Countdown vs My Bookshelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Countdown
Visually track upcoming events with customizable countdowns. Set timers for vacations, concerts, or anniversaries using your own photos, music, and phrases. Share your progress with friends and family.
- iOS 16 Lock Screen Widgets
- Home Screen Widgets
- Customizable Background Photos
- Personalized Music & Fonts
- Calendar Event Integration
- Count Up from Past Events
- Event Reminders
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Count down to your next event — a vacation, your favorite band's concert, a movie premiere, a graduation, an anniversary, and more — in style! Features: LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS: Add countdown widgets to your lock screen! First, set up your countdown in the Countdown app. Then, pull down your lock screen, long-hold an empty area and tap "Customize." FLEXIBLE UNITS: Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and even heartbeats! (e.g. "3 months 14 mins" or "56,713 heartbeats") DRAG the Countdown and DISPLAY it wherever you want. Use YOUR OWN PHOTOS as the background, including INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK PHOTOS! Or browse a large selection of FREE BACKGROUND PHOTOS. Flip through your background photos while counting down. Set your own MUSIC for each Countdown. Customizable FONTS, font colors, and background colors. Add YOUR OWN PHRASE — "the concert of the year," "little pumpkin's dance performance," "we board the plane." Create Countdowns straight from your CALENDAR EVENTS. MULTIPLE Countdowns — rearrange them however you like. REMINDERS for your events. SHARE a live Countdown or a screenshot via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or email. Count down to ANNIVERSARIES that repeat every year. (e.g. "25 days until my 10th anniversary!") COUNT UP from past events. (e.g. "21 days since…") SMART TOOLBAR stays hidden until you tap the screen — more room for your Countdowns. Works in PORTRAIT and LANDSCAPE mode. === Countdown Premium === HOME SCREEN WIDGETS: Count the days to your event without ever opening the app. SLIDESHOW MODE: Automatically cycle your background photos with a choice of animation styles and speeds. NO ADS: No distractions or clutter — just you and your countdown. Make each second count! In addition to the free features above, Countdown Premium is available as a subscription. Premium subscribers get an ad-free experience, home screen widgets, and slideshow mode. Price may vary by location. Subscriptions are charged to your payment method through your Apple ID account and renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage your subscription anytime in Account Settings. Terms: https://www.sunflowr.com/terms-of-service/ Privacy Policy: https://www.sunflowr.com/privacy/
My Bookshelf
Easily track books you're reading, want to read, or have finished. Add books via search, manual entry, or barcode scanning. Organize, rate, and review your collection, then share recommendations with friends.
- Book search via Google Books
- Manual book entry
- Barcode scanning for books
- Organize by author, category, title
- Rate and review books
- Share book lists with friends
- Multiple theme options
- Cross-device syncing (iPhone/iPad)
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Do you keep a record of all of the books you are reading, want to read or have previously read? Do you like to share good book titles with your friends? My Bookshelf is the solution for you. Finding and adding books to your bookshelf is easy. First try a Google Book Search within the app, and failing a successful hit, perform a manual entry or scan a physical book's barcode. You can find books in on your bookshelves by either searching the list by author, category or title or, you can take a look at the bar charts and drill down on one of the monthly tallies, a, category, or an author. Once you find what you are looking for, you can edit the detail or you can revise the status and change the bookshelf, give it a rating or even your own review. Sharing your books is easy too as you can tap the share button and either Air Drop or email your friends. It will automatically go into their “To Read” bookshelf once accepted. If you don’t like the initial Dark Theme, you have two other themes to choose from. And finally, if you use an iPad as well as your iPhone, My Bookshelf has you covered. Install the app on your iPad and access the same information,. Update on one device and it is immedialy updated on the other.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: My Bookshelf at 4.6 against Countdown 's 3.8. My Bookshelf also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (57% vs 34%). Countdown 's advantage is ratings volume (11K vs 171). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. Countdown sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 3 months and My Bookshelf sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
My Bookshelf holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown has 11K ratings behind it against 171, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 34% of Countdown 's written reviews are positive against 57% of My Bookshelf's.
Countdown ships an update every 2 months, My Bookshelf fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Countdown | My Bookshelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.8 (11K ratings) | 4.6 (171 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 34.0% of reviews | 57.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 11K — better | 171 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 12.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 80 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sevenlogics, Inc. | Stewart Lynch |
Customer experience
Countdown
My Bookshelf
Bugs and requests
Countdown
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes on opening
- Countdown not displaying correctly
- Widget not loading properly
- Purchased premium features not working
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to have multiple countdowns
- Option to repeat countdown events
- Countdown widget on home screen
- Improved sharing capabilities
My Bookshelf
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Countdown
- Countdown Premium - 3 Months$4.993 Months
- Countdown Premium - Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Premium Backgrounds I$0.99
- Holiday Backgrounds I$0.99
- Premium$19.99
My Bookshelf
- Unlimited Books$3.99
Questions
Is Countdown free?
Is My Bookshelf free?
Which has better reviews, Countdown or My Bookshelf?
Do Countdown or My Bookshelf have ads?
Which is updated more often, Countdown or My Bookshelf?
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