Countdown by Holiday Extras vs Vacation Countdown®
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Countdown by Holiday Extras
Stay excited for your upcoming trips with a customizable countdown. Add your own photos, use smart packing lists, and share your anticipation with friends and family. Track multiple events and enjoy an ad-free experience.
- Home screen widget
- AI-powered packing checklist
- Customizable backgrounds
- Countdown to any event
- Multiple countdown tracking
- Suggested and recurring events
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Make the wait feel like part of the adventure. Turn every holiday, birthday, wedding, festival and big day into a beautiful live countdown — with photos, widgets, reminders, social sharing and smarter trip planning built in. COUNT DOWN TO ANYTHING See the days, hours, minutes and seconds tick away in a beautifully simple, full-screen countdown. Keep every moment together in a grid of photo cards, then swipe between upcoming countdowns or revisit the good times in Past. MAKE IT YOURS Choose a favourite photo, position and crop it perfectly for the countdown and its widget, or pick one of our colourful backgrounds. Light and dark appearances follow your iPhone automatically. CREATE WITH PIÑATA MAGIC On supported iPhones, Piñata Magic uses Apple Intelligence on your device to make setup feel effortless. Tell Piñata what you’re looking forward to in your own words, or start with a screenshot of a booking. It can suggest the event, dates, trip details, flights and a useful reminder schedule — and everything stays editable before you create it. PLAN HOLIDAYS FASTER The guided holiday flow keeps dates, airports and flights clear from start to finish. Search real flights, choose a simple outbound and return journey, and see whether each result is a prediction, a potential match from your screenshot or a confirmed flight. KEEP THE EXCITEMENT CLOSE Add beautiful Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets so the next big moment is always in sight. Choose milestone, weekly, daily or custom reminders, scheduled privately on your iPhone, and let the app move naturally from counting down to “On holiday now” and “Welcome home”. SHARE THE COUNTDOWN Turn your countdown and photo into an eye-catching social post. Share a story, portrait post or square image through Instagram, Facebook, Messages and your other favourite apps — complete with days, hours, minutes and seconds, not just the number of days. SMASH THE PIÑATA When a birthday reaches zero, the celebration takes over the whole screen. Tap or shake the Piñata until it bursts open, then watch the confetti and sweets tumble out. It’s the most fun you can have waiting for a birthday. READY FOR HOLIDAY EXTRAS Add your holiday to Holiday Extras without retyping the dates and flight details. Open the trip in the Holiday Extras app when you’re ready to keep everything together and add airport parking, hotels, lounges and more. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your countdowns, photos and reminder schedules are stored on your device. Piñata Magic processes your request on-device using Apple Intelligence. You can create and enjoy countdowns without connecting a Holiday Extras account. Whatever you’re looking forward to, make every day before it count.
Vacation Countdown®
This app helps you build excitement for upcoming trips by providing countdowns to your departure date. You can manage multiple trips, customize your experience with AI-generated wallpapers, and organize your plans with to-do lists.
- Countdown to vacation
- Multiple trip tracking
- Home and lock screen widgets
- AI-powered wallpaper creation
- Vacation planning to-do lists
- AI social media sharing
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TripTick - Your Ultimate Vacation Countdown App Dreaming of your next getaway? Make the anticipation even more exciting with TripTick! Our app enhances your vacation experience from the moment you book until you embark on your journey. Why Choose TripTick? - Always Stay Connected with Widgets: Keep your countdown front and center with our home and lock screen widgets. Every time you glance at your device, feel the excitement build as you watch the days tick away. - Boost Your Excitement: Watch the countdown tick away and feel the thrill build as your departure date approaches. - Stay Organized: Manage all your upcoming trips in one place, ensuring you never miss a beat. - Personalize Your Journey: Customize your countdown with beautiful wallpapers or create your own using AI. - Share the Joy: Let friends and family join in your excitement with AI-powered social media sharing. Features: - Count Down to Your Vacation: Track the days, hours, and minutes until your upcoming trip. - Supports All Types of Vacations: Whether you're planning a beach getaway, a mountain retreat, or an urban adventure, we've got you covered. - Track Multiple Trips: Manage countdowns for all your planned vacations. - Home and Lock Screen Widgets: Stay updated with widgets right on your home or lock screen. - Beautiful Wallpapers: Enjoy stunning wallpapers tailored to different vacation themes. - Create Wallpapers Using AI: Generate unique wallpapers with our AI-powered tool. - Import Wallpapers: Personalize your app by importing images from your photo library. - Vacation Planning To-Do Lists: Organize your trip with customizable to-do lists and add your own items. - AI-Powered Social Media Sharing: Share your excitement with friends using AI-enhanced posts. Don't just count the days—make them count with TripTick! Download now and embark on the ultimate countdown experience. Privacy Policy: https://velocityraptor.co/app-privacy End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeulaDesc
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Vacation Countdown® at 100% against Countdown by Holiday Extras's 53%. Vacation Countdown® also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Countdown by Holiday Extras's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (65 vs 6). On price, update cadence, 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. Vacation Countdown® sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Countdown by Holiday Extras asks for nothing beyond the download.
