Show 6 more
  • Auto dark mode for app and widgets
  • Specific date countdown feature
  • Weekly and monthly visualization options
  • Ability to adjust widget size and display metrics
  • Calendar view showing weeks per year
  • Pan and zoom functionality for overall view

Finalist

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Settings/preferences crash the app
  • Pro subscription not recognized after canceling auto-renewal
  • Weather widget fails to display without manual toggling
  • App freezes and becomes unresponsive on iPad
  • Empty tasks cannot be permanently deleted
Show 4 more
  • App crashes when accessing certain reminder lists
  • Slow performance after force closing and reopening
  • Widget functionality discontinued or broken
  • macOS version crashes and lacks performance

Requested features

18 requests
  • Apple Watch native app
  • Recurring/repeating tasks and reminders
  • Subtasks functionality
  • Task tagging and filtering
  • Event location and travel time details
Show 13 more
  • Natural language input for tasks and events
  • Snooze reminder functionality
  • Task comments and checklist support
  • List grouping and archiving options
  • Menubar-only mode for macOS
  • Early/advance reminders for tasks
  • Notes section for daily journaling
  • School/team collaboration version
  • Chinese language support
  • Dark mode option
  • Family sharing features
  • Multiple calendar visibility in month view
  • Invite others to meetings and add conferencing

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Time Left

Subscriptions3
  • Per week$4.997 Days
  • Annual3 Days trial$17.991 Year
  • Per year$17.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime$19.99
  • One time$24.99
7 purchases

Finalist

Subscriptions5
  • Finalist Pro Weekly3 Days trial$2.997 Days
  • Finalist Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Finalist Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Finalist Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Finalist Pro Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Finalist Lifetime$59.99
  • Finalist Pro Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is Time Left free?
Time Left is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Finalist free?
Finalist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Time Left or Finalist?
Finalist is rated higher. Time Left averages 4.5 out of 5 from 245 ratings, while Finalist averages 4.7 from 519 ratings.
Do Time Left or Finalist have ads?
Neither Time Left nor Finalist shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Time Left or Finalist?
Time Left ships an update every 6 days, and Finalist every 10 days. Most recently, Time Left was updated on October 29, 2026 and Finalist on November 1, 2026.

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