Alarm Clock HD alternative: Alarm Clock HD vs Alarm Clock Planner
Alarm Clock HD turns your iPhone into a bedside clock, and does that well. As an alarm, its own listing is open about the trade-off: for your chosen sound to play, the app has to stay open. In our test, getting to the clock also meant getting past full-screen ads.*
Pick Alarm Clock HD if you want a big clock face on the nightstand with weather and Apple Music, and you keep the phone plugged in with the app open.
Pick Alarm Clock Planner if you want alarms that ring with the app closed, on Silent and Do Not Disturb, alarms set for dates, and 0 ads.
 Alarm Clock HD |  Alarm Clock Planner | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | A nightstand clock display | Alarms on specific dates, and anyone with a long list of alarms |
| US rating (average) | Yes 4.5★ | Yes 4.8★ |
| Set alarms without paying† | Limited With full-screen ads | Yes Up to 3 alarms, 0 ads |
| Pay once, no subscription** | No Its paywall offers weekly and yearly plans | Yes $9.99 |
| Cost for one year if subscribed** | $9.99 to $29.99 3.3× ours | $2.99 |
| Free of ads | No Ads unless you pay for Premium (per its listing) | Yes No ads |
| Alarm on a specific date | Not described on the listing | Yes |
| Rings as a full alarm with the app closed*** | Unclear. It asks to use Apple's native alarms, but its listing still says the app has to stay open for your sound, and its alarm editor has a separate notification sound for when it is closed | Yes It uses Apple's native alarms, so it rings through Silent and Focus |
| No ads† | No Full-screen ads on launch | Yes No ads |
| No tracking (App Store privacy label) | No Declares data used to track you | Yes No data linked to you |
| Languages | Yes 10 or more | Yes 10 or more |
| Last update | Q4 2026 | Q4 2026 |
| Get it | App Store | Download |
Where Alarm Clock HD is stronger
A nightstand display
Full-screen clock faces, colours, weather, a flashlight and a sleep timer, for a phone that stays plugged in with the app open all night. The iPhone's own StandBy mode does the clock and the weather while it charges on its side, with no app to keep open and no ads.
Apple Music and Apple Watch
Wake up to songs from your library, as long as the app stays open on the nightstand all night, its listing says, and there is a watchOS app.
Languages
33 languages, the most of any app we compared.
Where Alarm Clock Planner is stronger
Rings with the app closed
Alarm Clock Planner uses Apple's native alarms, so it rings full screen through Silent and Focus with the app closed and the phone muted. Alarm Clock HD's listing says it has to stay open for your sound; closed, it falls back to a separate notification sound, and it will not play properly when muted, on Do Not Disturb, or below 30% battery.
Opens on your alarms
0 ads, and nothing to accept before you start. Alarm Clock HD opened on a full-screen ad most times we launched it, some with no close button we could find, and in the EU it starts with a consent screen for advertising with 1,229 partners, where the only alternative to accepting is buying the ad-free version.
Dates and repeats
Any date on a calendar, monthly and yearly repeats, end dates, and tags.
Less to pay
$2.99 a year or $9.99 once. Alarm Clock HD's US list shows $1.99 a week, or $9.99 to $29.99 a year.
About Alarm Clock Planner
An iPhone alarm clock built around the calendar, for alarms you plan ahead.
- Alarms for any future date, picked on a calendar
- Monthly, yearly, every-other-week and custom repeats, with an end date
- Tags like Work or Travel, and a whole group switched on or off at once
- A month calendar of every alarm
- 19 built-in sounds or your own audio file
- One-tap naps, Home and Lock Screen widgets, 23 themes
- Backed up to your own iCloud
Alarm Clock HD and Alarm Clock Planner, side by side
Screens we captured ourselves, Alarm Clock HD on the left, ours on the right. Ads are pixelated and outlined in red by us.†
The main screen
Alarm Clock HD's clock screen, with a banner ad at the bottom (ad pixelated by us).
Setting an alarm
Alarm Clock HD's alarm editor, with a separate 'Notification Sound' for when the app is closed.
