Galarm or Steadbell, which one to use to remind someone else

Both send a reminder to someone else, let that person mark it done, and tell you about it. The difference is what the other person has to do first. With Galarm, they install an app. With Steadbell, they open a message. If the person you want to remind will happily install an app, Galarm is excellent and it is free. If they will not, that is the whole reason Steadbell exists.

Here is the honest comparison.

What Galarm does, and does well

Galarm calls it a Buddy Alarm. You create an alarm for somebody else, it rings on their phone, you are told if they miss it, and you are told when they mark it done. That is a complete loop, and it has been shipping for years.

It also does several things we do not.

• No account at all. It works from your phone number and your address book, with no username and no password
• A chat inside each alarm, so the conversation stays attached to the thing it is about
• It actually rings. A real alarm, with your own ringtone, even when the phone is on vibrate
• Very flexible repetition, down to things like every third day or the last Friday of the month
• Time zone handling that follows the person if they travel
• It works offline and syncs later

If you are reminding somebody who needs to be woken up, or who might miss a quiet notification, a ringing alarm beats a message. We do not compete on that.

The one constraint

Galarm's own documentation is clear about it: the people you can add to an alarm are the contacts who have installed Galarm. And if you share an alarm link with somebody who does not have the app, they are asked to install it before the alarm exists on their phone.

So the loop works, but only inside the app.

The person who has to install something is the one getting nothing out of it. That is usually where it stops.

This matters more than it sounds. You are not the obstacle, you already decided. The obstacle is your flatmate, your father, your treasurer, the person you are trying to help. Asking them to download an app so that you can remind them is a hard sell, and it is the reason most of these setups never happen.

What Steadbell does instead

The reminder arrives as a message, by email or on WhatsApp. There is a button in it. They tap it, and you are told. Nothing to install, no account to create, no particular phone required.

The trade is real and worth stating. A message can be ignored more easily than an alarm that rings. We accept that, because a reminder nobody set up is worse than a quiet one.

Side by side

Checked against Galarm's published documentation and app store listings in September 2026. We have not run a long side by side trial, so verify anything that matters to you. Galarm also offers a paid tier, and some alarm types require it.

Pick Galarm if

• The other person will install an app without complaining, or already has it
• You need something that rings, not something that notifies
• You want to talk about the task inside the reminder
• You want everything free, including the follow up
• You are reminding somebody who lives on their phone and is used to installing things

Pick Steadbell if

• The other person will not install anything, and you know it
• You are reminding a parent, a landlord, a colleague, a client, anybody outside your household
• You want the reminder to arrive where they already look, in their messages
• You are reminding several people who have nothing in common except you
• You do not want to explain an app before you can ask for a favour

The honest summary

Galarm is not a worse version of Steadbell. It is a different bet. They built the loop inside an app and made the app good. We built the loop around the app being absent.

If the person you are thinking of is already holding their phone, willing, and easy to ask, install Galarm today. It costs nothing and it works.

If you just pictured somebody and thought "they would never download that", you now know which one to try.

Common questions

Is Galarm free?

Yes, with a paid tier on top. Some alarm types need the paid version, so check their pricing for the exact feature you want.

Can Galarm remind somebody who does not have the app?

Not as a Buddy Alarm. Their shared alarm links can reach anybody, but the person is asked to install the app for the alarm to exist on their phone.

Does Steadbell ring?

No. It arrives as a message, with a button. That is the trade for not asking anybody to install anything.

Can I use both?

Yes, and some people should. Galarm for the household that already has it, Steadbell for everybody else.

Why write this at all?

Because we said for a while that nothing else closed the loop, and that was wrong. Somebody pointed it out, they were right, and a comparison you can check is worth more than a claim you cannot.