Comparison

Koku vs Alarmed

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

Head to head
About

Koku

This app helps you focus on tasks with customizable work and rest intervals. It offers a simple, distraction-free interface and integrates with your home screen and Apple Watch for easy access and control. Enjoy deep work without accounts, streaks, or subscriptions.

Highlights
  • Customizable focus and rest sessions
  • Classic Pomodoro rhythm option
  • Home Screen widget for quick access
  • Live Activities on lock screen
  • Apple Watch companion app
  • Minimalist, distraction-free design
Features
Read full description

Koku is a focus timer for deep work. Focus. Rest. Repeat. Set your own session lengths or use the classic rhythm - twenty-five minutes of focus, five minutes of rest, a longer break every four sessions. Each minute is a dot. Watch them fill. - No accounts. - No streaks. - No subscriptions. Just time, and the work in front of you. Add Koku to your Home Screen for quick access - start, pause, and skip sessions right from the widget. Keep the timer visible on your lock screen with Live Activities. Koku also includes an Apple Watch companion app that works with the iPhone app, so you can check your timer and control sessions from your wrist. Designed for iPhone, with an Apple Watch companion. Light and dark mode. Works in any language. Koku (刻) is the Japanese word for a moment of time.

About

Alarmed

This app helps you avoid oversleeping by requiring you to complete a challenge before the alarm stops. Choose from various missions like math puzzles or shaking your phone to ensure you get out of bed. It also provides simple statistics to track your wake-up habits.

Highlights
  • Mission-based alarm challenges
  • Math puzzles
  • Phone shaking challenge
  • Memory challenges
  • Wake-up statistics
  • Snooze tracking
Features
Read full description

Alarmed is for people who keep hitting the snooze button on normal alarm clocks. Say bye bye to endless snoozing and multiple alarms just to wake up on time. Create alarms, pick a mission, and complete it so the alarm turns off. Choose from math puzzles, shaking phone, or memory challenges to make waking up harder to ignore. Create alarms, pick a mission, and complete it so the alarm turns off. Choose from math puzzles, memory games, exercise challenges and more to make waking up harder to ignore. ALARMED PRO Unlimited alarms and the math, shake and memory missions are free. Alarmed Pro adds mission chains (up to three missions on one alarm), the premium missions — Workout, Scan, Steps and Tiles — and the wake-up checkup, a second alarm a few minutes later that proves you actually stayed up. Alarmed Pro is available as: • Monthly — $4.99 per month • Annual — $19.99 per year • Lifetime — $39.99, one-time purchase Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://alarmed-app.vercel.app/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Koku4 screens
Alarmed4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Alarmed at 4.4 against Koku's 3.0. Alarmed also leads on ratings volume (25 vs 1) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.4). Koku's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Alarmed holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Alarmed has 25 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Koku ships an update every 3 days, Alarmed every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Koku versus Alarmed: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKokuAlarmed
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (1 ratings)4.4 (25 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings125 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.416.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB102 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRodolfo Alberto Lopez TerriquezAgrima Pandey

Customer experience

Koku

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Alarmed

All ratings22 ratings
Positive86.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative13.6%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Koku

No in-app purchases

None

Alarmed

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Koku free?
Koku is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Alarmed free?
Alarmed is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Koku or Alarmed?
Alarmed is rated higher. Koku averages 3.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Alarmed averages 4.4 from 25 ratings.
Do Koku or Alarmed have ads?
Neither Koku nor Alarmed shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Koku or Alarmed?
Koku ships an update every 3 days, and Alarmed every 2 months. Most recently, Koku was updated on October 11, 2026 and Alarmed on October 24, 2026.

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