Comparison

Highlights vs Big Day

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

Head to head
About

Highlights

Features
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Highlights is a minimalist tool that brings together timing, recording, and smart reminders. It keeps only the essentials—clean design and a smooth experience—so you can easily record every important moment. Use cases: Love and wedding anniversaries, exam and certification countdowns, birthday and holiday reminders, retirement countdowns, habit building, baby growth tracking, yearly progress and school-year progress tracking... Core features: • Time cards: Supports countdowns, countups, and anniversaries, presenting the passage of time in the most intuitive way. • Smart reminders: Automatically remind you based on key event milestones, so you never miss an important moment. • Journal: Add multiple time entries for each event, turning scattered moments into a complete memory line. • Home screen widgets: Offers multiple sizes of minimalist widgets, so important events are visible at a glance without opening the app. • Personalization: Freely change card backgrounds to create a more atmospheric recording experience. • Cross-device sync: Supports iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with data automatically synced through your personal iCloud for a consistent experience. • Privacy protection: No separate data servers. Everything stays on your device and in your personal iCloud space. Terms of Service: https://smartsilly.com/highlights/ios/terms Privacy Policy: https://smartsilly.com/highlights/ios/privacy

About

Big Day

Features
Read full description

Count down to what matters. See it on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Apple Watch. Countdown turns any date into a live countdown you can actually see — no opening an app, no digging through a calendar. Your next trip, your wedding, your exam, your due date. Always one glance away. FREE, AND ACTUALLY FREE No ads. Not on the free tier, not ever. No banners, no video walls, no "watch this to unlock." WIDGETS THAT DO MORE • Home Screen widgets in every size — small, medium, large, and inline • Lock Screen widgets so you see it without unlocking • Live Activities — watch the final hours tick down in real time on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island • Interactive widgets — mark events done or snooze right from the Home Screen • Apple Watch complication showing your next event COUNT DOWN — OR COUNT UP Days until your holiday. Or days since you quit smoking, since the baby arrived, since you started. Both directions, same app. BUILT FOR REAL LIFE • Recurring events that reset themselves — birthdays, anniversaries, rent, monthly deadlines • Weekday-only counting for work deadlines (17 working days, not 24 calendar days) • Multiple alerts per event — a week out, a day out, an hour out • Categories with colors and icons — travel, family, work, health • Custom photo backgrounds from your library or our gallery • Choose exactly what shows: years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds • Share a countdown to iMessage in one tap YOUR APPLE WATCH, INCLUDED Your countdowns sync to your Watch automatically — no iCloud account needed, no subscription, on the free tier. COUNTDOWN PRO — ONE PAYMENT, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION Unlimited events, iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad, unlimited custom backgrounds, and all widget styles. Pay once. Keep it forever. Free tier includes 5 events, all widget sizes, Apple Watch sync, and zero ads. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your events stay on your device and in your own iCloud. No accounts, no servers, no tracking. EULA: Apple’s Standard License Agreement applies.

Screenshots

Highlights4 screens
Big Day4 screens

Verdict

The call

Highlights and Big Day are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Highlights sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Big Day sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Highlights ships an update weekly, Big Day every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Highlights versus Big Day: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHighlightsBig Day
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSmartSilly Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd.Damien Asseya

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Highlights

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Membership$1.991 Month
  • Annual Membership$9.991 Year
One-time2
  • Lifetime Membership$14.99
  • Premium$29.99
1 purchases

Big Day

One-time1
  • Countdown Pro$5.99

Questions

Is Highlights free?
Highlights is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Big Day free?
Big Day is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Highlights or Big Day have ads?
Neither Highlights nor Big Day shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Highlights or Big Day?
Highlights ships an update weekly, and Big Day every 2 weeks. Most recently, Highlights was updated on October 24, 2026 and Big Day on October 24, 2026.

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