Countdown vs iDays
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Countdown
Easily track upcoming events, holidays, and important dates with custom photos and notifications. View your countdowns on your Apple Watch, Mac, or Lock Screen widgets. Share events and enjoy a private, ad-free experience with optional Pro features.
- Add, modify, and view countdowns
- Customizable photos from library or web
- Siri integration for easy access
- Apple Watch and Mac support
- Widgets for home and lock screens
- Shareable countdown images
- Customizable event notifications
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Countdown is an easy way to keep track of upcoming events, holidays and important dates. Features: • View Countdowns - Add, modify and view countdowns • Past Countdowns - See countdowns from the past including how many days since • Custom Photos - Choose from your photo library or directly from the Web using Flickr • Add to Siri - Easily retrieve any countdown on any device • Apple Watch - View all of your countdowns on your wrist • Widgets - Add widgets to view up to 3 countdowns at once • Lock Screen Widgets - See the next widget directly on the Lock Screen (iOS 16 or later only) • Share - Countdowns can be shared as an image to any social media platform • Notifications - Receive notifications before the countdown with custom settings for how many days before • Full OS Support - Dark Mode, Drag & Drop, Split Screen, VoiceOver and much more • Privacy - No data is ever stored outside of your device and with no tracking or analytics • Pay Once - No ads or subscriptions, just regular free updates with Countdown Pro Countdown Pro unlocks the ability to add more than one countdown, archived countdowns, full widget support, app icons and much more for one low cost in app purchase. Available for iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch. Also available for Mac included with your purchase.
iDays
Easily track and count down to important life events, from anniversaries to holidays. Set custom reminders and organize your special days with intuitive features. Never forget a significant date again.
- Count-down/Count-up events
- Multiple themes
- Date calculator
- Custom time reminders
- Notifications display widget
- iCloud backup
- System calendar import/export
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"iDays" is a tiny assistant app that helps you record important days in your life. Never miss his/her anniversary. For instance: How many days have you been dating with your sweet heart? How long is the New Year’s Day? How many days have you been in the world? Basic Features: - Count-down/Count-up events - Multiple themes for your selection - Date calculator - Events auto ordering - Events classification handling - User-defined time reminder - History on today Advanced Features: - Support Touch ID sign-in, save your privacy from being offended - Notifications display widget, drop down notifications then you'll check the event (two patterns of notification bar) - Support iCloud backup, never miss important days any more - System calendar event import/export - Support Apple Watch - Support 3D Touch - Support iMessage - Support iOS 10
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: iDays at none against Countdown's 1. iDays also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 70%) and ratings volume (522 vs 162). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Countdown sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. iDays asks for nothing beyond the download.
iDays holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 162 and 522 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Countdown's written reviews are positive against 80% of iDays's.
Countdown ships an update fortnightly, iDays every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Countdown | iDays |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (162 ratings) | 4.8 (522 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews | 80.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 162 | 522 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 200 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rob Sammons | Gerinn LLC |
Customer experience
Countdown
iDays
User reviews
Countdown
From 162 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 🖼️ Customizable background images
- ✨ Clean and elegant design
- 🚀 Fast and reliable performance
- 💰 Good value for one-time purchase
Room to improve
- 💰 App became paid/premium required
- 🖼️ Widget customization limitations
- ⏳ Date selector can be cumbersome
- 📸 Photo cropping/zooming issues
- 🚫 Limited free features
iDays
From 522 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Beautiful and clean UI design
- 👍 Simple and intuitive to use
- 💡 Useful countdown/event tracking functionality
- 🌙 iCloud support and facial recognition features
- 📱 Works well as a free app
Room to improve
- 📢 Excessive advertisements
- 🌑 Dark mode widget text readability issues
- ⚠️ App crashes and stability problems
- 🔒 Data access and backup concerns
- 💰 Unclear payment/subscription model
Bugs and requests
Countdown
Reported bugs
9 issues- 🐛 Cannot add more than two countdowns
- 🐛 Widget colors "washing out"
- 🐛 Incorrect countdowns
- 🐛 Countdown data disappeared
- 🐛 Keyboard shows up and won't go away
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- 🐛 Cannot add new photo from Camera Roll when editing
- 🐛 Photos too zoomed in and blurry
- 🐛 Widget not showing minutes/seconds
- 🐛 Event title shows, but no countdown
Requested features
13 requests- Recurring event option
- Ability to crop images
- Import calendar events
- Integration with Google/iCloud calendars
- Option to show more than one goal in a large widget
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- Pop-up alerts at event start
- Pin to menu bar or screen
- Use past countdowns to see days passed
- Option to display time or just days
- Year ticker
- Jump ahead by years in date selector
- Show full pictures within the app
- Support for Apple Watch
iDays
Reported bugs
7 issues- Rating popup window cannot be dismissed
- App crashes on startup
- Incorrect date calculations
- Spaces not showing at end of event names
- Dark mode widget text appears black and unreadable
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- Notification badge stuck on 1 day
- Data inaccessibility after app abandonment
Requested features
8 requests- Searchable notes field
- Search function for entries
- Time specification option (not just dates)
- Photo attachment capability
- CSV export functionality
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- Ad removal option
- Custom background/photo uploads
- Notification number indicator
In-app purchases
Countdown
- Countdown Pro$1.99
iDays
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Countdown free?
Is iDays free?
Which has better reviews, Countdown or iDays?
Do Countdown or iDays have ads?
Which is updated more often, Countdown or iDays?
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