Comparison

Time Zone Buddy vs Time Ribbon

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

Head to head
About

Time Zone Buddy

Easily track multiple world times and plan meetings across different zones. Features a visually appealing aurora-inspired design and intelligent zone cards with daylight status and holiday alerts. Offers a time-shift slider for future planning and a meeting hub for real-time collaboration insights.

Highlights
  • Aurora-inspired daylight-aware design
  • Time-shift slider for future planning
  • Meeting Hub with live dashboard
  • Intelligent zone cards with alerts
  • Drag-to-reorder functionality
  • Widgets for Home and Lock Screen
  • DST and public holiday notifications
Features
Read full description

Time Zone Buddy is a beautiful world clock and meeting planner for people who work, travel, or collaborate across time zones. Calling Tokyo, checking if London is still in the office, or planning a meeting across five time zones โ€” it makes the world easy to read. TRAVEL MODE โ€” HOME & AWAY Pin your Home city so its time, public holidays, and clock changes are always close โ€” free, on every tier. When your device changes time zone, an Away card appears beside Home. DAYLIGHT AT A GLANCE Open a city and its sky fills the screen โ€” deep night, golden hour, or mid-afternoon, from that city's own sunrise and sunset. Every card changes with the sun. SEASONS A city's page shows the season there, counted the way people in that country count it, with the local word. Your Home city's is free; the rest are Plus/Lifetime. HEADS-UP Clock changes, public holidays and market closures in your cities, on a timeline you can tap. Every city's clock changes are free for the next 30 days. TIME SHIFT & PLANNING A docked time-shift slider lives at the bottom of every tab. Pick a future date and time, choose which zone you're planning from, and see what time it will be everywhere. MEETING HUB See who's in work hours now, who's coming online soon, and overlap at a glance. Tap "Plan a Meeting" to find a time across every zone, read in your own time. DETAIL THAT DELIGHTS Tap any zone for the sky over that city right now, a daylight bar, hour-by-hour comparison, work hours, clock changes, holidays, and a share card. "Best Time to Call" shows the clearest call time between you and that city, free. APPLE WATCH Your cities on your wrist, with complications and a Smart Stack card. Round complication free; the rest Plus/Lifetime. GROUPS & ORGANISATION (PLUS/LIFETIME) Create named groups for your team, family, or travel contacts. Each group gets one line: when everyone is free, the closest time, or who is off. Share a group's times as an image. MEETING OVERLAP (PLUS/LIFETIME) Find the best time to meet across any set of time zones, with you counted in. Options are ranked so the cost is shared rather than landing on one person. Share as an image or plain text. WIDGETS & STANDBY โ€ข Home & Away (free) โ€” Home at a glance, and Here when you travel โ€ข Multi-City Clock โ€” a "wall of clocks"; 2 cities free, up to 6 with Plus/Lifetime โ€ข Single Zone (free) โ€” any city's live time, daylight-shaded โ€ข Lock Screen clocks โ€” circular free; inline & rectangular Plus/Lifetime โ€ข Meeting Hub (Plus/Lifetime) โ€” who's working now across your zones โ€ข Heads-up (free) โ€” the next two weeks of clock changes and holidays, a day at a time โ€ข StandBy (free) โ€” a dimmable bedside clock while charging CLOCK CHANGES Every city's clock changes for the next 30 days, free. Plus/Lifetime adds the whole year, with notifications a week before, the business day before, on the day and after. PUBLIC HOLIDAYS (PLUS/LIFETIME) Today's holiday on every zone card, and a full year per city. About 250 countries, with state and regional holidays in 35. Built in, so they work offline. MARKET HOURS (PLUS/LIFETIME) When 27 stock exchanges open, close early or shut for a holiday, in your own time. Your Home city's markets are free. SIRI & SHORTCUTS "Hey Siri, plan a meeting in Time Zone Buddy" ACCESSIBILITY Full VoiceOver support, Dynamic Type, and Reduce Motion. PRIVACY FIRST No account required. Your saved cities, groups, and preferences stay on-device unless you enable private iCloud sync (Plus). No ads or tracking. PRICING One app on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac. Plus and Lifetime unlock it everywhere you're signed in. โ€ข Free โ€” up to 5 zones, daylight-aware cards, time shift planner, Best Time to Call, free widgets โ€ข Lifetime โ€” one-time purchase, all features unlocked forever (except iCloud Sync) โ€ข Plus โ€” subscription with iCloud Sync, Annual-plan Family Sharing, and early access Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Time Ribbon

Read full description

See time. Time Ribbon is a visual world clock that lets you see time across the world as one shared moment. Instead of comparing lists of clocks or calculating time-zone differences in your head, simply move the ribbon. Every location moves with you, showing the local time, date and changing daylight at a glance. Find a good time to call someone overseas. See when colleagues are available. Explore what time it will be somewhere else. Then move straight to the moment that works. See the world in time โ€ข Scrub smoothly through time across all your locations โ€ข See daylight, twilight and night directly on each ribbon โ€ข Compare local times and dates at a glance โ€ข See shared availability across multiple locations โ€ข Go directly to a particular local time or time offset โ€ข Find suitable times for international meetings โ€ข Create meetings from the moment you've chosen โ€ข Personalise ribbons with names, flags, graphics and coloured symbols โ€ข Keep important ribbons visible while you explore your world โ€ข Use Time Ribbon widgets to see your world from the Home Screen โ€ข Switch between Light and Dark Mode Whether you're coordinating a global team, calling family overseas, travelling, or simply wondering what time it is somewhere else, Time Ribbon turns time zones into something you can see. Time zones don't need calculating. See them.

Screenshots

Time Zone Buddy4 screens
Time Ribbon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Time Ribbon at daily against Time Zone Buddy's every 2 weeks. Time Ribbon also leads on iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.2). Time Zone Buddy's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Time Zone Buddy sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per year and Time Ribbon sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Time Zone Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, Time Ribbon daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 5 level
Time Zone Buddy versus Time Ribbon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTime Zone BuddyTime Ribbon
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksDaily โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.217.6 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size29 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScott BreenPICTUREMIL PTY LTD

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Time Zone Buddy

Subscriptions3
  • iCloud Sync for Lifetime$0.991 Year
  • Plus Monthly7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Plus Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Time Zone Buddy Lifetime$24.99
1 purchases

Time Ribbon

One-time1
  • Permanent Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Time Zone Buddy free?
Time Zone Buddy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Time Ribbon free?
Time Ribbon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Time Zone Buddy or Time Ribbon have ads?
Neither Time Zone Buddy nor Time Ribbon shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Time Zone Buddy or Time Ribbon?
Time Zone Buddy ships an update every 2 weeks, and Time Ribbon daily. Most recently, Time Zone Buddy was updated on October 25, 2026 and Time Ribbon on October 24, 2026.

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