CountFree vs Countdown Widget
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CountFree
Track important future events and past milestones with customizable widgets. View real-time countdowns and count-ups directly on your Home Screen without ads or paywalls.
- Unlimited countdowns and count-ups
- Unlimited Home Screen widgets
- Multiple widget sizes
- Four customizable themes
- Progress bars
- Custom emoji support
- Real-time updates
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Track every moment that matters — right on your Home Screen. CountFree gives you beautiful countdown and count-up widgets with zero catches. No ads. No paywalls. No "premium" upgrades. Every single feature is yours, and it always will be. Whether you're counting down to a wedding, a vacation, or your baby's due date — or counting up from a sobriety milestone, a move to a new city, or the day you adopted your dog — CountFree keeps your most important dates front and center. WIDGETS THAT FEEL LIKE HOME Add countdown widgets directly to your iPhone or iPad Home Screen in small, medium, or large sizes. Pick from four beautiful themes — light, dark, sunset, and ocean — and personalize each event with any emoji. Set a start date and end date to see a progress bar that shows exactly how far you've come. It's incredibly satisfying to watch it fill up. Your countdowns update in real time. Just glance at your Home Screen — no need to open the app. COUNTS UP TOO Not every important date is in the future. Track time since meaningful moments: → Days sober → Years at your job → Time since you quit smoking → How long you've been together → Gym streak → Anything that matters to you I built CountFree because I was tired of countdown apps that lock basic features behind paywalls. Want more than 3 widgets? Pay up. Want a dark theme? Subscribe. It felt wrong. So I built the app I wanted to use — and made everything available to you. CountFree is a passion project. There are no investors, no growth targets, no ad networks. Just an app that does what it says. If CountFree adds value to your life, there's an optional tip jar and a supporter subscription to help me keep building. Supporters get a small badge as a thank-you. But you already have everything — it's just a way to say thanks. EVERYTHING YOU GET → Unlimited countdowns and count-ups → Unlimited Home Screen widgets → Small, medium, and large widget sizes → Four themes: light, dark, sunset, ocean → Progress bars with start and end dates → Custom emoji for every event → Real-time updates on your Home Screen → Works on iPhone and iPad → No account required → No ads. Ever. Download CountFree and start tracking the moments that matter. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Countdown Widget
Easily track important dates with customizable widgets for your home and lock screens. Count down to events or count up from a starting point, with options for seconds, days, or even working days. All features are available for free, with an optional one-time purchase for advanced syncing and customization.
- Home and Lock Screen widgets
- Countdown and count-up timers
- Live countdowns to the second
- Customizable counter styles and colors
- Import from Calendar and Reminders
- Offline functionality
- One-time purchase for Pro features
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Count down to what matters, right where you look: your Home Screen and Lock Screen. NanoCount is a complete countdown app with no account and no subscription. A holiday, a birthday, a wedding, a deadline, a due date or a passport that expires: put a countdown on it and see how many days are left at a glance. Or count up since a date to keep a streak going: smoke-free, together, working out. In the final hours it counts down live, to the second. THE FREE MULTI-EVENT WIDGET All your countdowns side by side in one widget on your Home Screen. Most apps hide this behind a subscription. In NanoCount it is free, along with single-event widgets and widgets on your Lock Screen. DAYS SINCE, NOT JUST DAYS UNTIL Count up from a date and watch the number grow: smoke-free, sober, together, back at the gym, since the operation. Day 1 starts on the day you pick. Give a streak its own widget on your Home Screen, or line all of them up side by side. FREE, AND ACTUALLY COMPLETE • Unlimited countdowns and count-up streaks • Multi-event AND single-event widgets, on the Home and Lock Screen • Live on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island on the final day • Your soonest countdowns on your Apple Watch • A reminder on the day, plus milestone alerts (halfway, one week to go) • Counter styles: a ring, dots, a bar, a real draining hourglass, or a big number • Every color, a color picker, and a searchable library of hundreds of icons • Count in days, sleeps, weekends, or working days • Import in one tap from your Calendar or Reminders (Google, Outlook and iCloud come along), plus birthdays from your contacts • Share a countdown as a card, or live: anyone with the link follows along, even in their own widget • Look Back: everything that's passed, month by month, plus your year in review to share around New Year • Confetti and a celebration card on the big day and at milestones like Day 100 • Start a streak over without losing your longest one • Controls for Control Center, the Lock Screen and the Action button • Search, pin favorites, recurrence (weekly, monthly, yearly), and notes • Full backup: export and import all your countdowns NANOCOUNT PRO (one-time purchase, never a subscription) • iCloud sync: all your countdowns automatically in step across iPhone, iPad and Mac • Your own photo behind an event and in the widget, slowly sharpening or revealing like an advent calendar • Premium counter styles: retro flip, analog dial, particles, tear-off calendar, moon and wave • Shareable video: turn a countdown into a short video for your stories and socials • Gift mode: hide a surprise behind a code name • Advance reminders: 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month before • Alternate app icons • Subtract public holidays from working-day counts • Siri and Shortcuts: ask how many days, or add a countdown by voice • Watch complication of your choice: pick which countdown or count-up sits on your watch face PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in, no tracking, no data collection. Everything stays on your device and works offline. Nothing goes through iCloud unless you turn on iCloud sync or live sharing yourself. Free to use. Pro is a one-time purchase. Forever, never a subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Countdown Widget at fortnightly against CountFree's every 2 months. Countdown Widget also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 80%) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. CountFree sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Countdown Widget sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Countdown Widget holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 20 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of CountFree's written reviews are positive against 100% of Countdown Widget's.
CountFree ships an update every 2 months, Countdown Widget fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CountFree | Countdown Widget |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (11 ratings) | 4.5 (20 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 11 | 20 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Matthew Kriel | Digital Sandbox B.V. |
Customer experience
CountFree
Countdown Widget
In-app purchases
CountFree
- Cheers$0.99
- High Five$2.99
- Large Tip$4.99
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- Standing Ovation$9.99
Countdown Widget
- NanoCount Pro$5.99
Questions
Is CountFree free?
Is Countdown Widget free?
Which has better reviews, CountFree or Countdown Widget?
Do CountFree or Countdown Widget have ads?
Which is updated more often, CountFree or Countdown Widget?
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