Comparison

Countdown Widget vs Recur

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

Head to head
About

Countdown Widget

Visually appealing countdowns for all your important dates, displayed on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, Apple Watch, and more. Features AI-generated backgrounds and precise time tracking.

Highlights
  • AI-generated photo backgrounds
  • Countdown to exact time (days, hours, minutes, seconds)
  • Live Activity and Dynamic Island integration
  • Multiple widget placements (Home Screen, Lock Screen, StandBy)
  • Apple Watch app and complications
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Multi-event widget with progress bars
Features
Read full description

DayDrop is the countdown widget for iPhone that shows the days until everything you're looking forward to — Christmas, your wedding, a birthday, vacation, or the day your baby arrives — right on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. "Finally, a countdown app that actually looks good on my Home Screen." See your most important days counting down from everywhere: Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, iPad, and StandBy. WHY PEOPLE LOVE DAYDROP • Beautiful AI-generated photo backgrounds — describe any event and get a stunning, one-of-a-kind photo backdrop in seconds. • Countdown to the exact moment — set a specific time on any event and watch days, hours, minutes, and seconds tick down live. • Your photo in the Dynamic Island — your event's background shows live in the Dynamic Island and Live Activity, with a progress ring. • 10 widget placements — Home Screen (small, medium, large, extra-large), multi-event widget, Lock Screen, StandBy, and Control Center. • Multi-event widget with progress bars — several countdowns at a glance. • iPad optimized — adaptive layouts, ExtraLarge widget, and a roomier overview. • iCloud sync — your countdowns move with you across iPhone and iPad. Always in sync, always private. • Share cards — send your countdown to anyone. • Badge countdown on app icon — glance at your Home Screen, see days left. • Liquid Glass, iOS 26 native — designed for Apple's latest design language. • Orbital year view — your whole year of countdowns in a single circular timeline. POWERFUL & PERSONAL • Count up and down from any date • 8 categories — Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Holidays, Vacations, Work, Fitness, Custom • Recurring events — annual, monthly, weekly, or biweekly • Milestone notifications — 30, 14, 7, 3 days before • Celebration confetti on the big day • Pin your most important events • Import birthdays from Contacts in one tap • Gyroscope parallax and tactile scroll animations A CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN, A NEW YEAR COUNTDOWN, AND EVERY DAY WORTH WAITING FOR How many days until Christmas? Until New Year's Eve? Until Halloween, the concert, your exam, retirement, or the trip you've been planning all year? DayDrop keeps the answer one glance away — as a widget, on your Lock Screen, or with Siri: just ask "how many days until my event in DayDrop." LOCK SCREEN, DONE RIGHT Category icons on your Lock Screen widgets, with desaturated backgrounds so your countdown stays glanceable. SPEAKS YOUR LANGUAGE Fully translated into 16 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your countdowns stay on your devices and in your iCloud. We don't sell your data. DAYDROP PREMIUM Premium unlocks AI photo backgrounds, Live Activity and Dynamic Island, every widget placement, watermark-free share cards, unlimited pins, custom milestone notifications, iCloud sync, and the orbital year view. Plans and pricing are shown in the app. Questions? Email daydrop@beatroot.dev or visit daydrop.beatroot.dev. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Recur

Features
Read full description

Recur is a calm, private subscription tracker. You add what you pay for by hand — no bank login, no account, nothing leaving your phone — and Recur turns it into a clear picture of your recurring spend. WHY PEOPLE USE RECUR • See your real monthly and yearly subscription cost at a glance • Get a renewal reminder days before you are charged • Find the subscriptions you barely use and cancel them in time • Keep everything private: your data never leaves your device NO BANK CONNECTION. EVER. Most subscription managers want to link your bank account before they show you anything. Recur never asks. You type in what you pay, and that is the whole setup — no sign-up, no password, no server holding your financial history. It takes about ten seconds per subscription. TRACK ANY RECURRING PAYMENT Streaming, music, cloud storage, software, AI tools, gym memberships, insurance, news, mobile plans, domains, hosting, gaming — if it bills you again and again, Recur tracks it. Monthly and yearly billing cycles are supported. REAL SPENDING INSIGHTS — FREE The Insights tab breaks your spend down by category, shows what you pay per month and per year, and ranks your most expensive subscriptions. It also builds a short list of subscriptions worth reconsidering, based on how often you tell Recur you actually use them. Totals are grouped by currency and shown in the currency you were billed in. Recur does not invent exchange rates, so the numbers you see are the numbers you actually pay. RENEWAL REMINDERS THAT RESPECT YOU Choose how many days ahead you want to be warned. Recur sends a single, quiet notification before a renewal, scheduled entirely on your device — no push server involved. No badges nagging you, no daily alerts, no streaks to keep. 110+ CURRENCIES, 20 LANGUAGES Recur speaks English, Turkish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali, and supports over 110 currencies. DESIGNED TO BE CALM A premium, minimal interface with full light and dark themes. No clutter, no gamification, no pressure to engage — just a clear answer to the question "what am I actually paying for?" FREE AND PREMIUM The free version includes up to 10 subscriptions, renewal reminders, the complete Insights tab and all 110+ currencies. It is supported by ads. Recur Premium unlocks: • Unlimited subscriptions • No ads at all • Cloud backup to your own iCloud, so a new iPhone restores in seconds • JSON export and import — your data stays yours Premium is available monthly, yearly, or as a one-time lifetime purchase.

Screenshots

Countdown Widget4 screens
Recur4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Countdown Widget at none against Recur's shown. Countdown Widget also leads on update cadence (weekly vs monthly). Recur's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Countdown Widget sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Recur sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown Widget ships an update weekly, Recur monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Countdown Widget versus Recur: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdown WidgetRecur
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (20 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings20 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB54 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHirak BanerjeeFahreddin Sevindir

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Countdown Widget

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$1.991 Month
  • Annual Premium1 Month trial$12.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$24.99
3 purchases

Recur

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Premium Yearly$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is Countdown Widget free?
Countdown Widget is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Recur free?
Recur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Countdown Widget or Recur have ads?
Recur shows ads; Countdown Widget does not.
Which is updated more often, Countdown Widget or Recur?
Countdown Widget ships an update weekly, and Recur monthly. Most recently, Countdown Widget was updated on September 24, 2026 and Recur on September 19, 2026.

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