The Turnkeeper vs Chrono
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Turnkeeper
This app helps speed up board game sessions by providing customizable timers for turns or entire games. It supports a large number of players and offers flexible time management options, including adding time per turn or to specific players. Features like crash protection and unlimited undo ensure a smooth gaming experience.
- Turn and game timer modes
- Supports 2-20 players
- Customizable time budgets
- Time added per turn
- Crash/reboot protection
- Unlimited undo functionality
- Notifications for time up
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Love board games, but wish turns moved a little faster? The Turnkeeper keeps games moving with flexible timers for 2 to 20 players. Use it casually to discourage endless turns, or competitively to give every player a fixed time budget. The Turnkeeper can be used as a simple turn timer or as a multiplayer game clock — like a chess clock built for the whole table. In Turn Timer mode, each player gets a set amount of time for every turn. It’s great for keeping casual games moving and encouraging players to think ahead while others are playing. In Game Timer mode, each player gets a total time budget for the entire game. You can optionally add extra time after each turn, similar to increment timing in chess. Features: • Supports 2 to 20 players • Turn Timer and Game Timer modes • Set timers from 1 minute to 10+ hours • Optional time added after every turn • Count-up or countdown timing • Clockwise, counter-clockwise, or freestyle turn order • Customize player names and colors • Mark defeated players to remove them from the turn order • Add or adjust time during a game • Adjust the per-turn time increment while playing • Loud time-up alerts • Notifications when time expires in the background • Unlimited Undo • Restore an active game after restarting the app • Rotate the game board during setup The Turnkeeper doesn’t automatically eliminate someone when their clock reaches zero. Their timer can continue into negative time, leaving the rules up to your group. Running out of time might mean losing the game, earning a penalty, or simply serving as a reminder to keep things moving. You can also give individual players extra time, making it easy to accommodate beginners or anyone who needs a little longer. Whether you’re trying to fit a game into a short amount of time, speed up a slow-moving session, or run a competitive multiplayer game with chess-style timing, The Turnkeeper helps keep everyone focused and the game moving.
Chrono
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We have all been trapped in that pod. The board is a clogged mess, someone has been staring at their hand for ten minutes trying to sequence a cantrip, your cold brew is empty, and you are aging in real time. Enter Chrono-Tithe. Chrono-Tithe is not just a sleek life counter. It is an automated tax collector for slow play. Instead of a passive chess clock everyone ignores, it enforces an escalating “Tithe Tax.” Overstay your welcome in the think tank and your life total starts draining automatically. It is the perfect way to keep the table moving, or to quietly pressure the pod while you assemble your lock behind a wall of artifacts. CORE FEATURES (always free) THE TITHE ENGINE: An escalating turn timer that ramps through four tiers, from Standard to Accelerated to Punishing to Lethal. Choose the turn the tax starts to tighten and watch it change the way your pod plays. BLIND-TAP LIFE TRACKING: Zero-friction split cards. Tap the right side of a player’s color block to gain life, tap the left to lose it. Press and hold to swing by 5 at a time. You never have to take your eyes off the board. FULL COMMANDER TRACKING: Poison, energy, experience, +1/+1, commander tax, and per-source commander damage, with 21 from a single commander tracked and flagged automatically. Monarch and the Initiative too. BUILT FOR THE TABLE: 2 to 6 players, format presets for Commander, 1v1, Two-Headed Giant, and Brawl, a pre-game lobby to set seating and decide who goes first, plus a dice roller, coin flip, and random-player picker. PLAY TOGETHER, ON EVERY PHONE: Connect the whole pod over local Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and everyone plays on their own screen, in sync. Tap your own life, pass your own turn, track your own commander damage, and watch it land on every device instantly. No internet, no accounts, no server. Joining a pod is always free. POST-GAME BREAKDOWN: Average turn length for every pilot and a golden Efficiency Star for the fastest player at the table. Hit Replay Pod to run it back with the same roster in one tap. MINIMALIST AND TACTILE: Deep true blacks, fluid gestures, and subtle haptics, designed to preserve battery and reduce visual fatigue during long matches. Scales cleanly from iPhone to a 12.9-inch iPad, and the screen stays awake during play. CHRONO-TITHE PRO (optional, one-time) The full game is free forever, with every life total, counter, timer, and tool included. A single one-time unlock (no subscription) adds: HOST MULTIPLAYER: Host a synced pod so the whole table plays on their own phones. Joining a pod is always free; hosting one is Pro. THEMES AND ACCENTS: Ten background themes and a full neon accent palette. CLOCK MODES: Alternate ways for the clock to bite. Three are live: Sudden Death (at the Lethal tier, overtime eliminates you outright), Time Bank (unused seconds roll into your next turn), and Chess Clock (one game-long budget per player). Team Clock is on the way, included free. TIMER-ONLY MODE: Switch the Tithe off to time turns with no life loss. COMMANDER ART AND SEAT COLORS: Set any commander’s art as a seat’s background and give each seat its own color. MATCH HISTORY: Every pod saved and synced to your own iCloud, so it survives a reinstall or a new phone with no login. All future Pro features included, free. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads. No tracking. Your roster, settings, and history live on your device and in your own iCloud, never on our servers. Multiplayer is a direct device-to-device connection over your local network, not through any server of ours. Chrono-Tithe collects zero data about you. Set your pod. Start the clock. Pay the tithe. Chrono-Tithe is an unofficial fan-made utility. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. Magic: The Gathering and Commander are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: The Turnkeeper at none against Chrono's 1. The Turnkeeper also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.6). Chrono's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 5 months). On price, ads 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. Chrono sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. The Turnkeeper asks for nothing beyond the download.
The Turnkeeper ships an update every 5 months, Chrono every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Turnkeeper | Chrono |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (30 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 30 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Geospike Pty Ltd | NICHOLAS SALVATORE PUYA |
In-app purchases
The Turnkeeper
No in-app purchases
Chrono
- Chrono-Tithe Pro$4.99









