Comparison

Hourglass vs Structured Outliner

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

Head to head
About

Hourglass

Features
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Hourglass counts down to the moments that matter: birthdays, trips, weddings, holidays, launches and every big day in between. COUNTDOWNS THAT FEEL ALIVE - A ticking clock with days, hours, minutes and seconds - An hourglass that fills as the big day gets closer - All-day or timed events with emoji, colors and your own photo (Pro) - Repeats daily, weekly, monthly or yearly and starts over by itself - Count only weekdays for work deadlines, or keep counting up after a date has passed WIDGETS FOR EVERY SCREEN - Home Screen widgets in small and medium sizes, plus a countdown list widget - Lock Screen widgets and StandBy - 120 widget designs in 12 styles; Minimal and Bold are free LIVE ACTIVITIES Pin a countdown to the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island and watch the final hours tick down. STAY ORGANIZED - Tags, search, sorting and drag to reorder - Import events from your calendar - Reminders on the day, one day before or one week before - 8 themes with full dark mode ON MAC AND APPLE VISION PRO Hourglass also runs natively on Mac and Apple Vision Pro. One Pro subscription unlocks it everywhere. Countdowns are stored privately on each device. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no ads, no tracking. HOURGLASS PRO The free version includes up to 5 countdowns, the Minimal and Bold widget styles and 3 themes. Hourglass Pro unlocks unlimited countdowns, all 120 widget designs, all 8 themes and photo countdowns. Pro is an auto-renewable subscription, billed weekly, monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ioscorner.com/privacy.html

About

Structured Outliner

Features
Read full description

Keep your entire outline in a single portable file you control. No account, no server, no lock-in, future-proof. ORGANIZE IN UNLIMITED DEPTH Build trees as deep as you need. Expand, collapse, and reorder topics with just a few taps. Every topic can have its own notes. Write as much or as little as you like. SEARCH EVERYTHING Search titles or note content at once. The tree expands automatically to show every match in context, so you always know where a result lives in your outline. CROSS-LINK TOPICS Link any note to another topic using the outlook: link format. Tap to jump directly there. Tap the back arrow to return where you came from. OPEN FILES AND URLS Tap any file path or URL inside a note to open it. Connect your outline to existing documents in the folder: PDFs, photos, or anything else you reference. COLOR LABELS Assign a background color to any topic: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, or Purple. The color flows down to all child topics that don't have their own. Use it to visually separate sections at a glance. AUTOMATIC BACKUPS The app writes a .bak backup before every save. Restore at any time from the menu. SYNC YOUR WAY Store your file in iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or any Files-compatible provider. Open it from there on each device. No special sync setup required. MEMPAD COMPATIBLE Structured Outliner uses the same .lst format as MemPad for Windows, a portable outliner that has been around since the early 2000s. Open existing MemPad files directly, no conversion needed. FREE VERSION Structured Outliner is free to use. Development is supported by a small banner ad shown at the bottom of the screen. PRO VERSION Upgrade to Pro to remove the banner ad, unlock Color Labels and Topic + Note Search and future planned features. One-time purchase. Restore on any device from the menu.

Screenshots

Hourglass4 screens
Structured Outliner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Hourglass at none against Structured Outliner's shown. On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Hourglass sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Structured Outliner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hourglass ships an update weekly, Structured Outliner every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Hourglass versus Structured Outliner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHourglassStructured Outliner
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterEvery 9 days
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHuseyin BaganaFelipe Carraro

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Hourglass

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Premium$1.997 Days
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly$29.991 Year
1 purchases

Structured Outliner

One-time1
  • Pro Version$7.99

Questions

Is Hourglass free?
Hourglass is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Structured Outliner free?
Structured Outliner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Hourglass or Structured Outliner have ads?
Structured Outliner shows ads; Hourglass does not.
Which is updated more often, Hourglass or Structured Outliner?
Hourglass ships an update weekly, and Structured Outliner every 9 days. Most recently, Hourglass was updated on October 22, 2026 and Structured Outliner on October 24, 2026.

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