Comparison

Countdown Widget + Calendar vs Up Ahead

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

Head to head
About

Countdown Widget + Calendar

Easily track important events and milestones with beautiful visuals and customizable settings. Stay organized with timely reminders, versatile display formats, and a convenient date calculator. Sync across devices and never miss a special moment.

Highlights
  • Lock Screen Widgets
  • Quick Glance Widgets
  • iCloud Sync
  • Notifications & Reminders
  • Versatile Display Formats
  • Personalized Backgrounds
  • Date and Time Calculator
Features
Read full description

Countdown Events Calendar is the beautiful way to count down to every moment that matters — birthdays, holidays, trips, weddings, exams, and deadlines. Create stunning countdowns in seconds and watch the days melt away. NEW IN THIS VERSION • Import from Calendar — turn your Apple Calendar events into countdowns with a single tap. • Repeating countdowns — birthdays and anniversaries roll over automatically and never go negative. • Share as image — export a gorgeous countdown card to Messages, Instagram, and more. KEY FEATURES • Beautiful full-screen countdowns with your own photos, colors, and emoji • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets for an instant glance • iCloud sync keeps every countdown up to date across all your devices • Smart notifications and custom reminders — 1 week, 1 day, or 15 minutes before • Seven display formats: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds • Add notes to capture the details and memories behind each event • Built-in date & time calculator to find the gap between two dates or add and subtract durations • Reorder and organize your countdowns exactly how you like COUNTDOWN PRO Unlock the full experience with a single one-time purchase — yours forever: • Unlimited countdowns • Import from Calendar • Repeating countdowns • Photo backgrounds • Notes for every event • Shareable countdown cards • All Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets Don't let life's important moments pass you by. Download Countdown Events Calendar today and start celebrating every milestone in style.Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://site.innovaapps.ai/policies Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Up Ahead

A visually appealing app to track upcoming events with customizable countdown widgets for your Home and Lock Screens. Create events in seconds and personalize them with unique patterns. Stay organized with reminders and attachments.

Highlights
  • Customizable countdown widgets
  • Event timeline view
  • Unlockable decorative patterns
  • Flexible reminders
  • Event attachments (notes/links)
  • Recurring and multi-day events
  • iCloud backups
Features
Read full description

Up Ahead is a playful, beautiful way to keep track of everything you’re looking forward to. Create events in seconds, and build yourself an eclectic timeline full of birthdays, weddings, holidays, vacations, game releases, sporting events, or anything coming up that brings you joy. As your timeline grows, you’ll unlock themed patterns that can be used to give your events personality. Keep your countdowns top of mind with customizable widgets for your Home Screen or Lock Screen. --- CREATE EVENTS Up Ahead events are quick and simple to create — just give your event a name, a date (with optional time), a category icon, and a color. EVENT TIMELINE View your events in a unique timeline format that gives you visual information about how much time is passing between events, and allows you to easily look back on your entire event history. PATTERNS As you create events, you’ll start to unlock decorative patterns that can be applied to any of your events and appear in both your in-app timeline and your widgets. Patterns are unlocked based on the content of your events, or as weekly gifts. How many can you find? REMINDERS Schedule flexible reminders to get notified about the events you don't want to miss. ATTACHMENTS Keep all your event information in one place by attaching short notes or links to your events. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS * "Countdown" widgets are simple widgets for counting down to a specific event. * "Coming up" widgets come in multiple sizes and will dynamically count down to whatever event is coming up next. They can be customized with filters and display names, allowing you to create widgets such as “Next Raptors game” or “Upcoming game releases”. * "Timeline grid" widgets give you a colorful high-level overview of all your upcoming events. LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS Simplified versions of “Countdown” and “Coming up” widgets are available to place right on your Lock Screen. SIRI SHORTCUTS Automate event creation or ask Siri about your events with Siri Shortcuts. TIMELINE FILTERING Quickly filter your events temporarily so that you can get a clean look at just the film releases you’re looking forward to, or the birthdays you want to remember. RECURRING EVENTS Mark an event as recurring — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or yearly — to have it automatically replace itself in your timeline when an instance of the event has passed. MULTI-DAY EVENTS Give an event an optional end date to countdown to both an event’s beginning and its end. ICLOUD BACKUPS Automatically back up your events and pattern unlocks to iCloud Drive to ensure you never lose access to your data. EVENT SHARING Lightweight event sharing allows you to export and share colorful images of any event. SOUND AND HAPTICS Delightful sound effects and haptics bring the app to life. ...and lots more fun stuff to discover. --- The free version of Up Ahead is free forever, and contains no ads. If you’re looking for the best way to simply pop a few good-looking countdown widgets onto your Home Screen or Lock Screen, downloading Up Ahead for free is a great place to start. With an in-app subscription to Up Ahead Plus, you’ll get all the bells and whistles: unlimited event creation, recurring and multi-day events, the full suite of widget types, and more. --- Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your App Store account settings after purchase. Cancellation of the current active subscription period is not allowed. Privacy policy: https://upaheadapp.com/privacy Terms of service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Countdown Widget + Calendar4 screens
Up Ahead4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Up Ahead at 83% against Countdown Widget + Calendar's 50%. Up Ahead also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (684 vs 46). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 Widget + Calendar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Up Ahead sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Up Ahead holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Up Ahead has 684 ratings behind it against 46, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Countdown Widget + Calendar's written reviews are positive against 83% of Up Ahead's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown Widget + Calendar ships an update monthly, Up Ahead every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Countdown Widget + Calendar versus Up Ahead: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdown Widget + CalendarUp Ahead
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (46 ratings)4.9 (684 ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews83.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings46684 — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.016.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlex Gameli HeymanDaniel Gauthier

Customer experience

Countdown Widget + Calendar

All ratings46 ratings
Positive84.8%
Neutral4.3%
Negative10.9%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Up Ahead

All ratings684 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral1.6%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews160 reviews
Positive83.1%
Neutral8.1%
Negative8.8%

Bugs and requests

Countdown Widget + Calendar

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Up Ahead

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Widget doesn't update automatically
  • Backup feature doesn't work
  • Sound effects stopped working
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices

Requested features

11 requests
  • Unlock all patterns
  • More color options
  • More icons and customization
  • Calendar integration
  • Siri and reminder integration
Show 6 more
  • iPad app
  • Apple Watch complications
  • Ability to set end dates for recurring events
  • Periodic reminders for past events
  • Family sharing
  • Import events from other calendars

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Countdown Widget + Calendar

Subscriptions1
  • Countdown Pro Access3 Days trial$2.991 Month
One-time2
  • Life time access$0.99
  • Coundown lifetime access$24.99
3 purchases

Up Ahead

Subscriptions2
  • Up Ahead Plus$1.491 Month
  • Up Ahead Plus$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Up Ahead Plus$29.99

Questions

Is Countdown Widget + Calendar free?
Countdown Widget + Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Up Ahead free?
Up Ahead is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Countdown Widget + Calendar or Up Ahead?
Up Ahead is rated higher. Countdown Widget + Calendar averages 4.5 out of 5 from 46 ratings, while Up Ahead averages 4.9 from 684 ratings.
Do Countdown Widget + Calendar or Up Ahead have ads?
Neither Countdown Widget + Calendar nor Up Ahead shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Countdown Widget + Calendar or Up Ahead?
Countdown Widget + Calendar ships an update monthly, and Up Ahead every 5 weeks. Most recently, Countdown Widget + Calendar was updated on October 5, 2026 and Up Ahead on October 11, 2026.

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