Timer vs Five Timer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Timer
This advanced timer allows for precise time management across various activities. Set multiple special events with customizable triggers like sounds, messages, or screen flashing. It's ideal for games, workouts, cooking, meditation, and any task requiring accurate timing, even when the app is in the background.
- Multiple complex timers simultaneously
- Scheduled event triggers (sounds, messages, photos)
- Customizable display modes (textual, graphical)
- Background operation with sound/message alerts
- Looping timers
- Delayed start and flexible stop time entry
- Screen blocking and flashlight alerts
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Build timers that guide you through every step. Hear the next stretching instruction, follow a cooking sequence, or alternate activity and rest—with spoken announcements, sounds and clear visual progress. Start with a ready-made preset, then adapt it to your routine. From a simple countdown to a workout with several stages, choose your cues and preview the sequence before you begin. Try the Stretching preset for an example with spoken guidance. HEAR WHAT COMES NEXT Create cues such as “Hold the stretch” or “Round 3 of 5.” Combine your own text with timer and event names, round numbers, elapsed or remaining time, and the current clock time. Choose a voice and delay speech to let an alarm sound first. Use the same text and variables in on-screen messages and notifications. SET THE PACE OF YOUR ROUTINE Build intervals for HIIT, Tabata, stretching, meditation or study breaks. You can also time turns in board games. • Choose a duration or a specific finish time, with an optional preparation delay. • Repeat for a set number of rounds or indefinitely. • Schedule cues at specific times of day, relative to the start or end, or at regular intervals. Use times or percentages—for example, a gong 30 seconds before the end or a tick every second. • Run an event every round, only the first or last, or a range such as rounds 3–5. End actions can run every round or only after the final one. SAVE IT ONCE, USE IT AGAIN Run several timers at once. Use events to control timers, display a timer or open a URL. Add, reorder and hide timers to keep the ones you need within reach. Save your setups as presets, organize them, and import or export them to reuse or share. SEE YOUR PROGRESS AT A GLANCE Display remaining time, elapsed time, the clock or graphical progress in two customizable areas. Switch to full screen for a larger view, in portrait or landscape. Keep track of the current round, dim the display for a less intrusive screen, and lock the controls while keeping the time visible. Choose whether to stop at the end or keep showing the time elapsed since finishing. MAKE IT YOUR OWN Choose bells, gongs and other alarms, or import and record your own sounds. Try Shepard tones: sequences that seem to rise or fall endlessly in pitch. Play a song from your music library, choose a random track from a playlist, or schedule music to stop. Prefer silent cues? Use on-screen messages, vibrations or a flashing screen. Customize colors and backgrounds, and search over 1,800 icons. On supported devices, you can also schedule photos or use the flashlight as a visual cue. In the background, scheduled notifications can display messages and play sounds. Snooze reminders directly from notifications, choose whether to show round and notification numbers, or tap to run your configured timer controls or open a URL. Spoken announcements and photos require Timer to stay open.
Five Timer
This app provides a modern and powerful timer for solving puzzles, supporting all WCA puzzles with customizable sessions and random scramblers. It offers innovative features like drop-to-stop and time tinting, along with detailed statistics and universal compatibility for iPhone and iPad.
- Universal App for iPhone and iPad
- WCA puzzle support with custom sessions
- Random state scramblers for multiple puzzles
- Innovative 'Drop to stop' timer control
- Time tinting for performance comparison
- Optional 15-second inspection
- Detailed statistics and averages
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FiveTimer is your cube timer with all the strength where it matters. Modern and updated regularly, FiveTimer has been developed and maintained since 2011. Today, it's full of power-user features you won't see in any other timer including: • Universal App for the iPhone and iPad. • Puzzle support for all WCA puzzles across multiple sessions and custom sessions you can configure yourself. - Random state scramblers include 2x2, 3x3, Square-1, Pyraminx, and Skewb. - Blindfold scrambles* • Drop to stop, an innovative and natural way to stop the timer. • Time tint, times colored based on how they fare to time compares to the session* • Hold to start or tap to start with an optional 15 second inspection. • Landscape support for iPhones* • Statistics for averages of 5, 12, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 • Supports SplitView on iPads • Voice options to read the times of give inspection alerts* • Hardware keyboard shortcuts including start and stop with spacebar. * feature exclusive to FiveTimer
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Timer at 4.8 against Five Timer's 4.4. Timer also leads on ratings volume (222 vs 34). Five Timer's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 7 months) and price ($1.99 vs $3.99). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Timer costs $3.99 and Five Timer $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Timer holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Timer has 222 ratings behind it against 34, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 80% and 81% positive.
