CompactCalendar vs Margin
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CompactCalendar
Display your calendar events and reminders directly on your Home Screen and Lock Screen with customizable widgets. See your schedule at a glance, choose which calendars to display, and enjoy true calendar colors.
- Home Screen widgets
- Lock Screen widgets
- Events and reminders together
- Calendar selection
- True calendar colors
- Tap to open Calendar app
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See your calendar and reminders right from the Home Screen and Lock Screen! CompactCalendar shows your events and reminders in clean, beautiful widgets — for both the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. Home Screen widgets: • Today & This Month: A month calendar with today’s events • Daily Schedule: Your events for the next 6 days at a glance Lock Screen widgets: • Up Next: Your next or ongoing event on one Lock Screen line • Next 3 Days: Upcoming events for the next three days • 2-Week Calendar: A compact two-week mini calendar More features: • Events & Reminders Together: See calendar events and reminders in one widget • Calendar Selection: Choose which calendars each widget shows • True Colors: Your calendar colors appear exactly as you set them • Tap to Open: Tap a date to jump straight into the Calendar app CompactCalendar Pro: A one-time purchase unlocks rectangular Lock Screen widgets and medium-size Home Screen widgets — forever. Start a more beautiful calendar experience with CompactCalendar!
Margin
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Margin is a calm, beautiful planner for people who think in sentences, not forms. Type “dentist tomorrow 4 to 5” or “lunch with Sara Friday at 1” and Margin reads the day, the time, the list and even the repeat, then saves it to Apple Calendar or Reminders. It reads Arabic too, so you can write your day in either language. YOUR DAY, HOUR BY HOUR Every hour gets the same space, so you see where the time goes at a glance. Each hour tells you what is inside, meetings are drawn at their real minutes, and the current hour carries a live line through it. Tap an hour to open it and tick things off, or drag a task to another hour. FOCUS THAT FOLLOWS YOU Start a pomodoro or a simple timer and give it a name. It runs on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, where you can pause it or add five minutes without unlocking. Your timers stay in step between iPhone, iPad and Margin for Mac through your own iCloud: start on one, pause on another. MORE ROOM ON IPAD On iPad your day sits beside the month, the next few things and your undated tasks, with a week view and keyboard shortcuts. ON YOUR WRIST The Apple Watch app shows the hour you are in and what comes next, with your running timer on top. Say a task and it lands on your iPhone. WIDGETS AND SHORTCUTS Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets show now and next, your coming hours and your focus timer. Add to Margin with Siri, the Action button or a Control Center control. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no ads and no tracking. Your plans live in your own Apple Calendar and Reminders, and timers sync through your own iCloud. One purchase. No subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: CompactCalendar at Free against Margin's $5.99. Margin's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (daily vs weekly). On ads and device support 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
CompactCalendar is free to download; Margin costs $5.99 up front. CompactCalendar sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Margin asks for nothing beyond the download.
CompactCalendar ships an update weekly, Margin daily. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | CompactCalendar | Margin |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $5.99 |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sunghyun Kim | Abdulmohsen Al Tulaihi |
In-app purchases
CompactCalendar
- CompactCalendar Pro$3.99
Margin
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CompactCalendar free?
Is Margin free?
Do CompactCalendar or Margin have ads?
Which is updated more often, CompactCalendar or Margin?
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