Recently, in a previous post, I talked about how I had been looking around for a good alarm clock app. I hated, and still do, those standard, cheap alarm clocks you can buy at the store. That’s when I decided to take a trip to the App Store and search for an iPhone alarm clock app that I could use.
In the process, I realized that there are literally over 100 alarm clock apps available, ranging from really good ones to ones that I left asking myself, “How in the world did Apple even let these guys in?” As I searched high and low for the right app that fit my needs, I found that there are a good group of apps that I liked, and, I thought I would share them with you. After the jump, I’ve got 25 alarm clock apps broken up into two categories: free and paid.
Free
Alarm Clock Free
This app is a pretty standard alarm clock app. It displays the time and weather, and you can set an alarm to a variety of different sounds, but you cannot use your own music. The clock works in both portrait and landscape mode and has a dimming feature where you can swipe your finger up or down.
Price: Free
Developer: iHandy Soft Inc.
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock 4 Free
Alarm Clock 4 Free offers a wide variety of features that you won’t find in a lot of free alarm clock apps. You can change the background, use your iPod music as an alarm, get the weather and a handful of other features. For free, you really can’t go wrong with this one.
Price: Free
Developer: The Alarm Clock Company
Download: App Store
iHome+Sleep
This app from the makers of the iHome alarm clock is a full featured one. You can set alarms, check the weather and even monitor your sleep stats. iHome has also made the app social, so that you can post to Twitter and Facebook as well as read your feeds you missed while you were sleeping. The app also works with certain iHome alarm clocks.
Nightstand Central Free
This app shows you the time, weather and lets you set an alarm. What makes this app somewhat appealing is the ability to change your background. Unfortunately, in order to get a lot of the good features, you have to upgrade to the pro version, which is listed in the next section. There are also some ads that come with the app as well.
Price: Free
Developer: Thomas Huntington
Download: App Store
Alarm Tunes Lite
This alarm clock app is all about the tunes, as the title indicates. You can play your own music or the music that is provided for you on the app. There are a lot of alarm clock features, including background alarms, customizing alarms and using gestures to swipe through music. The only thing that I didn’t like was that the app did come with ads.
Price: Free
Developer: McLean Mobile
Download: App Store
Everclock Free
One of the things that drew me to this app was that it was somewhat unique in its design. The one thing you will notice is that bright colors play a main focus here. As far as an alarm clock, you can set alarms and use your iPod music, but the features are pretty limited as compared to other options. This one suits people that are looking for something different in an alarm clock.
Price: Free
Developer: Neuron Industries
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock Connect Lite
Alarm Clock Connect Lite is definitely not lite in the feature set. You get your alarms and weather, but you are also able to play music as well as interact socially with Twitter and Facebook. This app is somewhat similar in features to the iHome+Sleep app, but the one other thing that is different is that your calendar is integrated into the app as well.
Price: Free
Developer: McLean Mobile
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock Rebel Free
This alarm clock app has a wide set of features for alarms, weather and backgrounds. It doesn’t necessarily stand out from the others, but more so, gives you another option at a solid alarm app for your iPhone. Hint: make sure you check out their paid app below, it’s got a couple of cool features.
Weather Clock Free
What makes this alarm clock app stand out is the backgrounds. You can set it up so that the background changes, depending on the weather around you, which is a pretty cool feature to have. You can also see the four-day forecast as well as use the app as an alarm clock.
Price: Free
Developer: iHandy Soft
Download: App Store
Pro: Alarm Free
Pro: Alarm Free is, in my opinion, a good looking app — everything is clean and just looks good. You get standard alarm features, with something they call “location aware” alarms. The app also shows the weather for the current city you are in. It seems like this app would be good for people who travel a lot.
Price: Free
Developer: Less Code Ltd.
Download: App Store
Paid
Vista Clock HD + Weather and Schedule
This app is a simple, yet clean alarm clock app. It is made for both the iPhone and iPad, and you are able to customize your background as well as see the weather and your calendar events.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Ryan Anthony
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock Pro
This is a slight step up from Alarm Clock Free. You can add your own music and it has a flashlight. There isn’t much else, and overall it is still a pretty plain app. But if you are just looking for a simple app, this one may be for you.
