Comparison

Fast vs Transcend Timer

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

Head to head
About

Fast

Features
Read full description

Can I eat right now? Fast:Protocol checks today's planned eating hours and gives you one clear answer: YES or NO. It also shows when that answer will change, so you can follow your schedule without starting a timer or doing time math. Use Fast:Protocol to: • Set the eating hours you use on a normal day • Create weekly plans for days that follow a different schedule • Change one date without changing the rest of your week • See your current answer, countdown, and next scheduled change • Check Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets • Review previous days and browse the week ahead • Choose reminders for when eating hours begin and one hour before they end Set your schedule once. Check your answer whenever you need it.

About

Transcend Timer

This app provides a guided meditation experience with customizable phases for warming up, meditating, and cooling down. It automatically logs sessions to Apple Health and prioritizes user privacy with no account or internet required.

Highlights
  • Three-phase meditation timer (Warm Up, Meditate, Cool Down)
  • Customizable phase durations
  • Screen stays on during sessions
  • Automatic Apple Health logging
  • Adjustable brightness reduction
  • Background operation with screen lock
  • No account or internet required
Features
Read full description

Transcend Timer is a timer for Transcendental Meditation. It does one thing: it holds the length of your practice so you do not have to. Three phases. Warm Up to settle in, Meditation, then Rest. Set each one once and press play — the home screen shows the plan, so starting is never a decision. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No guided voices. No courses, no narrators, no daily episode, no library to look through. Nothing plays unless you turn it on: the start and end sounds and the haptics are all off by default, because in TM the mantra is the technique and a bell is an interruption. THE SCREEN TELLS YOU WHERE YOU ARE Each phase has its own background, ordered by brightness rather than colour. Warm Up steps down toward meditation, meditation is nearly black, and rest lifts sharply. That lift is the largest change in light in the whole session and it happens the moment meditation ends — perceptible through a closed eyelid, so you can stay where you are until it comes. If you do open your eyes to check the time, the timer is large, centred, and set in figures that do not shift as they count down. PROGRESS Two counters: days you meditated, and days you meditated twice. A monthly calendar shows the shape of your practice — missed, once, twice — and pages back through every month you have kept. Completed sessions are written to Apple Health as Mindful Sessions. APPLE WATCH Run a full session from your wrist and leave the phone in another room. The Digital Crown sets the durations. The Smart Stack shows which phase you are in and how long is left. IF YOU WANT IT Curated sounds for the start and end of meditation, with their own volume so a cue can carry through twenty minutes of closed eyes. Ambiance: one looping sound that fades in as the session begins and out across the rest phase, at a volume set deliberately lower. Eight themes, each changing all four phases together and keeping the same order of light. Night dimming for sessions in the dark. Pause and resume, counting active time only. A daily reminder, if you set one. PRIVACY No account, no sign-in, no analytics, no advertising, no network requests. Your preferences stay on your device. Health data is read only to calculate your streaks and never leaves the phone. Transcend Timer is an independent app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any Transcendental Meditation organisation, and it does not teach the technique.

Screenshots

Fast4 screens
Transcend Timer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Fast at 15.1 against Transcend Timer's 18.4. 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Fast ships an update every 2 months, Transcend Timer every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Fast versus Transcend Timer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFastTranscend Timer
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—4 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.4
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBorche DavchevMartin Di Giglio

In-app purchases

None

Fast

No in-app purchases

None

Transcend Timer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Fast free?
Fast is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Transcend Timer free?
Transcend Timer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Fast or Transcend Timer have ads?
Neither Fast nor Transcend Timer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Fast or Transcend Timer?
Fast ships an update every 2 months, and Transcend Timer every 5 weeks. Most recently, Fast was updated on October 16, 2026 and Transcend Timer on October 7, 2026.

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