Comparison

Shift Calendar vs plainday

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

Head to head
About

Shift Calendar

Features
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See your whole shift schedule on one calendar, and know at a glance when you work and when your next day off is. Create your shift types – Day, Evening, Night and Off to start with – and tap days to paint them in. Fill a repeating rotation for months at a time, and set a reminder before a shift starts. ■ Made for - Nurses and hospital staff on rotating shifts - Shift workers in factories, services, police and fire departments - Anyone who copies a roster into a calendar by hand every month ■ Features - Paint: pick a shift type and tap days; tap again to clear. There's an eraser too - Fill pattern: tap shift types in order to build a rotation, add "Skip day" for days left empty, and fill up to 366 days at a time from any start date. Save the patterns you use often - Shift types with a name, a 2-character short label, a color and set hours – including night shifts that end the next day - A reminder for each shift type with set hours: at start time, or 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 90 minutes or 2 hours before - A note for any day - Summary for any month: shifts by type, total hours and your next day off - Widgets: the next 7 days on your Home Screen, and today's and tomorrow's shift on your Lock Screen - iCloud backup: automatic while you're signed in to iCloud; restore on a new device Reminders and widgets follow your first calendar. Reminders are scheduled on your device, so open the app now and then to keep the later ones scheduled. ■ Privacy Your shifts are stored on your device and never sent to our servers. While you're signed in to iCloud, a backup copy is kept in your own iCloud. No account needed. Where ad consent applies, you can change your choice under Ad privacy options in Settings. ■ Pricing Free with ads and one calendar. Pro removes ads and unlocks multiple calendars (for family, colleagues or a second job), exporting your month as an image and a large widget with this month's shifts. Get Pro with a monthly or yearly subscription, or with a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account; manage or cancel your subscription in Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://donald-deok.github.io/app-privacy/shift_calendar_ios.html

About

plainday

Features
Read full description

plainday is a calm planner that keeps your day clear. Your day is one list in time order: tasks, classes and calendar events together. The biggest number tells you how long until what's next. JUST TYPE IT • Write a plain sentence in the bar below: “Friday 2:30pm anatomy lab exam”. It finds the day, the time, the repeat and which list it belongs to. • It understands repeats like “every morning at 8”, “weekdays” or “every Monday”. • After you add something it shows where it went, and you can undo with one tap. WEEKLY TIMETABLE • Enter things that happen at the same time every week, such as classes, shifts or workouts, on one screen: name, days, time, place. • It shows up in each day's plan on its own, with the free time in between. • A holiday or a cancelled class? Mark it “not on this day only”; the weekly timetable stays the same. ANYTIME • A plain checklist for things with no day that you don't want to forget. Write it, do it, tick it; move any of them to today with one tap. YOUR DAY, WEEK AND MONTH • Today: a countdown to what's next, the day's plan and anything overdue. • Week: seven short day plans, one under the other. Month: how many tasks each day holds. • In the evening, move what's left to tomorrow with one tap. STEPS AND REPEATS • Break a big task into small steps; it moves along as you tick them off. • A repeating task is completed day by day, and you can skip a single day. ALARMS • Set an important task to ring as an alarm: it sounds even in silent mode and can be snoozed. Just say “alarm” as you type: “tomorrow 7am alarm”. (iOS 26) NOTIFICATIONS • A morning summary and an optional evening summary that shows tomorrow a day ahead. Empty days send nothing. • Reminders for tasks with a time; complete or snooze right from the notification. ALONGSIDE YOUR CALENDAR • If you like, events from your iPhone calendar appear in your day, read-only. plainday never writes to your calendar. WIDGETS AND SIRI • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets: what's next and today's tasks. • Add tasks without opening the app, with Siri, Shortcuts or the Action button. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS • No account needed. No ads, no tracking. • Your data lives only in your own iCloud account and syncs between your iPhone and iPad (it runs as an iPhone app on iPad). • Dark mode and larger text sizes are supported. Available in English and Turkish. Privacy Policy: https://plainday-app.github.io/privacy.html

Screenshots

Shift Calendar4 screens
plainday4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: plainday at none against Shift Calendar's 3. plainday also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Shift Calendar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. plainday asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Shift Calendar versus plainday: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShift Calendarplainday
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysEvery 2 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDeokhyeon KimRıza Kerem SAHIN

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Shift Calendar

Subscriptions2
  • Pro – Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Pro – Yearly$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro – Lifetime$24.99
None

plainday

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shift Calendar free?
Shift Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is plainday free?
plainday is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Shift Calendar or plainday have ads?
Shift Calendar shows ads; plainday does not.
Which is updated more often, Shift Calendar or plainday?
Shift Calendar ships an update every 2 days, and plainday every 2 days. Most recently, Shift Calendar was updated on October 29, 2026 and plainday on October 24, 2026.

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