Comparison

Countie Live vs HOLD

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

Head to head
About

Countie Live

Features
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Every moment deserves a beautiful countdown. Countie turns your most anticipated moments into stunning, glanceable countdowns — right on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, and Dynamic Island. Widgets That Feel Alive Pick from Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets that update in real time. Each countdown gets its own color theme, so your screen stays personal and vibrant. Live Activities Pin your next big moment to your Dynamic Island and Lock Screen. Watch it count down in real time, then automatically advance to the next event. Calendar Import Already have events in Apple Calendar? Pull them into Countie with one tap. No duplicate entry, no friction. Repeating Events Birthdays, anniversaries, annual traditions — set them once, and Countie automatically counts down to the next occurrence every year. Completely Private No accounts. No cloud. No tracking. Everything stays on your device. Simple by design. Beautiful by default.

About

HOLD

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The timer you can extend from your Lock Screen. Start one for the parking meter, the laundry or the oven, then add time with one tap: no unlocking, and the alert moves with it. On iOS 26 it rings even on Silent. And count down to any date on your Home Screen, free. FREE, WITH 5 AD-FREE HOLDS Your first 5 ad-free holds hold nothing back — every pad, the keypad, the Lock Screen controls, the alarm, all of it. After that HOLD stays free: each new hold plays at most one short ad, never before it starts. HOLD Pro removes the ads with one purchase, not a subscription. ADD TIME WITHOUT UNLOCKING This is the button you actually need at a meter. While a hold is running, its Live Activity carries real controls: two extend buttons and END. Press +15 MIN on a PARKING hold and the countdown and the alert both move to the new time. No unlock. No app. No Face ID with a bag of groceries in your other hand. START WITHOUT OPENING THE APP Put the Start a Hold control in Control Center, on the Lock Screen or on the Action button and choose its pad: PARKING in place of the flashlight. Or ask Siri: "Start Parking in HOLD". The Quick Start widget keeps four pads on your Home Screen. Controls need iOS 18. IT RINGS THROUGH SILENT On iOS 26, HOLD uses AlarmKit — the same system alarms the built-in Clock uses. Your hold sounds even if the phone is on Silent or sitting in a Focus. A timer you might not hear is not a timer. EIGHT PADS AND A KEYPAD PARKING 2h Ā· WASH 30m Ā· DRY 45m Ā· OVEN 20m Ā· PICKUP 15m Ā· CHARGE 35m Ā· MOVE CAR 5m Ā· SET BREAK 20m. One tap picks a pad, one tap starts it. For any other wait, tap the big LCD readout and type a length from 1 minute to 8 hours. ON THE LOCK SCREEN AND IN THE DYNAMIC ISLAND • High-contrast LCD digits, sized to be read at arm's length in daylight. • Two extend buttons and END on the Lock Screen banner and in the expanded Dynamic Island, in the pad's own amounts (PARKING: +15 and +30 MIN). • The compact Dynamic Island shows the pad's glyph and a live countdown; long-press to expand. • Extensions stop at 8 hours from the moment the hold began. Live Activities and their buttons need iOS 17 or later. On older iPhones the hold runs normally inside the app. COUNT DOWN TO A DATE, TOO Some waits are months long. Name a date you are counting down to — a trip, a birthday, a move — up to 10 years ahead, add reminders, and put the Event Countdown widget on your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Six sizes in all. Birthdays and anniversaries can repeat every year, with the years counted; add birthdays from Contacts without giving HOLD your address book. Christmas, New Year and Halloween are one tap away. Share any countdown as a link: it opens in HOLD, or in any browser. Widgets need iOS 17 or later. WHAT PRO ADDS • No ads, on any hold. • Run up to 3 holds at once (free runs 1): the laundry, the oven and the meter, each with its own Lock Screen controls and alarm. • Room for 10 date countdowns instead of 1, each with its own reminders, widget and colour; the large widget shows four. • Edit the grid: your own name, length, colour, mark and Lock Screen extends on any of the 8 preset pads. Reverting one is always free. • End at a clock time. Some waits are a deadline, not a length: the meter expires at 4:30, the gate closes at 6. Type the time and HOLD works out the rest. • Save up to 50 of your own pads, each with its own name, length and colour. Nothing is taken back: what you made stays yours if Pro lapses; only creating a new one is refused. PRIVATE WHERE IT MATTERS • No account and no sign-in. Your holds, pads, events and last 8 sessions stay in a sandboxed database on your iPhone. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you share it yourself. • Ads on free holds come from Google and are never personalized, and HOLD never asks to track you. For Pro users the ad software never starts. HOLD is an independent countdown utility. It does not provide parking-enforcement advice and makes no medical claims.

Screenshots

Countie Live4 screens
HOLD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Countie Live at none against HOLD's 1. Countie Live also leads on ads (none vs shown). HOLD's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. HOLD sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Countie Live asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countie Live ships an update daily, HOLD every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 3 level
Countie Live versus HOLD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountie LiveHOLD
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 2 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFarkhod YuldashevJason Fraser

In-app purchases

None

Countie Live

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

HOLD

One-time1
  • HOLD Pro Lifetime Access$4.99

Questions

Is Countie Live free?
Countie Live is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HOLD free?
HOLD is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Countie Live or HOLD have ads?
HOLD shows ads; Countie Live does not.
Which is updated more often, Countie Live or HOLD?
Countie Live ships an update daily, and HOLD every 2 days. Most recently, Countie Live was updated on November 11, 2026 and HOLD on November 10, 2026.

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