Alarmy alternatives: the honest list

We make Risly, so read this with the suspicion it deserves. That is exactly why the sections below say out loud where Alarmy beats us, and it beats us in several places.

What is the best Alarmy alternative?

In one sentence: on an iPhone running iOS 26 the closest like-for-like replacement is Risly, which keeps the missions but runs them on a real system alarm; SuperAlarm and Wayk are the ones to look at if your iPhone is stuck below iOS 26 or you are on Android; Sleep Cycle is the better buy if you wake on time but feel awful; and the iPhone Clock app is the better buy if price beats friction.

What does Alarmy actually get right?

Alarmy is made by Delightroom, a Seoul studio that has been shipping it for over a decade. The company reports 100 million cumulative downloads and a number-one alarm-app ranking in around 100 countries, and the app has spent most of that decade at or near the top of the alarm charts. That is not a fluke, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.

Its mission library is genuinely deeper than ours: photos, barcode scans, math, memory cards, typing, shake, squats and QR codes. It has sleep tracking, sleep sounds, a "wake-up check" that fires a second alarm if you go back to bed, gradual volume ramps, and it runs on Android as well as iPhone. Ten years of edge cases have been sanded off it. A new app cannot claim that.

So why do people go looking for an alternative?

• The free tier carries ads, and the paid tier is a subscription.
• The app has grown a lot of surface area. If all you want is an alarm you cannot dismiss, you are also carrying a sleep tracker, a sound library and a store.
• Missions can be brute-forced. People screenshot the photo target, or leave a printout of the barcode on the nightstand.
• And the big one: its own support pages ask you to keep silent mode off, never force-quit the app, and allow-list Alarmy in Do Not Disturb so the alarm can ring; their help article on alarms not ringing spells it out.

That last point is not incompetence. Until 2025, a third-party alarm on iPhone was not really an alarm. It was a local notification plus a background audio trick, and iOS was free to mute it, delay it or kill the app outright. Every alarm app on the store fought the same fight, and every one of them lost some of the time.

iOS 26 changed that. Apple shipped AlarmKit, a system framework that lets an app schedule a real alarm, the same kind the Clock app uses. It rings through silent mode, through Focus, through Do Not Disturb, and it rings even if you force-quit the app the night before. Risly is built on it. That is the entire technical argument, and you can read the longer version on our anti-snooze page.

The seven alternatives, sorted by who you actually are

Risly: if you want a mission you cannot dodge

1

Risly

For people who are chronically late: missions you cannot dodge, on a real system alarm.

iOS 26+·3-day free trial, then $29.99/year

• No snooze button anywhere: not hidden in settings, not behind a long-press
• Built on AlarmKit: rings through silent mode, Focus, and a force-quit
• Seven missions (object scan, QR, barcode, push-ups, math, memory and shake), all running on-device
• No ads, no sound store, no upsells inside the app

• Requires iOS 26 or later, and there is no Android version
• No sleep tracking and no sleep sounds
• No permanent free tier

There is no snooze button anywhere in Risly. Not hidden in settings, not behind a long-press. The alarm stops when you finish one of seven missions: scan an object you registered (the coffee machine, the bathroom mirror), scan a QR code or a barcode you left in another room, do push-ups counted by the front camera, solve chained math problems, clear a memory grid, or shake the phone. Camera missions are recognised entirely on-device; the only shots that ever reach us are Morning Memories backups, which stay off until you switch them on. Streaks unlock seven Sun-Ninja grades, which sounds silly until day nine, when you would rather get up than lose it. If anything in the right-hand column above is a dealbreaker, one of the six below will serve you better.

SuperAlarm: if you are leaving over the money

2

SuperAlarm

For people leaving Alarmy over the ads and the subscription, and for anyone whose iPhone cannot update to iOS 26.

iOS 17+·Free to download

• Free to download, the single thing most people say they miss about old Alarmy
• Installs from iOS 17, so it reaches the iPhones Risly cannot touch
• Object scanning and barcode scanning, the two missions that physically walk you out of the bedroom
• Math, memory games, Face ID and a walking mission on top of those
• A wake-up check that fires again if you crawl back into bed, the same idea as Alarmy’s
• Around 4,384 US ratings at a 4.6 average, and still being updated; the last release landed in July 2026