Price: $0.99
Developer: iHandy Soft
Download: App Store
Night Stand HD
Night Stand HD is a universal alarm clock app for the iPhone and the iPad. It offers a variety of different clocks to see the time as well as background alarms. A couple of other features worth noting is that it has a world clock and a stopwatch as well.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Spoon Juice
Download: App Store
Nightstand Central
This is the pro version of Nightstand Central Free. It comes with customizable backgrounds, as well as the ability to use your own music for alarms and fall asleep to. I really like the background options on this app and wish it was compatible with the iPad as I think it would look great on the larger display.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Thomas Huntington
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock Rebel
This is probably one of the most full featured alarm clock apps on the App Store, in my opinion. Not only do you get all the alarm clock features that you normally would, but you get weather, calendar as well as RSS feeds. The best part is they are all customizable to your liking and the app is only $0.99. It’s a great price for a very well rounded app.
Price: $0.99
Developer: App Beast Inc.
Download: App Store
All-in-1 Clock
This app has got a lot of the features you may be looking for in an alarm clock app and then some. It has got the standard alarm features, as well as full featured weather. The one cool thing about this app is that it can audibly tell you the time and you can use sounds, like a clapping noise, to turn on and off the screen.
Alarm Clock! – With Instant Light
As far as features go, this app is pretty much very similar to all other paid ones. But the reason why I put it on here was because of the design. It has got a very clean look, nothing fancy and too cluttered. You can do alarms, check your weather and use it as a flashlight, but not a whole lot more.
Price: $0.99
Developer: RV App Studios
Download: App Store
Alarm Tunes
The one thing I like about this app is that it does two things well: It gives you great alarm features as well as great music features. Outside of that there isn’t much else, but when you take into the account how well they worked on the two key features, you have to consider it. If you are looking for a good alarm clock with the ability to play your music then this is the app to consider.
Price: $0.99
Developer: McLean Mobile
Download: App Store
Everclock Pro
Again, with Everclock Pro, it is not necessarily about the feature set. It does come with everything you need for a good alarm clock and the ability to play music, but this one made the list because of the visual interface. It just looks different and for me, it very cool.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Neuron Industries
Download: App Store
Alarm Clock Connect
Alarm Clock Connect has a lot of great features if you want something more than just a regular alarm clock. You have access to your calendar as well as your social networks from within the app itself. The one thing I was afraid of in this app was that they were trying to do too many things, but I was pleasantly surprised at the results.
Price: $1.99
Developer: McLean Mobile
Download: App Store
Clock
Clock is as simple as it’s name is. There are not a whole lot of features in this app, other than it just being a clock app for the iPhone and iPad. You can play your music and change the color of the backgrounds, but that’s about it.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Empowered Design
Download: App Store
Pro:Alarm
Similar to its free counterpart, Pro:Alarm’s biggest key feature is the location aware features. It can do some pretty cool things with location aware alarms, but otherwise, the app is pretty standard. I personally like this one because it is a clean design and puts its focus on the clock itself and how it can make it different to stand out from the pack.
Weather Clock Pro
From a weather standpoint, this is a cool app. The background changes with the weather and you can also change your background if you like. You can also play your own music as well as set alarms.
Price: $0.99
Developer: iHandy Soft
Download: App Store
Flip Clock
Flip clock adds a bit of nostalgia to its app, by going old school with the flip display. You can also see the weather as well as use unique sounds to turn the app on and off. I really like the look of this app and it does the two things I want in an alarm clock app: alarms, and weather.
Awaken
Awaken is probably the most simplistic alarm clock app out of all of the ones that are featured here. It made the list because of its clean design and ease of use. You can set alarms and play music on this app and that is about it. It is also made for the iPhone and iPad.
Price: $1.99
Developer: Embraceware
Download: App Store
So there you have it, these are the 25 alarm clock apps that I felt were worth checking out. Like I mentioned before, there are literally over a hundred clock apps in the App Store, and these were the ones that I felt rose above the rest in design and feature set. You should definitely check these out and feel free to let us know about any more that didn’t make the list and why you like them.