Search the App Store for "hourly chime" and you get a wall of clock icons, a few bells, and at least one bird. The bird is mine, so let me say that at the top: I make Hourlybird, one of the apps below. Read this guide the way you would read a restaurant review written by one of the chefs.
One thing to know before choosing
iOS does not let an app sit in the background and make noise whenever it likes. Every chime app works by scheduling notifications, so the chime arrives through the same pipe as a text message. This means the real differences between these apps are not about magic. They are about sounds, scheduling flexibility, quiet hours, and whether anyone still maintains the thing. Ratings below are from the US App Store as of July 2026.
Hourly Chime, the crowd favorite
The plainly named Hourly Chime (subtitle: "hourly reminder") is the one most people land on, with a 4.3 rating from about 1,800 reviews and an update as recent as last month. It keeps things literal: every hour has its own on and off switch, you can retitle the reminder, and it corrects itself when you cross time zones, a small touch that suggests somebody thought about travelers.
Mindfulness Bell, the beloved elder
Mindfulness Bell rings a recorded Tibetan singing bowl at fixed or random intervals, and people love it: 4.6 stars across more than eleven thousand reviews, remarkable for something this simple. The catch is that it was last updated in 2021. It still works, but it is living on borrowed time, the App Store equivalent of a beautiful old building with nobody on the lease.
Chime, the talking clock
Chime, by Reeba Sebastian, speaks the time out loud instead of just ringing, and adds a night mode plus a weekend switch so your Saturday morning stays quiet. It holds 4.2 stars from around 800 reviews.
Repeat Timer, for intervals rather than hours
If what you actually want is "every 45 minutes" rather than "on the hour," Repeat Timer has been doing repeating intervals since 2013 and holds 4.5 stars across more than seven thousand reviews. It is a timer at heart, so you start it each time rather than schedule it and forget it.
Westminster Chimes, for the grandfather clock people
Westminster Chimes Lite plays the real Westminster melody on the hour, and will do the quarter hours too if you pay for the upgrade. Your phone becomes a small, polite Big Ben. It sits at 4.0 stars and is updated less often than the others.
Hourlybird, the one I made
Hourlybird plays a short bird chime on the hour, inspired by the Casio F-91W beep and by the Apple Watch birdsong. It adds hydration and stretching reminders and a pause button for meetings, and it is free. It is also the newest app on this list by a wide margin, which cuts both ways: fewer reviews, but faster replies when you email the developer, because the developer is me.
My honest advice, and it applies to my own app too: install two or three, live with each for a day, and keep the one you stop noticing. A good chime is like a good clock tick. You only hear it when you need it.