Comparison

Focus On Five vs Principal Task

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Focus On Five

This app helps you identify and track five meaningful weekly goals, drawing on psychology to foster clarity and motivation. An AI assistant aids in breaking down large objectives into actionable steps, ensuring progress on what truly matters.

Highlights
  • Set five meaningful weekly goals
  • AI assistant for breaking down large goals
  • Track weekly priorities
  • Apple Watch companion app
  • Psychology-backed productivity methods
  • Progress tracking for key life areas
Features
Read full description

Start your week with focus and clarity! Focus on Five helps you choose five meaningful goals to focus on each week. Not unachievable goals or small tasks. With the Focus on Five app, you can track your five weekly priorities completely for FREE! You’re busy. You’ve got a ton of things to accomplish—but they slip through the cracks. You can do anything—but not everything. This simple weekly rhythm helps you pause, reflect, set your intentions, and stay reminded throughout the week so you can accomplish the five priorities that matter most to you. You stay focused with clarity to make real progress—one step at a time, one priority at a time. It’s not about doing more—it’s about doing what matters. Focus on Five draws from proven psychology and productivity science to help you feel clearer, more motivated, and more in control. Over time, small weekly wins create significant momentum. Want to figure out what priorities to focus on? Dexter AI, our AI assistant, can help you break down big and complex ideas into small, weekly, actionable priorities or make sure you're not stuck doing small tasks! Dexter AI is a Large Language Model (LLM) that has been fine-tuned to provide actionable priorities for accomplishing. On the run and want to be reminded of your priorities. Focus on Five, the Apple Watch companion app, helps you keep your priorities with you at all times. Focus on Five will gently remind you of your priorities, giving you complete control. Thousands of people are using Focus on Five to make progress in every area of life: 1. Health & Wellbeing – like walking more, eating better, or losing weight 2. Career & Creativity – like finishing a project or starting a blog 3. Home & Relationships – like planning a date, making that call, or organizing your space 4. Personal Growth & Joy – like reading, learning, or finding small moments of calm Focus on Five isn’t about becoming a productivity machine—it’s about accomplishing what matters to you! Get the app for FREE and try it out! SUPPORT: For support, go to https://www.digiguys.com Q: Is the Focus on Five app FREE? A: Yes, Focus on Five is FREE to use. If you want to use Dexter AI, our Large Language Model (LLM), you can choose a one-time payment or subscription. Q: Is this just another to-do list app? A: Nope. Focus on Five isn’t about endless tasks—it’s about making meaningful and actionable progress on the things that matter most. Q: I have a big long-term goal. Can Focus on Five help? A: Absolutely. Focus on Five with Dexter AI will guide you in breaking big goals into smaller, actionable priorities you can accomplish in a week. Q: Why only five priorities each week? A: Five priorities per week is the sweet spot—enough to make real progress without feeling overwhelmed. Q: I feel that I have hundreds of tasks to finish each week. How can Focus on Five help? A: Focus on Five will help you, with Dexter AI, to distill the most important priorities that you can accomplish in one week. Q: What if I want to change my priorities mid-week? A: You’re in charge! Tap to edit, drag to reorder, and mark things done as you go. Q: I couldn't complete one of the priorities. What now? A: No worries. The priority will rollover automatically to the following week. Q: What do I get with the Dexter AI? A: Access to Dexter AI, our Large Language Model (LLM) specially developed to help you create actionable priorities each week. You can purchase messages with a one-time payment, or get unlimited access with a monthly or yearly subscription. Q: Do I need an account to use the app? A: No, you can start using Focus on Five right away—no sign-up required. Q: Can I suggest a feature or give feedback? A: Yes! In the app, tap the Options menu and choose “Contact us” or visit our website at digiguys.com. MORE APPS: Check out all our apps at https://digiguys.com Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Principal Task

This app helps you manage tasks by tracking your completion rate against new tasks created. It offers a unique 'Task Velocity' score to show if you're keeping up with your workload. Organize with folders, contexts, and priorities, with advanced features available through a premium subscription.

Highlights
  • Task Velocity score
  • GTD-native structure
  • Due dates and repeating tasks
  • Markdown support
  • Kanban boards
  • Private templates
Features
Read full description

Track your Task Velocity — the ratio of tasks you complete against the ones you create, updated every day. See at a glance whether you're ahead or falling behind, not just what's on your list. Principal Task is a GTD-native task manager built for people who've outgrown to-do apps. Folders, contexts, priorities, statuses, and unlimited nested subtasks — organized the way real work actually happens. TASK VELOCITY Your 30-day completed-vs-created ratio, shown as a simple multiplier. Free members see their current score. Premium unlocks the full history, filterable by folder, context, priority, and status. SYSTEM HEALTH A live verdict — Healthy, Strained, or Overloaded — so you know where things stand today, separate from where they're heading. BUILT FOR GTD Folders and sub-folders, contexts, priorities, statuses, and stars. Subtasks nest as deep as you need, with independent completion — no forced parent-child status. KANBAN, HEATMAP, TEMPLATES See your work as a board. Watch your activity over time. Turn repeatable processes into templates you can apply in one tap. BUILT FOR AI ASSISTANTS Principal Task connects to AI assistants over MCP — read and write your tasks, subtasks, and folders directly from the assistant you already use. SHARE WITHOUT FRICTION Share a task list with a four-word link. No account required to view. You control how long it stays open. Free, no credit card. Premium is about $3/month or $24/year, and it doesn't limit how much you can do — it unlocks Task Velocity history, Kanban, the Activity Heatmap, and private templates. Principal Task. Software that gets out of the way. Terms of Use: https://principaltask.com/terms

Screenshots

Focus On Five4 screens
Principal Task4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Focus On Five at every 10 days against Principal Task's every 3 months. Focus On Five also leads on ratings volume (6 vs 1). Principal Task's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.1). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Focus On Five sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Principal Task sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Focus On Five against 5.0 for Principal Task. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Focus On Five has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus On Five ships an update every 10 days, Principal Task every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Focus On Five versus Principal Task: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus On FivePrincipal Task
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size196 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDigiguys, IncZechariah Schwenk

Customer experience

Focus On Five

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%

Principal Task

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Focus On Five

Subscriptions2
  • Dexter AI Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Dexter AI Yearly$39.991 Year
One-time2
  • Dexter Essentials$2.99
  • Full Access$9.99
2 purchases

Principal Task

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Focus On Five free?
Focus On Five is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Principal Task free?
Principal Task is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Focus On Five or Principal Task?
Focus On Five and Principal Task are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Focus On Five or Principal Task have ads?
Neither Focus On Five nor Principal Task shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus On Five or Principal Task?
Focus On Five ships an update every 10 days, and Principal Task every 3 months. Most recently, Focus On Five was updated on October 7, 2026 and Principal Task on October 1, 2026.

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