Comparison

xGridUp vs PlainTick Flip Clock

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

Head to head
About

xGridUp

Features
Read full description

Your screen. Your information. Always on. xGridUp turns your iPad or iPhone into a dedicated ambient display - a beautiful, always-on dashboard showing exactly the information you care about. Build your screen from a grid of live widgets: the time, weather, stocks, calendar events, countdowns, moon phase, air quality, and dozens more. Arrange them exactly how you want using one of hundreds of unique grid layouts. Rotate your device and the grid rotates with it. MAKE IT YOURS Choose from 892 unique grid layouts on iPad, or 17 carefully selected layouts on iPhone. Every cell holds a live widget. Leave cells empty for breathing room. Flip layouts horizontally or vertically for even more combinations. LIVE WIDGETS Time: digital, analog, flip, word clock, binary, minimal, large number, dual timezone, seconds, world clock Date: calendar date, day name, month, week number, day of year, season, relative date Progress: day, hour, minute, week, month, year, workday rings and bars Weather: current conditions, 5-day forecast, sunrise/sunset, UV index, air quality, tide times Finance: live stock prices, crypto with sparkline, currency exchange rates Calendar: month view, today's agenda, next event countdown, reminders Astronomy: moon phase, golden hour, solar noon, planet visibility Media: YouTube, live streams, live news channels Device: battery level, screen brightness, volume Timers: countdown, stopwatch, Pomodoro, simple timer Decor: solid colour blocks, gradients, labels MULTIPLE SCREENS Create as many screens as you like and cycle between them automatically - every 15 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, or longer. Swipe to switch manually anytime. BUILT FOR ALWAYS-ON xGridUp keeps your screen awake so it works as a permanent ambient display. Set it on your desk, prop it on a stand, and let it run. EACH SCREEN IS UNIQUE Every screen has its own background colour and cell spacing. Dark, light, or a custom hex colour - each screen can have a completely different look.

About

PlainTick Flip Clock

A full-screen clock with flip animations, customizable skins, and timing tools for iPhone and iPad. It offers timers, focus sessions, and widgets for your home and lock screens.

Highlights
  • Full-screen clock with flip animations
  • Customizable skins and layouts
  • Timers and focus sessions (Pomodoro)
  • Home screen and lock screen widgets
  • Live Activities support
  • Automatic night dimming
Features
Read full description

Make time easy to read with PlainTick Flip Clock. A quiet full-screen clock for your iPhone and iPad, with flip animations, dark and light skins, and tools for everyday timing. CLOCK • Portrait and landscape layouts • Optional seconds, date and current weather • 12-hour or 24-hour time and a choice of time zone • Sixteen skins, including classic, outline, geometric and handwritten styles; swipe up or down on the clock to switch • Automatic night dimming based on your device’s local time TIMERS AND FOCUS • Count up, count down or set a target date and time • Start, pause, resume and reset • Pomodoro work and break sessions with adjustable lengths • Optional timer notifications, daily alarms and hourly chimes • Optional ambient audio WIDGETS AND LIVE ACTIVITIES • Four Home Screen widgets: ivory flip clock, sundial, retro cassette and retro radio, in small, medium and large sizes • Widgets show the date, current weather and a monthly calendar; the cassette reels, radio needle and flip clock gear move • Widget seconds follow your Show seconds setting • The small widget also works in StandBy • Live Activities for the clock and countdowns on supported devices No account required. No ads. Skins are included. Available in 22 languages with 28 locale variants. Weather requires internet access and optional location permission; weather data is provided by Open-Meteo. The clock and timers work offline. iOS manages widget update timing and Live Activity duration; seconds may update less often in some system display states. Notifications require permission. Requires iOS or iPadOS 17 or later.

Screenshots

xGridUp4 screens
PlainTick Flip Clock4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: PlainTick Flip Clock at 4 against xGridUp's 2. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

xGridUp ships an update every 4 days, PlainTick Flip Clock weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
xGridUp versus PlainTick Flip Clock: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterxGridUpPlainTick Flip Clock
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB23 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperK2 Labs路 林

In-app purchases

None

xGridUp

No in-app purchases

None

PlainTick Flip Clock

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is xGridUp free?
xGridUp is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PlainTick Flip Clock free?
PlainTick Flip Clock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do xGridUp or PlainTick Flip Clock have ads?
Neither xGridUp nor PlainTick Flip Clock shows ads.
Which is updated more often, xGridUp or PlainTick Flip Clock?
xGridUp ships an update every 4 days, and PlainTick Flip Clock weekly. Most recently, xGridUp was updated on October 7, 2026 and PlainTick Flip Clock on October 20, 2026.

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