Countdown Buddy vs SoloShelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Countdown Buddy
Create personalized countdown and count-up widgets for your home and lock screens. Visually track important dates like birthdays, vacations, or deadlines with custom designs, colors, and photos. Stay motivated and make waiting more exciting.
- Personalized countdown widgets
- Count-up widgets
- Home screen and lock screen support
- Customizable designs
- Background color options
- Photo integration
- Font selection
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EVERYTHING YOU ARE WAITING FOR - IN A WIDGET Design your own personalized countdown or count-up widgets for your home screen & lock screen. Countdown Widget is a super fun way to track the days until a momentous occasion such as: - Your birthday, or another special someone’s birthday - A long-awaited vacation - Back to school - Upcoming elections - A returning season of your favorite TV series - A favorite yearly tech event - A new video game is up for preorder Or any other future event! Countdown Widget makes waiting for something exciting even more thrilling by giving you a cool and colorful visual reminder on your home screen. Use it to count down to a big event, to mark the end of something less fun, or to keep track of work deadlines (weekend exclusion is now possible!) - it's a super fun way to stay on top of things! COUNT UP Create a count-up widget to mark a significant moment in time and track the duration since it occurred. CREATE A PERSONALIZED COUNTDOWN WIDGET Create a Widget with your custom design in a matter of seconds. You can choose from 11 Countdown styles (we are already working on more) and make them your own by adding your personal touch: - Change background colors. - Use photos from your phone Photo Library or from our preset gallery. - Choose from a curated list of fonts that go well with each specific style. - Each Widget you make will automatically be available in small or medium sizes. - Change the design anytime later. WE WOULD LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK As a small team, we are excited to have our first app on the App Store. We value your feedback and would love to hear from you if you have any questions, suggestions, or anything else you think we should know. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us at - hi@taptics.co. Note: The Free version of the app includes one countdown widget with the basic design.
SoloShelf
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SoloShelf: Your reading life, beautifully organized. SoloShelf is a minimalist, privacy-first reading tracker built for people who love books, not data harvesting. It strips away the noise of social feeds and algorithmic clutter, giving you a clean, elegant space to log your library, write personal reflections, and visualize your progress. With secure, private iCloud sync enabled by default, your library is always ready on all your devices. Whether you are looking to step away from bloated platforms or simply want a beautiful, distraction-free home for your books, SoloShelf puts you back in control of your reading journey. Why SoloShelf? • Seamless iCloud Sync by Default: Your library is effortlessly updated across all your Apple devices right from the start. Synchronization is handled securely and privately via your personal iCloud account—your data never touches a third-party server. Prefer to stay completely offline? Toggle it off anytime for a 100% local, on-device library. • Complete Data Autonomy: Your reading history is personal. Because SoloShelf relies on your own device and iCloud storage, your habits, notes, and reviews remain strictly your own. • Deep Yearly Statistics: Celebrate your reading milestones with a beautiful, simple statistics dashboard. Visualize your reading year, track your progress over time, and see your habits grow with clean, insightful charts. • Effortless Migration: Leaving other trackers behind shouldn't mean starting over. Use our simple Goodreads CSV import feature to bring your entire existing library over in seconds. • Shareable Graphics: Show off your favorite books or your yearly reading milestones on your own terms. SoloShelf generates beautifully formatted, clean graphics ready for sharing wherever you like. • Zero Noise, No Traps: No ads, no hidden trackers, and no mandatory account creation. Just you and your books. SoloShelf is an entirely independent, passion-driven project. It features zero ads, zero hidden trackers, and zero locked features—just a clean, premium utility dedicated to your reading life. A voluntary, optional tip jar is coming soon in a future update for those who wish to support independent development, but the core experience will always remain entirely free to use.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Countdown Buddy at every 9 days against SoloShelf's every 4 weeks. Countdown Buddy also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.4). 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. Countdown Buddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and SoloShelf sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Countdown Buddy ships an update every 9 days, SoloShelf every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Countdown Buddy | SoloShelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (26K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 67.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 26K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 26.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 149 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Taptics Ltd. | ALEXANDER JOHN PANDELIDIS |
Bugs and requests
Countdown Buddy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Widgets disappearing or not working after updates
- Countdown timers not updating correctly
- Inability to add new widgets or countdowns
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to display multiple countdowns at once
- Implement automatic countdown reset/repeat functionality
- Allow custom countdown units (e.g., weeks, business days)
- Improve widget handling and update reliability
SoloShelf
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Countdown Buddy
- Countdown +$3.59
SoloShelf
- Small tip$0.99
- Medium tip$3.99
- Large tip$6.99