Timer ships an update every 7 months, Five Timer every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Timer | Five Timer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (222 ratings) — better | 4.4 (34 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.2% of reviews | 80.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 222 — better | 34 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13 — better | 13.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Francis Bonnin | T.Wright |
Customer experience
Timer
Five Timer
User reviews
Timer
From 222 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for workouts and exercises
- 🚀 Highly customizable and versatile
- 🔔 Excellent timer with multiple alert options
- 💡 Useful for presentations and meetings
- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and stability issues
- 🔋 Can drain battery when running in the background
- 🔍 Confusing interface with too many advanced features
- 🔇 Sound alerts not always working as expected
Five Timer
From 34 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- ✨ Nice UI
- ⚙️ Customizable shortcuts
- 💰 Worth the money
- 🚀 Fast and fluid experience
Room to improve
- 🐛 Overlapping UI on newer iPhones
- 🐛 Incompatible with Dynamic Island
- 🐛 Top bar inaccessible on newer iPhones
- 🐛 Buttons covered by Dynamic Island
- 🐛 Reset button easy to accidentally press
Bugs and requests
Timer
Reported bugs
3 issues- Timer randomly changing time during use
- Alarm not sounding when app is in background
- Screen dimming and locking issues
Requested features
4 requests- Multiple timers running concurrently
- Ability to save and share custom timer presets
- More vibration and sound alert options
- Improved background mode and iOS 4 support
Five Timer
Reported bugs
23 issues- Application and screen display not compatible with iPhone 17
- Setting tools overlapping with time and battery on iPhone 17 Pro
- Top control bar overlaps system status bar on newer iPhones with Dynamic Island
- Top bar inaccessible unless in landscape mode on iPhones with Dynamic Island
- Buttons at the top are at the same height as the dynamic island, making them unpressable
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- Buttons on the top are obstructed by the notch and unpressable
- Very easy to reset session, accidentally resetting all solves
- Settings take forever to load after many solves
- App crashes when trying to click on 'best avg'
- App crashes upon opening
- Tabbing out of the program causes it to refuse to tab back in
- App crashes after one time on iOS 6
- Drop to stop feature does not work while hiding solve time
- App crashes upon opening, even after reinstall
- Update issue: touch screen no longer stops timer as well
- Drop to stop does not stop as well after update
- Timer will just stop when not near phone
- Starting a solve before 10 secs of inspection left results in DNF
- App crashes every time upon opening
- App won't open after update
- Keeps displaying dnf instead of timing properly even with drop to stop turned off
- Reset button barely works, often starts timer instead
- Spacebar use with keyboard causes other buttons to start timer again
Requested features
19 requests- FTO scrambles for new WCA event
- Show expected end result of scramble
- 3x3 OH session
- Date and time for export reports
- Scramble graphic included
Show 14 moreShow fewer
- Show date/time for each solve
- 3x3 OH stock session
- Add custom notation for custom puzzles
- Preview scramble option on stock puzzles
- Random state clock scrambles
- Generate drawing of scramble
- Average of 100
- Bigger text for time on iPad
- Option to disable red flash during inspection
- Graph on iPad version
- Ability to internally save sessions
- Support for Megaminx
- Customization of colors or font sizes
- 15 sec countdown (like iiTimer)
In-app purchases
Timer
No in-app purchases
Five Timer
No in-app purchases








