Comparison

Span vs Tilly

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

Head to head
About

Span

Track upcoming events with live countdowns or elapsed time since past moments. Log daily habits, discover patterns, and explore historical events with rich media. Organize and share your time-related data seamlessly.

Highlights
  • Live second-by-second countdowns
  • Elapsed time tracking
  • Habit and routine logging
  • Historical 'On This Day' events
  • Customizable widgets
  • Shareable event cards
  • iCloud backup and sync
Features
Read full description

Your relationship with time, all in one place. Count down to birthdays, trips, and deadlines, or see how long it’s been since a milestone. Log recurring events with Trackers and explore history with On This Day. No accounts. No ads. No tracking. SPANS - Live Countdowns — See years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until or since a date. Date-only spans count calendar days. - Apple Calendar — Choose events to import, review their details, and keep selected events updated or make one-time copies. Span never adds new Calendar events automatically or writes changes back to Calendar. - Smart Emoji Suggestions — Get up to three matching emoji as you type, using on-device Apple Intelligence when available. - Yearly Recurrence — Repeat birthdays and anniversaries, with smart holiday dates that adjust each year. - Holiday Templates — Start with 22 US holidays and cultural events, including Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Chinese New Year. - Weather — Add a US ZIP code for historical weather or a forecast within the next 16 days. - Tags — Give spans and trackers custom tags with optional colors. Read tag names on cards and filter by one or several tags. - Organize — Filter by upcoming, elapsed, or archived; sort by date, name, or custom order. Choose Reorganize to drag rows into place. - Share — Send a styled countdown image or a link that opens in Span. TRACKERS - Log Anything — Tap once to record an event and see the time since your last entry. - Patterns — Frequency statistics show how often you typically do something. - Full History — Add dated entries, edit timestamps, or delete mistakes. - 14 Templates — Workout, Run, Coffee, Meditation, Shower, and more. ON THIS DAY Browse notable historical events for any date, powered by Wikipedia. Open an event to read its description and a related Wikipedia article. Images appear when available. Optional daily notifications bring you a historical event to explore. WIDGETS - Span Widget — Small, medium, or large, plus extra-large portrait on iOS 27. Auto mode follows your Spans tab’s filters, tags, and sort order, or you can choose spans manually. Tap a row to open that span. - Tracker Widget — Choose one tracker for a small Home Screen widget. See time since your last event and its date and time, tap Log now to record an entry, or tap elsewhere to open that tracker’s details. - On This Day Widget — Daily history on your Home Screen, with an extra-large portrait option on iOS 27. Tap to open the matching event. SIRI & SHORTCUTS Create spans, get countdowns, and log tracker entries with Siri and Shortcuts on iOS 26 and later. NOTIFICATIONS Get notified at a span’s event time or choose an advance reminder in minutes, hours, or days. Enable daily history alerts separately. BACKUP Manually back up and restore your spans and trackers with iCloud Drive. Your backup stays in your own iCloud account. FREE & PRO Track up to 2 spans and 1 tracker for free. Unlock unlimited spans and trackers with a one-time Span Pro purchase. PRIVACY No account, advertising, or analytics. Your spans and trackers stay on your device, with optional backup to your own iCloud Drive.

About

Tilly

Features
Read full description

An advent calendar on your iPhone: a new door every day from 1 to 24 December, and the sleeps until Christmas on your Lock Screen. TILLY'S ADVENT CALENDAR • 24 doors with little family ideas, ready to open. Each door unlocks on its day, 1–24 December, at local midnight. • Before December, peek at the first door to see how it works. • Every evening the moon on your Lock Screen says goodnight: one sleep closer, tomorrow's door is waiting. • A nights-left widget for the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. MAKE ONE FOR SOMEONE YOU LOVE (TILLY PRO) • Create your own advent calendar for a child, a partner, a friend or yourself. • Put photos, notes and little tasks behind the doors, or tap "Fill empty doors for me" for ready ideas. • Make several calendars at once. • Send a calendar as a gift with Messages, AirDrop or Mail. They open it in Tilly for free, and each door still waits for its day. • Today's door on your Lock Screen and in the Live Activity. A calendar you receive as a gift is always free to open. CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN • Count days or sleeps to Christmas, New Year's Eve or any event, and tap the moon on the widget every evening. • Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets, the Live Activity, StandBy, and Apple Watch and CarPlay while the Live Activity runs. • Widgets roll over exactly at local midnight. • Ask Siri: "How many sleeps until Christmas in Tilly?" PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no ads, no tracking. • Advent photos stay on your iPhone. A gift file leaves your device only when you share it. FREE AND PRO Free: Tilly's advent calendar, the nights-left widget, calendars you receive, and 3 countdowns with every widget for your first one. Tilly Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription: create your own calendars, photos behind the doors, several calendars, send a calendar as a gift, today's door on the Lock Screen and in the Live Activity, plus unlimited countdowns, all palettes and photo backgrounds. Existing Tilly Pro subscribers keep Pro. Privacy: https://ios.service-lab.site/tilly/privacy Terms: https://ios.service-lab.site/tilly/terms

Screenshots

Span4 screens
Tilly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Tilly at 17.0 against Span's 26.0. On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Span sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Tilly sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Span ships an update every 2 weeks, Tilly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Span versus Tilly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpanTilly
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (8 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings8 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShamir WehbeDenys Khomenko

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Span

One-time1
  • Span Pro$1.99
3 purchases

Tilly

Subscriptions2
  • Tilly Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Tilly Pro Yearly3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Tilly Pro: Make & Gift$1.99

Questions

Is Span free?
Span is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tilly free?
Tilly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Span or Tilly have ads?
Neither Span nor Tilly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Span or Tilly?
Span ships an update every 2 weeks, and Tilly every 3 weeks. Most recently, Span was updated on October 31, 2026 and Tilly on November 6, 2026.

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