Comparison

Clean Count vs Fluid Friction

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

Head to head
About

Clean Count

Features
Read full description

Clean Count is your all-in-one countdown tracker for life’s upcoming moments. Whether it’s a birthday, a vacation, or a product launch, Clean Count helps you stay organized with a simple, clutter-free interface and stylish home screen widgets. What Clean Count has: Clean & Intuitive Design Keep things simple. Quickly add or edit events without digging through menus. Customizable Colors & Styles Personalize each countdown with vibrant hues and modern patterns. Stylish Widgets View your top events on the Home Screen in small, medium, or large widget formats. Upgrade to Pro for unlimited styles , picture support, and iCloud sync across all your devices. Download Clean Count today for a fresh, modern approach to tracking every milestone! No intrusive ads, no unnecessary clutter, just pure countdown bliss.

About

Fluid Friction

This app introduces deliberate friction to your scrolling habits, making mindless consumption a conscious choice. It offers customizable shields for apps and websites, NFC tag integration for physical access control, and a unique alarm system to start your day without immediate digital distraction.

Highlights
  • Customizable scroll friction
  • App and website blocking
  • NFC tag integration
  • Intentional alarm system
  • Calm shields with cooldowns
  • Focus timer and Pomodoro sessions
  • Calm Score and weekly recaps
Features
Read full description

Block Reels, Shorts and For You, and keep your messages. Every feed blocker in Fluid Friction is free. Then go further: open Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, X, Snapchat, Facebook or LinkedIn inside Fluid Friction, or add any website you choose, and the feed pushes back. Fluid rises from the edge of the screen against your thumb. Drag through it until a bubble forms and rises off the screen. Only then does the next post arrive. Cross the threshold on purpose, or set the phone down. It doesn't shame you. It just makes you mean it. WHY IT WORKS Infinite feeds run on autopilot. Fluid Friction slips one deliberate moment between you and the scroll, so doomscrolling becomes a decision instead of a reflex. The friction lives inside the scroll itself. Dial it from gentle to intense, set scroll limits per app, and let YouTube friction fire on Shorts only. CALM SHIELDS FOR YOUR OTHER APPS Block any native app, or a website, with Screen Time. Instead of a wall of shame you get a calm, warm screen, a clear count of the opens you chose to keep, a cooldown between opens, and a breathing, math or passphrase moment before you go in. Timed sessions count down right in the Dynamic Island and the shield returns when time is up. One toggle also blocks adult websites. Strict when you ask for it, dignified always. KEEP THE CHATS, SKIP THE RABBIT HOLE Hide Reels, Shorts, Stories, Explore and For You while messages keep working. Open apps to a calmer landing page, follow only the people you chose, hide recommendations and comments on YouTube, or go grayscale across every feed. Multiple accounts with separate sessions are built in, so the calmer way is also the comfortable way. TAP & SCAN Turn any NFC tag you already own into a physical key (NFC on iPhone): a sticker, a card, even a transit pass. Tap to lock your distracting apps, tap to release them, or require a scan to unlock a shield. No extra hardware to buy; a QR code or a barcode in your kitchen works too. WAKE UP WITHOUT THE FEED An alarm that ends with a scan, not a scroll. Dismiss it with your tag or a barcode across the room, answer a quick wake challenge, and let a morning block hold the feeds until you are up. Wind down at night, track your wake streak, and earn 25 honest milestones. On iOS 26 the alarm rings like the built-in clock; on earlier versions it alerts through notifications. SEE YOURSELF CLEARLY A Calm Score reflects how your scrolling actually went. Real Screen Time numbers, weekly recaps, and tailored suggestions you can apply with one tap, like a schedule for the hour that always gets you. FOCUS WHEN IT COUNTS Focus timer, Pomodoro sessions, and a Focus Bank that turns focused minutes into earned, deliberate breaks. Breaks keep the feeds blocked by default, and the countdown lives in the Dynamic Island. ON IPAD AND APPLE WATCH Fluid Friction now runs natively on iPad, with calm feeds, shields and insights laid out for the bigger screen. On iPad, your key is a QR code or a barcode. On Apple Watch, start a focus session, lock your apps now, see and set your alarms, and keep your wake streak. The blocking itself runs on your iPhone. MAKE IT YOURS 91 bubble themes, from aurora to plasma, with mystery unlocks and matching app icons. Home screen widgets too, including a minimalist launcher that routes tempting apps through the wave. PRIVATE AND FAIR No ads. No tracking. Your usage stays on your device. Every tool is free: the friction, the shields, the alarm, the insights. Fluid Pro, if you ever want it, unlocks themes and comfort extras like dark mode, with a 7 day free trial. MADE BY TWIN BROTHERS We're Manfred and Gustav. We built Fluid Friction because we needed it ourselves, and we kept the parts that matter calm, honest and respectful of your attention. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://fluidfriction.app/ios/privacy Terms of Service: https://fluidfriction.app/ios/terms

Screenshots

Clean Count4 screens
Fluid Friction4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Fluid Friction at every 10 days against Clean Count's every 2 months. Fluid Friction also leads on device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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. Clean Count sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Fluid Friction sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Clean Count ships an update every 2 months, Fluid Friction every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Clean Count versus Fluid Friction: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClean CountFluid Friction
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.6 (20 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—85.7% of reviews
Number of ratings—20 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB103 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNikolaus Letsche-FriedGustav Mtenji Bergdal Mjengwa

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Clean Count

One-time1
  • Clean Count Unlimited$2.99
2 purchases

Fluid Friction

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is Clean Count free?
Clean Count is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fluid Friction free?
Fluid Friction is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Clean Count or Fluid Friction have ads?
Neither Clean Count nor Fluid Friction shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Clean Count or Fluid Friction?
Clean Count ships an update every 2 months, and Fluid Friction every 10 days. Most recently, Clean Count was updated on October 30, 2026 and Fluid Friction on November 5, 2026.

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