• Supporting iOS 17 means it cannot hand every user an AlarmKit system alarm, because that framework begins at iOS 26
• We have not verified an Android build, so treat it as an iPhone app until its developer says otherwise
• A barcode mission is beaten by a printed barcode, the same hole Alarmy has
• A one-person operation, next to a studio that has been shipping Alarmy for a decade

If the reason you are here is that Alarmy asked you for money, start with this one. SuperAlarm is built by Jiseop Han, an independent Korean developer publishing under team.pickyz.io. It arrived on the App Store in April 2024, it was updated as recently as July 2026, and it carries roughly 4,384 US ratings at a 4.6 average, a fraction of Alarmy’s numbers, and a healthy record for a solo build. What it stops the alarm with will look familiar: object scanning, barcode scanning, math, memory games, Face ID, and a walking mission that keeps ringing until you have covered ground. There is a wake-up check too, for the failure mode where you complete the mission and then talk yourself back under the duvet.

Against us the comparison is short and it does not flatter us. On missions we land in nearly the same place: object scan, barcode, math and memory all exist in both, and SuperAlarm adds Face ID and walking where we add QR and push-ups. SuperAlarm is free and starts at iOS 17; Risly is paid and starts at iOS 26. So if you are not sure a mission alarm works on you at all, install SuperAlarm tonight and find out for nothing. If it gets your feet on the floor, you have solved the problem and you owe us nothing.

Where it loses: delivery. Reaching back to iOS 17 means the app has to run on iPhones where AlarmKit does not exist, so it cannot promise every user a system alarm. On those phones the alarm is a scheduled notification with audio behind it, which is exactly the arrangement that made Alarmy write the support article you are annoyed about.

Wayk: if you are leaving Alarmy for Android, or an older iPhone

3

Wayk

For people who want the mission format on Android, or on an iPhone that cannot run iOS 26.

iOS 17+ and Android·Free to download; its listing states a Wayk Pro subscription is required to set alarms and use missions

• Runs from iOS 17 and has an Android build, the two places Risly does not exist
• Missions Risly does not have: make your bed, read a Bible verse, read an affirmation out loud
• Push-ups, sky photo and find-an-object missions as well, plus streaks and morning insights
• Around 18,200 US ratings at a 4.8 average for an app that only arrived in February 2026

• Supporting iOS 17 means the alarm cannot be an AlarmKit system alarm across its installed base; AlarmKit starts at iOS 26
• On those phones it is a notification with audio behind it, which iOS may mute, delay or kill
• The free download is not a free tier: its own store description says a subscription is required before you can set an alarm
• Released in February 2026, so it has months of contact with real mornings where Alarmy has a decade

Wayk, from Dialed Labs Inc., reached the App Store in February 2026 and grew faster than anything else in this category: roughly 18,200 US ratings at a 4.8 average inside six months. The premise is the one that made you install Alarmy in the first place (the alarm rings and it does not stop until you have done something), and the mission list goes somewhere neither Alarmy nor we go. Push-ups, a photo of the sky and finding a random object, yes, but also making your bed, reading a Bible verse and reading an affirmation out loud. It keeps streaks and morning insights, and it ships on iPhone and Android.

There are two clean reasons to leave Alarmy for Wayk rather than for us. Your phone is the first: it runs from iOS 17 and it runs on Android, so on an older iPhone or any Android handset, Risly is not a product you can buy and the rest of this page is theory. The mission is the second: we do not make your bed, we do not do scripture, we do not do spoken affirmations, and if that is the ritual that gets you upright then buy the app that has it.

Where it loses: the same structural point as SuperAlarm, and it is the whole argument on a phone that runs iOS 26. Because Wayk supports iOS 17, the system-alarm guarantee cannot cover its whole installed base: AlarmKit simply does not exist on those devices, and there the alarm falls back to a notification plus background audio that iOS is entitled to mute, delay or kill. The other thing to know before you download: the free download is not a free tier. Wayk’s own App Store description says an active Wayk Pro subscription is required to set alarms and use missions at all, which means you subscribe first and get an alarm clock second. If you left Alarmy because you resented paying, read that sentence twice.

