Comparison

Cling vs NuKey

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

Head to head
About

Cling

This app allows you to save and display various types of information, such as loyalty cards, notes, reminders, and timers, directly on your iPhone's Dynamic Island and Lock Screen. You can choose to have items permanently visible, rotate them, or keep them hidden until needed, with strong privacy controls for sensitive data.

Highlights
  • Save loyalty cards, boarding passes, tickets, and gift cards
  • Create custom notes, reminders, and timers
  • Display information on Dynamic Island and Lock Screen
  • Organize items into static, dynamic, or dormant lanes
  • Securely encrypts sensitive card data
  • Save items directly from the share sheet
Features
Read full description

Cling is a save layer for your iPhone. Anything you need to keep in view goes into Cling, and you decide how loudly it shows up: parked permanently in the Dynamic Island, taking its turn in the live rotation, or saved quietly in the app until you need it. SAVE ANYTHING Cards: a loyalty card, boarding pass, gig ticket, membership or gift card, scannable from the lock screen Notes: a line of text, a link, or a photo you need to keep at hand Reminders: a dated alert with the notification lead time you choose Timers: a labelled countdown to zero Countdowns: days until a birthday, a trip, a deadline Locations: where you parked, the hotel, the restaurant, the bus stop, with an optional note and photo Clocks: an analog dial, a digital readout, or a running stopwatch Dates: weekday, day, month, full date, or the Chinese lunar date Progress: how far through the day, week, month, or year you are Status bars: a modular readout of battery, time, Wi-Fi, text and symbols Decorations: a glyph in the house style, there to dress the island CARDS, PASSES AND TICKETS Scan a card's barcode or type the number, and Cling puts it on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island, full width and big enough for the till, the gate, or the door. No unlocking, no digging through apps, no turning the brightness up. Tickets and passes track their date, so yours is already waiting before the event. Add a note like "Row F, seat 12", style the card face, and mark any card sensitive to keep it private. PRIVACY: YOUR CARDS STAY YOURS A wallet feature is only as good as the trust behind it, so here is exactly what happens to your cards. Your card numbers never leave your iPhone. They are never sent to our servers. There is no Cling account and no card database on our end. There is nothing to leak, because nothing is ever uploaded. Your cards are encrypted at rest with AES-256. The key lives in your device Keychain, marked This Device Only: it never syncs through iCloud Keychain and never travels in a backup. Sensitive cards, payment cards included, are hidden by default. Their number and barcode are masked everywhere outside the app: not on the lock screen, not in the Dynamic Island, not in widgets. You decide what each card shows. THREE LANES, YOUR CALL Every saved item sits in one of three lanes, and you drag between them on the board. Static stays parked in the Dynamic Island. It is always there. Dynamic joins the live rotation and takes its turn with everything else. Dormant is saved and out of the way. It stays off your widgets unless you say otherwise. Nothing surfaces without your say-so. Move an item between lanes whenever it stops mattering, or starts. EVERYWHERE YOU ALREADY LOOK Saved items appear in the Dynamic Island, on the Lock Screen, and in home screen widgets. The Quick Pins widget puts one-tap starting points for your most-used types on the home screen, so saving a parking spot or starting a timer never needs the app opened. SAVE FROM ANYWHERE The share sheet extension takes text, links and images from any app straight into Cling. Siri and Shortcuts can save a parking spot or start a countdown by voice or as a step in an automation, so Cling fits into routines you have already built. COLLECTIONS Group saved items into collections that match how you think about them: a trip, a move, a project, a week. Collections keep a long list navigable without forcing you to delete things you might still want. MADE TO LOOK LIKE IT BELONGS Pick an accent colour and an appearance per item. Cling follows the system's visual language rather than fighting it, so a pin in the Dynamic Island reads as part of iOS, not as an advert for an app. ON DEVICE Your saved items live on your iPhone. No account, nothing to sign up for. Open it and start saving. REQUIRES iOS 17.2 or later. The Dynamic Island features need an iPhone with a Dynamic Island; on other iPhones, saved items appear on the Lock Screen and in widgets.

About

NuKey

Personalize your typing experience with custom colors, key styles, and animated lighting. Choose from a variety of mechanical switch sounds to enhance your typing feel. Save and share your unique keyboard designs with others.

Highlights
  • Custom keyboard designs
  • Ready-made themes
  • Animated lighting effects
  • Mechanical switch sounds
  • Personalized key legends
  • Emoji browsing
  • Shareable designs
Features
Read full description

NuKey transforms your iPhone keyboard into a personalised typing experience that looks, sounds and feels like your own. Create a custom keyboard by choosing colours, key styles, legends and animated lighting effects. Add satisfying mechanical switch sounds inspired by popular switch types, then preview your creation before you start typing. Features include: • Build and save custom keyboard designs • Choose from ready-made themes • Add animated keyboard lighting effects • Enjoy a collection of mechanical switch sounds • Personalise key legends and layouts • Browse and type emoji with ease • Add your own words for a more personal typing experience • Select your preferred keyboard language • Share keyboard designs using QR codes • Preview sounds and themes inside the app Whether you prefer a clean, understated keyboard or something colourful and expressive, NuKey gives you the tools to make every tap your own. Some themes, sounds and customisation features may require NuKey Pro.

Screenshots

Cling4 screens
NuKey4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Cling at 5.0 against NuKey's 4.4. Cling also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4). NuKey's advantage is ratings volume (50 vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 days). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. NuKey sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Cling asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cling holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NuKey has 50 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cling ships an update every 3 days, NuKey every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Cling versus NuKey: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClingNuKey
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.4 (50 ratings)
Positive reviews—61.8% of reviews
Number of ratings150 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.2 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWilliam WhitehouseSean Kelly

In-app purchases

None

Cling

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

NuKey

One-time4
  • Nice One$1.99
  • Very Kind$4.99
  • NuKey Pro$8.99
Show 1 more
  • Legend$9.99

Questions

Is Cling free?
Cling is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is NuKey free?
NuKey is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Cling or NuKey?
Cling is rated higher. Cling averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while NuKey averages 4.4 from 50 ratings.
Do Cling or NuKey have ads?
Neither Cling nor NuKey shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cling or NuKey?
Cling ships an update every 3 days, and NuKey every 2 days. Most recently, Cling was updated on October 25, 2026 and NuKey on November 1, 2026.

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