Comparison

Luma vs TimeDots

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

Head to head
About

Luma

Discover and host local events, from tech meetups to social gatherings. Easily create event pages, sell tickets, invite guests via SMS or email, and manage check-ins. Connect with other attendees and build your social circle.

Highlights
  • Event discovery
  • Event hosting
  • Ticket selling
  • SMS and email invites
  • Guest check-in
  • In-app chat with attendees
  • Beautiful event pages
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

DISCOVER EVENTS NEAR YOU Find popular upcoming tech, crypto, wellness, and social events around you. After registering for an event, you can easily share it with your friends or on your socials. At the event, pull up your event ticket or Apple Wallet pass for seamless entry. CHAT WITH (NEW) FRIENDS Don’t be that "Ugh, want to add me on IG / LinkedIn?" person. If you attend an event with someone, you can easily look them up and chat with them right from within Luma. HOST AN EVENT Host delightful events with ease. Create a beautiful event page, send email and SMS invites, collect registrations, and chat with your guests. With Luma taking care of reminders, ticketing, checking in and more, you can focus your full attention on the event itself. BEAUTIFUL EVENT PAGES You can create a beautiful event page in just a few seconds. Just choose a cover image, name, location and time for your event. We’ll take care of the rest. For cover images, you can choose from our fun gallery of party posters, bbq invites, happy hour photos and many more. SELL TICKETS You can create a new event, start selling tickets, and market your event all within Luma. It takes just a few minutes to connect your bank account and then you’ll receive next day payment as guests buy tickets. SMS AND EMAIL INVITES Now you’ve created your event — who is going to come? You can sync your contacts and easily send a mass SMS invite message. In addition, Luma makes it incredibly easy to invite past guests again and to send email invites. CHECK IN GUESTS If you want to track attendance, you can check in guests with our built in QR code scanner and check in system. Guests will be able to show their QR code to scan in — or you can look them up by their name or email. You can add cohosts to your event who can also check in guests and manage the event together. SUBSCRIBE TO LOCAL CALENDARS From running clubs to AI calendars, discover fun events and clubs around you. Keep up with their events and make new friends.

About

TimeDots

Visualize your time with a unique dot-based calendar. Track days, months, years, or your entire life to gain perspective on progress and urgency. Customizable widgets and themes keep your important moments visible.

Highlights
  • Visual time representation with dots
  • Countdown tracking for events
  • Home screen widgets
  • Customizable themes and styles
  • Privacy-focused, on-device data
Features
Read full description

Time is the one thing you can't get back. TimeDots turns your year, your month and every countdown into a calm grid of dots, one dot per day, so you can see exactly how much time is left. Every day a dot fills in. It's a quiet daily nudge to make today count. SEE YOUR TIME AT A GLANCE • Your whole year as dots, filling in as the days pass • Days left front and center: in the year, the month, or until your next event • Year by month: a calendar of dots that shows where each month starts and where today sits • Hold and drag across the dots to explore any day COUNT DOWN TO WHAT MATTERS • Trips, birthdays, exams, weddings, launches and deadlines • Every event gets its own grid with live progress • Recurring events roll forward automatically • A small celebration when a countdown reaches its day HOW WAS TODAY? • A 5‑second daily check‑in: pick one of five moods • Your dots take on the colors of your days, so your year becomes a mood map • Add a short note to any day you want to remember • An optional morning reminder with how many days are left • Hide the check‑in once you've answered, if you prefer a cleaner screen ON YOUR WRIST, LOCK SCREEN AND HOME SCREEN • Home Screen widgets in every size • Lock Screen widgets • Live Activities and Dynamic Island • A redesigned Apple Watch app: next event first, check in from your wrist, turn the Digital Crown to move through the days, and complications that show up in the Smart Stack when they matter MAKE IT YOURS • 24 themes, from Midnight to Aurora • Alternate app icons • "Life in Weeks": your whole life, one dot per week • Share cards made for your story • iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch • Built for iPad, with full Dynamic Type, VoiceOver and Increase Contrast support Free to download. Upgrade to Pro to unlock every theme, widget and feature. Stop letting the days blur together. Make every dot count.

Screenshots

Luma4 screens
TimeDots4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Luma at none against TimeDots's 1. Luma also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks) and chart position (#73 vs unranked). TimeDots's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 81%) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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. TimeDots sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Luma asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Luma ships an update every 5 days, TimeDots every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Luma versus TimeDots: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumaTimeDots
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (20K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings20K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#73 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.017.3 — better
Further details — not scored
Size126 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLuma Labs, Inc.Ademola Mayowa Olatunji

Customer experience

Luma

All ratings19,665 ratings
Positive98.9%
Neutral0.6%
Negative0.5%
Written reviews413 reviews
Positive80.6%
Neutral3.9%
Negative15.5%

TimeDots

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Luma

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatibility with older devices
  • Inability to remove or leave group chats

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to save/bookmark events
  • Improved search and discovery options
  • Better guest management tools
  • Seamless calendar integration
  • Customizable event notifications

TimeDots

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Luma

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

TimeDots

One-time1
  • TimeDots Pro$2.99

Questions

Is Luma free?
Luma is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TimeDots free?
TimeDots is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Luma or TimeDots have ads?
Neither Luma nor TimeDots shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Luma or TimeDots?
Luma ships an update every 5 days, and TimeDots every 2 weeks. Most recently, Luma was updated on November 11, 2026 and TimeDots on October 31, 2026.

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