Comparison

Brutal Time vs Needless Clock

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

Head to head
About

Brutal Time

Features
Read full description

Brutal Time turns your iPhone into a brutalist desk clock. Put it on a charger and it fills the screen, edge to edge, with nothing but type. It tells time without decoration, distraction, or gimmicks. ON THE CHARGER StandBy widgets for every clock face, and widgets for the Home Screen. A full-screen, StandBy-style display for the app itself, with the status bar hidden so the clock owns the whole screen. Add a Shortcut and it opens by itself the moment you plug in. Always-On keeps it lit while charging and dims it after a few seconds, then lets the phone sleep again as soon as you unplug. FOUR TYPOGRAPHIC FACES Four distinct designs, each built on a different typographic system: digits locked to a ruled grid, editorial Swiss with a red accent, oversized poster glyphs cropped by the frame, and mono type over a dot-indexed field. Each reads as words or numerals, in dark or light, portrait or landscape. UNLOCK AMBIENT MOTION WITH THE FULL EDITION Each face can come alive. Continuous, ambient motion runs through the type — letters that breathe, sway, and resolve on their own unhurried rhythm, with several motions for every face. Calm and deliberate, never a screensaver. Ambient Motion is the only paid feature, and the Full Edition is a one-time purchase — buy it once, keep it forever. Everything else is free: every clock face, every typeface, every widget, the full-screen display and Always-On. Also included: - Three typefaces per face - Custom accent colors - Home Screen and StandBy widgets - No subscription. No ads. Ever. Brutal Time is shaped by brutalist design principles: visible structure, a restrained palette, and the removal of unnecessary ornament. Time is shown as type, grid, and rhythm — clear, functional, and deliberate.

About

Needless Clock

Experience 14 unique, animated clock worlds that transform time into captivating motion. These living clocks offer a tranquil visual experience for your desk or bedside, with interactive elements and customizable displays.

Highlights
  • 14 living, animated clock worlds
  • Interactive elements within clock scenes
  • Customizable display options
  • Night dimming schedule
  • Cross-device compatibility (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV)
  • No account, ads, or tracking
Features
Read full description

14 living, animated clock worlds for your desk and bedside. Fish, birds, ants, cars, calligraphy and more turn real time into motion. Made for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. No account, no ads and no third-party tracking. The clocks run on your device. People do not open Needless Clock merely to find out the time. More often, they want the glowing screen beside them to grow quiet without becoming empty: something to glance at between tasks, a little light at night, time passing without hurrying anyone along. Needless Clock is a collection of living, animated clocks. They all keep the same real time, but each inhabits a world of its own. Fish turn through water, birds arrive from far away, ants hurry under the weight of a treat, cars follow the painted lines of a car park, and a brush writes numerals in water. At the turn of a minute the picture wakes; once everything has found its place, only small movements, wings, shadows and breathing remain. TIME HAS FOURTEEN PLACES TO GO Fish gather into figures. Touch the water and those nearby scatter, then swim home along their own curved paths. Birds perch on five wires. Some leave at the next minute, others find a new place, and now and then a distant bird crosses the clouds. Tap once and the sky sinks beneath the sea, the flock becoming fish of different forms. Ants carry biscuits, rock sugar, dried fish, winter-melon candy and leaves. Cars pull into bays. Metal blocks fall one by one. These digits are not displayed; they are made. Lotus Pond, Starry Night and Auspicious Cranes share one frame: brushstrokes paint the time across the water, and cranes fly out of the painting to form the figures. White sand crabs climb out of their burrows and line up as figures, while a few red crabs wander the beach, slipping into a burrow or strolling past. Water runs from a brush onto stone and disappears first from the finest ends of the strokes. Oracle bone, bronze, seal and clerical scripts sit beside the hands of Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing and Huang Tingjian, letting one numeral travel through centuries. A gnomon casts its shadow among the twelve Earthly Branches, its length changing through the twenty-four solar terms. There is also a wall of cooperating clock faces, a luminous word clock, figures revealed by paper and shadow, and mechanical flaps that fall like those once heard in stations and airports. GOOD JUST LEFT THERE Swipe to move between clocks. Tap to change a material, colour or world. Or choose a few favourites and let them rotate by themselves, from every minute to every hour. At night the display can dim on your schedule. Keep the screen awake, or hide the title, date and time zone until only time remains. It belongs on an iPhone stand, across an iPad, beside a Mac workspace, or spread quietly over the television in a living room. A MOMENT YOU CAN TAKE WITH YOU On supported devices, Share waits for the next minute. It keeps the stillness before the change and stops after the movement has come to rest, making a short clock film to save or send. No account, no advertising and no third-party tracking. The clocks and their calculations stay on the device. Location is off by default and, if enabled, is used only to let the car park grow dark near your own sunset. Supports Reduce Motion and VoiceOver. Made for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. All clocks now support portrait and landscape on iPhone and iPad, including upside-down portrait. May it do more than tell the time. May it keep the time with you for a while. New: a staircase clock with three architectural designs. Home Screen widgets offer 10 clock styles, with a design and time zone for each widget. Update timing is managed by the system.

Screenshots

Brutal Time4 screens
Needless Clock4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Needless Clock at none against Brutal Time's 1. Needless Clock also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks) and device support (4 vs 1). On price, ads 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. Brutal Time sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Needless Clock asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Brutal Time ships an update every 3 weeks, Needless Clock every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Brutal Time versus Needless Clock: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBrutal TimeNeedless Clock
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB112 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperForager Lab LLC路 林

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Brutal Time

One-time1
  • Full Edition$4.99
None

Needless Clock

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Brutal Time free?
Brutal Time is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Needless Clock free?
Needless Clock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Brutal Time or Needless Clock have ads?
Neither Brutal Time nor Needless Clock shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Brutal Time or Needless Clock?
Brutal Time ships an update every 3 weeks, and Needless Clock every 5 days. Most recently, Brutal Time was updated on November 9, 2026 and Needless Clock on November 10, 2026.

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