Comparison

Unheld vs Cuebird

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

Head to head
About

Unheld

Features
Read full description

Unheld is a quiet space for focus. Most focus apps make you watch the clock. Unheld does the opposite. Start a session, put your phone down, and focus without thinking about time. There are no ticking countdowns, no pressure, and no productivity scores. Time is held quietly in the background so you can stay present with your work. Unheld is designed for people who want calm focus instead of urgency — students, creatives, professionals, and anyone who finds traditional timers stressful. Features • One-tap focus sessions • No countdown by default • Gentle end reminders (optional) • Session history for reflection, not tracking • Apple Watch support • Local-only storage — your data stays on your device Premium (One-time purchase) Unlock session history, weekly summaries, and optional tags with a single purchase. No subscriptions. Designed for calm Unheld is not a Pomodoro timer and not a productivity system. It’s a quiet container for focus — so you can stop thinking about time and simply work.

About

Cuebird

This app helps users manage daily routines with visual and auditory cues, breaking them down into timed, color-coded steps. It supports shared routines for households and adapts to individual timing to ensure tasks are completed on schedule.

Highlights
  • Timed, color-coded routine steps
  • Shared household routines
  • Visual time bar for routine overview
  • Auditory cues and voice recordings
  • Proportional routine compression
  • Real alarms, not notifications
  • Adaptive timing based on actual usage
Features
Read full description

See the time, hear your next step, walk out the door on time. Cuebird turns any routine (morning, lunch break, bedtime) into small, timed, color-coded steps and moves you through them automatically. Built for neurodivergent adults. Kind to every brain. HOUSEHOLDS Link the people you live with into a household. Start a routine and everyone gets a gentle offer to jump in, landing where you already are, not back at step one. Joining is one tap, and sitting one out is free: nobody is ever told either way. Be in more than one household at once, your own and the one at your mum's, and every routine says which one it came from. It is all end-to-end encrypted. DO IT TOGETHER In the same room, run a routine in step. Everyone starts on a shared 3, 2, 1, and pause, skip, or a minute back move for the whole group at once, so nobody is left behind. Near each other it is instant. Apart, it stays in sync across your household. Want your own timing? One tap, and your routine keeps going on its own. INVITE BY TEXT, OR BY QR Send someone a link. They tap it and they are in, even if your phone is closed. Together in person? Show the code on your screen for them to scan. Either way, one tap and they are in the household. TIME YOU CAN SEE While a routine runs, the whole screen becomes the current step's color. From across the room, mid-shower, without reading: blue means shower, amber means coffee. A color bar of the steps shows the shape of your time before you start. OUT THE DOOR ON TIME Set when a routine starts and when you have to be done. Cuebird shows the window, adds up your steps, and tells you plainly whether they fit. Running late? One control compresses the routine so you still walk out on time. HEAR YOUR NEXT STEP A chime marks every transition, or let Cuebird speak: "Next: Shower, 10 minutes." A 30-second heads-up warns before longer steps end. Prefer quiet? Silent mode keeps it to haptics. You can also record any step in your own voice. Recordings stay on your device and never sync. REAL ALARMS, NOT NOTIFICATIONS Give a routine a start time and days, and it rings with the system's full-screen alarm: through silent mode, through Focus, even with the app closed. Tap Start and you are already in it. BUILT THE WAY YOUR WEEK ACTUALLY WORKS One routine can ring at several times, each with its own days: weekdays at 7:00, weekends at 9:00. Your list sorts itself around today, and the Schedule view shows everything that will ring this week. IT LEARNS YOUR REAL TIMING Cuebird records every run and shows how long your routine ACTUALLY takes versus what you planned: "Morning really takes 42 minutes, not 35." Then it updates your plan with one tap. STARTING IS ONE TAP Every routine has a play button right on its card, no menus between you and momentum. For the times you do not need a whole routine, Quick Timer and Ring Me At are one tap away. NO SHAME BUILT IN Pause says "no rush." Skipping is a first-class button, and if you skip by mistake you can undo it. Need a minute back? Take one. Finishing celebrates every run, and one missed day never breaks your streak. That is what the habit-formation research actually says. Cuebird never scolds you. EVERYWHERE YOU NEED IT - Lock Screen and Dynamic Island Live Activity: glance without opening the app - Home Screen widget: start a routine in one tap - Apple Watch: your step and countdown on your wrist; pause, resume or skip from there - Siri and Shortcuts: "Start Morning in Cuebird," or run routines from your automations - Mac: runs on Apple silicon Macs too ONE PURCHASE COVERS YOUR FAMILY Family Sharing is on, so up to six family members get it with one purchase. You can also send any routine as a link, ready for their own times. ONE-TIME PURCHASE Buy it once. No subscription, no ads, no accounts, no analytics, no data collection. Your own routines sync through your private iCloud, no login ever. Households stay end-to-end encrypted, and Cuebird has no servers and cannot read any of it.

Screenshots

Unheld4 screens
Cuebird4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Unheld at Free against Cuebird's $0.99. Unheld also leads on iOS requirement (16.6 vs 26.0). Cuebird's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ads and device support 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

Unheld is free to download; Cuebird costs $0.99 up front. Unheld sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cuebird asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Unheld versus Cuebird: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnheldCuebird
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequency—Daily
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGuo YuMichael Petrillo

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Unheld

One-time1
  • Unheld Premium$5.99
None

Cuebird

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Unheld free?
Unheld is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cuebird free?
Cuebird costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Unheld or Cuebird have ads?
Neither Unheld nor Cuebird shows ads.

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