Comparison

Minimal Digital Clock vs AlwaysOn

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

Head to head
About

Minimal Digital Clock

This app offers a clean, landscape-oriented digital clock experience for your desk or nightstand. It features elegant clock skins, ambient fullscreen effects, and useful tools like a timer and stopwatch.

Highlights
  • Elegant clock skins
  • Ambient fullscreen effects
  • Optional background music
  • Timer, countdown, stopwatch
  • Customizable display options
  • Bilingual interface
Features
Read full description

Minimal Digital Clock is a clean, landscape-first digital clock designed for your desk, nightstand, and StandBy-style viewing. FEATURES • Multiple elegant clock skins with distinctive typography • Ambient fullscreen effects — snow, stars, bubbles, and more • Optional background music for a calm atmosphere • Timer, countdown, and stopwatch • Customize display: weekday, date, seconds, 24-hour format • Bilingual interface (English / Chinese) Minimal Clock focuses on what matters — time, beautifully displayed. Core features work without an account. Privacy Policy: https://simpledigitalclock.com/privacy/en Terms of Service: https://simpledigitalclock.com/terms/en

About

AlwaysOn

Transform a plugged-in iPhone into a convenient desk display. View the time, date, calendar, and weather at a glance. Features a sleep mode for nighttime use and custom display hours.

Highlights
  • Large digital clock display
  • Current date and calendar
  • Upcoming calendar events
  • Local weather forecast
  • Customizable display hours
  • Low-brightness sleep mode
  • Burn-in protection
Features
Read full description

Turn your iPhone or iPad into a beautiful desk and nightstand clock. Free, with no ads and no subscriptions. AlwaysOn shows the time, your calendar, weather and more on a screen you leave docked or propped up, and on your Home Screen and Lock Screen too. START WITH A FINISHED DESIGN • Ready-made layouts, each with its own background • Swipe between layouts, and the background moves with your widgets • Change any of them, or make your own WIDGETS FOR YOUR HOME SCREEN • Clock, with seven faces including Eclipse: the time inside a glowing ring • Time Together, Daylight, Word Clock, Card Clock, Tube Clock, Countdown, Green Room, Moon Phase and Horizon • Home Screen, Lock Screen and StandBy • Tap ▶ to watch a whole day go by in seconds CLOCKS AND BACKGROUNDS • Digital clocks in eleven styles, including big iPhone-style digits • Clock backgrounds: Lens, Card (split-flap), Tube, Prism, Stone, Shadow and Green Room • Space backgrounds: Tonight's Sky shows the real stars over your city, plus Earthrise, Saturn and Jupiter • Animated and still backgrounds: Earth, Horizon, Moon Phase, Catnap, Soft Flow, Tide and more • Seasonal backgrounds for holidays and festivals MADE FOR NIGHT • Darker nights with a soft amber clock • Day Mode hours, Smart Dimming and burn-in protection • A sunrise alarm that wakes you with light YOUR LAYOUT • Arrange the clock with Calendar, Up Next, Weather, World Clock, Countdown, a Focus timer, Photos and Battery • Separate layouts for portrait and landscape, made for both iPhone and iPad PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no tracking, no data collected • Available in English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese AlwaysOn turns a screen you're not using into something calm and useful.

Screenshots

Minimal Digital Clock4 screens
AlwaysOn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AlwaysOn at none against Minimal Digital Clock's 3. AlwaysOn also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). Minimal Digital Clock's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). On price, review sentiment, 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. Minimal Digital Clock sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. AlwaysOn asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AlwaysOn holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17 and 22 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minimal Digital Clock ships an update every 2 months, AlwaysOn every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Minimal Digital Clock versus AlwaysOn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinimal Digital ClockAlwaysOn
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (17 ratings)4.8 (22 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1722 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size27 MB63 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer东锣 杨Weijin Wang

Customer experience

Minimal Digital Clock

All ratings17 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.8%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

AlwaysOn

All ratings22 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Minimal Digital Clock

Subscriptions2
  • Minimal Clock Pro$0.991 Month
  • Minimal Clock Pro$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Pro$8.99
None

AlwaysOn

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minimal Digital Clock free?
Minimal Digital Clock is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AlwaysOn free?
AlwaysOn is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Minimal Digital Clock or AlwaysOn?
AlwaysOn is rated higher. Minimal Digital Clock averages 4.5 out of 5 from 17 ratings, while AlwaysOn averages 4.8 from 22 ratings.
Do Minimal Digital Clock or AlwaysOn have ads?
Neither Minimal Digital Clock nor AlwaysOn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minimal Digital Clock or AlwaysOn?
Minimal Digital Clock ships an update every 2 months, and AlwaysOn every 4 days. Most recently, Minimal Digital Clock was updated on October 31, 2026 and AlwaysOn on November 5, 2026.

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