Comparison

Brave Browser & Search Engine vs Focus

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

Head to head
About

Brave Browser & Search Engine

A fast, private web browser with built-in ad blocking and a VPN. It offers an AI assistant, a crypto wallet, and a privacy-focused search engine. Enjoy offline media playback and enhanced security features.

Highlights
  • Built-in Adblock and Pop-up Blocker
  • Firewall + VPN
  • AI Assistant (Brave Leo)
  • Secure Crypto Wallet (Brave Wallet)
  • Privacy-Focused Search Engine (Brave Search)
  • Offline Media Playback (Brave Playlist)
  • Voice Search
Features
Read full description

Brave is a fast, private web browser that blocks ads and trackers on every site, automatically. No settings to change, no extensions to install. Over 125 million people browse with Brave. It's free, open source, and independent — we don't sell your browsing data. Everything below is built into the browser. One app, not a stack of them. BLOCK ADS ON EVERY SITE Brave Shields stops banner ads, pop-ups, autoplay interruptions, and the ads that play before and during videos. Same on news sites, shopping sites, forums and video pages — no per-site setup, no ad blocker extension. It dismisses cookie consent banners too, and it's on from your first tab. PRIVATE BROWSING THAT BLOCKS TRACKERS Private mode in most browsers only hides your history from your own phone. Brave blocks the cross-site trackers and fingerprinting scripts that follow you from a shopping page to your social feed, strips tracking codes from links you copy, and turns on Global Privacy Control by default. SHRED: DELETE ONE SITE'S DATA, NOT ALL OF IT Clearing browser data usually logs you out of everything. Shred deletes the cookies and storage for one site and leaves your other sessions intact. Set Auto Shred to run whenever you close a tab. BRAVE SEARCH: A PRIVATE SEARCH ENGINE, BUILT IN Brave Search is the default search engine in the browser, running on its own independent index — not resold results from Google or Bing. It doesn't profile you or log your searches. Ask Brave puts search results and AI answers in one place. Switch search engines any time. BRAVE LEO: A FREE AI ASSISTANT Summarize a long article, translate a page, or draft a reply without leaving the tab. Choose from several AI models. Leo doesn't record your conversations, share them, or use them to train models. BRAVE NEWS: A FEED WITH NO PROFILE BEHIND IT Personalize a news feed from hundreds of sources or any RSS feed with Brave News. FASTER PAGES, LESS MOBILE DATA Ads and trackers are most of what a modern page downloads. Blocking them means fewer requests, less data and less battery drain. We rebuilt Brave's ad blocking engine to use 75% less memory, so it stays responsive with many tabs open. MAKE BRAVE YOUR DEFAULT BROWSER Open Settings, scroll to Brave, choose Default Browser App. Every link you tap — from Mail, Messages or any app — opens with ad and tracker blocking already on. WHAT'S FREE AND WHAT ISN'T Free: the browser, ad and tracker blocking, Shred, Brave Search, Brave Leo, Brave News, Sync and night mode. Subscriptions: - Brave Firewall + VPN encrypts your whole device, not just browser traffic, with a kill switch and smart proxy. - Brave Leo Premium unlocks more capable AI models. - Brave Origin: The streamlined, minimalist browser that gives you Brave's industry-leading privacy and ad-blocking, with none of the extras. One-time purchase: Brave Origin, an ultra-minimalist build of Brave — no AI, no crypto, nothing but the web. One purchase covers all your devices. Also inside: encrypted Sync, a self-custody Brave Wallet (off by default), night mode, voice search, password autofill, custom app icons, and bookmark import from Safari or Chrome. OPEN SOURCE Brave is open source, so anyone can audit what the browser does. Read what we collect at https://brave.com/privacy/ Our mission is to protect your privacy online by building a fast, private browser — while growing a fairer revenue model for creators. Enjoying the app? Please leave us a 5 star review! Brave.com · Support: https://brave.com/support Terms of Use: https://brave.com/terms-of-use/ Privacy Policy: https://brave.com/privacy/ SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Price may vary by location. Subscriptions are charged to your Apple Account. Firewall + VPN and Leo Premium are offered monthly and annually, and renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Account Settings. Free trials may be used once; any unused portion is forfeited on purchase.

About

Focus

Enhance your browsing with a customizable video player, powerful ad blocker, and advanced reading tools. Enjoy hands-free page turning, web translation, and script support for a personalized online experience.

