It amazes me, again and again, every time I split test landing pages with and without website countdown timers. Whenever I add a small countdown timer clock to a lead page, I see more opt-ins, more engagement in giveaway share pages/widgets, and more sales in sales and checkout pages.
In fact, many studies and experiments have proven that using countdown timers in marketing campaigns results in improved results. That is why you see many marketers utilize online website countdown timers in their funnels.
Why should you use countdown timers on web pages?
- Create a sense of urgency — People act fast when triggered by an emotion, especially Urgency and scarcity. Countdown timers are proven to be one of the most effective ways to entice urgency without any additional mechanics. Put a countdown timer on top of the email subscription form and see how quickly people sign up.
- Get people’s attention — One of the fantastic facts about website countdown timers is that they are animated. Animated objects or motions as a whole take people’s attention. In this era where a typical internet user is bombarded with tons of ads every day, it’s hard to get people’s attention regardless of age, location, or affinity group. Since countdown timers are animated and equipped with numbers, people’s eyes take there.
- Display the right local date and time — Suppose you want to add a countdown timer to a sales page promotion that closes at 5 PM today PST time. How does a person in UTC actually know which is the absolute deadline for him/her?
- Confirm you’re serious — You can display a final date and time as a text (ex: Offer closes today at 23.59 EST), but they are not as powerful and eye-opening as a website countdown clock widget.
- Personalize countdown timer widget according to the visitor — Current technology allows website owners to target people individually instead of mass targeting. This allows for the display of unique countdown timers for each person based on visiting number, location, and more.
- Push users to make a purchase — Countdown timers can push visitors to make a purchase by using psychological tricks, i.e., creating a demand. Users who feel like they might not be able to buy something tomorrow will likely buy it today.
When to use Website countdown timers
Here are seven occasions you can use website countdowns on your blogs, websites, and landing pages.
- Lead funnels — If you are using lead generation as a part of your marketing strategy, using countdown widgets could increase conversions. Most page builders, such as Clickfunnels, LeadPages, Unbounce, and Brizy, have countdown widgets as elements. But those are limited in customization. So, you can use one of the advanced countdown timers below.
- Sales pages — Some countdown tools are dynamic, meaning they have options to specify what to do when the timer hits zero and repeat the countdown timer. Also, some countdown tools allow you to direct traffic to another page by defining a destination URL. If you are going to use it, make sure to use a quality traffic tracker tool like ClickMagick (see ClickMagick pricing) or a link rotator tool. Whether you are running a one-off sales offer or an evergreen promotion, you can utilize countdown timer widgets on web pages to boost conversions.
- Deadline funnels — One of the most significant issues of regular countdown clocks is time synchronization. Utilize these tools to embed the countdown timer on every page and part of the entire funnel.
- Giveaway funnels — One of the best ways to encourage user engagement on online sweepstakes or a social media contest is to add a countdown timer on the top. Online giveaway tools like UpViral have a countdown timer as a landing page element. But if you are on a lower plan of UpViral, use an UpViral alternative like Gleam or GrowSurf, or you can use a countdown timer listed below in your UpViral giveaways.
- Event pages — Have a special occasion to celebrate? Create a simple website on platforms like Tumblr and display your countdown clock widget.
- Checkout pages — Place a countdown timer on your checkout page(s) and compare the conversion rate before and after.
- Registration forms — Create urgency by placing a countdown timer near the registration form. Notice how conversion rates differ.
Website countdown timers vs. email countdown timers
Recently I shared a list of the best email countdown timers, and I want to compare the features of those timers against website countdown timers.
- Email countdown timers are animated images (i.e., GIF images), while email countdown timers are powered by HTML (via iframe) or Javascript.
- Website countdown timers have more customization features like editing appearance with CSS and embedding JS scripts. But, email timers are limited in customization.
- Redirecting page traffic to another page is only possible with website countdown timers.
7 Best Website Countdown Timers
You can embed countdown timer widget on your website by copying and pasting the HTML code on your site’s source code.
Elfsight Countdown timer widget
Elfsight is one of the best website widget providers with over 85 powerful applications. Elfsight’s countdown timer is an easy-to-use responsive website countdown clock widget that will look beautiful on any platform.
Here are key features of Elfsight:
- Visual editor – See exactly how the widget will look
- Mobile responsive designs
- Beautiful countdown timer types
- Change colors, labels of time units, fonts, animation type, and more
- Set start and end time
- Three post-timer options: Remove the timer appearing, replace the timer with a message, or redirect traffic to a URL after the timer hits zero
- Add custom call-to-action text and a CTA button bottom of the countdown clock and make the whole timer clickable.
- Holidays and specific events such as black Friday focused countdown widget themes
- Several widget position options: Inline, Top banner, and floating top and bottom countdown bar positions.
