Comparison

Hourglass vs Aiko

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

Head to head
About

Hourglass

Features
Read full description

Count down to the moments you're looking forward to. Hourglass shows how many days are left until birthdays, vacations, weddings, exams, premieres and deadlines, and how long it's been since the ones that have passed. • Create a countdown in seconds • Give each event its own style and color • See your countdowns at a glance with Home Screen widgets • Share a countdown with the Hourglass community, or follow ones others have shared • Keep everything in sync across your devices with iCloud • Works with VoiceOver, Voice Control, Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion

About

Aiko

Convert audio to text locally on your device using advanced AI. Export transcriptions as subtitles and fix common errors with a word-replacement feature. Supports over 100 languages for high-quality, private transcription.

Highlights
  • On-device AI transcription
  • OpenAI Whisper powered
  • Export as subtitles
  • Word replacement for corrections
  • Supports 100+ languages
  • Privacy-focused, no data leaves device
Currently charting
Read full description

High-quality on-device transcription. Easily convert speech to text from meetings, lectures, and more. The transcription is powered by OpenAI's Whisper running locally on your device. Nothing leaves your device. You can export the transcription as subtitles too. It has a word-replacement feature to let you automatically fix common mistakes. Aiko favors accuracy over speed. It does not do live transcription while recording. It does not currently have speaker detection. Try the trial first. See website. Note: Sharing from Voice Memos on iOS 26 does not work because of a iOS 26 bug outside of my control. Supports audio in 100 different languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bashkir, Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Mongolian, Māori, Nepali, Norwegian, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Sanskrit, Serbian, Shona, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, Yoruba The app was made possible thanks to Whisper by OpenAI and whisper.cpp by Georgi Gerganov. ■ FAQ ‣ Can I edit the text in the app? I don't plan to support any editing. Export the transcription and edit it in a proper text editor. ‣ Why is the app so large? The app delivers the highest quality transcription on the market for 100 different languages. Rather than asking why it's so large, the real question is how is it so small. ‣ Why is the transcription so slow? The app favors accuracy over speed. However, performance is expected to improve in the coming months. ‣ Why must I keep the iOS app open while it transcribes? iOS apps are fundamentally restricted from operating in the background for extended periods. ‣ Can I delete some of the languages to save space? This is unfortunately not possible. The model has all the languages stored together in a way that makes it impossible to remove just some languages. More FAQs on the website. ■ Technical details The app uses the Whisper medium or small model on iOS depending on available memory and the large v3 model on macOS. ■ Privacy The transcription is done locally on your device. Nothing leaves your device. ■ Support You can contact me through the feedback button in the app.

Screenshots

Hourglass3 screens
Aiko4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Hourglass at $0.99 against Aiko's $24.00. Aiko's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 7 months). On 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

Hourglass costs $0.99 and Aiko $24.00 up front. Hourglass sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Aiko asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hourglass ships an update every 7 months, Aiko every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Hourglass versus Aiko: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHourglassAiko
Price$0.99 — better$24.00
Rating—4.7 (328 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—86.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—328 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Paid
Best chart rank—#23 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB1.7 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSNEH NILESHSindre Sorhus

Bugs and requests

Hourglass

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Aiko

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Repeated sentences
  • Incorrect language detection
  • Transcription loss on app exit

Requested features

4 requests
  • Support for multiple speakers
  • Ability to select transcription model
  • Export options for timestamps and speaker labels
  • Background transcription mode

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Hourglass

One-time3
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
  • Large Tip$5.99
None

Aiko

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hourglass free?
Hourglass costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Aiko free?
Aiko costs $24.00, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hourglass or Aiko have ads?
Neither Hourglass nor Aiko shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hourglass or Aiko?
Hourglass ships an update every 7 months, and Aiko every 6 weeks. Most recently, Hourglass was updated on October 26, 2026 and Aiko on October 25, 2026.

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