An iPhone Clock app alternative for alarms on dates
The Clock app is the alarm most people already trust, and for a daily wake-up it is hard to beat. The difference shows up the moment an alarm belongs to a date rather than a weekday.*
Pick the Clock app if you set the same few weekday alarms and want nothing to install or pay for.
Pick Alarm Clock Planner if your alarms belong to dates: appointments, flights, shifts, the first of the month, or anything weeks ahead, and you still want them to ring the way the Clock app does.
 Clock (built into iPhone) |  Alarm Clock Planner | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Simple weekday alarms, at no cost | Alarms on specific dates, and anyone with a long list of alarms |
| US rating (average) | No 2.5★ | Yes 4.8★ |
| Set alarms without paying† | Yes Nothing to buy, no ads | Yes Up to 3 alarms, 0 ads |
| Pay once, no subscription** | Yes Free: nothing to buy | Yes $9.99 |
| Cost for one year if subscribed** | Free | $2.99 |
| Alarm on a specific date | No Weekdays only | Yes Any date on a calendar |
| Alarm on a specific date | No Alarms repeat by weekday only | Yes |
| Rings as a full alarm with the app closed*** | Yes It is Apple's own alarm | Yes It uses Apple's native alarms, so it rings through Silent and Focus |
| No ads† | Yes No ads | Yes No ads |
| No tracking (App Store privacy label) | Yes No data linked to you | Yes No data linked to you |
| Languages | Yes Every iOS language | Yes 10 or more |
| Last update | Q4 2026 | Q4 2026 |
| Get it | App Store | Download |
Where the Clock app is stronger
Free and already there
Nothing to download and nothing to pay. It works the moment you set up an iPhone, and it is the alarm every other alarm app gets measured against.
Health and Apple Watch
Your Sleep schedule in the Health app runs through it, and so do alarms on an Apple Watch.
Siri
Say "Set an alarm for 7" and it is done, out of the box.
Where Alarm Clock Planner is stronger
Alarms that belong to a date
The dentist on the 23rd, a flight in March, the first shift after a holiday: pick the day on a calendar and the alarm waits for it, next week or next year. In the Clock app an alarm is a time plus days of the week, so a one-off date means remembering to set it the night before.
Repeats beyond weekdays
Monthly on a day, yearly, every other week or every 3 weeks, each with an optional end date, and one occurrence can be skipped without touching the rest (unlimited access). The Clock app can only repeat on days of the week.
A long list that stays readable
Tag alarms as Work, Travel or Family, switch a whole tag off for a holiday in one tap, and see every alarm on a month calendar. In the Clock app every alarm sits in one list and gets switched one by one.
It still rings like the Clock app
Alarm Clock Planner uses Apple's native alarms, the same way Apple does it with their Clock app, so the extra features cost you nothing in reliability. It rings full screen through Silent and Focus, even if you have not opened the app in weeks.
Your snooze, your sounds
Choose a snooze from 1 to 30 minutes, per tag if you like, cap how many times you can snooze, and use any audio file as the alarm sound, with no ringtone conversion.
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
the Clock app and Alarm Clock Planner, side by side
Screens we captured ourselves, the Clock app on the left, ours on the right.†
The main screen
The Clock app's alarm list.
Setting an alarm
The Clock app's alarm editor: Repeat offers days of the week, with no date to pick.
What we saw using the Clock app
From 20 to 23 October 2026, on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 27.0.1, on an EU App Store account.†
- With the app closed, the alarm went off as Apple's own alarm, with Snooze and Stop right there.
What Alarm Clock Planner does not do
- Come preinstalled. You download it. Up to 3 alarms are free, and unlimited alarms are $2.99 a year or $9.99 once.
- Answer to Siri. For a spoken "wake me at 7", the Clock app is quicker.
- Replace the Clock app. Plenty of people keep their daily wake-up there and put dated alarms in Alarm Clock Planner. Both ring the same way, so they sit happily side by side.
- 0 ads, even in the free version.
Pricing
The Clock app is free. 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 (US prices).
Questions
Can the iPhone Clock app set an alarm for a specific date?
No. A Clock alarm is a time plus, optionally, days of the week. Without a repeat it rings at the next occurrence of that time, today or tomorrow.
Is a third-party alarm as reliable as the Clock app?
Since iOS 26 it can be. Apps that use Apple's native alarms, like Alarm Clock Planner, ring through Silent and Focus the same way the Clock app does, even when the app has not been opened for weeks. Alarm apps that still rely on notifications, or on staying open, can be silenced by the Silent switch or miss the alarm.
Can I use both?
Yes. Many people keep their daily wake-up in the Clock app and put date-based alarms in Alarm Clock Planner.
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: the Clock app built into iOS, 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.