Pencil Planner vs Countdown Fred
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pencil Planner
This app allows users to visually plan their schedules by drawing appointments directly onto a calendar. It offers an intuitive, pen-on-paper experience for effortless scheduling, making it ideal for families and couples to coordinate activities and boost overall productivity.
- Draw appointments directly on calendar
- Intuitive pen-on-paper planning
- Visual family planner
- Couple calendar for shared planning
- Boost productivity and organization
- Supports iPad stylus input
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Ditch the Text, Draw Your Schedule with Stift! Tired of typing appointments? Stift lets you unleash the power of your tablet pen. Draw your schedule directly on the calendar! Why Stift? Effortless Scheduling: Draw appointments for any day, week, or month. It's that simple! Natural Planning: Forget the keyboard frustration. Stift feels intuitive, just like using a pen on paper. Perfect for Families: Coordinate everyone's activities with a visual, fun family planner. Keep track of soccer practice, music lessons, and movie nights - all in one place! Boost Productivity: Manage your time visually and stay organized with Stift. Work together: Use the calendar as a couple calendar and plan your year together. Stift: The fun and easy way to schedule your life. Please read the licensed application end user license agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ And our Terms of Service: https://www.s5t.app/terms
Countdown Fred
This app helps you keep track of important upcoming dates by displaying them as colorful cards. You can add events like holidays, birthdays, or gigs, and the app automatically sorts them by date. It offers home screen widgets and customizable display options for a personalized experience.
- Customizable event cards
- Automatic date sorting
- Home screen widgets
- Days or weeks display
- Light and dark mode
- No accounts or clutter
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Countdown Fred keeps the dates you are looking forward to where you can actually see them. Add the moments that matter — a holiday, a birthday, a wedding, a gig, the first day of something new — and Countdown Fred turns them into a clean grid of colourful cards, always sorted so the next one comes first. No accounts. No feeds. No clutter. Just how long until the good stuff. MAKE EVERY EVENT YOURS • Give each event a name, a date and one of eleven symbols • Choose from four card colours • Cards sort themselves by date, so what is next is always at the top • Tap any card to edit it or take it off the list DAYS OR WEEKS One tap switches the whole app between days and weeks. "45 days" or "6 weeks 3 days" — however you naturally think about time. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN • A small widget for your next event • A medium widget showing what is next plus two more coming up • The widget takes on the colour of your next event • Refreshes itself every day, so the number is always right MADE TO BE LOOKED AT • Flat, friendly design with rounded type and soft colour • Light and dark mode are each designed properly, not one inverted copy of the other • Quick to open, quick to add, then out of your way YOURS ALONE Everything stays on your iPhone. There is no account to create, nothing to sign in to, no tracking and no analytics. Your events are nobody else's business.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Countdown Fred at none against Pencil Planner's 3. Countdown Fred also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Pencil Planner's advantage is ratings volume (12 vs 2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Pencil Planner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months. Countdown Fred asks for nothing beyond the download.
Countdown Fred holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pencil Planner has 12 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Pencil Planner ships an update every 3 weeks, Countdown Fred monthly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Pencil Planner | Countdown Fred |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (12 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TNX Apps UG | DaMtech |
Customer experience
Pencil Planner
Countdown Fred
In-app purchases
Pencil Planner
- Quarterly Pro$2.993 Months
- Yearly Pro7 Days trial$7.991 Year
- Pro$12.99
Countdown Fred
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pencil Planner free?
Is Countdown Fred free?
Which has better reviews, Pencil Planner or Countdown Fred?
Do Pencil Planner or Countdown Fred have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pencil Planner or Countdown Fred?
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