Comparison

Spoon Manager vs Shift Calendar

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

Head to head
About

Spoon Manager

Track your daily energy levels and activities to understand patterns and plan your day. Features include mood check-ins, task management, habit tracking, and calendar integration. Designed for individuals managing chronic illness or fatigue.

Highlights
  • Daily energy check-ins
  • Task and habit tracking
  • Mood and gratitude journaling
  • Calendar integration
  • Customizable dashboard widgets
  • Pattern analysis charts
Features
Read full description

Spoon Manager is an easy-to-use energy tracker based on Spoon Theory. Check in on your energy each morning and night, record what you do, spot your patterns, and plan your day with confidence. Whether you're managing chronic illness, chronic pain, fatigue, ME/CFS, autism, ADHD, or anything else that affects your energy, Spoon Manager helps you stay in control. It's a calm, native app for iPhone and iPad — no accounts, no ads, no tracking. Everything stays on your device. WHAT'S INSIDE • Morning & night check-ins. Each morning, log how many spoons you're starting with; each night, log what's left. See how your days really go instead of guessing — and catch a low patch before it becomes a crash. • An optional pulse reading. Rest a fingertip on the camera for a wearable-free resting heart-rate check-in — a wellness reading, not a medical measurement. No watch or band required. • To-dos that meet your brain halfway. Break a big task into small steps, name the first move, jot why it matters, add a reward, and estimate the time — with dates, reminders, and repeats. • Habits, your way. Count-based or simple, shown as a visual heatmap with streaks that forgive a rest day. • Routines. Run a morning or wind-down routine step by step, at your own pace. • A daily journal. A calm space to reflect, with a one-tap mood check-in, "what shaped today" factors, gratitude, and a morning intention. • Calendar. Day, week, and month views with your Apple Calendar — and, if you like, your Google Calendar — shown right alongside your day. • Goals. Link the to-dos and habits that move a goal and watch its progress bar fill. • See your patterns. Charts bring your energy, mood, and habits together so you can spot what helps and what drains you. • Build-your-own home. Arrange and resize a dashboard of widgets, plus home-screen and lock-screen widgets for your spoons and your week. • Make it yours. Color themes with light and dark mode, an optional Face ID lock, and journal export anytime. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Spoon Manager is built to need none of your data. There are no accounts, no server, no ads, and no analytics or tracking SDKs. Everything you create stays on your device. The one time Spoon Manager goes online is if you choose to connect Google Calendar — a read-only link that shows your events in the app and never sends your data to us. Made by a small independent developer.

About

Shift Calendar

Features
Read full description

See your whole shift schedule on one calendar, and know at a glance when you work and when your next day off is. Create your shift types – Day, Evening, Night and Off to start with – and tap days to paint them in. Fill a repeating rotation for months at a time, and set a reminder before a shift starts. ■ Made for - Nurses and hospital staff on rotating shifts - Shift workers in factories, services, police and fire departments - Anyone who copies a roster into a calendar by hand every month ■ Features - Paint: pick a shift type and tap days; tap again to clear. There's an eraser too - Fill pattern: tap shift types in order to build a rotation, add "Skip day" for days left empty, and fill up to 366 days at a time from any start date. Save the patterns you use often - Shift types with a name, a 2-character short label, a color and set hours – including night shifts that end the next day - A reminder for each shift type with set hours: at start time, or 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 90 minutes or 2 hours before - A note for any day - Summary for any month: shifts by type, total hours and your next day off - Widgets: the next 7 days on your Home Screen, and today's and tomorrow's shift on your Lock Screen - iCloud backup: automatic while you're signed in to iCloud; restore on a new device Reminders and widgets follow your first calendar. Reminders are scheduled on your device, so open the app now and then to keep the later ones scheduled. ■ Privacy Your shifts are stored on your device and never sent to our servers. While you're signed in to iCloud, a backup copy is kept in your own iCloud. No account needed. Where ad consent applies, you can change your choice under Ad privacy options in Settings. ■ Pricing Free with ads and one calendar. Pro removes ads and unlocks multiple calendars (for family, colleagues or a second job), exporting your month as an image and a large widget with this month's shifts. Get Pro with a monthly or yearly subscription, or with a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account; manage or cancel your subscription in Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://donald-deok.github.io/app-privacy/shift_calendar_ios.html

Screenshots

Spoon Manager4 screens
Shift Calendar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Spoon Manager at none against Shift Calendar's 3. Spoon Manager also leads on ads (none vs shown). Shift Calendar's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days). On price, 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. Shift Calendar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Spoon Manager asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spoon Manager ships an update every 5 days, Shift Calendar every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Spoon Manager versus Shift Calendar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpoon ManagerShift Calendar
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB7 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperJohn TraugottDeokhyeon Kim

In-app purchases

None

Spoon Manager

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Shift Calendar

Subscriptions2
  • Pro – Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Pro – Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro – Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is Spoon Manager free?
Spoon Manager is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Shift Calendar free?
Shift Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Spoon Manager or Shift Calendar have ads?
Shift Calendar shows ads; Spoon Manager does not.
Which is updated more often, Spoon Manager or Shift Calendar?
Spoon Manager ships an update every 5 days, and Shift Calendar every 2 days. Most recently, Spoon Manager was updated on October 25, 2026 and Shift Calendar on October 24, 2026.

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