Cairn vs outtimer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cairn
Track important upcoming dates and past anniversaries with a versatile countdown and count-up tool. It offers precise timing, customizable reminders, and various visual displays to keep you informed. Integrates seamlessly with your devices and data.
- Countdown and count-up for any event
- Minute and second precision timing
- Customizable repeat intervals
- Time zone support
- Visual progress tracking
- Milestone markers
- Home and Lock Screen widgets
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Cairn counts down to the days you're waiting for, and counts up from the days you don't want to forget. Give it a date. It answers in days — 124 days to go, or 1,024 days since. Everything else gets out of the way. COUNTDOWN AND COUNT-UP, ONE MODEL • Days to go for anything ahead: a holiday, a trip, an exam, a due date • Days since anything behind: an anniversary, a baby's birth, the day you quit • Turn on minute precision when the hour matters — "3 days 4 hours", with seconds only in the final hour • Repeat yearly, monthly, weekly, every N days, or by the lunar calendar • Every event carries its own time zone, so flying across the world never shifts the number • Count only working days when a countdown is about business days • A date calculator for the days between two dates, or a date N days away — save the answer as an event • Pick up dates from a screenshot, a photo or a bit of text, and start a new event already filled in SEE WHERE IT STANDS • A countdown bar reads like a battery gauge: solid is what's left, full to empty • A count-up grid fills one square at a time, a day at a time • Milestones at 100, 365, 520, 1,000 and 1,314 days, marked right on the track • Ring, milestone track or heat grid — pick one per event, or just keep the number • A year view lays out all twelve months at once, so you can see which one is crowded; a month view lays them out day by day • Yearly events show which anniversary it is, and the day a countdown reaches zero gets a small celebration REMINDERS THAT ARRIVE ON TIME • Several reminders per event: days, weeks or months ahead, at the hour you choose • A daily digest each morning for what's today and what's this week • Live Activity and Dynamic Island for the last 24 hours • Time-sensitive delivery for the dates that shouldn't wait behind a Focus EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK • Home Screen widgets in small, medium and large: one event, a list, or a chart • Lock Screen widgets — inline, circular and rectangular — each pointed at the event you choose • An Apple Watch app and complications: circular, rectangular, inline and corner • A Control Center control for a new countdown in one tap • Ask Siri how long until anything, or find an event right from Spotlight • Share an event with family or friends: change the date and it changes for them too YOURS, AND ONLY YOURS • No account. Nothing to sign up for. • Syncs across iPhone, iPad and Mac through your own iCloud, and mirrors to Apple Watch from your iPhone • Import dates from Calendar and birthdays from Contacts — read only, never written back • Export everything to a single JSON file and import it back whenever you like; local snapshots and Recently Deleted bring back what you removed by mistake • App Lock asks for Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode when you come back • Cover photos with automatic tinting, six muted themes, categories, pinning, archiving and a share card • English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Thai — dates and month names included Cairn is free to download and keep up to 3 events. A one-time in-app purchase unlocks unlimited events. Previous users keep full access permanently; restore with the same Apple Account. No subscription, no ads, no tracking. A cairn is the pile of stones a trail keeps stacking to mark the way — one for every stretch you have walked.
outtimer
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You know exactly when you have to be out the door. Somewhere between the shower and your shoes, you lose track. outtimer only cares about one time: when you have to leave. It tells you how many minutes are left, out loud, while you're holding a toothbrush, a hair dryer, or a cup of coffee. WHAT IT DOES Set the time you need to leave and tap Start. That's the whole setup. Every 1 to 5 minutes (you choose), you'll hear "12 minutes left." For the last 10 minutes, Final spurt steps it up to every minute, so the deadline never sneaks up on you. When time's up, it rings. FOR WHEN YOUR HANDS ARE WET • Keeps announcing with the screen off and the app closed • Turns your music down instead of stopping it, so your podcast keeps playing underneath • Vibration only, with three distinct patterns, for when someone's still asleep • Lock Screen widget, Live Activity, and Dynamic Island: see the countdown without unlocking MADE FOR TIME BLINDNESS you just can't feel 20 minutes slipping by, a silent clock won't help. You have to look at it, and looking is exactly what you forget to do. outtimer tells you instead. PRESETS Weekday mornings, gym nights, the school run. Each preset saves its own deadline, interval, and sound or vibration. Repeat it on the days you choose, or use it once and it turns itself off. SUBSCRIPTION INFO Pro is available as a monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple ID 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 account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscription in your Account Settings after purchase. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://polroute.com/outtimer/privacy-policy Put the phone down. We'll tell you.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Cairn at none against outtimer's shown. outtimer's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Cairn sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and outtimer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Cairn ships an update weekly, outtimer every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Cairn | outtimer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 43 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 飞 吕 | polroute |
In-app purchases
Cairn
- Lifetime Unlock$2.99
outtimer
- pro$1.991 Month
- pro(year)$6.991 Year
- Premium$0.99
- Pro Lifetime$9.99