The upgrade screen
Alarm Clock HD's upgrade screen: yearly after a 3-day trial, or weekly.
Ads
A full-screen ad as Alarm Clock HD opened (ad pixelated by us).
What we saw using Alarm Clock HD
From 20 to 23 October 2026, on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 27.0.1, on an EU App Store account.†
- In the EU, its first screen asks you to accept advertising from 1,229 partners. The only other choice it offers is paying for the ad-free version.
- Most times we opened it, a full-screen ad appeared within a second. One imitated a Siri message about 'junk files'. For several we found no close button within a minute and had to restart the app.
- Its alarm editor has two sounds: one for when the app is open, and a 'Notification Sound' for when it is not.
- It asks to use Apple's native alarms, yet its listing still says to keep the app open. The ads kept us from getting far enough to set a test alarm.
- Its plans: weekly, or yearly after a 3-day trial.
What Alarm Clock Planner does not do
- Need to stay open. Close it, lock the phone, put it face down: the alarm still rings.
- Show ads or ask for ad consent. 0 ads, even in the free version, and no advertising partners.
- Work as a bedside clock. It is an alarm you set and forget, not a display. For a clock face on the nightstand, the iPhone's StandBy mode shows one while it charges on its side.
- Play Apple Music. Pick one of 19 built-in sounds, or any audio file from the Files app.
What recent reviews of Alarm Clock HD mention
From US App Store reviews of Alarm Clock HD read on 23 October 2026 (most recent and most helpful). These are individual experiences, not tests we ran, but these themes came up more than once:
- the alarm occasionally not sounding, after years of working
- long ads and upgrade prompts when opening the app
- ads and bright screen changes on the nightstand overnight
Pricing
Alarm Clock HD is free with ads, including full-screen ones when it opens. Premium costs $1.99 a week, or $9.99 to $29.99 a year on the US list, after a 3-day trial. Alarm Clock Planner's free version has 0 ads and holds up to 3 alarms at a time; unlimited alarms are $2.99 a year or $9.99 once.
Questions
Does Alarm Clock HD ring if I close the app?
Its listing says it falls back to the system notification sound at device volume, and will not play properly when the phone is muted or on Do Not Disturb. It now also asks to use Apple's native alarms, but its ads kept us from setting a test alarm, so we could not check how it rings.
Does Alarm Clock Planner need to stay open?
No. Its alarms are native iPhone alarms and ring even if the app has been closed for weeks.
Try Alarm Clock Planner
Free for up to 3 alarms. Rings on Silent. No account needed.
* We make Alarm Clock Planner, so weigh our view accordingly. Facts about the other apps come from their US App Store listings, privacy policies and public US reviews, checked on 23 October 2026, and from using each app ourselves. Versions compared: Alarm Clock HD 4.5.10, Alarm Clock Planner 1.3.4.
** US App Store prices. The US list does not name plan lengths, so a plan's length comes from the app's own upgrade screen, and a US price is used only where it clearly matches that plan. “Cost for one year if subscribed” is the cheapest plan that covers 12 months. A mark on “Pay once” only says whether a one-time unlock exists; “2.5× ours” compares a price with Alarm Clock Planner's $9.99 once or $2.99 a year. Two prices are estimates, marked “about”, because the US list does not show them: Alarmy's lifetime plan (Alarmy charges the same number in dollars and euros, as its yearly plan shows, so we took the figure from its upgrade screen) and Sleep Cycle's yearly plan.
*** From each listing, checked on our own iPhone: iOS Settings shows an Alarms switch for apps that use Apple's native alarms (AlarmKit, iOS 26 and later), and we let an alarm ring with each app closed where the app let us set one. A cross means it does not use them: the app has to stay open, or it alerts through notifications, which are short and, unless they are Critical Alerts, follow the Silent switch.
† What we saw using each app ourselves, 20 to 23 October 2026, on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 27.0.1, on an EU App Store account. Ads and offers can differ by country and change over time. On “Set alarms without paying”, a tick means free with no ads, amber means free with ads or without the native alarm, and a cross means a payment or a trial comes first.