Comparison

Whensday vs Orbit Down

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

Head to head
About

Whensday

Features
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Whensday makes waiting the best part. From birthdays and weddings to vacations, paydays, and deadlines, Whensday turns every upcoming moment into a beautiful countdown you'll actually look forward to. Add it to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or Dynamic Island and watch the days melt away. Smart suggestions help you set things up in seconds, and recurring events keep counting down year after year. Download Whensday today and never lose sight of what's coming next.

About

Orbit Down

Features
Read full description

Orbit Down is a free, ad-free countdown app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Use it without ads, tracking, or an account. Track launches, birthdays, trips, exams, bills, holidays, weddings, goals, appointments, and milestones. No app account, ads, analytics SDK, or third-party tracking. Make each countdown feel right. Choose collections, tags, notes, locations, links, searchable custom SF Symbols, typed hex color palettes, typography, photos, progress starts, milestones, urgency badges, repeat rules, completion behavior, reminder presets, actionable reminder notifications: Snooze 1 Hour, Snooze 1 Day, Snooze Tomorrow Morning, time zones, business-day units, total time units, and standard, short, or digital labels. Use 10 curated one-tap style presets. Start from built-in templates for travel, project deadlines, tax deadlines, visa renewals, concerts, dinner reservations, subscription renewals, paydays, baby due dates, retirement, moving day, birthdays, holidays, exams, and goals; then save your own templates and palettes. Widgets are central. Add small, medium, large, extra-large, and accessory widgets where supported. A single widget asks for Countdown and optional Layout; Upcoming asks for Source, optional Collection, and Rows; Collection Dashboard asks only for Collection. Widgets inherit saved countdown appearances and open matching app detail when tapped. Mutation controls stay in Live Activities, Control Center, Shortcuts, notifications, and the app. Create countdowns quickly from natural language. Quick Add, Siri, Shortcuts, Share Extension, and macOS Services all use the same parser for phrases such as "Dinner tomorrow at noon", "Launch brief by EOD", "Payday every other Friday", "Trip in 5 business days", "Countdown to Thanksgiving", "7/10/26 at 6pm", "#Launch #VIP", or multi-line pasted lists. You can include reminders, links, locations, collections, tags, favorite status, time zones, style presets, symbols, typography, units, milestones, and visual settings in the text before saving; New Countdown and Quick Add also respect the current collection or tag context unless explicit collection or tag details are supplied. Default creation collection, default creation tags, default creation style, default creation appearance, default creation progress details, default creation reminders, default creation completion behavior, default creation favorite, default creation repeat, default creation progress start, default creation units, default creation time labels, default creation typography, and default creation time zone settings keep blank, Quick Add, and Siri-created countdowns organized. Shortcuts can also duplicate countdowns, reschedule dates, rename or remove tags, set typography, copy visual styles between countdowns, use clipboard text, create countdowns from link page text, and create or review countdowns from text-bearing files. Bring Apple apps into the flow. Import upcoming Calendar events, dated Reminders, and Contacts birthdays or anniversaries with review screens and Shortcuts actions. Add countdown targets back to Calendar or Reminders, refresh imported countdowns from their source, open calendar invite files, and share countdowns as text or Markdown with progress percentage and elapsed/remaining context, a visual card, a calendar invite, a QR code, or a portable Countdown File. Live Activities and Dynamic Island keep important countdowns visible with Skip, Postpone, and Done / Next controls. Native system entry points include iOS quick actions, Control Center controls, file opening, macOS Services, the command menu, and the menu bar glance. The menu bar supports New Countdown, Quick Add, clickable Next rows, Skip, Postpone 1 Day, Done / Next, Undo Completion, and Clear History. Data stays local by default. Optional iCloud sync uses your Apple ID; backups with import summary, portable files, and Erase Local Data keep you in control.

Screenshots

Whensday3 screens
Orbit Down4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Orbit Down at none against Whensday's 1. Orbit Down also leads on ads (none vs shown). Whensday's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Whensday sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Orbit Down asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Whensday ships an update every 3 days, Orbit Down fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Whensday versus Orbit Down: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWhensdayOrbit Down
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days โ€” betterFortnightly
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS18.117.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size6 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRichard WallaceJoaquin Zelnick

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Whensday

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.99
None

Orbit Down

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Whensday free?
Whensday is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Orbit Down free?
Orbit Down is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Whensday or Orbit Down have ads?
Whensday shows ads; Orbit Down does not.
Which is updated more often, Whensday or Orbit Down?
Whensday ships an update every 3 days, and Orbit Down fortnightly. Most recently, Whensday was updated on September 29, 2026 and Orbit Down on October 7, 2026.

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