Sleep Cycle: if your problem is grogginess, not lateness

4

Sleep Cycle

For people who get up on time but feel terrible: gentle wake-ups and the best sleep tracking in the category.

iOS + Android·Free tier, or subscription

• Wakes you at the lightest point of a 30-minute window
• Sleep tracking refined since 2009; the data side is excellent
• Kind by design: no missions, no confrontation

• Has a snooze button, on purpose
• Does nothing to stop you dismissing the alarm and rolling over
• The interesting features sit behind the subscription

Sleep Cycle listens to your breathing and movement and wakes you inside a 30-minute window, at the lightest point of sleep it can find. It has been doing this since 2009 and the sleep-tracking side is excellent. It has a snooze button, on purpose, and its whole design is about being woken kindly. If you already get up on time and just hate how you feel afterwards, buy Sleep Cycle and stop reading listicles like this one.

The built-in Clock app: if you have never actually tried turning snooze off

This is the option most comparison articles skip, and it is dishonest to skip it. The iPhone Clock alarm is free, it rings through silent mode and Focus, and you can switch Snooze off per alarm with a single toggle in the alarm editor. If you have not tried that, try it before you pay anyone anything.

Its weakness is the obvious one: nothing stands between you and the "Stop" button. You slide, it is quiet, you are asleep. There is no task, no friction, no record. For a lot of people that is enough. For the people who search "I keep sleeping through my alarm" at 9:40am from the bus, it clearly is not.

Alarm Clock Xtreme: if you are on Android

6

Alarm Clock Xtreme

For Android owners who want a solid free mission alarm. Not really an iPhone option.

Android·Free with ads, premium unlock

• Math problems to dismiss, gradual volume ramps, a strong widget
• Genuinely good free tier on Android

• The app people recommend is the Android one; same-name apps on the iOS App Store come from other developers with a fraction of the features
• No AlarmKit, so nothing shields it from silent mode on an iPhone

Worth naming because half the "Alarmy alternative" lists put it in front of iPhone users: the Alarm Clock Xtreme those lists mean is an Android app. Apps with the same name exist on the iOS App Store, but they come from different developers and carry a fraction of the features. On Android it is a solid free mission alarm with math problems and a strong widget. On iPhone it is not the same product.

Staying on Alarmy

7

Alarmy

For Android owners, sleep-data people, and anyone who wants the widest mission library that exists.

iOS + Android·Free with ads, or subscription

• The deepest mission library on the market: photo, barcode, QR, typing, memory, squats
• Sleep tracking, sleep sounds and a wake-up check in one app
• Over a decade of edge cases sanded off

• Ads in the free tier, and the full experience sits behind a subscription
• Asks you to configure the phone around it: silent mode off, Alarmy allow-listed in every Focus
• Photo and barcode missions can be brute-forced with a screenshot or a printout

Stay if you are on Android, if you actually use the sleep tracking, or if you want the widest mission library that exists. Those are real reasons and no amount of copywriting from us makes them go away.

Which alarm actually rings on the morning it matters?

Only two things on this page ring no matter what your phone was doing the night before: the built-in Clock alarm and anything built on AlarmKit, which today means Risly. Every alarm app can make a noise. The question is whether it makes one on the morning it matters: the morning your phone was on silent because you were in the cinema, or in a Sleep Focus you set up in 2023 and forgot about, or because you swiped the app away from the app switcher on Sunday night. Alarmy and Sleep Cycle both ask you to configure your phone around them, and SuperAlarm and Wayk both support iPhones running iOS 17, where AlarmKit does not exist to be used, so neither can extend the guarantee to everyone who installs them. A system alarm does not ask, and does not have to explain. That is the difference AlarmKit bought, and it is the only feature on this page you cannot recreate with willpower.

The other half of the question is what happens after it rings. When researchers analysed 3 million sleep sessions from more than 21,000 people for a 2025 paper in Scientific Reports, 55.6% of those sessions ended in a snooze, and the average snoozer spent about 11 minutes a morning doing it. An alarm that is easy to dismiss gets dismissed. That is the entire case for putting a mission between you and the Stop button.

To make the choice concrete, take a made-up but typical case: Dan, 28, closes a bar in Manchester four nights a week and gets home around 3am. His phone lives on silent, and his 9:30am alarm from a pre-AlarmKit app is a notification his iPhone is allowed to swallow. So some mornings, it does. Dan does not need a sound library or a sleep score. He needs the one row of the table above that says the alarm rings anyway, with something harder than a swipe between him and going back to sleep.

Fair questions