ZenClock vs StandBy Clock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ZenClock
This app transforms your iPad or iPhone into a visually appealing desk clock. It offers interactive time displays with customizable background color modes, including a unique spectrum that cycles through millions of colors over time.
- Minimalist design
- Interactive time display
- Widgets for quick access
- Single background color modes
- Color Clock modes with spectrum cycling
- Optimized for desk stands
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Zen Clock is a minimalist iPhone clock built around calm, legibility, and strong typography. Designed to work beautifully on a desk, nightstand, charging stand, or an always-nearby spare iPhone, it offers a full-screen time surface that never demands your attention. We intentionally avoided building a generic alarm, timer, or productivity app. Instead, Zen Clock’s promise is simple: make checking the time feel quiet, polished, and visually intentional. Signature Color Clock Modes Experience time as a living color, not just digits. Our signature Color Clock modes transform the current time into a shifting, live background gradient. Full Spectrum: Maps Unix time across the entire color spectrum. Day Mode: Maps the current day from midnight to night. Hour Mode: Maps the current hour from the top to the end of the hour. Curated Visual Themes & Typography Choose from seven striking visual themes, including White on Black, Black on White, White on Blue, Red on Black, and our signature Color Clock modes. Pair your theme with four distinct typographic styles (Zen, Rounded, Mono, and Serif) to make your clock feel airy, friendly, precise, or editorial. Composed for Your Space With our preview-first settings, you aren't just toggling options—you are composing a timepiece. Choose the layout that fits your environment: Pure: The ultimate minimalist experience. Time only. Calendar: Elegantly integrates the weekday and date. Editorial: A beautiful, designed asymmetric composition. Board: A restrained status surface that gracefully holds supporting information without overpowering the time. Supporting Context (Premium) For those who want a bit more at a glance, Zen Clock gracefully integrates extra details without the clutter. Add a curated World Clock rail to display up to two global cities (such as Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, or Sydney). Access live local weather conditions and temperatures seamlessly integrated into your composed layout while the app is open. Home Screen Widget Bring a touch of Zen Clock to your Home Screen with our included minimal clock widget, featuring a stark black background, crisp white text, and our signature aesthetic. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://sociallycs.com/privacy.html
StandBy Clock
Transform your device into an elegant bedside or desk clock with multiple aesthetic faces, a world map showing the day-night boundary, and optional offline sleep audio. Enjoy a calm, low-light viewing experience with practical everyday details.
- Classic flip clock design
- World map with day-night boundary
- Offline sleep audio
- Warm greeting messages
- Analog and digital clock faces
- Photo background cycles
- Adjustable standby brightness
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Elevate Your Desk and Nightstand Transform your device into a premium, beautifully crafted desk and bedside clock. Designed with elegance and minimalism in mind, this app turns your screen into a sophisticated timepiece: multiple distinctive clock faces, a world map with a live day–night boundary, and optional 72 minutes offline sleep audio when you want something gentle in the background. Whether you are focusing at your desk, unwinding in the evening, or starting the morning at home, enjoy a calm, low-light–friendly viewing experience that pairs refined visuals with practical everyday details. KEY FEATURES • Classic Flip Clock — Nostalgic flip digits reimagined with smooth motion and clean, modern typography. • Dotted Map & Day–Night Boundary — Follow sunlight across a dotted world map with a real-time terminator line (updated on a relaxed cadence), your approximate location when you allow it, and optional local weather where available. • Sleep audio — bundled & your library — The app includes 72 minutes of sleep-ready audio, playable offline with no streaming. Import your own tracks for a simple bedtime player. Open the full-screen music experience from the in-app menu, start playback, and return to your clocks while audio continues in the background for the session. • Warm Greetings — Time-aware greeting messages that help start and wind down the day with a human touch. • Analog & Digital Faces — Choose from bold digital layouts and refined analog-style faces that stay readable from across the room—plus more expressive designs to match your taste. • Photo backgrounds — Photos Clock cycles through 11 bundled, beautifully curated images in a random order and zooming with The burn kern effect each session. Optional weather context when location and connectivity allow. • StandBy brightness — Your personal dim level applies automatically while you enjoy the clock—easy on the eyes at night. Trust the exit — Auto‑Lock and brightness restore the instant you leave—your device returns to its normal rhythm. SIMPLE PRICING Pay once to download—no subscriptions, no tiers, and no recurring charges to use the app you see today. Future updates are included at no extra cost; major new paid offerings, if ever introduced, would be communicated clearly in advance.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: StandBy Clock at 100% against ZenClock's 50%. StandBy Clock also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). ZenClock's advantage is price (Free vs $1.99) and rating (4.0 vs 3.3). On ratings volume, ads, monetization model 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
ZenClock is free to download; StandBy Clock costs $1.99 up front. ZenClock sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. StandBy Clock asks for nothing beyond the download.
ZenClock holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of ZenClock's written reviews are positive against 100% of StandBy Clock's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
ZenClock ships an update every 3 months, StandBy Clock every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ZenClock | StandBy Clock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (4 ratings) — better | 3.3 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Socially Conscious Software LLC | Onur Isik |
Customer experience
ZenClock
StandBy Clock
In-app purchases
ZenClock
- Zen Clock Plus Monthly$1.991 Month
- Zen Clock Plus Yearly$19.991 Year
StandBy Clock
No in-app purchases









