Comparison

Up Ahead vs Cactus

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

Head to head
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/

About

Cactus

This utility app helps you manage your screen time by blocking specific applications and websites according to your set schedule. It offers a straightforward approach to digital well-being with a commitment to privacy and no tracking. The app is completely free to use.

Highlights
  • Scheduled app blocking
  • Website blocking
  • Zero tracking
  • Free to use
  • Privacy-focused
Features
Read full description

Block apps and sites on your schedule. Opinionated but realistic, zero tracking, free forever.

Screenshots

Up Ahead4 screens
Cactus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cactus at none against Up Ahead's 3. Cactus also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 weeks). Up Ahead's advantage is ratings volume (686 vs 3) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Up Ahead sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Cactus asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Up Ahead against 5.0 for Cactus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Up Ahead has 686 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Up Ahead ships an update every 5 weeks, Cactus every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Up Ahead versus Cactus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUp AheadCactus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (686 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings686 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDaniel GauthierKiln (CA)

Customer experience

Up Ahead

All ratings684 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral1.6%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews161 reviews
Positive83.2%
Neutral8.1%
Negative8.7%

Cactus

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and 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

Cactus

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Up Ahead

Subscriptions2
  • Up Ahead Plus$1.491 Month
  • Up Ahead Plus$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Up Ahead Plus$29.99
None

Cactus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Up Ahead free?
Up Ahead is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cactus free?
Cactus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Up Ahead or Cactus?
Cactus is rated higher. Up Ahead averages 4.9 out of 5 from 686 ratings, while Cactus averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Up Ahead or Cactus have ads?
Neither Up Ahead nor Cactus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Up Ahead or Cactus?
Up Ahead ships an update every 5 weeks, and Cactus every 2 weeks. Most recently, Up Ahead was updated on October 22, 2026 and Cactus on October 20, 2026.

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