Countdown
A countdown widget displays the time remaining to a target date — days, hours, minutes, seconds — ticking in real time. WidgetCraft's Countdown widget accepts any future date via a URL parameter, shows a custom label, and embeds in Notion, Obsidian, or any iframe-capable website.
WidgetCraft's Countdown widget is built for any deadline that deserves a visible clock: a product launch, a race day, a wedding, a visa expiry, or a 14-day homebrew fermentation window. Set the target with `?date=2025-12-31T23:59:59` and a label with `?label=New+Year` and the widget renders four flip-card tiles — Days, Hours, Min, Sec — ticking down live in the browser. The full WidgetCraft styling panel applies, so you can match the countdown to your workspace's palette. When the target date passes, the widget switches to a completion state with a celebration indicator and the label text — it does not silently display zeroes. The countdown runs entirely client-side: the target date is parsed in the viewer's browser, so days/hours are calculated against local device time, which means the countdown reaches zero at the right moment for every viewer regardless of their timezone. No server, no account, no refresh needed.
Questions, answered.
Can I count down to any date?
Yes. Add `?date=2025-12-31T23:59:59` (ISO 8601 format) to the embed URL. The builder provides a date-and-time picker as an alternative. Any date in the future works — days, weeks, or years away.
What happens after the target date passes?
The widget switches to a completion state showing your custom label and a celebration marker. It does not continue counting into negative numbers or silently freeze at zero.
Can I add a custom label like 'Time to vacation'?
Yes. Add `?label=Time+to+vacation` to the URL. The label appears above the countdown tiles in uppercase small-caps styling.
Does the countdown account for my timezone?
The target date is parsed by each viewer's browser, so the countdown reaches zero at the moment that date occurs in the viewer's local time. If you want the event to fire at a specific UTC instant for all viewers, supply a full ISO timestamp with a UTC offset.
How precise is the countdown — does it show milliseconds?
The countdown ticks in one-second intervals and displays days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Milliseconds are not shown.
Can I use the countdown widget to track multiple events?
Each iframe instance tracks a single target date. Embed multiple countdown iframes on the same page — one per event — and arrange them however your layout allows.
Does it work in Notion?
Yes. Paste the embed URL (with your `?date=` parameter) into a Notion /embed block. The countdown ticks live every time that Notion page is open in a browser.
Are there good example use cases beyond just a launch countdown?
Yes — one that works especially well is tracking a homebrew beer's fermentation window. We wrote a full day-by-day IPA guide that uses the Countdown widget alongside the Progress bar as a brew tracker: see /use-cases/homebrew-tracker for the template and schedule.