Comparison

Christmas vs Pulse

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

Head to head
About

Christmas

Experience the holiday spirit with festive music and a countdown to Christmas. Enjoy beautiful carols performed by real musicians, set a sleep timer, and wake up to holiday cheer. Keep the Christmas spirit alive all year round with this immersive experience.

Highlights
  • Christmas carols by real musicians
  • Countdown to Christmas
  • Sleep timer
  • Wake up alarm
  • Background audio
  • Fading imagery
  • Rearrange song order
Features
Read full description

Bring the Christmas spirit to your day with soothing holiday music, festive scenery, and a live countdown to Christmas. Enjoy 22 Christmas tracks, including vocal and instrumental performances, plus a separate Snow Storm sound with its own volume control. FEATURES • Live Christmas countdown in days, hours, minutes, and seconds • A special MERRY CHRISTMAS! greeting on Christmas Day • Festive video backdrops and 25 beautiful photos • Offline music and photo slideshow • Sleep timer with a gentle fade-out • Wake timer • Independent music and sound volumes • Background audio and repeat playback • Gentle snow flurries throughout the control panel Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Video provided by Videezy.com.

About

Pulse

This metronome app offers standard features like tempo setting and accent control, alongside unique timing exercises. It includes practice tools like mute beats, bar muting, tempo shifting, and gradual tempo adjustments for practice and performance.

Highlights
  • Tap tempo setting
  • Mute/accent beat control
  • Unique timing exercises
  • Setlists for practice
  • Italian tempo names
  • Classical metronome markings
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Pulse is a brand new metronome built from the ground up. It does what you would expect from a metronome but it also comes with unique exercises that are designed to challenge and improve your sense of timing. * Selected features * - Tap to mute/change accents for beats - Tap to set tempo - Built in unique exercises (modifiers) - Arrange songs in setlists for practice and gigs - Select tempo from a list of Italian names (Larghissimo-Prestissimo) - Select tempo from a list of Classical metronome markings * Exercises * There are seven built-in exercises in Pulse designed to help you develop your timing: * Mute beats The metronome randomly mutes beats, giving you less to lean on, forcing you to develop and trust your own internal timing. * Mute bars The metronome randomly mutes for a set maximum number of bars, forcing you to keep time yourself. The metronome is still running, but silently. When it unmutes again, you can check if you are in time or not. * Shift beats This exercise mutes all but one of the beats in the bar. The sounding beat shifts. For example, using a time signature of 4/4: 1 - - - - 2 - - - - 3 - - - - 4 - - - - * Random Start Tempo Playing a piece at slightly different tempos forces you to pay more attention to the timing. This exercise keeps you on your toes by altering the tempo each time the metronome starts. * Accelerator This exercise lets you practice a difficult piece/passage at a comfortable tempo and then increase the tempo gradually. Set the tempo to a low setting where it is possible to play the piece correctly. The modifier will keep this tempo for a set number of bars and then increase the tempo with a set number of BPMs. * Decelerator This exercise does the opposite of Accelerator. Set the starting tempo and the modifier will keep this tempo for a set number of bars and then gradually decrease the tempo with a set number of BPMs. * Rollercoaster The tempo varies and the goal is to follow as it goes up and down, like a rollercoaster. This is an advanced exercise forcing you to listen and pay attention to the tempo. It's very fun as well.

Screenshots

Christmas2 screens
Pulse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pulse at 100% against Christmas's 44%. Pulse also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and chart position (#171 vs unranked). Christmas's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and update cadence (monthly vs every 6 months). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Christmas is free to download; Pulse costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pulse holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Christmas has 51 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of Christmas's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pulse's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Christmas ships an update monthly, Pulse every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Christmas versus Pulse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChristmasPulse
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.7 (51 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings51 — better4
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#171 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size147 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperXME Inc.thoor software AB

Customer experience

Christmas

All ratings50 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive44.1%
Neutral10.2%
Negative45.8%

Pulse

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Christmas

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • No "beautiful fading imagery", just white screen
  • No video on Apple TV
  • Background missing on Apple TV version
  • Cannot change wallpapers on Apple TV
  • App only plays the first song and no more
Show 8 more
  • Music keeps playing when app is closed
  • App goes blank/black
  • App won't load/crashes after update
  • App won't startup
  • App won't open
  • Crashing reported months ago
  • Application never appears after download
  • Update broke the music functionality

Requested features

13 requests
  • Changeable wallpapers
  • Video on Apple TV
  • Fix Apple TV background
  • Add "Greensleeves" song
  • Add new music for New Year
Show 8 more
  • Make it louder
  • Add a timer
  • Ability to erase recorded files
  • More Christmas carols
  • Next song starts automatically
  • Pause button
  • Scroll through song list while listening
  • Update for iOS 4

Pulse

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Christmas

No in-app purchases

None

Pulse

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Christmas free?
Christmas is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pulse free?
Pulse costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Christmas or Pulse?
Pulse is rated higher. Christmas averages 4.7 out of 5 from 51 ratings, while Pulse averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Christmas or Pulse have ads?
Neither Christmas nor Pulse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Christmas or Pulse?
Christmas ships an update monthly, and Pulse every 6 months. Most recently, Christmas was updated on November 7, 2026 and Pulse on November 6, 2026.

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