Comparison

Visual Countdown Timer vs Colors & Shapes

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

Head to head
About

Visual Countdown Timer

This app uses a visual countdown to help children understand time and complete tasks. A picture is revealed as time elapses, and an exciting animation and sound reward completion. It aims to turn daily struggles into fun and encourage quicker task completion.

Highlights
  • Visual countdown from green to red
  • Picture revealed as time elapses
  • Exciting sound and animation reward
  • Customizable background images
  • User-selected reveal images
  • Adaptable for various tasks
Features
Read full description

Is it a battle to get your child to do something quickly? This visual countdown App was designed for my 2 year old son to help him get his reward chart star for getting dressed quickly. Getting him dressed used to take forever with many stalling strategies being deployed. Now he runs upstairs asking for the "Countdown". Watch as the timer runs from green to amber to red, helping the child understand that time is running out. A fun picture is slowly revealed as the time runs down and when the time is up the child is rewarded with an exciting sound and the picture spins. Background image changes to match the time of day, so that your child is given subtle hints as to what time of day the task they are being asked relates to. Choose your own image to reveal from your iPhones photo library to really surprise your child. Endless possible uses: * Getting dressed * Getting out the door (shoes and coats on) * Tidying * Brushing teeth * Sharing toys Turns daily struggles into fun time!

About

Colors & Shapes

This educational game helps preschool children develop color recognition and object matching skills through fun mini-games. It focuses on tracing, matching, and building, offering a playful environment for young learners to explore the world of colors and shapes.

Highlights
  • Color recognition
  • Shape matching
  • Object identification
  • Tracing activities
  • Painting mini-game
  • Collecting game
  • Building with shapes
Features
Read full description

When you look out the window, what do you see? Colors and shapes, green trees, square windows, a whole world of things to identify! Colors and Shapes is a fun and educational game for preschool children that helps teach object matching and color recognition skills. It's a beautiful world out there. Help your children learn to recognize and draw it! Colors and Shapes focuses on basic tracing, matching, and building skills kindergarten kids need to train. It features a number of unique mini-games designed to increase a child's ability to recognize and match shapes, identify and pair up colours, and even solve puzzles through simple touch screen interactions. It's incredibly easy to use and provides a fun learning environment kids will love. Colors and Shapes includes the following mini-games: 1. Painting - Kids love colouring games! Fill in the blank objects with all kinds of fun paint, then identify the objects one by one. A fun way for children to recognize colours and shapes. 2. Collecting - A fun and challenging game where children tap the correct colored objects and gather them in a basket! 3. Look-alikes - Match up the different items by picking the ones with the same colour. A challenging but fun way to learn colours and drawing skills. 4. Matching - Outlines are at the top of the screen, and a handful of shapes are at the bottom. Challenge your kids to match them up! 5. Tracing - Help your kids trace shapes by following the outline on the screen. Great for teaching shape patterns and recognition. 6. Building - Drag and drop animated pieces on the screen to create a shape in the middle. Colors & Shapes - Learn Coloring For Toddler Kids is a great learning experience for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and children of all ages. Parents will appreciate the customizable difficulty settings. Kids will have a great time learning to recognize different colors and shapes, completing all of the mini-games, and earning sticker rewards! Best of all, Colors and Shapes is absolutely free! No annoying third party ads, no in-app purchases, just pure educational fun for you and your family. Note to Parents: When creating Colors and Shapes, we wanted to create the most entertaining and educational game possible for both parents and their children. We're parents ourselves, and we know how frustrating intrusive third party ads and in-app purchases can be. That's why we decided to release this game for free. You and your child can enjoy an uninterrupted learning experience without having to worry about micro-transactions and the like. Just sit down and start learning. It's exactly the sort of educational experience we want for our children, which is why we know your family will love it, too! Best wishes from the parents at RV AppStudios

Screenshots

Visual Countdown Timer4 screens
Colors & Shapes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Colors & Shapes at none against Visual Countdown Timer's 7. Colors & Shapes also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.5). Visual Countdown Timer's advantage is ratings volume (40K vs 3.7K). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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

Both are free to download. Visual Countdown Timer sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. Colors & Shapes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Visual Countdown Timer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Visual Countdown Timer has 40K ratings behind it against 3.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 80% and 80% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Visual Countdown Timer ships an update monthly, Colors & Shapes fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Visual Countdown Timer versus Colors & Shapes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVisual Countdown TimerColors & Shapes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (40K ratings) — better4.4 (3.7K ratings)
Positive reviews80.3% of reviews — better79.5% of reviews
Number of ratings40K — better3.7K
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.513.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size185 MB305 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFehners Software LLPRV AppStudios LLC

Customer experience

Visual Countdown Timer

All ratings40,434 ratings
Positive89.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews290 reviews
Positive80.3%
Neutral6.2%
Negative13.4%

Colors & Shapes

All ratings3,662 ratings
Positive85.8%
Neutral7.3%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews88 reviews
Positive79.5%
Neutral6.8%
Negative13.6%

User reviews

Visual Countdown Timer

From 40K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for classroom/special needs use
  • 👍 Simple and visual design
  • 👍 Customizable pictures and sounds
  • 👍 Helps with transitions and routines
  • 👍 Motivates kids to complete tasks

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔊 Loud ticking sound
  • 🔒 Ads in free version
  • 🔒 Can't pause or stop timer

Colors & Shapes

From 3.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fantastic learning tool for kids
  • 👍 Engaging and educational games
  • 👍 Easy for young children to use
  • 👍 Helps children learn colors, shapes, and more
  • 👍 Completely free with no ads

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sound issues on some devices
  • 🐛 Accidental app closing due to button placement
  • 🐛 Occasional freezing or glitches in certain games

Bugs and requests

Visual Countdown Timer

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Custom pictures load rotated
  • Timer stops working when app is in background

Requested features

5 requests
  • Option to set timer to countdown to a specific time
  • Ability to adjust timer in smaller increments
  • Option to keep picture displayed after timer ends
  • Background timer functionality
  • Custom sound/music options

Colors & Shapes

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Sound not working on some devices
  • Inability to change language on certain devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add more languages, including Russian
  • Improve navigation and menu structure
  • Increase stopping points between activities

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Visual Countdown Timer

One-time7
  • Ocean Pack$0.99
  • Transport Pack$0.99
  • Animal Pack$0.99
Show 4 more
  • Cartoon Pack$0.99
  • Mask Maker$0.99
  • Remove Ads$1.99
  • Premium Upgrade$3.99
None

Colors & Shapes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Visual Countdown Timer free?
Visual Countdown Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Colors & Shapes free?
Colors & Shapes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Visual Countdown Timer or Colors & Shapes?
Visual Countdown Timer is rated higher. Visual Countdown Timer averages 4.6 out of 5 from 40K ratings, while Colors & Shapes averages 4.4 from 3.7K ratings.
Do Visual Countdown Timer or Colors & Shapes have ads?
Visual Countdown Timer shows ads; Colors & Shapes does not.
Which is updated more often, Visual Countdown Timer or Colors & Shapes?
Visual Countdown Timer ships an update monthly, and Colors & Shapes fortnightly. Most recently, Visual Countdown Timer was updated on October 16, 2026 and Colors & Shapes on October 16, 2026.

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