Roundup
The best free alarm apps for iPhone
Free means three different things in the App Store, and the difference matters more than any feature on this page. Tock, which is our app, is not free at all, so it sits at the bottom of this list where it belongs.
In short
The best free alarm app for iPhone is the Clock app that came with it. It is free forever, it rings through silent mode and a Focus, and it has never failed. Alarmy is the best free option if you need an alarm that is hard to turn off. Tock is not free and is listed last for that reason.
What decided the order
- Whether it is free forever, free for a few days, or free until the good part.
- Whether the alarm rings as a system alarm, which is what makes it survive silent mode, a Focus and a closed app.
- What the free tier gives up, and whether that is the part you needed.
- What it costs you in attention: ads, upsells, an account, a daily nudge.
The iPhone Clock app
Best free alarm, and it is not close
It is free, already installed, needs no account, and it will still be there in ten years. It rings on silent, through a Focus and with the phone locked, because it is the system alarm rather than an app hoping to still be running. Multiple alarms, repeating days, your own tones. For the large majority of people looking for a free alarm app, the search ends here.
The catchIt cannot ask anything of you before it stops, cannot ring earlier to catch a lighter moment, and has nothing to say about your night.
More on The iPhone Clock appAlarmy
Best free alarm that is hard to turn off
A free tier genuinely exists, which on this page is what qualifies it. If the Clock app is not getting you out of bed, this is the no-cost way to test whether having to finish a task changes anything, and the range of tasks is the widest of anything here.
The catchFree tiers change, and the loud gamified style is exactly what some people cannot stand first thing in the morning.
More on AlarmyApple Health Sleep
Best free thing to run alongside your alarm
Also already on the phone, also free, and it covers the half the Clock app ignores. Set a schedule, let Sleep Focus quiet the evening, and after a fortnight you have an honest picture of when you actually go to bed, which is usually where the morning problem started.
The catchWithout an Apple Watch it is recording your intentions rather than your night, and it will not wake you any differently.
More on Apple Health SleepA plain bedside alarm clock
Best one-time cost if the phone is the problem
Not free, and worth including anyway, because a lot of people searching for a free alarm app are really trying to stop paying attention to their phone in bed. A cheap clock costs less than any subscription here, once, and it means the phone can charge in another room.
The catchYou do pay for it, and you get nothing else: no missions, no wake window, no record, no backup if you sleep through it.
Tock
Best paid pick once free has run out of road
Listed last because it is the only thing here you have to pay for. What the money buys is the two things no free alarm on iPhone does: it will not stop until you finish a small task, and it watches the half hour before your alarm to ring at a lighter moment. It rings on the same Apple framework the Clock app uses, so nothing about reliability changes when you switch.
The catchNo free tier at all. A 3-day trial, then from $39.99 a year, iPhone only. If the Clock app is working for you, this is money you do not need to spend.
More on Tock
Free has three meanings and only one of them lasts
The word gets used for arrangements that behave nothing alike, and knowing which one you are looking at saves an annoyed evening.
- Free forever. The built-in Apple apps. No account, no tier, no expiry. This is the only version of free that is genuinely free.
- A free tier. Some features work indefinitely without paying, and the ones people want most sit behind the paywall. Alarmy works this way.
- A free trial. Everything works for a few days and then it bills. Tock is this: 3 days, then from $39.99 a year. It is a preview, not a free app.
If a listing says free and you cannot immediately tell which of the three it is, assume the third.
What you give up by staying free
Less than the paid apps would like you to believe. A free alarm rings on time, repeats on weekdays, plays a tone you chose and never bills you, and for most people that is the entire requirement.
The two things you cannot get for free on iPhone are a dismissal task that keeps ringing until you finish something, and a wake window that moves the ring into a lighter moment. Both need an app watching your night. If neither of those describes your problem, staying free is not a compromise, it is the correct answer.
When paying is the cheaper option
There is a version of this where free is the expensive choice, and it is worth being honest about it: one missed shift, one missed exam, one missed flight costs more than a year of any app on this page.
That is not an argument for subscribing because you are vaguely tired. It is an argument for the person who has already stacked four Clock alarms, put the phone across the room, and still turned everything off in their sleep. At that point free has been tested properly and has run out of road.
Questions people ask
What is the best free alarm app for iPhone?
The built-in Clock app. It is free forever, rings through silent mode and a Focus, handles repeating alarms and custom tones, and it does not fail. No free third-party alarm improves on it enough to be worth the install for most people.
Is Tock free?
No. Tock asks for a subscription after onboarding, with a 3-day trial, and it starts from $39.99 a year. There is no free tier, which is why it is last on this page rather than first.
Are free alarm apps reliable?
The built-in one is, because the system rings it. Third-party alarms are only as reliable as their approach: apps built on AlarmKit behave like the system alarm, while apps playing audio in the background are working around the platform. Check which you are trusting before an early flight.
Is there a free alarm app that makes you do a task to turn it off?
Alarmy has a free tier and dismissal tasks are the core of what it does, so that is the free way to test the idea. Tock's missions are part of a paid app, so the only free look you get at those is the 3-day trial.
Other roundups
Same treatment, different question.
- The best alarm clock apps for iPhoneFor most iPhone owners the best alarm clock app is the one already installed. The Clock app is free, reliable and enough. Tock is the upgrade worth paying for once the Clock app stops working, which usually means you dismiss it without remembering or you wake up feeling wrecked every morning.
- The best sleep apps for studentsFor most students the best answer is free: the iPhone Clock app, a wake time you keep at weekends, and Alarmy's free tier if you sleep through things. Tock is the paid pick worth the money once you have tried that and still miss 9am lectures.
- The best alarm apps for heavy sleepersTock is the best alarm app for heavy sleepers: it rings on AlarmKit, so it gets through silent mode and a Focus, and it keeps ringing until you finish a small task. Alarmy is the real rival and the better pick if you want the widest set of dismissal tasks or a free tier to test the idea on.
- The best alarm apps for shift workersFor shift workers the most reliable alarm is still the iPhone Clock app, because it makes no assumptions about your schedule and lets you keep a saved alarm for every shift pattern. Tock is the better pick if you also sleep in the daytime and need something that will not let you turn it off half asleep at 4pm.
Elsewhere on the site
A different corner of the same problem.
- Wake timesWaking up at 5:30amBedtimes by sleep cycle for a 5:30am alarm.
- BedtimesGoing to bed at 3:00amWhere to put the alarm after a 3:00am lights-out.
- Sleep by ageHow much sleep teenagers needThe American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers aged 13 to 18 years sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis. The obstacle is a genuine biological shift: the adolescent circadian rhythm runs later, so a teenager cannot reliably fall asleep at the time an early school start requires.
- NapsThe 30 minute napA 30 minute nap frequently ends inside slow wave sleep, which produces the strongest sleep inertia of any nap length. That is the heavy, disoriented feeling that can take twenty minutes or more to clear, and it is why 20 minutes or a full 90 minute cycle are both better choices.
- Wake tonesCustom alarm soundTock comes with 18 wake tones, and if none of them suit you it takes your own audio as the alarm instead. Whatever you choose still gets scheduled through Apple's AlarmKit, so the silent switch, an active Focus and a fully closed app have no bearing on whether it rings.
- Head to headHeadspace Sleep vs PzizzIf you nap in the afternoon, or you get bored hearing the same track night after night, Pzizz. If you want to be taught how to wind down and to still be doing it in three months, Headspace Sleep.
Every pick on this page has a catch listed, including ours
Tock is iPhone only, has no free tier and no Apple Watch app. What it does have is an alarm that rings on silent and waits for a lighter moment.