Comparison

ServiceArchive vs Cairn

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

Head to head
About

ServiceArchive

Organize U.S. military service history, medical visits, and supporting records on your iPhone. Access reference tools for common VA claim topics and prepare for appointments. Features include evidence pack generation and C&P exam preparation.

Highlights
  • Organize service history and medical records
  • Reference tools for PACT Act, Camp Lejeune, Agent Orange
  • Generate evidence pack PDFs
  • C&P exam preparation tools
  • Buddy statement companion PDFs
  • HealthKit trends integration
Read full description

ServiceArchive helps U.S. military veterans organize service history, conditions, medical visits and personal supporting records on iPhone. Keep dates and details together for appointments and discussions with a VA-accredited representative. Reference tools cover PACT Act, Camp Lejeune, Agent Orange and Gulf War topics. Suggestions are informational and do not determine eligibility. The current interface does not scan or import documents or photos. PICK A PLAN Pro Annual: $14.99/year with a 1-month free trial for eligible subscribers. Pro Lifetime: $29.99 one-time, no subscription. WHAT PRO ADDS (BOTH PLANS) - MOS Presumptive Reference Mapper - PACT Act burn pit, Camp Lejeune 1953-1987, Agent Orange, Gulf War. Reference only. - 38 CFR Section 3.310 Secondary Connection Reference Mapper - around 40 common primary-to-secondary pairings. Reference only. - Four additional evidence-pack PDFs: HLR, Supplemental Claim (with decision-date and one-year anniversary references), PACT Act Presumptive, and Comprehensive Service Connection. The Initial Claim PDF is free. - C&P exam workbench - pre-exam preparation checklist, post-exam reconstruction log. - Buddy statement personal companion PDFs with structured prompts and signature lines. These are not official VA Form 21-10210 documents. - Expanded conditions, service periods and medical encounters, plus lay and buddy statement editors. Service-event logging is already unlimited on Free. WHAT EVERY USER GETS - 1 service-connected condition with category, ICD-10, onset date, claim status. - 1 service period with branch, MOS, duty stations, deployments, combat indicators. - Up to 10 medical encounter records. - Home dashboard with HealthKit trends (heart rate, steps, sleep, HRV). - Initial Claim Evidence Pack PDF with service history, conditions, service events and medical encounters. - C&P exam dates and optional 7-day reminders. - App Lock (Face ID / Touch ID). - All records on this iPhone. WHAT SERVICEARCHIVE ISN'T Is ServiceArchive a VA representative? No. ServiceArchive is a personal records organizer. We do not file VA claims, provide legal advice, or represent veterans before the VA. Is it affiliated with any government agency? No. Not affiliated with the VA, VBA, VHA, DoD, NPRC, or any U.S. government agency. Not affiliated with any commercial VA claims service, law firm, or VSO. Brand names referenced belong to their respective owners. Do the presumptive condition suggestions determine eligibility? No. Suggestions are reference-only, derived from publicly available VA regulations. They do not constitute legal determination of eligibility. Where do I get accredited representation? Contact a VA-accredited attorney, claims agent, or Veterans Service Organization. Many VSOs - DAV, VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, MOPH - provide free accredited representation. Find one at VA.gov. ServiceArchive is designed exclusively for iPhone. iPad and Mac are not supported. Privacy Policy: https://app-legal-pages.vercel.app/servicearchive/privacy Terms of Service: https://app-legal-pages.vercel.app/servicearchive/terms

About

Cairn

Track important upcoming dates and past anniversaries with a versatile countdown and count-up tool. It offers precise timing, customizable reminders, and various visual displays to keep you informed. Integrates seamlessly with your devices and data.

Highlights
  • Countdown and count-up for any event
  • Minute and second precision timing
  • Customizable repeat intervals
  • Time zone support
  • Visual progress tracking
  • Milestone markers
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
Features
Read full description

Cairn counts down to the days you're waiting for, and counts up from the days you don't want to forget. Give it a date. It answers in days — 124 days to go, or 1,024 days since. Everything else gets out of the way. COUNTDOWN AND COUNT-UP, ONE MODEL • Days to go for anything ahead: a holiday, a trip, an exam, a due date • Days since anything behind: an anniversary, a baby's birth, the day you quit • Turn on minute precision when the hour matters — "3 days 4 hours", with seconds only in the final hour • Repeat yearly, monthly, weekly, every N days, or by the lunar calendar • Every event carries its own time zone, so flying across the world never shifts the number • Count only working days when a countdown is about business days • A date calculator for the days between two dates, or a date N days away — save the answer as an event • Pick up dates from a screenshot, a photo or a bit of text, and start a new event already filled in SEE WHERE IT STANDS • A countdown bar reads like a battery gauge: solid is what's left, full to empty • A count-up grid fills one square at a time, a day at a time • Milestones at 100, 365, 520, 1,000 and 1,314 days, marked right on the track • Ring, milestone track or heat grid — pick one per event, or just keep the number • A year view lays out all twelve months at once, so you can see which one is crowded; a month view lays them out day by day • Yearly events show which anniversary it is, and the day a countdown reaches zero gets a small celebration REMINDERS THAT ARRIVE ON TIME • Several reminders per event: days, weeks or months ahead, at the hour you choose • A daily digest each morning for what's today and what's this week • Live Activity and Dynamic Island for the last 24 hours • Time-sensitive delivery for the dates that shouldn't wait behind a Focus EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK • Home Screen widgets in small, medium and large: one event, a list, or a chart • Lock Screen widgets — inline, circular and rectangular — each pointed at the event you choose • An Apple Watch app and complications: circular, rectangular, inline and corner • A Control Center control for a new countdown in one tap • Ask Siri how long until anything, or find an event right from Spotlight • Share an event with family or friends: change the date and it changes for them too YOURS, AND ONLY YOURS • No account. Nothing to sign up for. • Syncs across iPhone, iPad and Mac through your own iCloud, and mirrors to Apple Watch from your iPhone • Import dates from Calendar and birthdays from Contacts — read only, never written back • Export everything to a single JSON file and import it back whenever you like; local snapshots and Recently Deleted bring back what you removed by mistake • App Lock asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode when you come back • Cover photos with automatic tinting, six muted themes, categories, pinning, archiving and a share card • English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Thai, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Danish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Finnish — dates and month names included Cairn is free to download and keep up to 3 events. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks unlimited events. Previous users keep full access permanently; restore with the same Apple Account. No subscription, no ads, no tracking. A cairn is the pile of stones a trail keeps stacking to mark the way — one for every stretch you have walked.

Screenshots

ServiceArchive4 screens
Cairn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Cairn at weekly against ServiceArchive's every 2 months. Cairn also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and device support (3 vs 1). ServiceArchive's advantage is iOS requirement (17.2 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. ServiceArchive sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Cairn sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for ServiceArchive against 5.0 for Cairn. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ServiceArchive ships an update every 2 months, Cairn weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ServiceArchive versus Cairn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterServiceArchiveCairn
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.2 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer慧慧 高飞 吕

Customer experience

ServiceArchive

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Cairn

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

ServiceArchive

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Pro Annual1 Month trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$29.99
1 purchases

Cairn

One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is ServiceArchive free?
ServiceArchive is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cairn free?
Cairn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ServiceArchive or Cairn?
ServiceArchive and Cairn are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do ServiceArchive or Cairn have ads?
Neither ServiceArchive nor Cairn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ServiceArchive or Cairn?
ServiceArchive ships an update every 2 months, and Cairn weekly. Most recently, ServiceArchive was updated on October 31, 2026 and Cairn on November 13, 2026.

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