Comparison

Cycle Timers vs Present

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

Head to head
About

Cycle Timers

Features
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Set a timer for anything that repeats — and forget about forgetting. Free to start. Cycle Pro is an optional one-time in-app purchase — no subscription. Cycle turns recurring household chores into countdown rings: food that expires in 3 days, the cat litter every 4 days, the sheets every 2 weeks. Each timer fills a ring that slowly drains from green to yellow to orange — and turns red when it’s overdue. One glance tells you what’s fine, what’s coming, and what’s due. One tap marks it done and restarts the cycle — right from your Home Screen widget, without opening the app. WIDGET-FIRST • Interactive Home Screen widgets: tap a ring to mark it done, no app launch • Choose exactly which timers each widget shows • Lock Screen widgets keep your most urgent timers one glance away (Cycle Pro) • The Small widget is free; Medium and Large widgets, plus Extra Large on iPad, come with Cycle Pro EFFORTLESS • Start from household templates: Kitchen, Cleaning, Pets, Bathroom, Home • Or create your own in seconds: name, icon, interval, done • Undo an accidental restart with one tap • Backdate a timer when you actually did it yesterday • Works on iPhone and iPad REASSURING, NOT NAGGING • Calm green for most of a cycle; warm colors only when it matters • One local notification when something comes due, with a Mark Done button right on it • Optional app badge showing the overdue count • Siri and Shortcuts: say “Mark cat litter done in Cycle” PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no tracking • Your timers stay on your device and are never sent to us • Cycle uses RevenueCat only to count purchases and how the Cycle Pro screen is used (an anonymous ID and your App Store purchases), and never to track you FREE TO START • Free: up to 4 timers and one Small Home Screen widget • Cycle Pro is an optional one-time in-app purchase: unlimited timers, Medium and Large widgets (plus Extra Large on iPad), and Lock Screen widgets • Cycle Pro also unlocks Cycle Wrapped, your year in Cycle: a year-end recap you can share • Cycle Pro also lets you message the developer straight from Settings • No subscription, no recurring charges

About

Present

This app transforms your phone into a calm, glanceable display showing time, date, weather, and upcoming calendar events. It minimizes distractions by offering no interactive elements, focusing on providing information at a glance. The dynamic sky display reflects real-time dusk and dawn, offering a visual sense of the day's progression.

Highlights
  • Glanceable time, date, and weather
  • Ambient calendar display
  • Dynamic real-time sky visualization
  • Offline functionality
  • Minimalist, distraction-free interface
  • On-device data processing
Features
Read full description

Enough things already ask for your attention. Present is not one of them. Set your phone on a stand and it becomes a calm, glanceable display: the time, the date, the weather, and a quick look at what is coming up. What matters right now, and nothing else. NOTHING TO TAP There are no controls on the readout. No settings screen. No feed, no badge, and no notification it can ever send you. Present is built to reduce what your phone asks of you, not to collect your attention — it slips into the background and is simply there when you look up. A GLANCE, NOT A SESSION The time and date, the current conditions, and the next few hours of your calendar scrolling under a fixed now-marker. You read it in a second from across the room and get back to whatever you were doing. TIME YOU CAN SEE WITHOUT READING Behind it all, a sky that dims through the real dusk where you actually are. Sunrise and sunset are computed on the device from your own coordinates. The sun climbs the edge of the screen and sets at the bottom right; the moon takes over at nightfall, drawn at tonight's true phase. Look up and you know roughly where you are in the day before you have read a single number. BUILT TO BE LEFT RUNNING The screen dims after a minute untouched and clears the moment you reach for the phone. The now-marker breathes and the clock's separator blinks — small movements that keep a bright, static screen from settling into one position all night. YOUR CALENDAR STAYS ON YOUR PHONE Events are read on the device, read-only, one day at a time. No title, location, attendee or time ever leaves it. Location is requested at kilometre accuracy and rounded before it reaches the weather service, which is the only thing the app talks to. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No account. No sign-in. No cloud. No ads. No tracking. The clock, the sky and the moon need no network at all, so they keep working offline. This is Present — A Simple Clock Here & Now. Free. Nothing to buy, no ads, no subscription. Weather data from MET Norway. Requires iOS 17 or later. iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

Cycle Timers4 screens
Present3 screens

Verdict

The call

Cycle Timers and Present are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

Cycle Timers ships an update every 4 days, Present every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Cycle Timers versus Present: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCycle TimersPresent
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIzotz Cristobal MotaViable Labs LLC

In-app purchases

None

Cycle Timers

No in-app purchases

None

Present

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cycle Timers free?
Cycle Timers is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Present free?
Present is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cycle Timers or Present have ads?
Neither Cycle Timers nor Present shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cycle Timers or Present?
Cycle Timers ships an update every 4 days, and Present every 3 days. Most recently, Cycle Timers was updated on October 18, 2026 and Present on October 19, 2026.

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