- Restart the countdown timer after a specific time.
Here is an example of the Elfsight website countdown timer:
Create your Elfsight timer
Use the free HTML countdown timer widget builder below. Choose a template, click on “Continue with this template” button at the bottom, edit your countdown timer and click on “Add to website” button and get your countdown timer’s embed code.
Or register your account from here to make your own countdown clock.
The video below walks you through the Elfsight countdown timer editor.
Elfsight is an online service where you can find many apps such as YouTube Gallery widget and Social media feed aggregators such as Instagram Feed widget to power up your website. It has got unique pricing structure for the countdown app.
Elfsight’s Lite plan is free of cost. However, it will carry Elfsight branding on your countdown timers (which is a distraction if you especially intend to use them on your sales pages), and views are capped at 200. Paid plans have more features and the branding is removed.
- Basic — $6/mo – Unlimited websites, 5,000 views, 3 widgets
- Pro — $12/mo – Unlimited websites, 50,000 views per app, 9 widgets
- Premium — $24/mo – Unlimited websites, 150,000 views, 21 widgets
Its “All Apps” pack is costlier but allows you to use all 85+ widgets at a collectively cheaper price. Furthermore, there are Enterprise plans for freelancers, agencies, and marketing firms with higher limits. Learn more about Elfsight’s pricing plans from this guide.
Click here to create your countdown timer on Elfsight for free.
Powr Countdown timer
Powr, like Elfsight, is an online service that provides useful tools and widgets for website owners and marketers. For example, if you need a sales countdown timer, testimonials widget, pricing table widget, or a comments form plugin, Powr has dedicated widgets.
Its website countdown timer is not only one of the easiest-to-use web countdown clock widgets but also one of the most sophisticated.
Here are why:
- Customizable — Powr’s countdown timer plugin lets you change the colors, fonts, borders, backgrounds, etc., to resonate with your placements and brand color palette.
- Live editing – The WYSIWYG editor lets you efficiently adjust the appearance of the online countdown clock. No more going back and forth between live preview and editing modes!
- Count Down or Count Up — Count down to date to create urgency or count up from a number for great social proof. Perfect for product launches and new releases.
- Localize – Do you want to translate timer details into your local languages? No problem.
- Mobile responsive — Your animated timers will look beautiful on both desktop and mobile devices.
- Message During and After Count — Display different messages during counting once it’s reached 0 so your visitors know that a sale or event is over.
- Cloud Synched — One of the best features of the Powr Countdown Timer plugin is that it is cloud synchronized. It means you can re-edit the timer again and use the timer in your sales funnels, giveaway pages, solo ad campaigns, websites, and tools that work anywhere!
Website countdown widget
Powr’s countdown timer is equipped with many customization options. Here is a short video on how to create a free countdown timer.
Powr provides these options:
- Seven timer types – Countdown to date, Countdown time, Countdown time per visitor, Countdown number per visitor, Count up number, Count up number per visitor, Count up from a date
- Enable/disable label appearance and change count label wording
- Set countdown timer widget position – Fixed and Default (place code where you want to display timer)
- Link countdown widget to a page
- Add CTA button
- Change behavior after the count – Display the counter, Display a message, and repeat the counter.
- Collect payments
- Set countdown timer animation
- Change font family, size, and colors of countdown timer and texts
- Add custom CSS and JavaScript codes
Powr takes the local time on your computer in the time settings of the countdown widget. So you might want to convert your time to the correct timezone.
HTML website countdown timer code
Click on the publish button at the top right corner of the header. You will see a page similar to the given screenshot below.
Copy the code and paste it into the HTML editor of your landing page builder. The best part is Powr’s countdown timer is not capped in views nor limited to where you can use it. That means you can use the Powr’s countdown widget unlimited times anywhere!
Here is an example of Powr website countdown timer:
So, what about the pricing?
Powr countdown timer pricing
Powr’s website countdown timer is free for life! If you upgrade to the Business plan, you can get access to 50+ other apps like the email countdown timer, count up timer, holiday countdown gadget, social feed, comments, and reviews.
Click here to get the Powr Countdown app for free.
Convertful
Convertful is a tool that helps you create email opt-in forms and banner widgets. Its WYSIWYG editor includes a countdown timer that you can use to design any kind of timer widget to show up on any website placement. Learn more about Convertful in this review.
Here’s how to make a time decreasing clock in Convertful:
Here is the live version of the countdown clock:
Key features of Convertful:
- Use countdown timer on popups, screen-overs, floating bars, inline widgets, and sliding widgets
- Three countdown timer end situations: On a given moment, after a given duration, and the same as another countdown
- Do nothing, close widget or redirect URL when the time ends
- Custom texts for the time frames
- Change background color, digits color, font family (Google Fonts or upload own), and font size
- Mobile responsive designing
- Make your countdown timer transparent to blend with any theme design
- Advanced targeting options – Show countdown timer based on visitor location, activities (i.e., after signing up to your email list, buying a frond-end offer, etc.), visit number, cookies, the email autoresponder tags & segments, and more.
