Comparison

Countdown Buddy vs Countdown Widget

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Personalized countdown widgets
  • Count-up widgets
  • Home screen and lock screen support
  • Customizable designs
  • Background color options
  • Photo integration
  • Font selection
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Countdown Widget

Easily track important dates with customizable widgets for your home and lock screens. Count down to events or count up from a starting point, with options for seconds, days, or even working days. All features are available for free, with an optional one-time purchase for advanced syncing and customization.

Highlights
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Countdown and count-up timers
  • Live countdowns to the second
  • Customizable counter styles and colors
  • Import from Calendar and Reminders
  • Offline functionality
  • One-time purchase for Pro features
Features
Read full description

Count down to what matters, right where you look: your Home Screen and Lock Screen. NanoCount is a complete countdown app with no account and no subscription. A holiday, a birthday, a wedding, a deadline, a due date or a passport that expires: put a countdown on it and see how many days are left at a glance. Or count up since a date to keep a streak going: smoke-free, together, working out. In the final hours it counts down live, to the second. THE FREE MULTI-EVENT WIDGET All your countdowns side by side in one widget on your Home Screen. Most apps hide this behind a subscription. In NanoCount it is free, along with single-event widgets and widgets on your Lock Screen. DAYS SINCE, NOT JUST DAYS UNTIL Count up from a date and watch the number grow: smoke-free, sober, together, back at the gym, since the operation. Day 1 starts on the day you pick. Give a streak its own widget on your Home Screen, or line all of them up side by side. FREE, AND ACTUALLY COMPLETE - Unlimited countdowns and count-up streaks - Multi-event AND single-event widgets, on the Home and Lock Screen - Live on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island on the final day - Your soonest countdowns on your Apple Watch - A reminder on the day, plus milestone alerts (halfway, one week to go) - Counter styles: a ring, dots, a bar, a real draining hourglass, or a big number - Every color, a color picker, and a searchable library of hundreds of icons - Count in days, sleeps, weekends, or working days - Import in one tap from your Calendar or Reminders (Google, Outlook and iCloud come along) - Share a countdown as a card, in one tap - Search, pin favorites, recurrence (weekly, monthly, yearly), and notes - Full backup: export and import all your countdowns NANOCOUNT PRO (one-time purchase, never a subscription) - iCloud sync: all your countdowns automatically in step across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch - Your own photo behind an event and in the widget, slowly sharpening or revealing like an advent calendar - Premium counter styles: retro flip, analog dial, particles - Gift mode: hide a surprise behind a code name - Advance reminders: 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month before - Alternate app icons - Subtract public holidays from working-day counts - Siri and Shortcuts: ask how many days, or add a countdown by voice PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in, no tracking, no data collection. Everything stays on your device and works fully offline. Free to use. Pro is a one-time purchase of €9.99. Forever, never a subscription.

Screenshots

Countdown Buddy4 screens
Countdown Widget4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Countdown Widget at 100% against Countdown Buddy's 68%. Countdown Widget also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and device support (4 vs 2). Countdown Buddy's advantage is ratings volume (25K vs 3) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 4 weeks). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Countdown Buddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Countdown Widget sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Countdown Widget holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown Buddy has 25K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Countdown Buddy's written reviews are positive against 100% of Countdown Widget's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown Buddy ships an update every 9 days, Countdown Widget every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Countdown Buddy versus Countdown Widget: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdown BuddyCountdown Widget
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (25K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews67.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings25K — better3
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size149 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTaptics Ltd.Digital Sandbox B.V.

Customer experience

Countdown Buddy

All ratings25,173 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral3.4%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews991 reviews
Positive67.7%
Neutral10.0%
Negative22.3%

Countdown Widget

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Countdown Widget

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Countdown Buddy

One-time1
  • Countdown +$3.59
1 purchases

Countdown Widget

One-time1
  • NanoCount Pro$5.99

Questions

Is Countdown Buddy free?
Countdown Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Countdown Widget free?
Countdown Widget is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Countdown Buddy or Countdown Widget?
Countdown Widget is rated higher. Countdown Buddy averages 4.6 out of 5 from 25K ratings, while Countdown Widget averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Countdown Buddy or Countdown Widget have ads?
Neither Countdown Buddy nor Countdown Widget shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Countdown Buddy or Countdown Widget?
Countdown Buddy ships an update every 9 days, and Countdown Widget every 4 weeks. Most recently, Countdown Buddy was updated on October 15, 2026 and Countdown Widget on October 9, 2026.

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