Comparison

Outside vs Upcoming

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

Head to head
About

Outside

Plan, share, and remember important moments with loved ones. Ideal for long-distance relationships, trip planning, and creating a visual diary of your year. Features live widgets and offline access.

Highlights
  • Shared countdowns for long-distance couples
  • Trip planning with group coordination
  • Yearly memory archive and profile
  • Live widgets for home and lock screens
  • Calendar sync (Apple & Google)
  • Offline functionality
  • Photo sharing for Lock Screen
Features
Read full description

Waiting is better together. Turn every date you can't wait for—weddings, trips, birthdays, reunions—into a countdown you share, with widgets you'll both smile at every day. Use Outside for trips, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, reunions, concerts and every date worth looking forward to. CREATE AND SHARE Create a countdown, send an invite and let friends, family or your partner join the same moment. WIDGETS AT A GLANCE Keep your next countdown on your Home Screen, Lock Screen or in StandBy. PLAN TOGETHER Add the date, place and details so everyone knows what is happening. FREE TO START The free plan includes creating, sharing and joining countdowns, plus Home Screen, Lock Screen and StandBy widgets. OUTSIDE PRO Outside Pro is optional and adds custom reminders, calendar sync, recurring events, attachments, camera-roll wallpapers, group chat, custom app icons, photo uploads and search, premium countdown styles, links and checklists. Available plans, prices and introductory trial eligibility are shown before purchase. Terms: https://outside.so/terms Privacy: https://outside.so/privacy Support: https://outside.so/support

About

Upcoming

Track important dates with a customizable countdown widget. Visualize your progress towards goals, events, or holidays with daily updates. Stay motivated and focused by seeing how much time remains until your next milestone.

Highlights
  • Daily countdown tracking
  • Customizable icons and colors
  • Event card styling
  • Motivation for goal completion
  • Sense of urgency for tasks
Features
Read full description

Upcoming is a simple and easy to use countdown day by day app. It is user friendly and highly customisable. You are able to select the icon, color to style your events card. It can use to track the day of your anniversary, birthday, holiday, graduations or anything you can think out. Motivation - The willingness to complete something - Knowing how much time left to your goal is pure motivation to get ti done faster. Sense of Urgency - Looking at it day by day it will install a sense of urgency in you. Therefore, you will spend less time on social media or Netflix and will be more focused on the task at hand. If you have any suggestion, please leave us a review on App Store. We hope to read them soon so that we can make the app even better for you. Terms and pricing: Upcoming offers an auto-renewing yearly subscription at $10.49 USD/year to provide you with unlimited access to groups, colors, icons and all the premium features while you maintain an active subscription. Payment will be charged to the payment method connected to your iTunes Account when you confirm the initial subscription purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current subscription period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. You may manage your subscription and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JNCHjdEaUqFAD1AAu1UufTuoq4-qbyzt3BvMIHGcQn8/edit?usp=sharing Terms of service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Outside1 screens
Upcoming4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Outside at freemium against Upcoming's subscription. Outside also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 2 months). Upcoming's advantage is iOS requirement (16.6 vs 18.0). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Outside sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Upcoming sells 4 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Outside against 4.7 for Upcoming. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Outside has 2.8K ratings behind it against 40, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 54% of Outside's written reviews are positive against 57% of Upcoming's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Outside ships an update every 6 days, Upcoming every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Outside versus Upcoming: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOutsideUpcoming
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (2.8K ratings)4.7 (40 ratings)
Positive reviews53.5% of reviews56.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.8K — better40
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.016.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOutside HQ LTDKok Keong

Customer experience

Outside

All ratings2,754 ratings
Positive91.6%
Neutral2.7%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews200 reviews
Positive53.5%
Neutral8.0%
Negative38.5%

Upcoming

All ratings40 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral7.5%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews23 reviews
Positive56.5%
Neutral30.4%
Negative13.0%

Bugs and requests

Outside

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Widget not working after iOS updates
  • Countdown events suddenly blocked by paywall
  • Paid subscription not working as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • More customization options for widgets
  • Ability to delete or edit events
  • Improved Android support
  • Memories/map feature to track past events

Upcoming

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

17 purchases

Outside

Subscriptions10
  • Monthly subscription$2.991 Month
  • Outside Pro Monthly3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Monthly Plan$4.491 Month
Show 7 more
  • Monthly subscription3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro Deal3 Days trial$12.491 Year
  • Annual Pro3 Days trial$12.491 Year
  • Outside Pro Annual$19.991 Year
  • Annual Plan3 Days trial$29.491 Year
  • Outside Pro Annual3 Days trial$31.491 Year
  • Annual plan3 Days trial$44.491 Year
One-time7
  • Unlock Countdown styles$0.99
  • Ad supported tier$4.99
  • All Time Deal$5.49
Show 4 more
  • All Time Deal$7.49
  • All Time Pro$9.99
  • Lifetime Access$29.99
  • Lifetime access$44.49
4 purchases

Upcoming

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$1.491 Month
  • Yearly3 Days trial$11.491 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime - Early Bird Discount$5.99
  • Lifetime$20.99

Questions

Is Outside free?
Outside is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Upcoming free?
Upcoming is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Outside or Upcoming?
Outside and Upcoming are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2.8K and 40 ratings respectively.
Do Outside or Upcoming have ads?
Upcoming shows ads; Outside does not.
Which is updated more often, Outside or Upcoming?
Outside ships an update every 6 days, and Upcoming every 2 months. Most recently, Outside was updated on September 23, 2026 and Upcoming on September 22, 2026.

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