Everything written here, by hub
Every guide, email client page, troubleshooting page, comparison and post on this site, grouped by the hub it belongs to.
The hubs
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Blog
Notes on how email clients treat a dynamic image, and on what changed in the product.
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Email clients
What each mail client does to a countdown: when it fetches the image, how long it keeps the copy, and whether it animates at all.
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Troubleshooting
A timer showing the wrong number is almost always a cache or a time zone, not a bug. These pages name the cause and say what to do about it.
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Alternatives
Every other timer tool, at its published price, with the date the price was read and the cases where it is the better buy.
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Docs
Task pages: claiming a generator timer, fallback images, fonts, minting addresses in bulk, custom image domains, and how opens and quota are counted.
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Tools
Small things that do one job in the browser, with no account.
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Campaigns
Campaign types where a visible deadline changes the result.
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Personalized images
Drawing a recipient name, a code or a balance into the pixels, and what survives a proxy cache.
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Enterprise
The questions an enterprise email programme asks before it signs: the security review, cost at volume, moving off an incumbent, the enterprise suites, roles, and a checklist.
Blog
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8 min read
How Apple's image cache freezes a countdown
Apple Mail fetches your timer at delivery and keys the cache by URL. Testing says it ignores Cache-Control. What that means for a countdown.
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7 min read
Why your timer stops after a minute
Every email timer has a frame ceiling and most vendors do not mention it. The documented caps, why they exist, and how to pick a resolution that fits.
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7 min read
Outlook started resuming timers from a cached frame
A Microsoft Q&A thread reports Outlook resuming timer GIFs from a cached frame. What the report says, why the suggested fixes failed, and what helps.
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10 min read
What caches your email images, and when
What Google's proxy, Apple Mail Privacy Protection, Outlook.com and corporate proxies each do to a remote image, and what each one actually publishes.
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3 min read
Why I built EmailTimer.App
Why I built EmailTimer.App: what Apple Mail, Gmail and Outlook do to a countdown, and why the timer and the personalized image share one plan.
Email clients
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7 min read
Countdown timers in Apple Mail, with Mail Privacy Protection
Apple Mail with Protect Mail Activity fetches a timer when the message arrives, not when it is read. What Apple documents and what testing found.
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7 min read
Countdown timers in Gmail, and what the proxy does to them
Gmail fetches timer images through Google's proxy at open. What that means for the first open, later opens, and cache busting after a send.
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7 min read
Countdown timers on phones, app by app
How a countdown timer behaves in the Gmail app, Outlook mobile, Apple Mail on iOS and Samsung Mail, and the sizing mistake that makes digits look soft.
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8 min read
Countdown timers in Outlook, version by version
Outlook version by version, from 2007 to new Outlook for Windows. Which ones animate a timer GIF, which show frame one, and the setting that decides.
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5 min read
Countdown timers in Yahoo Mail and AOL Mail
What Yahoo and AOL actually document about images in email, what they leave undocumented, and how to build a countdown timer that survives both.
Troubleshooting
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5 min read
Why your Canva countdown GIF does not count down in email
A countdown GIF downloaded from Canva is fixed at export and shows every reader the same numbers. Why it goes wrong in email, and how to keep the design.
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9 min read
Why your countdown timer is not appearing at all
Why a timer image never appears: images off, a blocked proxy, a rehosted image, a stripped tag, a spent allowance, or an address changed on the way out.
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7 min read
Why your email timer is stuck
A decision tree for a stuck email countdown timer. Work out which client cached it, whether it hit a frame limit, and what to change before the next send.
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7 min read
Why your timer shows the wrong time
The time zone truth about email timers. What a server can actually know about a recipient, and why per-recipient local time is mostly marketing.
Alternatives
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8 min read
A CountdownMail alternative without the branding
CountdownMail's free plan has unlimited views and keeps its branding. What its pricing page actually serves, the 60 second cap, and when it still wins.
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7 min read
A Deadline Funnel alternative when you only need the timer
Deadline Funnel enforces a deadline across email, pages and checkout, and meters by leads. If you want only the clock in the email, you pay for the rest.
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5 min read
Kickdynamic is gone. Here is where its timers went
Kickdynamic's domain serves a WP Engine 404. Its technology is now Litmus Personalize, and Validity owns Litmus. Where the timers went, and what to do now.
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7 min read
A Litmus Personalize alternative for timers
The cheapest published route to a Litmus countdown timer is a $500 a month Core plan with 50,000 impressions. A dated comparison and a migration path.
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6 min read
Liveclicker moved into Zeta. Your timers did not
Liveclicker.com now redirects into Zeta Global, while the RealTime.email app still runs for existing customers. What that means for your LiveTimer URLs.
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8 min read
A MailTimers alternative that is still being worked on
MailTimers gives 100,000 free views, keeps its branding, caps the free countdown at 30 days, and has not shipped a page since June 2024.
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8 min read
A MotionMail alternative without the branding
MotionMail keeps its branding on the free tier, caps the animation at 45 seconds and restarts the clock on every re-open. A dated comparison.
