Countdown Star vs Countdown to Anything!
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Countdown Star
Track time until or since important life events. Set custom timers for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and more. Personalize with your own photos and share progress with friends.
- Add custom events
- Customize event visuals
- Apple Watch display
- Today Widget integration
- Set exact event times
- Adjust time units
- Share event progress
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Countdown Star is the best way to countdown to — and count up from — all of your favorite events. Countdown to birthdays, holidays, an upcoming vacation, a wedding, the New Year, parties, sporting events, concerts and more. Count up from anniversaries, the day you were born, and other special events in the past. * How many seconds until your next birthday? * How many months since you were born? * How many days until you graduate from college? * How many hours until your anniversary? * How much time is left until your vacation starts? * How many days until Christmas? * How many minutes until your party begins? * How much time is left until your baby's due date? Countdown Star is the countdown app that lets you choose which events to add, then keeps them in sync across all of your devices. Features: * iCloud Sync — events and wallpapers sync automatically across all your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch devices * Celebration Animations — choose Confetti, Fireworks, Balloons, Stars, or Lasers when your countdown reaches zero * Repeating Events — annual events automatically advance to the next year so you never have to update them * Home Screen Widgets — Small, Medium, and Large widgets let you glance at your countdowns without opening the app * Apple Watch — view your events right on your wrist * Add Your Own Events — add as many events as you like * Custom Wallpapers — choose from 15+ built-in wallpapers or use your own photos * Time Zone Support — set each event in any time zone with localized city names * Sort and Search — sort by date, title, or your own custom order; events are sectioned into Countdown and Count Up groups * Favorites and Notifications — mark events as favorites to receive a notification when their countdown reaches zero * Interactive Slider — instantly switch between seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years to see your countdown exactly how you want it * Customizable Timer — choose timer position (Top, Middle, or Bottom), show or hide weeks, and toggle the leading zero * Multiple App Icons — personalize the app icon on your Home Screen Note: Countdown Star is available as a free version (with ads and an optional Remove Ads purchase) and as a paid ad-free version.
Countdown to Anything!
Easily track upcoming events with customizable countdowns. Choose from a vast library of icons or create your own to personalize your countdowns for any occasion, from birthdays to holidays. Get notifications and share your progress with friends.
- Create countdowns to any date/time
- Customizable with hundreds of icons
- Repeating countdowns (yearly, weekly)
- Tagging for organization
- End countdown notifications
- Shareable countdowns
- Add notes to countdowns
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Count down to anything - birthdays, vacations, weddings, baby due dates and more - with no ads! FEATURES • Create countdowns to any future date and time, or even countups from a past event • Customise your countdowns with hundreds of cute icons for birthdays, vacations, weddings, baby due dates and lots more • Add a widget to your home screen showing your favourite countdown • Get notifications when your countdowns end • Share your countdowns privately with your friends, even if they don't have the app • Create repeating countdowns, such as yearly countdowns for a birthday, or even a weekly countdown to Friday evening! • Got lots of countdowns? Add custom tags to them so you can see similar countdowns at once. Try creating a "Birthdays" tag! • Add notes to your countdowns, like birthday present ideas, or travel details • No ads! I really don't like ads in apps, so there are no ads and no data sharing at all in Countdown to Anything PREMIUM FEATURES • More widgets - add as many as you want, plus a widget showing a list of your next countdowns • 240+ extra icons for every occasion • Unlimited colours, plus a hex picker for when you need it to be just right • Get reminder notifications before a countdown ends, not just when it ends • Extra layout options, custom time units, and more Premium is available as a one-time lifetime purchase or a yearly subscription. You can try Premium free for 7 days to see if you like it. BUILT-IN COUNTDOWNS Countdown to Anything also has a huge selection of built-in countdowns so you can easily count down to major events. Built-in events include holidays like New Year's Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Easter Sunday, Halloween, St Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day, and Chuseok, as well as sporting events including the World Cup and Olympics. ICONS There are icons for every occasion: vacations (including holidays, flights and cruises), concerts and festivals, movie and game releases, exams, anniversaries, parties, retirement, moving house, and hundreds more. In the unlikely event you can't find what you're looking for, contact me from the Settings screen in the app and I'll do my best to add a new icon for you! ABOUT ME Hi! I'm Gary, the developer behind Countdown to Anything. I handle the whole app myself, from development and design to support, bug fixes, and updates. I've built Countdown to Anything to be the kind of app I'd want to use: simple, useful and private. I hope you like it! ABOUT PURCHASES Premium is an optional upgrade, available as an annual subscription, or a one-time Lifetime purchase. Annual subscriptions will automatically renew unless auto-renew is tuned off at least 24 hours before the end of the subscription period. You can manage your subscription on the Premium screen in the app, or in your iPhone's Settings app. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Countdown to Anything! at none against Countdown Star's shown. Countdown to Anything! also leads on review sentiment (94% vs 60%). Countdown Star's advantage is ratings volume (216K vs 571) and monetization model (ad-supported vs freemium). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases 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 Star sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Countdown to Anything! sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Countdown Star against 4.8 for Countdown to Anything!. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown Star has 216K ratings behind it against 571, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 60% of Countdown Star's written reviews are positive against 94% of Countdown to Anything!'s.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and August 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Countdown Star | Countdown to Anything! |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (216K ratings) | 4.8 (571 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 59.6% of reviews | 94.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 216K — better | 571 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Joseph Merrill | Jupli |
Customer experience
Countdown Star
Countdown to Anything!
User reviews
Countdown Star
From 216K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great app
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 💡 Customizable backgrounds
- 👍 Helpful for tracking events
- 👍 Useful for long-distance relationships
Room to improve
- 🐛 Widget not working
- 🐛 Wallpaper feature not working
- 🐛 Countdown inaccuracies
- 🐛 Notifications not working
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
Countdown to Anything!
From 571 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💕 Fun and cute
- 🗓️ Helpful for keeping track of events
- 🎨 Customizable with colors and icons
- ⭐ Reliable and accurate
- 🔍 Useful for remembering important dates
Room to improve
- 💰 Some features locked behind paywall
- 🕰️ Countdown sometimes off by a day
- 🔒 Widgets only available with premium
- 🎨 Limited free icon/color options
Bugs and requests
Countdown Star
Reported bugs
5 issues- Widget not displaying events
- Wallpaper not saving
- Countdown off by one day
- Notifications not working as expected
- Crashes and glitches after updates
Requested features
6 requests- Add weeks option
- Allow multiple countdowns on one screen
- Provide Apple Watch complications
- Add ability to export/backup data
- Improve wallpaper customization
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Add option for annual/recurring events
Countdown to Anything!
Reported bugs
2 issues- Countdowns randomly disappearing
- App crashing on launch for some users
Requested features
5 requests- Add option to subtract weekends from countdowns
- Allow customizing countdown format (days vs weeks)
- Provide more free icons and color options
- Make widgets available in free version
- Add ability to set reminders for countdowns
In-app purchases
Countdown Star
- Remove Ads$1.99
Countdown to Anything!
- Premium7 Days trial$3.991 Year
- Premium (Lifetime)$9.99
Questions
Is Countdown Star free?
Is Countdown to Anything! free?
Which has better reviews, Countdown Star or Countdown to Anything!?
Do Countdown Star or Countdown to Anything! have ads?
Which is updated more often, Countdown Star or Countdown to Anything!?
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