Comparison

Countdown vs Giving Gifts

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 important dates and events with a beautifully designed countdown timer and calendar. Set unlimited countdowns, customize with icons and colors, and receive basic reminders. Share your upcoming events with friends and family.

Highlights
  • Unlimited event countdowns
  • Count up or down to events
  • Customizable icons and colors
  • Add notes to events
  • Basic notifications and reminders
  • Event sharing
Features
Read full description

Event Countdown is the beautifully simple countdown, calendar and widget app for the important days in your life. Counting down since 2015, rated 4.7 stars from over 130,000 ratings worldwide. The original Event Countdown app, used by over a million people every month. Start straight away with unlimited countdowns. No account or sign-up needed. Count down to the days that matter: Birthday, Holiday, Party, Christmas, Halloween, Wedding, Anniversary, Baby Due Date, Graduation, New Home, Match Day, Concert, Film Release, Retirement, Bucket List and many more. NEW: CALENDAR VIEW See every event on a beautiful month grid, with your events colour-coded below. Swipe between months, tap a day, open any countdown. LIVE COUNTDOWN WIDGETS A Home Screen widget that ticks every second, plus Next Event, multi-event, Lock Screen and StandBy widgets. LIVE ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN Live Activities show your next event on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island as the moment approaches. MAKE IT YOURS, SHARE THE EXCITEMENT Hundreds of icons, every colour, repeats that show ages on birthdays. Then turn any countdown into a shareable video. Free version: - Unlimited event countdowns, all in one place - Next Event widget on your Home Screen - Count up or down in years, days, hours, minutes and seconds - Colour code events • choose from 450 icons - Share events with friends and family - Notes, notifications, and search Premium version: - Calendar View (NEW) - The full widget collection: Live Countdown, Lock Screen, StandBy, multi-event and choose-your-event widgets - Live Activities on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island - Ad free • Calendars • Detailed notifications - Sync events across all your Apple devices - Repeat events (with ages on birthdays and anniversaries) - 450 colour icons Event Countdown Premium is available as a monthly or yearly subscription, or as a one-off lifetime purchase. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Terms of Use - https://www.root38.com/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy - https://www.root38.com/privacy-policy/

About

Giving Gifts

Never forget a gift idea again. This app helps you organize and manage your gift ideas for upcoming events and people. Keep track of who you've gifted and what you've planned, with optional premium features for enhanced organization and security.

Highlights
  • Organize gift ideas
  • Manage upcoming events
  • Track gifts and recipients
  • Add gift details (shop, price, URL)
  • App lock for privacy
  • Contact favorites
Features
Read full description

Every time the same problem. Your friend’s birthday has come surprisingly and you haven’t come up with an gift idea yet, although you’ve had so many ideas during the past year. Giving Gifts is your personal gift assistant. No more forgetting your gift ideas. No more losing those tiny notes. With Giving Gifts you can easily organize and structure your gift ideas. - Keep an overview of all upcoming events. - Add new gift ideas in no time. - For every event choose the people you want to gift from you contacts. - Keep track of the gifts and people you’ve already taken care of. Pro givers can benefit from the premium mode including the following features: - Disable premium pop-up: Add as many gifts as you like without dealing with a pop up. - Favorites: Mark contacts as favorites so that they stay on top of your contact list. - App lock: Keep your surprises secret by requiring Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode when activating the app. - Meta information: Add more information to your gifts, e. g. shop, price, URL or any additional notes. - Support us: By subscribing to premium you support the the development of Giving Gifts. We’re continously improving Giving Gifts focussing on a great user experience. Feel free to contact us about what you think about Giving Gifts and help us getting better by providing us with your feedback. Premium mode terms: https://givinggifts.anbion.de/terms Icon made by Pixel perfect and Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Screenshots

Countdown4 screens
Giving Gifts4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Countdown at 4.7 against Giving Gifts's 3.6. Countdown also leads on ratings volume (24K vs 5) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). Giving Gifts's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Countdown sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Giving Gifts sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Countdown holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Countdown has 24K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Countdown's written reviews are positive against 78% of Giving Gifts's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Countdown ships an update weekly, Giving Gifts monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Countdown versus Giving Gifts: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCountdownGiving Gifts
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (24K ratings) — better3.6 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews — better77.8% of reviews
Number of ratings24K — better5
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size200 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperROOT38 LIMITEDTICE GmbH

Customer experience

Countdown

All ratings23,838 ratings
Positive94.7%
Neutral3.2%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews966 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral7.3%
Negative12.6%

Giving Gifts

All ratings5 ratings
Positive40.0%
Neutral40.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive77.8%
Neutral11.1%
Negative11.1%

Bugs and requests

Countdown

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Premium subscription issues after updates
  • Inconsistent font sizing and layout
  • Countdown accuracy problems for distant events

Requested features

5 requests
  • Calendar view integration
  • Repeat/recurring event options
  • More customization for notifications
  • Ability to view past event details
  • Improved handling of long-term countdowns

Giving Gifts

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Countdown

Subscriptions5
  • Premium Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Premium 3 Months7 Days trial$5.993 Months
  • Premium1 Year trial$9.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Premium Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
  • Premium Yearly (50% Off)1 Year trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Premium$49.99
2 purchases

Giving Gifts

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Mode (Monthly)7 Days trial$0.491 Month
  • Premium Mode (Annual)7 Days trial$4.491 Year

Questions

Is Countdown free?
Countdown is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Giving Gifts free?
Giving Gifts is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Countdown or Giving Gifts?
Countdown is rated higher. Countdown averages 4.7 out of 5 from 24K ratings, while Giving Gifts averages 3.6 from 5 ratings.
Do Countdown or Giving Gifts have ads?
Countdown shows ads; Giving Gifts does not.
Which is updated more often, Countdown or Giving Gifts?
Countdown ships an update weekly, and Giving Gifts monthly. Most recently, Countdown was updated on September 25, 2026 and Giving Gifts on June 5, 2026.

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