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8 min read
A Movable Ink alternative for timers and images
Movable Ink publishes no prices and contract data puts the median near $185,000 a year. A dated comparison for teams that only need a clock and a name.
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12 min read
A NiftyImages alternative with a free tier
NiftyImages Starter is now $59 a month for 25,000 opens, read 23 September 2026. A dated comparison of prices, limits and where NiftyImages still wins.
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8 min read
A Sendtric alternative that does not gate the code
Sendtric's free generator takes your email first and watermarks above 10,000 monthly views. What it costs, what it withholds, and when it still wins.
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8 min read
A Stripo countdown timer alternative
Stripo meters timer opens, charges you for editing the block, and swaps the GIF for a 1-pixel image when the allowance runs out. A dated comparison.
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6 min read
A Zembula alternative without a one billion email floor
Zembula publishes its price and its minimum: $0.07 per 1,000 emails, with a one billion email floor. Most senders are disqualified before the demo.
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12 min read
The best email countdown timers, honestly
Twelve email countdown timer tools with prices checked on 16 September 2026, what each free tier withholds, and which one to pick for which job.
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7 min read
Building a countdown timer yourself, counted from the code
What an in-house email countdown timer has to handle, counted from this product's own code: signing, time zones, frame one, caching and fallbacks.
Guides
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7 min read
EmailTimer.App, in facts
EmailTimer.App in plain facts: what it renders, the four plans and their prices, the limits, what it does not do, and who runs it.
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6 min read
Generate email countdown timers from your own code
Mint signed countdown timer image URLs from your own code: one call, a batch of 10,000, a recipient list export, and a transactional email example.
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5 min read
Countdown timer statistics, with the source for each
Countdown timer figures that trace to a dated primary source, from where email is opened to how often timers on shopping sites turn out to be fake.
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8 min read
Email timer terms, explained
Twenty-five terms used in open-time email images, defined plainly, with a link to the page on this site that covers each one in full.
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5 min read
Accessible countdown timers in email
What WCAG 2.2 asks of a moving countdown image, what alt text a timer needs, and the settings that keep an email timer readable without sight or motion.
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5 min read
Countdown timers and deliverability
What Gmail's sender rules and SpamAssassin's scores say about images, what a countdown timer adds to an email, and how to send one filters can read.
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7 min read
Put a countdown timer in your email signature
How to put a live countdown in an email signature, what Outlook does with a signature GIF, and the limits nobody else mentions.
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7 min read
The HTML for an email countdown timer
The full table-wrapped HTML for an email countdown timer, with the Outlook fallback, the alt text, and why link tracking breaks the image address.
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6 min read
Countdown timers in dark mode
What dark mode does to an email around a countdown timer, why a transparent timer GIF gets a halo, and the design that reads in light and dark.
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7 min read
Evergreen timers that start when each person opens
An evergreen timer starts at each recipient's own open. How the first open is recorded, what Apple Mail does to it, and three ways to stay honest.
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7 min read
Fake countdown timers, and where regulators drew the line
What the FTC's dark patterns report, EU law and the UK's 2024 Act say about fake countdown timers, and how an email timer stays on the right side.
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6 min read
Timers that reset on a schedule
Timers that roll to the next weekly or monthly occurrence on their own, and the line the FTC drew between a real reset and a fake one.
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4 min read
Sharp countdown timers on high-density screens
Making an email countdown timer sharp on high-density screens: the 2x rule, the HTML that scales it, and what doubling the size did to real GIF weights.
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7 min read
Countdown timers in AWeber, Kit and Drip
Kit has a timer block, AWeber points to outside services, and Drip's timer is for pop-ups. Where a signed timer goes in each, and the field tags it needs.
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5 min read
Countdown timers in beehiiv and Substack newsletters
beehiiv takes a live timer through its HTML Snippet on Scale and above. Substack takes no custom HTML, so a live timer is out. What each allows.
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7 min read
Countdown timers in Campaign Monitor, Moosend and Emma
Campaign Monitor and Moosend have timer blocks with firm limits, and Emma has none. Where a signed timer goes in each, and the tag form for a field.
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7 min read
Turn a Photoshop file into a live email countdown
Design a countdown in Photoshop, name four layers, upload the .psd, and keep your artwork while the digits animate. The template, rules and refusals.
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8 min read
The six kinds of email countdown timer
Six ways an email countdown can decide its end: a fixed date, a date per recipient, first open, send time, count-up and a weekly or monthly rule.
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13 min read
How countdown timers in email actually work
A countdown timer in an email is an image URL answered when the inbox fetches it. What each client does to that fetch, and which timer fits which job.
Docs
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4 min read
Minting image URLs in bulk
Mint one signed timer image URL per recipient with the batch endpoint or a recipient list export, then import them into your email platform.
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4 min read
Move a free generator timer into your account
Move a free generator timer into your account with its claim code. The image you already sent goes from 500 opens to 1,000, and you get an editable copy.
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5 min read
What a timer shows when it is not counting down
The three pictures a timer image shows instead of a live countdown: the expired frame, the template fallback image and the service card.
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4 min read
Fonts in a timer, and where font upload stands
How fonts work in an EmailTimer.App template: the editor catalogue, what publishing refuses, Photoshop imports, and where font upload stands.
