Comparison

DayTimer vs Buckets

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

Head to head
About

DayTimer

This app provides a minimal and calm way to structure your day with timed blocks and breaks. It allows for on-the-fly adjustments to your schedule, ensuring you can adapt to interruptions without falling behind. Save common schedules as templates for easy reuse.

Highlights
  • Timed task blocks
  • Automatic schedule re-flow
  • On-the-fly task insertion
  • Task rearrangement
  • Reusable day templates
  • Scheduled day loading
Features
Read full description

DayTimer is a calm, minimal way to add structure to your day. Structure your day into simple timed blocks and breaks, then let it run - no logins, no ads, no cloud, no busy dashboards, no subscriptions. TIME MARCHES FORWARD With DayTimer, you can rearrange your tasks, adjust them, and reset them, but you cannot pause and snooze the day away. When a task runs long, or life interrupts, you can adapt your plan and keep going, instead of falling "behind" a schedule that no longer exists! A FOCUSED TIMER - Your current time block sits front and center, showing you your task and time remaining - One top to adjust, insert a break, or rearrange - No extra content, no busy screen! BUILT TO ADAPT - Task running too long or too short? Change it's length, everything else re-flows automatically. - Life is interrupting or adhoc tasks came up? Insert a task on the fly - Priorities change? Rearrange the blocks remaining in your day - You got pulled away and the day escaped you? Click a block and restart from there TEMPLATIZE - Save your standard days into reusable templates - Start a template on a tap - For predictable weekdays, set scheduled days and let them load automatically DayTimer is a free app that started as a passion project. The core functionality is all free, a one-time supporter unlock gives you a few themes and unlimited templates. Plan intentionally, adapt gracefully, keep moving.

About

Buckets

This app helps you manage your time by setting weekly intentions for different life areas. It allows you to block out time, run focus sessions, and confirm actual time spent, ensuring your week reflects your priorities. All data stays on your device.

Highlights
  • Set weekly intentions for life areas
  • Block time on your calendar
  • Run focus sessions with a timer
  • Confirm actual time spent
  • Calendar mirroring
  • Health app integration for workouts
  • Data export to JSON
Features
Read full description

Where does your week actually go? Buckets holds the parts of your life that matter, work, movement, sleep, family, and gives each one a weekly intention: how much time you actually want to pour in. Then it helps you protect that time before the week gets noisy. HOW IT WORKS Bucket. One area of your life, with a weekly intention. Work. Movement. Sleep. Family. Study. Faith. Whatever yours are. Block. You protect time for a Bucket by placing a Block on your calendar, in advance. A promise made to yourself while the week is still quiet. Session. When the Block arrives you start a focus session, and the timer runs. Work, move, rest, read. The session just holds the time. Pour. When you finish you confirm what actually happened, and only then does it pour into the Bucket. A Pour is never recorded without you. That last part is the whole point. Buckets does not watch you, guess at you, or fill itself in behind your back. Your week is only as full as you say it is, which is what makes the number worth looking at. YOUR WEEK, IN ONE PLACE Vessels for each Bucket that fill as the week goes on A plan timeline where you drag a Bucket onto the day to protect time Your existing calendar shown alongside, so open space stays honest Widgets for today's plan, one Bucket's ring, and how the week is filling A Live Activity and Dynamic Island for the running session Morning and evening moments, a daily reflection, and a weekly close Shortcuts for starting and finishing a session by voice ON YOUR DEVICE, AND NOWHERE ELSE No account. No sign up. No server. Every Bucket, Block, Session and Pour lives in the app's own database on your phone. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is sold, nothing leaves the device unless you choose to connect your calendar or Health. FREE, AND PRO Free holds one Bucket, with the full day, sessions, reflections, and every Pour you ever confirm. Buckets Pro holds as many Buckets as your life has parts, plus repeating Blocks, calendar mirroring, workouts that arrive ready to pour from Health, and export of every confirmed Pour as plain readable JSON. Built by one person, in Swift, for iPhone on iOS 18 and later. SUBSCRIPTION Buckets Pro is an auto-renewing subscription. Buckets Pro (Yearly): $39.99 per year, with a 1 week free trial for new subscribers. Buckets Pro (Monthly): $6.99 per month. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple Account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your Apple Account settings after purchase. If you take the free trial, any unused portion of it is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Terms of Use: https://buckets-app-xi.vercel.app/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://buckets-app-xi.vercel.app/privacy.html

Screenshots

DayTimer4 screens
Buckets4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: DayTimer at 15.1 against Buckets's 18.0. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. DayTimer sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Buckets sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for DayTimer against 5.0 for Buckets. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
DayTimer versus Buckets: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDayTimerBuckets
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings34 — better
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRajai BabounRami Salameh

Customer experience

DayTimer

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Buckets

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

DayTimer

One-time4
  • A Little Boost!$0.99
  • DayTimer Supporter$1.99
  • Buy me a coffee$3.99
Show 1 more
  • Lunch Tip!$5.99
2 purchases

Buckets

Subscriptions2
  • Buckets Pro$6.991 Month
  • Buckets Pro7 Days trial$39.991 Year

Questions

Is DayTimer free?
DayTimer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Buckets free?
Buckets is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DayTimer or Buckets?
DayTimer and Buckets are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 4 ratings respectively.
Do DayTimer or Buckets have ads?
Neither DayTimer nor Buckets shows ads.

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