Vacation Countdown® holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown by Holiday Extras has 65 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Countdown by Holiday Extras's written reviews are positive against 100% of Vacation Countdown®'s.
Countdown by Holiday Extras ships an update weekly, Vacation Countdown® every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Countdown by Holiday Extras | Vacation Countdown® |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (65 ratings) | 4.8 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 53.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 65 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Holiday Extras | Velocity Raptor Incorporated |
Customer experience
Countdown by Holiday Extras
Vacation Countdown®
Bugs and requests
Countdown by Holiday Extras
Reported bugs
122 issues- App won't open after update
- App crashes on opening
- Widget not updating
- App deleted all trips
- App crashed and doesn't store new trips
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- Past vacations showing in countdown
- App not working after upgrade
- Countdown notifications incorrect
- App crashes frequently
- Photos deleted after updates
- Countdown disappears
- Image on countdown wiped
- App resets
- Cannot edit countdowns
- Countdown goes from days to years
- Past travels photos lost
- Active countdown images lost on update
- App doesn't open or takes many attempts
- Cannot see whole picture on screen
- Time zone issues
- New version too 'bawdy'
- Banners are distracting
- Lost all past information
- Past events separated from upcoming events
- Have to re-upload photos
- App no longer user friendly
- Images for past events not editable
- App deleted all my trips
- Widget doesn't count down
- App no longer opens since February updates
- Notifications show incorrect days
- Past vacations showing in countdown
- App completely stopped working after upgrade
- New layout is confusing
- Editing is not easy
- New app is awful
- New view is rubbish
- Older version was more beneficial
- App has become more complicated
- Look is a lot worse
- Separated events that have happened and what hasn't yet
- Taken away all photos for events
- Have to tap on different events instead of swiping
- Photos from events have been wiped
- Cannot see the whole picture on my screen
- Time zone issues
- New version too bawdy
- Banners across the bottom of the screen are distracting
- Holiday extras and banner for sharing are unnecessary
- New layout terrible
- Lost all past information
- All holidays have gone
- Revamp is terrible
- Cannot edit a countdown anymore
- Latest update ruined the app
- Updating loses all photos
- New update is awful
- Full page countdown and swiping gone
- New screen with multiple icons is awful
- All countdowns set with photos gone
- Years of countdowns now boring
- Not great since update
- No pictures included in app
- Unable to upload own photos
- Cannot scroll through dates as used to
- New format is confusing
- Do not like new format and view
- Editing not easy
- Old layout was far better
- New app is awful
- New view is rubbish
- Older version was much more beneficial
- Screen full of dates
- App has now made the app so much more complicated
- Look is a lot worse
- Separated the events that have happened and what hasn’t yet
- Taken away all of the photos for your events
- Made it so you have to tap on the different events instead of just having them immediately on your screen to swipe through
- All my photos from events have been wiped
- Images for past events cannot be edited back in
- All my photos have been taken off
- Have to update them all over again
- Cannot see the whole picture on my screen
- Time zone issues
- New version of countdown is too bawdy
- Banners across the bottom of the screen are distracting
- Holiday extras and banner for sharing is unnecessary
- New layout terrible
- Lost all past information
- All my holidays have gone
- Revamp is terrible
- Cannot edit a countdown anymore
- Latest update ruined the app
- Updating loses all photos
- New update is awful
- Full page countdown and swiping gone
- New screen with multiple icons is awful
- All my countdowns set with photos gone
- Years of countdowns now boring
- Not great since update
- No pictures included in app
- Unable to upload my own
- Cannot scroll through the dates as used to
- New format quite confusing
- Do not like your new format and view
- Editing not easy
- Old layout was far better
- New app is awful
- New view is rubbish
- Older version was much more beneficial
- Screen full of dates
- App has now made the app so much more complicated
- Look is a lot worse
- Separated the events that have happened and what hasn’t yet
- Taken away all of the photos for your events
- Made it so you have to tap on the different events instead of just having them immediately on your screen to swipe through
- All my photos from events have been wiped
- Images for past events cannot be edited back in
- All my photos have been taken off
- Have to update them all over again
- App won't allow display on front screen
- Logo for 'holiday extras' obstructs photo when sharing
Requested features
9 requests- Automatically add holidays (Christmas, Halloween, New Year's Eve/Day)
- Widgets update time remaining without opening app
- Add a checklist for holidays
- Option to revert to old layout
- Sync across devices
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- More notification options
- Ability to keep past events with photos
- Dark mode
- Improved time zone handling
Vacation Countdown®
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Countdown by Holiday Extras
No in-app purchases
Vacation Countdown®
- Yearly$9.991 Year
- Lifetime$19.99
Questions
Is Countdown by Holiday Extras free?
Is Vacation Countdown® free?
Which has better reviews, Countdown by Holiday Extras or Vacation Countdown®?
Do Countdown by Holiday Extras or Vacation Countdown® have ads?
Which is updated more often, Countdown by Holiday Extras or Vacation Countdown®?
Other comparisons
