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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

  • Blog

    Notes on how email clients treat a dynamic image, and on what changed in the product.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Docs

    Task pages: claiming a generator timer, fallback images, fonts, minting addresses in bulk, custom image domains, and how opens and quota are counted.

  • Tools

    Small things that do one job in the browser, with no account.

  • Use cases

    Campaign types where a visible deadline changes the result.

  • Email automation

    The emails a program builds once and leaves running: carts, reminders, deadlines, shipping notices, segments and lifecycle stages.

  • Personalized images

    Drawing a recipient name, a code or a balance into the pixels, and what survives a proxy cache.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 11 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.

  • 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

Troubleshooting

Alternatives

Guides

Docs

Tools

  • 5 min read

    Free countdown timer GIF generator, ready to download

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Use cases

Email automation

Personalized images

Enterprise

Put a countdown in the campaign you are writing now

The free plan covers 5,000 opens a month with no card. Starter is $24 a month for 250,000.