CountLink
A shared timer with nothing to run out of.
Copy the link, send it to as many people as you like, and everyone counts down to the same instant. There's no viewer limit, account or paid tier, because there's no server to pay for.
A group timer for classrooms, exams, webinars, workshops, standups, game nights and auctions.
- No signup
- Works on any device
- Share by link, QR or join code
Set your countdown
CountLink is free, and one person builds it. If it's been useful, you can buy Bruno a coffee on Ko-fi.
Tip on Ko-fiWhy doesn't CountLink limit viewers like competitors do?
Real-time competitors like ShareMyTimer and Stagetimer push live control changes to every open viewer, which needs a server holding a connection open per viewer, and that cost is why their free tiers cap devices and timers. CountLink works differently: the countdown's end time is written into the link itself, so each device just checks its own clock against that timestamp. With no ongoing connection there's no per-viewer cost, so there's no reason to cap viewers.
Common questions
How do I set the timer?
Set it on the board itself. Hover or tap a pair of digits and small up and down arrows appear over them. Click those, use the arrow keys, scroll the mouse wheel over a pair you've clicked, or drag them up and down on a touchscreen. You can also just type the time: typing 7 0 0 gives 7:00, the same way a microwave works, and typing 9 0 0 0 gives 1:30:00 because 90 minutes is an hour and a half. Rolling the minutes past 59 adds an hours pair automatically, and a small +hr control to the left of the digits adds or removes hours directly. Once a countdown is running the board locks, so nobody opening your shared link can change what the room sees.
Can I set a countdown that isn't a whole number of minutes?
Yes. The board has a seconds pair, so 7:30 or 1:30:00 are set the same way as any other time: roll the seconds with the arrows, or type the whole thing. You can also paste a duration like 1:30:00, 90m or 45 straight onto the board.
Is CountLink free?
Yes. There's no viewer limit, device limit or paid tier. Syncing happens in the link itself, so one more viewer costs nothing.
Do I need to sign up or make an account?
No. Neither the person who starts the timer nor anyone who opens the shared link ever needs an account.
How does the timer stay in sync across devices?
The countdown's end time is a timestamp written into the shared link, not stored on a server. Every device that opens the link counts down to that same timestamp, checking its own clock against a reference time as the page loads and correcting it if it is off.
Can the timer go down or lose sync if a server has an outage?
No. There's no server in the sync path, so there's nothing to go down. Each device does its own local math against the shared timestamp.
Can I pause, add time or stop a countdown for everyone, remotely?
Yes. Tick phone control before you start (the checkbox above) and you get a second link, the control link, that pauses, resumes, adds or removes a minute, and stops the countdown live on every screen that has it open, from your phone or any other device. It is free, with no cap on the number of screens, and you can also flash a short message to all of them. Only the control link can make changes: the share link you send people watches every change but can't cause one. The one thing to remember is to tick it before starting. A countdown started without phone control has no live connection, so Stop and Restart only affect your own screen and you would start a fresh countdown and re-share its link.
What if two people's device clocks are slightly different?
CountLink corrects for it. When the page loads, each device checks its clock against a reference time and, if it's off by more than the measurement's own margin, counts down on corrected time instead and says so under the board. Screens agree to within about a second even when a classroom PC's clock is minutes out. A device that can't reach CountLink at that moment falls back to its own clock.
How do I get the same timer on multiple screens?
Set the duration, press start, then copy the link and send it to whoever needs it. Every screen that opens that link shows the same countdown, hitting zero at the same moment: a projector and thirty phones, or two laptops in different countries. There is nothing to install and no room to join: the deadline is encoded in the link itself, so opening it is the whole setup.
How do I sync a timer across devices without an app?
A synced timer normally means a server holding a live connection to every viewer, which is why most of them cap how many people can watch. CountLink syncs a different way: the link carries the exact end time, and each device counts down to that instant on its own, after checking its clock is right. No connection to keep open means nothing to cap, nothing to install, and no account on either end, and it keeps working if the Wi-Fi drops after the page has loaded.
How does CountLink compare to ShareMyTimer or Stagetimer?
They are built for different jobs, and the short version is that CountLink is simpler and they are more powerful. Both of those run a real-time server, so they can push a live pause or a per-viewer message to everyone at once, and they charge, or cap viewers, to pay for it. CountLink has no viewer cap and no paid tier because there is no server to fund, with an opt-in phone control for the common case of one person driving. The full comparison sets out pricing, limits and what each is for.
What CountLink does
46 features, all free, none behind an account. The full list is here.
Sharing
- One link, unlimited viewers
- Join code you can say out loud
- + 3 more
The timer itself
- Countdown to a duration
- Countdown to a date and time
- + 10 more
Control
- Phone control
- Flash a message to every screen
- + 3 more
Display
- Three board styles
- Fullscreen
- + 5 more
Embedding and integrations
- Stream overlay for OBS
- Post to Google Classroom or Teams
- + 15 more