DayTimer vs NextStep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Timed task blocks
- Automatic schedule re-flow
- On-the-fly task insertion
- Task rearrangement
- Reusable day templates
- Scheduled day loading
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DayTimer is a calm, minimal, and private 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.
NextStep
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One step on screen and your finish-by time right beside it. NextStep turns getting ready, heading out or winding down into a short run of steps that you follow on iPhone or Apple Watch. Every step counts down its own estimate. When the countdown hits zero, nothing jumps ahead: the step waits for you to tap Done. PLAN THE ROUTINE • Up to 30 steps per routine, each with a time estimate, a short note and an optional flag • Give the routine a finish-by time and keep an eye on the estimated finish while you go • Begin from a starter such as Leave for work, Evening reset or Start a focus block, or write your own • Break a task into steps: NextStep suggests steps and times from its own templates for common tasks and, on iPhones with Apple Intelligence, from the on-device model for the rest. You check every step before it is added • Reorder, duplicate or archive routines • Recurring reminders nudge you at the time you pick; a reminder never starts a routine by itself FOLLOW ALONG, STEP BY STEP • Done, Skip, Pause, Add 1 minute and End are always your call • Running behind? Adjust plan lists the optional steps still ahead and the minutes each one would save. Skip a few, or move the finish time for this run only • Pausing or adding a minute leaves your deadline where you set it, so you see straight away what it does to the plan APPLE WATCH, WIDGETS AND LOCK SCREEN • The Apple Watch app runs saved routines by itself, even with iPhone out of reach, and the two catch up when they reconnect • An optional Live Activity follows routines started on iPhone, with a Done button for the current step • The Home Screen widget shows the current step with a Done button, or your next routine • A Start routine control in Control Center or on the Action button opens your next routine, ready for you to confirm • Watch complications show your current progress at a glance ESTIMATES THAT LEARN YOUR PACE • History lists the routines you completed or ended • After enough real runs, NextStep proposes new step times based on your own pace, and you choose which ones to keep WITHOUT PRO • Two saved routines, run as often as you like • Routine editing, reminders, widgets, the Live Activity, the Start routine control, the last seven days of history, estimate suggestions and file export and import • Three tries of Break a task into steps • Watch complications, if you used NextStep before version 1.1 • A 45-second demo run that stays out of your history NEXTSTEP PRO • No two-routine limit • Full history plus planned-versus-actual time comparisons • Extra ready-made programs, such as Ready to go and A calmer evening, each one open to preview before you buy • Break a task into steps as often as you like • Watch complications, when NextStep was first installed at version 1.1 or later • If Pro ends, every routine you made stays available to view, edit and run • A paywall never interrupts a routine in progress KEPT ON YOUR DEVICES There is no NextStep account, no advertising and no outside AI service; Apple Intelligence suggestions are made on the iPhone itself. Routines and history stay on the devices that run them, and you can export a file whenever you want a copy. PAYING FOR PRO Pro is sold three ways: a monthly subscription, an annual subscription, or a lifetime unlock bought once. Before you confirm, the purchase sheet lists what Pro costs in your region and how often it bills, and payment comes from your Apple Account. A subscription carries on into each new period by itself. To stop that, turn off auto-renewal at least a day before the current period ends, since the coming period is billed in the final 24 hours. Manage or cancel from Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions. A lifetime unlock does not end a subscription you already pay for; cancel that separately. Privacy: https://mubaraklabs.com/privacy/nextstep/ Terms: https://mubaraklabs.com/terms/nextstep/ License: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: DayTimer at 15.1 against NextStep's 17.0. 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
Both are free to download. DayTimer sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and NextStep sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
DayTimer ships an update fortnightly, NextStep every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DayTimer | NextStep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rajai Baboun | Mubarak Almahmeed |
In-app purchases
DayTimer
- A Little Boost!$0.99
- DayTimer Supporter$1.99
- Buy me a coffee$3.99
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- Lunch Tip!$5.99
NextStep
- Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$49.99







