Comparison

TimePalette vs Cairn

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

Head to head
About

TimePalette

Features
Read full description

TimePalette is a simple time-tracking app that lets you record and review your daily time with just a tap, whether you are studying, doing chores, working, enjoying hobbies, exercising, or resting. If you want to manage your time but find detailed planning and complex settings hard to keep up with, TimePalette makes it easy to simply record what you are doing now. Tap an item to start tracking, then stop when you are done. Your day is shown as a colorful timeline, so you can naturally look back and see how much time you spent on each activity. ■ What You Can Do with TimePalette ・Easy time tracking with a tap Record chores, study, work, breaks, sleep, hobbies, and other daily activities by tapping items that fit your lifestyle. ・Timers for each item Set timers such as 25 minutes for study and 5 minutes for breaks. A color bar shows the remaining time, making it easy to stay focused. TimePalette also works well as a Pomodoro timer. ・See your day in color View today’s records and untracked time on a timeline. Instead of planned time, you can visualize how you actually spent your day. ・Adjust records later You can add, edit, and delete past records. You can also adjust stop times or start a record from the beginning of an untracked gap. ・Customize items your way Set names, colors, icons, order, goal times, and reminders. Items you no longer use can be hidden from the tracking screen. ・Review with reports Check your time usage by day, calendar, period summary, and trend graphs. For items with goal times, you can also review your progress. ・Track from Apple Watch When it is hard to take out your iPhone, you can start tracking by tapping items on Apple Watch. ・Manage your data Create and restore backups, export CSV files, and save reports as PDF, PNG, or JPEG files. ■ Recommended For ・People who want a simple overview of how they spend each day ・People who want to record study time or work time ・People who want to track chores, childcare, exercise, hobbies, and daily life ・People who prefer reviewing what they actually did over making detailed plans ・People who could not keep using overly detailed time-management apps TimePalette is not an app for managing every minute perfectly. It is an app for making your daily time a little more visible, so you can look back and see what you spent your day on. The app is free to use. A one-time in-app purchase is available to remove ads.

About

Cairn

Features
Read full description

Focus that leaves something behind.Cairn is a calm Pomodoro and deep-work timer. Finish a focus session and it forges a small, one-of-a-kind keepsake — a piece of generative art that's yours to keep, forever.No streaks to guilt you. No trees that die. No ads, no subscription, no tracking. Buy it once.Plant a focus. Grow a garden of your work.Every completed session blooms into a unique keepsake and joins your terrarium — a quiet, growing record of the time you gave your attention. Each one is deterministic and permanent: the same focus always grows the same object, and it never withers.Why Cairn feels different• A keepsake, not a chore. Reward without the gamified guilt — nothing dies if you stop.• Buy once, keep forever. One purchase unlocks everything. No subscription, ever.• Private by design. 100% on-device. No account, no ads, no tracking, works offline.• Calm, not hustle. Built for deep work, study, and reading — not dopamine loops.Everything you'd want in a focus timer• Pomodoro and custom-length sessions for study, work, and reading• A living garden/terrarium of everything you've grown• A diary calendar and honest stats — hours, rhythm, materials• Home & Lock Screen widgets, Live Activity & Dynamic Island, Control Center• Apple Watch app with complications — start a focus from your wrist• Full iPhone + iPad, light & dark, and accessibility supportCairn Pro — one purchase, foreverUnlock every material, palette, and the full garden with a single buy-once purchase. No subscriptions, no upsells.Focus is fleeting. What you make of it doesn't have to be.

Screenshots

TimePalette4 screens
Cairn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Cairn at none against TimePalette's shown. TimePalette's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. TimePalette sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Cairn sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
TimePalette versus Cairn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTimePaletteCairn
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 9 days—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKNOWLEDGE UP LLCPham Van Hai

In-app purchases

1 purchases

TimePalette

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$0.49
1 purchases

Cairn

One-time1
  • Cairn Pro · Lifetime Unlock$1.99

Questions

Is TimePalette free?
TimePalette is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cairn free?
Cairn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do TimePalette or Cairn have ads?
TimePalette shows ads; Cairn does not.

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