Highlights
  • Customizable video player
  • Userscript support (JavaScript, Tampermonkey)
  • Advanced reading mode
  • Hands-free auto page turning
  • Powerful ad blocking
  • Web translation
  • Bookmark syncing
Features
Read full description

【Video Mode】 Customizable player supporting floating video, playback speed control, picture-in-picture, DLNA and AirPlay casting, and one-click screen lock. 【Userscripts】 Supports both JavaScript and Tampermonkey 5.3.0 syntax. After years of user feedback, Focus has greatly improved compatibility with various scripts, ensuring more scripts run smoothly on Focus. 【Reading Mode】 The best reading mode on iOS, supporting automatic preloading of the next page, font size, line height, margin adjustments, and webpage theme selection. Supports text filtering and regular expression rule filtering. 【Auto Page Turning】 Hands-free page turning for novels, comics, or forums. Supports search engines like Baidu, Google, Bing, and Yandex. Try it out now! 【Redirect Blocker】 Can block malicious app redirects within webpages. 【Custom Homepage】 Add your favorite websites to the homepage and set a personalized browser homepage. 【Web Translation】 Super fast translation, making it easy to understand any webpage and breaking down language barriers. 【Ad Blocking】 Powerful ad-blocking feature supporting AdBlock Plus and AdGuard syntax. Includes ad tagging, webpage blacklists, and custom ad rules. 【Bookmark Sync】 Import bookmarks from Safari, Chrome, and Alook into Focus and export Focus bookmarks to those browsers, ensuring seamless bookmark syncing. 【URL Scheme】 Open URLs via Shortcuts: FocusBrowser://search?url=search term or link. 【Other Features】 Supports iPad, iCloud bookmark sync, dark mode, incognito mode, ad marking mode, fingerprint/FaceID login, feedback, and full-screen mode. 【Privacy & Security】 Focus respects your privacy. Incognito mode doesn’t save browsing history, cache, or cookies.

Screenshots

Brave Browser & Search Engine4 screens
Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Brave Browser & Search Engine at 655K against Focus's 4.9K. Brave Browser & Search Engine also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 54%) and chart position (#20 vs unranked). Focus's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Brave Browser & Search Engine sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Focus sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 — 4.8 for Brave Browser & Search Engine against 4.7 for Focus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Brave Browser & Search Engine has 655K ratings behind it against 4.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Brave Browser & Search Engine's written reviews are positive against 54% of Focus's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Brave Browser & Search Engine versus Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBrave Browser & Search EngineFocus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (655K ratings) — better4.7 (4.9K ratings)
Positive reviews73.3% of reviews — better53.8% of reviews
Number of ratings655K — better4.9K
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#20 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size361 MB34 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperBrave Software庆彬 邓

Customer experience

Brave Browser & Search Engine

All ratings655,391 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.1%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews7,473 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral7.5%
Negative19.2%

Focus

All ratings4,932 ratings
Positive91.8%
Neutral2.4%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews78 reviews
Positive53.8%
Neutral9.0%
Negative37.2%

User reviews

Brave Browser & Search Engine

From 655K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and efficient browsing
  • 🔒 Strong privacy and security features
  • 👍 Customizable settings and options
  • 💰 Earning potential with Brave Rewards

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs
  • 🔋 Battery drain issues
  • 🤔 Confusing or unintuitive UI changes
  • 🚫 Lack of full sync capabilities across devices

Focus

From 4.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast download speeds
  • 👍 Useful features
  • 💡 Powerful script support
  • 🔒 Effective ad-blocking

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and reloading issues
  • 🔋 Draining battery life
  • ⛔ Removal of download functionality

Bugs and requests

Brave Browser & Search Engine

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Disappearing tabs and lost browsing data
  • Compatibility issues with certain websites
  • Problems with the Brave Playlist feature

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to clear browsing history and data in bulk
  • More customization options for the home screen and UI
  • Improved integration with other apps and services
  • Expanded Brave Rewards program and payouts

Focus

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Incompatibility with certain websites
  • Inconsistent script performance
  • Inability to export bookmarks

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add mute tab button
  • Implement desktop mode
  • Improve video playback controls
  • Restore video download feature

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Brave Browser & Search Engine

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Firewall + VPN7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Brave Leo AI (monthly)7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Annual Firewall + VPN7 Days trial$99.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Brave Leo AI (annual)7 Days trial$149.991 Year
One-time1
  • Brave Origin$59.99
1 purchases

Focus

One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$4.99

Questions

Is Brave Browser & Search Engine free?
Brave Browser & Search Engine is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus free?
Focus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Brave Browser & Search Engine or Focus?
Brave Browser & Search Engine is rated higher. Brave Browser & Search Engine averages 4.8 out of 5 from 655K ratings, while Focus averages 4.7 from 4.9K ratings.
Do Brave Browser & Search Engine or Focus have ads?
Neither Brave Browser & Search Engine nor Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Brave Browser & Search Engine or Focus?
Brave Browser & Search Engine ships an update every 3 weeks, and Focus every 3 weeks. Most recently, Brave Browser & Search Engine was updated on September 24, 2026 and Focus on September 23, 2026.

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