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7 min read
How opens are counted
One open is one image the image service renders and sends in full. What counts, what does not, the period it is counted over, and where to see the number.
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4 min read
What happens when a workspace goes over its plan
What happens when a workspace passes its monthly opens: the 80 and 100 percent emails, the corner watermark past 110 percent, and how it comes off.
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4 min read
Serve timer images from your client's own domain
Serve timer and personalized images from a client's own hostname on the Agency plan. The two DNS records, the certificate, and removing a domain safely.
Tools
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5 min read
Download an animated countdown GIF
Make an animated countdown GIF and download it, with no account and no watermark. Why a saved file stops being right, and what counts from the open.
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5 min read
Put a countdown timer in a Gmail message
Gmail compose takes no pasted HTML, so a timer goes in as an image URL. What that means for sending from Gmail, and what the proxy does to a re-open.
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4 min read
Make a Klaviyo countdown timer
Make a countdown timer for a Klaviyo campaign or flow, free and with no account. What the HTML block takes, and why flows can do what campaigns cannot.
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4 min read
Make a Mailchimp countdown timer
Make a countdown timer for a Mailchimp campaign, free and with no account. Where the Code block lives in each builder, and how merge tags behave near it.
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5 min read
Put a countdown timer in an Outlook email
Classic Outlook draws the first frame of a GIF and stops. Design for that still, pick units that stay true, and know the Windows setting that decides.
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4 min read
Is your GIF email-safe?
Four things decide whether an animated GIF survives an inbox: file size, frame count, whether frame one stands alone, and whether it loops.
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5 min read
Build an evergreen countdown timer for email
See an evergreen email countdown without an account, then publish one on the free plan. Why the free tool will not save one, and what Apple Mail changes.
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7 min read
What every free email timer plan actually gives you
Every free email countdown timer tier side by side, with the view allowance, the watermark rule and the signup gate, each read off the vendor's own page.
Campaigns
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13 min read
Countdown timer examples, annotated
All 47 countdown timer designs in the EmailTimer.App gallery, with the deadline each one counts to, where it sits in an email, and what it weighs.
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6 min read
Timers and stock counts in one image
Put a restock deadline and a stock count in one image, keep the number honest as it ages, and see what a live inventory feed would add.
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7 min read
Black Friday countdown timers, phase by phase
Three timer presets for the Black Friday sequence, a send-time playbook, and the caching behaviour that decides whether your clock is right.
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6 min read
Countdown timers for trials and renewals
Countdown timers for trials, renewals and membership expiry, with per-recipient deadlines minted from the API and the honesty rule that applies.
Personalized images
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6 min read
Live data in an email image, and what that phrase really covers
What the enterprise vendors sell as live-data modules, what EmailTimer.App does with merge values and rules, and the honest line between them.
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7 min read
Put merge tags inside an image
The merge tag syntax for ten email platforms in one table, plus the signing rule that decides where a merge tag can and cannot go in an image address.
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6 min read
Images with your subscriber's name in them
How to draw a subscriber's name into an image, handle the names that break a layout, and run a birthday window with a per-recipient deadline.
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7 min read
Show each person their own products
Show each shopper their own product, item name and price in one rendered image, with a cart hold deadline and the asset library limit.
Enterprise
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7 min read
Countdown timers in Adobe Journey Optimizer without AEM Dynamic Media
Adobe builds a countdown in AEM Dynamic Media. If you do not license it, here is the path through the Email Designer HTML component instead.
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12 min read
What dynamic images cost at enterprise volume, vendor by vendor
Eight dynamic image vendors, priced from their own pages on 23 September 2026, per 1,000 opens at 250,000, 1M and 5M a month, and where each beats us.
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8 min read
Five million sends: what breaks, and what a recipient sees when it does
Five million sends against one image service: the ceilings in the code, what a recipient sees when one trips, and what has not been load-tested yet.
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6 min read
A dynamic image vendor evaluation checklist you can send to procurement
Twenty questions to send any dynamic email image or countdown vendor before you sign, grouped by who answers them, with EmailTimer.App's answers, dated.
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8 min read
When the image service is down, what your recipients see
When the image service fails, every image address still answers 200 with a real picture. The four pictures it can be, and the gap before the edge is live.
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9 min read
Moving off NiftyImages, Movable Ink or Liveclicker without breaking mail already sent
An image address in a message delivered 18 months ago is still fetched from the old vendor. What that means when you leave, and the order to do it in.
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7 min read
Roles, approvals and regional teams in one account
Three roles, a publish right builders do not hold, an audit log, and no SSO or SAML. How EmailTimer.App permissions work for teams across regions.
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9 min read
What a security review asks an email image service
We hold no SOC 2 Type 2 report and no ISO 27001 certificate. What a martech security review asks an email image service, and our answer to each question.
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8 min read
Where recipient data goes when a personalized image renders
What a personalized image request carries, what is logged, what is kept and for how long, and where. Traced in the code, with the residency gap stated.
Put a countdown in the campaign you are writing now
The free plan covers 5,000 opens a month with no card. Starter is $19 a month for 250,000.