Occasions vs One Small Thing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Occasions
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Something is always coming up. Occasions keeps every birthday, anniversary, and holiday in one calm place, counts down to whichever is next, and helps you plan the gift before the day arrives. WHAT IT DOES β’ Up Next: a live countdown to your soonest occasion, with everything coming up sorted by how close it is. β’ Add the people you celebrate, birthdays and anniversaries, with their age or year count. β’ Turn on the holidays you actually buy gifts for: Valentine's, Mother's and Father's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's, and more. The dates are always right, even the ones that float. β’ Plan gifts under each occasion: jot ideas, mark them bought or wrapped, set a budget, and see where your money's going. β’ Gift ideas built in: tap a category and shop in seconds. β’ Reminders: get a nudge two weeks and three days before, so you're never scrambling. β’ Your own wishlist, for when someone asks "what do you want?" PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No sign up. No tracking. Everything stays on your device. Occasions collects nothing. Never miss a moment, and never miss a gift again.
One Small Thing
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It's eight in the evening, you have the next two hours free, and you cannot decide what to do with them. So you pick up your phone. Forty minutes later you put it down feeling worse than when you started. Every other app that helps you decide asks you to type the options in first. If you already knew the options, you wouldn't need the app. One Small Thing comes with 1,200+ of them. You tap one of three lines and get a single card: one specific thing you could start in the next minute, and a sentence on why that one. HOW IT WORKS Tap whichever is true right now: Β· I'm bored β give me something to do Β· Bored of the usual β give me something I haven't done Β· Today feels empty β help me end the day You get one card. Not a list, not a feed. If it doesn't fit, push back β lighter, don't want to leave the house, free, something completely different β and you get another one. When it fits, close the app and go do it. Tap once when you're back. That's the whole thing. LATE AT NIGHT IT STOPS SUGGESTING Past an hour you choose, it won't try to start something with you. It walks three short steps to end the day instead: look back at it, name the first thing for tomorrow, one small thing to unwind. Then it says good night. In the morning, the thing you named is waiting on the home screen, and tapping it clears it. 1,200+ THINGS TO DO From untangling the charging cables to walking to the corner shop to study a drink you've never had. Indoors and out, free and not, lazy and not. Every card says how long it takes and whether it costs anything. IT WORKS WITH THE WIFI OFF There is no server. The whole library ships inside the app. It works on a plane, in a basement, in airplane mode, on a phone with no SIM in it. NO ACCOUNT. NOTHING COLLECTED. Nothing to sign up for. What you've done and what you've saved sit in a database on this phone, and you can export the lot as JSON or wipe it, from Settings, in two taps. No analytics, no ad SDK, no tracking, and no notifications trying to drag you back in. This app has done its job at the moment you close it. THE COLOURS FOLLOW THE SKY Afternoon is pale blue, dusk is orange, late night is off-white on near-black. It uses the real sunrise and sunset where you are, so it never looks the same at two different times of day. Free with 300 things to do. A one-time purchase unlocks the whole library β 1,200+ β including everything added later. No subscription, and nothing to cancel. Made by one person. The trade for collecting nothing is that I can't see what anyone does with it β so if a suggestion is bad, email me and I'll fix that entry. That's the only way I find out.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Occasions at none against One Small Thing's 1. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. One Small Thing sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Occasions asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Occasions | One Small Thing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | β | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No β better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 β better | 15.1 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | MICHAEL SHAWN GAFF | εδΊ¬δΈιδΈηη§ζζιε ¬εΈ |
In-app purchases
Occasions
No in-app purchases
One Small Thing
- Unlock Everything$3.99








