Comparison

Countdown vs CountDown Message

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

CountDown Message

Easily share countdown timers for special events directly within iMessage. Keep friends and family updated on the remaining days, hours, minutes, and seconds until your next big occasion.

Highlights
  • Share countdown timers in iMessage
  • Count down to specific dates and times
  • Display days, hours, minutes, and seconds
  • Simple and easy to use
  • Fun way to track events
Features
Read full description

Use the app to share your countdown timer in iMessage. This way you can count down to an upcoming event with your friends and family. Most countdown apps are too complex for a simple task like this. We want to keep it simple. It's as simple as sending a normal message. It's the most fun way to count down to a specific date. Getting married? Going on holiday? Special sport event coming up? Download the app and send your first countdown message! The live message shows the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until the event. You can enter a specific date and time to count down to.

Screenshots

Countdown4 screens
CountDown Message3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Countdown at 70% against CountDown Message's 3%. Countdown also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.6 vs 1.1). CountDown Message's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Countdown is free to download; CountDown Message costs $0.99 up front. Countdown sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. CountDown Message asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Countdown holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 1.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown has 162 ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Countdown's written reviews are positive against 3% of CountDown Message's.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Countdown versus CountDown Message: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdownCountDown Message
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.6 (162 ratings) — better1.1 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews — better3.4% of reviews
Number of ratings162 — better30
Update frequencyFortnightly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB13 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperRob SammonsFanatic Development

Customer experience

Countdown

All ratings162 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative20.0%

CountDown Message

All ratings30 ratings
Positive3.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative96.7%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive3.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative96.6%

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
Show 4 more
  • 🐛 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
Show 8 more
  • 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

CountDown Message

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Countdown

One-time1
  • Countdown Pro$1.99
None

CountDown Message

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Countdown free?
Countdown is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is CountDown Message free?
CountDown Message costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Countdown or CountDown Message?
Countdown is rated higher. Countdown averages 4.6 out of 5 from 162 ratings, while CountDown Message averages 1.1 from 30 ratings.
Do Countdown or CountDown Message have ads?
Neither Countdown nor CountDown Message shows ads.

Other comparisons