- Add subscription forms, CTA buttons & texts, progress bars, social signup buttons, and more elements.
- Add tracking pixels and customize the appearance with CSS
The best part is you can use the Convertful countdown timer on any placement targeting any visitor. Price-wise, Convertful contains multiple subscription plans.
Its free plan is capped at 3,000 pageviews per month. If you are considering more advanced features, paid plans are worth it.
- Blogger — $19/mo – 10,000 pageviews
- Growth — $79/mo – 125,000 pageviews
- Agency — $199/mo – 500,000 pageviews
If you are building email lists, tools like Convertful could be very useful, not only for creating a website countdown timer. Click here to try this free countdown timer.
TickCounter
TickCounter is an online countdown timer widget creator with multilingual and timezone support.
Features:
- Unlimited counters
- Visual editor
- Countdown from twenty years in the future
- Use preferred timezone
- Add or remove the time units you need, which include items like years, weeks, and months.
- Localize timer widget with 50+ supported languages
- SSL encryption
- Three On-finish options (stop counting on zero, keep counting up, or repeat every preferred time (recurring countdowns))
- Unique web countdown timer page (see an example from here)
- Easy integrations
Here is a live version of the TickCounter’s countdown timer:
Tickcounter’s free plan lets you have unlimited counters with a 1,000,000 view limit per month. But, the free plan comes with the Tickcounter branding. Its sole premium plan, which is Pro, costs $10/mo, allows recurring countdown timers, and neither ads nor branding is shown. There are Enterprise packages available for agencies and high-traffic websites based on volume upon request.
CountingDownTo
CountingDownTo is another countdown clock maker with an international timezone and multilingual support.
Key features:
- Customizable event date and time and title
- Localize timer with language support and timezone selector
- Flexible repeat modes (repeat timer hourly, daily, weekly, etc.)
- Flexible layout and sizing
- Display the date on the countdown
- Visual effects
- Link the countdown widget
- Four embed locations: You can display the countdown clock created on CountingDownTo within page content, fixed at the top of the page, fixed at the bottom of the page, or make it a full page counter.
CountingDownTo has two widget builders: The old one (with more features) and the new one (with a fresh interface and modern designs). At the moment, some features are limited on the new builder. However, you can always create a widget using the previous builder.
Here is the live version of a countdown clock created on CountingDownTo’s new builder:
CountingDownTo has two paid plans. One is based on a monthly subscription, while the second one is a lifetime plan with a one-time payment.
TimeAndDate
TimeAndDate is dedicated to providing timers, world clocks, calendars, timezones, and weather widgets. It offers a free countdown timer for your website. The TimeAndDate countdown timer is highly configurable—you can display it in milliseconds.
Main features:
- The countdown is accurate (even if the user’s computer clock is wrong)
- Choices regarding DST — Different options on how to deal with daylight saving time (DST) with regard to your countdown timer.
- Timezones are supported
- Select which units to display (from days to milliseconds)
- Highly configurable – choose different backgrounds, text options, colors, and fonts
- No registration is needed — the HTML code is available immediately
- Countdown timer number customization – Multiple options such as counter modes, what to do when time has passed
- Different customization for when time has not yet passed and has passed
HTML powers TimeAndDate’s countdown timer widget. Here is an example countdown clock with the birthday theme.
Registration is not required to use TimeAndDate’s website countdown timer widget. Although it does not have features like the linking countdown widget and advanced color customization, if you are looking for a simple counter widget for an event, TimeAndDate would be a great free option.
VClock
Vlock is an online service that lets you create simple timers, including countdown timers from a specific time or date.
Features:
- Add ‘Reset’ and ‘Stop’ buttons on counters
- Add sounds effects
- Three options when the timer’s on zero: Stop the timer, Restart the timer, Run as a stopwatch
Here is a live demo of the VClock free countdown timer for the website:
Like TimeAndDate, the VClock website countdown clock widget is free to use, and no registration is needed.
Final words on Best website countdown timers
Countdown timers are fun, bring readers’ attention to a specific part of the web page, and radically improve conversion rates. In fact, I have yet to find a high-converting sales page or checkout page without a website countdown widget.
Although you can design a countdown timer with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or find a countdown HTML template in Codepen, why would you worry when there are tools to make them easily?
In this article on best countdown timers for websites, you found why and when to use countdown timers on websites and the best sites to generate visually appealing countdown widgets.
So, what is your favorite tool on this list? Share your opinions below in the comments.