Comparison

DateSmith vs PaperTrail

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

Head to head
About

DateSmith

Display custom date formats or countdowns on your Lock Screen and Home Screen. Personalize with themes, photos, and text styles. Optimized for dual-screen devices and designed for privacy.

Highlights
  • Customizable date formats
  • Countdown timers
  • Home Screen widgets
  • Lock Screen integration
  • Themable designs
  • Photo customization
  • Dual-screen optimization
Features
Read full description

Your date, above the clock. DateSmith puts a clearer, fuller date in the line above your Lock Screen clock, or a countdown to the day you are looking forward to. Now optimized for iPhone Duo, with bold Home Screen widgets you can make your own. YOUR FORMAT, YOUR WAY Pick any two of month, date, weekday and year, each in the style you like. See it live in a Lock Screen preview that changes with every tap. COUNTDOWNS Name it and pick the day. DateSmith shows the days left until a trip, a birthday or a big day. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Small, medium and large widgets show your date or countdown in big, clear type, with a week strip on the medium size, a month calendar on the large size and a date page on medium countdowns. - Themes: Dawn, Ocean, Aurora, Graphite and System - Your own photo, framed for the square and wide widget shapes - A different photo for Dark Mode if you like - Liquid Glass style text with a soft highlight and depth, or crisp solid text OPTIMIZED FOR IPHONE DUO DateSmith fits both displays, folded or open, in portrait and in landscape. Open it and hold it sideways to see your Lock Screen preview and every setting side by side. UPDATES ON ITS OWN DateSmith prepares the week ahead, so your widgets change each day, even when the app is closed. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no ads and no analytics. Your widgets need no internet connection. DateSmith never uploads your photo. SIMPLE SETUP 1. Touch and hold your Lock Screen 2. Tap Customize 3. Tap the date above the time 4. Choose DateSmith 5. Tap Done For the Home Screen, touch and hold an empty area of your Home Screen, tap Edit, tap Add Widget, then choose DateSmith. PLANS Try every format, countdown, theme, photo and text style free for 7 days. When the preview ends, your widgets show Preview Ended in place of your date or countdown until you subscribe. DateSmith Monthly or DateSmith Yearly keeps your widgets working. DateSmith Monthly includes a one-week free trial for eligible new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ben637482548.github.io/datesmith/#privacy

About

PaperTrail

Features
Read full description

Give your paperwork a place. PaperTrail brings receipts, warranties, reference documents and the details behind them into a private workspace for iPhone and iPad. Build a Trail around a purchase, a project or a part of your life, then keep its documents, notes and next actions together. CAPTURE AND FIND Scan multiple pages with your camera, choose photos, import files or use Save to PaperTrail from another app. Keep original PDFs and images intact, then search their text with on-device text recognition. REVIEW THE DETAILS Check suggested merchants, dates, totals and currencies against the original. Suggestions stay unconfirmed until you review them, and extracted dates never create reminders automatically. CONNECT YOUR PAPERWORK Organize Trails into collections, add tags and notes, and link one document to several Trails without duplicating its original. Use Inbox to find documents that need attention and Upcoming to see your next actions. REMEMBER WHAT COMES NEXT Add your own deadlines and enable optional local reminders. Notification details are private by default. Actions remain available in the app if you decline notification permission. MAKE A USEFUL PDF PACKET Select documents, arrange their order and add an optional cover and summary. Preview the finished PDF, then share it when you need to send a repair history, purchase record or project packet. KEEP CONTROL OF YOUR LIBRARY Use optional Face ID, Touch ID or device-passcode authentication. PaperTrail hides document content when inactive and preserves deleted documents in Trash until you choose permanent deletion. Your library is stored on this device, with no PaperTrail account, advertising, analytics SDK or cloud AI. PaperTrail is free, with no subscriptions or in-app purchases. BACK UP AND MOVE DELIBERATELY Export a manual backup to keep a recovery copy or transfer your library to another device. Library files are excluded from automatic device backups, including iCloud Backup, so keep a manual backup somewhere safe. There is no automatic sync between iPhone and iPad. Manual backups are not password-protected. Shared files and copies saved to cloud providers are outside PaperTrail's app lock. Restore validates a backup before replacing the current library; it does not merge libraries. Start with your own documents or explore the optional, clearly labeled sample library in Settings. Requires iOS or iPadOS 18 or later. Camera scanning requires a supported device. Supports PDF, JPEG, PNG, HEIC/HEIF and TIFF originals up to 100 MB each. Manual backups support libraries up to 1 GB.

Screenshots

DateSmith4 screens
PaperTrail4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PaperTrail at none against DateSmith's 2. On price, ads, device support 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. DateSmith sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PaperTrail asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
DateSmith versus PaperTrail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDateSmithPaperTrail
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBenjamin StaabChristopher Kirkland

In-app purchases

2 purchases

DateSmith

Subscriptions2
  • DateSmith Monthly7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • DateSmith Yearly$4.991 Year
None

PaperTrail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DateSmith free?
DateSmith is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PaperTrail free?
PaperTrail is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do DateSmith or PaperTrail have ads?
Neither DateSmith nor PaperTrail shows ads.

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