Nightstand Central
Nightstand Central is a free app that has been featured in many popular publications including LifeHacker, the NY Times, CNN, Business Insider, and more. It offers a sleek UI with customizable wallpapers, music alarms, a built-in sleep timer, weather information, a shake-on/off flashlight, and much more. If you're looking for a more advanced alarm clock than Apple's native offering, but don't want to spend any money then check out Nightstand Central.
Price: Free
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Rise Alarm Clock
Rise Alarm Clock tackles the task of an alarm clock in a much more simple way although it still offers advanced features such as music playlists (on a timer) for help falling asleep sleep, both portrait and landscape clock viewing, support for multiple alarms, shake to snooze functionality, and intuitive user interaction view swiping and tapping. Unlike some of the competing apps, Rise Alarm Clock still functions with “Do Not Disturb” mode and the silence switch enabled as long as the app is in the foreground and/or auto-locked.
Price: $1.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Alarm Clock Pro
Alarm Clock Pro turns your iPhone into a digital clock with a variety of sleek themes. Additionally, it offers support for a built-in flashlight as well as customizable alarm clock audio including support for music on your iOS device. Both portrait and landscape viewing is possible and the integrated sleep timer lets you fall asleep to your favorite music or sounds and it will automatically turn them off after a certain period of time which you set. For those of you who want their clocks to display weather conditions, Alarm Clock Pro supports live weather updates and a 4-day forecast for your location.
Price: $0.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Sleep Cycle
Sleep Cycle is a unique app that does much more than just act as an alarm clock. In fact, this app is a full-on sleep tracker that analyzes your sleeping patterns and works to wake you up in your lightest sleep phase thus making you feel more energized when you awake. Advanced features include music integration, shake to snooze, detailed sleep graphs, and a built-in heart rate monitor. Unfortunately, we have learned this app does not work well if your sharing a bed with a partner or dog as their vibrations and movement will affect the way your sleep tracking is calibrated thus being less effective in accurately portraying your state of sleep and waking you up at the correct time.
Price: $0.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Carrot Alarm
Carrot Alarm is the ideal app for someone who has trouble getting up in the morning likes to sleep in even when they aren't supposed to. Since I've recently become one of these people, I have been relying on Carrot Alarm to wake me up in the morning. It features a sleek and simple UI with a funny, witty AI whom is determined to wake you up on time, at all costs. In order to successfully turn off her alarm, you will be forced to complete fun mini-games that make you think and get your brain into “wake-up mode”. There is a point system where you are awarded points for waking up on time although it is rather pointless (no pun intended). There are a few downfalls of the Carrot Alarm since it can run into issues when your phone is on silent, on “Do Not Disturb” mode, or when your phone has been locked.
Price: $1.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Step Out! Alarm Clock
Step Out! is yet another app for those of you who can't keep their hands off the snooze button. Instead of putting you through a slew of mini-games, Step Out! makes you get up and walk around the room when you alarm goes off or else the alarm will continue to sound. It utilizes a mixture of image recognition and advanced step tracking technology to check whether you've actually moved from our bed and will prevent you from cheating. In addition to these functionality, you get access to features such as a customizable music alarm, sleep timer, flashlight, and traditional clock face which works in both landscape and portrait modes.
Price: $1.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Wake N Shake
Wake N Shake is an app that is rather self-explanatory. The alarm clock goes off at your desired wakeup time and you must shake your device mercilessly in order to get the alarm to shut off. For those of you who love the snooze button, you're out of luck as Wake N Shake does not support any type of snoozing and offers no mercy as you cannot turn off the alarm or lower the volume until you've completed the vigorous shaking routine. It features a fast UI with a beautiful, minimalistic design with a choice between 24 alarm sounds. If you've been having trouble getting up and can't seem to find a way to break the habit then I would take a serious look at this app.
Price: $1.99
App Store Link: Click Here To Download
Photo Credit: Douglas Heriot