Countdown Star (Ad-Free)
Reviews and Complaints

I know a lot of the reviews talk about a bug with the photos. I contacted the app developer and he quickly responded to my email to tell me about an update to fix that problem. Once the update was installed the app works perfectly. The best countdown calendar I have found; and I tried a lot of them. I highly recommend this app if you want a fun way to count down or up special events! ***Five Stars! 11/16

The interface is easy to understand. It is well laid out. One small issue I noticed that happens intermittently is that when I switch to another app and come back to this app, without turning off the app, the settings screen to the right side goes blank white. And to get it back, I have to turn off this app and restart. Not a big issue; just a tiny inconvenience. Otherwise, this app works well and performs well.

This is the best countdown/count up widget I’ve ever seen.
So easy to use. Small download. Doesn’t run my battery down. Fully customizable.
And only $0.99!?!
The free version is just as fabulous.

As my husband and I navigate immigration (in the middle of a pandemic) it’s important to have countdowns AND count ups!

Buying this app to support the developers!
Thank you guys for a fabulous product at a fantastic price!

I tried to add a photo to my wallpaper and then use that for my background on my countdown. Every time I open my countdown, it has a blank, grey background. Frustrating! I reset the wallpaper to my photo and then it happens again when I open my countdown the next time! I paid for this app, so I’m a little disappointed!
UPDATE: as soon as I posted this comment, the developer fixed the bug that was causing my issue! Thank you so much!

It would be great if you can incorporate a count up feature. Like for birthdays and anniversaries. Purchases etc. and it would show how many years/months/days etc it will be in the next anniversary date. Eg birthday. Set at 5 Feb 2000. It will show countdown 1 year/365 days/etc to 5 Feb 2020 and count up 20 years/0 days/ etc. keep both features in one app. Too many apps on phone already. Confusing. Just charge $1.99 instead of $0.99.

This is a simple but useful app that I have stuck with for many years. It’s not flashy and by no means super robust, but it works for the simple task of picking a date, a custom background, and creating a countdown to keep life in perspective. I use it for the start of my teams’ NHL or NFL season, my wife’s period (she doesn’t know), or as military, the end of deployment or next leave. It does the job in a simple elegant way and I like it.

The interface for this app is the best looking by far. I immediately purchased the ad-free version about 2 weeks ago. I have an issue though.

Even though I have Notifications turned on in both the event and in iOS for the app, I never get a single message pop up on my phone. No message and no sound. Without it, the app is not really helpful. Also, there is not badge icon displaying on the app icon. It does show up as a widget though.

Sent an email on developer site but no response. Hope to get one here.

Running iOS 12.0/iPhone7
Countdown Ver: 2.6.8

I like the app, however the issue is with disappearing wallpaper. The app allows you to customize your events with photos you download from your own photo library. Unfortunately, all that time spent choosing photos then uploading them to the app is for not. Twice I’ve spent time customizing the wallpaper to each event and both times the uploaded photos have disappeared from both the events and the app’s library. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the next update.
***UPDATE***
The wallpaper issue is now resolved with the latest update released 11/14. Works great!

This has the potential to be a really fun app, except they completely neglected to leave a way to edit your events. So if anything changes or you make a mistake, you have to delete the entire event and start over from scratch. Pretty poor planning. It is very misleading when the word 'done' is there, and you think you're done with that part of the event, but no, you are now frozen out of any future changes. It should say finished instead of Dunn. So you know that you will not be able to do anything further once you tap that button. Hopefully they will address this in an update.

This product has almost everything I need, beautiful interface, an Apple Watch app, the ability to see your countdowns on the widget screen. What I love about it most is the ability to see the countdown by hours or minutes or even seconds. The only thing this app is missing, in my opinion, is to have a "glance" on your Apple Watch that allows you to see the countdown in something other than days. I want to see an hourly countdown on the Apple Watch. That would make this the seven-star app. I could even imagine when the next version of the Apple Watch software comes out having complications that shows a countdown ticking away.

The only reason I bought this app is because it displays the upcoming events in the "today widget" view.. but it doesn't work 100%, regardless of your settings, restarting the app or your phone.. It also doesn't remembers your settings, so once you chose "sort event list" by date.. it only lasts till you add another countdown. :( Also, you can only chose one "favorite" event, so that means it's the only event you will receive a notification, all your other events will be forgotten.. I'm disappointed that I didn't get the free version first to try this out. I just assumed that it works as it is described. I should have known not to purchase an app that was last updated years ago. Otherwise, this could be a great countdown app.. if it would work.

Select from a number of backgrounds available in the app, take a new photo, or select from your photo library. They are all stored within the app
You can share your Countdowns – or Count Ups – with others by a simple click on the top menu: iMessages, email, Facebook, Twitter, Messenger, et al.
With a simple drag of the slider you can set the Countdown to years, months, weeks, days, hours and seconds.
The free version has very unobtrusive ads at the bottom, unlike other free apps with annoying and incessant advertisements.
For 99¢ you can get rid of the ads, which I did, not because the ads were bothersome, but rather because I wanted to make a contribution to the developers for such a fine app.
Get the app and delight your family and friends with a personal countdown to an important event.

It’s your basic count up/down timer. It has a nice feature (paid version) that allows you to add custom photos to your events. However if I mayfer some recommendations to the creators of the program that would greatly improve it in my personal opinion:

1: Allow an option for recurring events. It’s nice to know how long ago a birthday or anniversary or other special occasion was, but even better to know when it is coming around again each year.

