Comparison

Countdown Buddy 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

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

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

Countdown Buddy4 screens
Big Day4 screens

Verdict

The call

Countdown Buddy and Big Day are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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 Big Day sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown Buddy ships an update every 9 days, Big Day every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Countdown Buddy versus Big Day: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdown BuddyBig Day
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (25K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews67.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings25K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size149 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTaptics Ltd.Damien Asseya

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

Big Day

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Countdown Buddy

One-time1
  • Countdown +$3.59
1 purchases

Big Day

One-time1
  • Countdown Pro$5.99

Questions

Is Countdown Buddy free?
Countdown Buddy 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 Countdown Buddy or Big Day have ads?
Neither Countdown Buddy nor Big Day shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Countdown Buddy or Big Day?
Countdown Buddy ships an update every 9 days, and Big Day every 2 weeks. Most recently, Countdown Buddy was updated on October 1, 2026 and Big Day on September 21, 2026.

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