2: Instead of, or in addition to, having a favorite that pops up, have an option that automatically changes the event that is displayed when you open the app to the most recent upcoming event. This would give a rolling screen as time progresses so that when you view the app you can see what major events are coming up and be able to use the countdown timer to help plan or anticipate those events even better.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if the ideas I am describing don’t make any sense and I would be happy to better describe them for you! Thanks for putting out a product that I can use!

Let’s start with the fact that it’s ONLY $1!
And has a free version with ads BUT those ads in the free version never run constantly or become so intrusive and annoying, NEVER had that problem with the free version. That being said.

I’ve used the free version for a few months now, and I’ve put everything in there as far as anniversaries, birthdays and he’ll even the day I turn “70” just to help me see just how much time I have to enjoy life etcetera. I personally like that and use it to reference that, that aside.

The fact you can customize the picture to ANYTHING you want, yup, ANYTHING.
The best part is if you have the widget on, you’ll see your custom photo in the widget for your specific event! Neat! I could go on about this app but I’ll cut this short by saying.

This app works as intended, I have never had any problems, it’s ONLY $1.
If you’re conflicted about the purchase please use the free version, then reconsider paying the $1. It’s not alot and I’m sure it helps the developer eat a good meal and work on enhancing the app.

Best regards to the developer not sure if it’s one guy or a team but thank you!

I’m buying this full version to support the app, getting no-ads is a much appreciated bonus.
Thank you guys! And I hope this small contribution helps you all.

I have loved the free countdown app for about a year and a half now. I go to a lot of concerts and this app was the perfect way to keep track of them and get me hyped for them. It was really aesthetically pleasing and I spent a lot of time on this app creating my events. About a month ago it stopped letting me add my own photos. I would go into the wallpapers and select “choose photo” which usually takes me to my camera roll. Now it takes me nowhere. It literally won’t load anything. So I figure I have too many wallpapers on there so I try to delete them. Won’t load or let me delete. Ok so I delete the app and lose all of my existing countdowns. I reload the app and add a few of them back. I try adding the wallpaper. It still won’t work. Ok so I go to joemerrill .com and leave my concerns on their contact us page “allow us up to two business days to respond” my a. Received no response after three weeks of waiting. So finally I stupidly decide to delete my free version and pay 99 cents and get the ad free version. Because it has to be an upgrade right? They might treat the free users like crap but no way will they let this glitch happen for paid users right? Wrong. Paid 99 cents and download it only for it to do the same d*** thing and not let me add my wallpaper. I’m extremely frustrated and disappointed in an app I have used for so long. I wish I could say I will delete this app and move on to another countdown app but honestly none of the other ones have as good of features as you guys used to have. Without paying subscription fees. Come on developer! Do better!

A Monday thru Friday work week option to choose and the ability to exclude holidays or days off would make this App perfect and would make the countdown more accurate.

Just bought the app with the ads free version and I just tried to put in an event and when I press done it kicks me out. App doesn’t work. There’s 99cents I’ll never get back.

There should be a way to not just see favorite - but view all on a main screen to leave it on. So you see all counts at once. How could this not be a setting. I’m shocked. Kinda fail.

Awful app! Won’t add or edit events! Boots you out before completing event! Frustrating and a waste of money! Tried reboot-nothing! Can’t believe it has a 4-Star rating. Must be friends of the developer! If I could give it 0 stars, I would.

What a waste of $1.99 in money and time! You can't even edit crap without having the app crash! Never again will I buy a stupid app, stupidly! I can't even get my money back! Screw you guys honestly! It doesn't even deserve a one star rating!

The app needs to be able to count only business days (Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri). An extra bonus feature would allow the user to exclude holidays that prevent business days from counting. For example, a holiday that postpones the tax due date to April 16th.

It used to work and I cannot say when it stopped working. I only know that this ap stopped syncing with my iPhone3 and now does not sync with nee iPhone5. It was great when it worked but is pretty useless now. Will delete and look for another ap that works.

Tried to contact support; link is dead. Set up events in the iPhone app, but iWatch app, which synced/loaded fine – simply says "no events". I guess for $.99, they figure you won't make too much noise over the false promise. Shopping for an alternative that does what it advertises.

I purchased the premium app because I needed it to show the countdown in the locked screen. I have tried everything including contacting the company. Their initial response was quick but I had done everything they suggested. I sent back a response and have not heard from them sense. I am extremely disappointed.

Once you download the full version, you are not able to import your data from the free version. I had more than 14 events, and decided to buy the full version to get rid of the ads. But I ended up with a new app, so I need to manually recreate all my events. That’s a fail IMO.

Sorry guys, I know is just 1$, but it didn’t worth for me.

This app is amazing except for one thing: notifications. The app itself can count up and down and also has wallpapers which is all lovely but this means nothing if I have to keep checking the app instead of the app sending a reminder saying it’s someone’s birthday etc etc everything else is fine but this app won’t get 5 stars unless the notifications happen.

I’ve used this app for six years plus and have loved it. But recently some of my favorite features have disappeared.
The photos I download from my camera roll don’t stay on the app. I have to keep downloading them.
And the days left doesn’t appear on the app on my screen.
Two things I really depended on.
Please fix it or I’ll be forced to find another app.

This could be a very nice app but it will only display one single countdown on the entire screen in the app. It is a shame that this limitation makes this app useless for me. I expected to see a list of my countdowns in the app. I never should have purchased this without more thorough checking.

I'm leaving this review to help any others who are considering this app.

So disappointed! I had the free version of this app and it worked fine. So I purchased the full version and now every day the wallpaper pictures I put in remove themselves!