Comparison

EARLY vs RescueTime

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

Head to head
About

EARLY

This app offers a streamlined approach to time tracking, helping users understand how they spend their hours. It provides insightful reports and customizable features to boost productivity and improve work-life balance.

Highlights
  • One-tap time tracking
  • Real-time productivity data
  • Customizable reports and charts
  • Easy entry editing
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Calendar view for reviews
  • Integrations with popular tools
Read full description

Discover a better way to track your time with EARLY. EARLY will help you own your time and maximise your productivity at work. Instantly start tracking your activities within the EARLY app and unlock actionable insights to optimise your workflow, improve work-life balance, and achieve your goals. What is EARLY? Effortless Tracking • Track time with one tap — spend 90% less time logging your hours. Boosted Productivity • Get precise, real-time data on how you allocate your time to improve focus and reduce distractions. Reports • Visualise and analyse time distribution with customisable charts and reports that reveal trends, patterns, and opportunities for easy improvement. Easy Editing • Quickly adjust, add, or delete entries so that your logs are always accurate. Cross-Device Sync • Seamlessly track time across your devices for consistent, updated logs wherever you are. Calendar • View time entries in a calendar format for easy daily and weekly reviews, where time tracking becomes key to your routine. Integrations • Sync with JIRA, Toggl, Harvest, Zapier, and many more to streamline time tracking within your existing workflow.

About

RescueTime

Understand and manage your time automatically. This app helps you block distractions, track activities on your mobile and desktop, and set productivity goals. Gain insights into your workday and improve focus.

Highlights
  • Automatic time tracking
  • Distraction blocking (Focus Sessions)
  • Activity categorization
  • Task timers
  • Offline activity logging
  • Home screen widgets
  • Productivity goals and alerts
Read full description

RescueTime helps you track time, block distractions, manage goals, and understand your full workday across phone and desktop. Together this gives you a clear view of your habits and the tools to improve them. Understand where your time goes, stay focused when it matters, and build better workdays without extra effort. One subscription works across all your devices, syncing your data to give you a complete picture of your time on mobile and desktop. **Created For iOS** RescueTime for iOS brings powerful, simple focus tools to your phone: • Automatic app tracking: see app activity with productivity ratings and daily and weekly summaries (optional Screen Time permission). • Focus Sessions with optional app blocking: stay on task with time-boxing, optionally grant permission to block distractions in real time. • Project tracking: log time to specific projects and track progress across sessions and timers. • Offline time: add meetings, calls, and other offline activities to complete your day. • Reporting: View and manage your time across all your devices in the app. • Available in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Russian. **Focus Sessions** Start a Focus Session when you need uninterrupted time to work. RescueTime blocks distractions, tracks your progress, and delivers a summary when you're done. Use timers for time boxing or to track open-ended tasks. Sessions and timers can be linked to projects, so your focused time always counts toward something meaningful. **Full Workday Perspective** Install RescueTime on your desktop to see the full picture. Your activity, focus sessions, and progress sync seamlessly across devices. Please note that RescueTime for desktop is only available in English. **Goals And Insights** Set daily goals for focused work, screen-free time, or better online habits. RescueTime tracks your progress automatically and shows how your behavior aligns with your goals. Weekly summaries highlight trends over time, so you can see what's working and what's not. **Permissions** Several optional features require elevated permissions. Reporting: tracking phone app activity requires Screen Time permission, and you can choose to use this feature or not. Focus Sessions: using the optional app blocking part of sessions requires Screen Time permission in order to offer real-time intervention. **Plans** Solo Focus includes automatic tracking with full history, Focus Sessions with real-time app blocking, offline activity logging, goals with daily targets, alerts and automations, advanced filtering, and integrations. Solo+ includes everything in Solo Focus, plus automated project and task tracking with RescueTime Timesheets. Link activities and timers to projects to automatically generate timesheets or track progress across work and personal goals. Free includes automatic basic tracking, daily and weekly reports, the Productivity Pulse, and two weeks of activity history. Offline time logging, project tracking, and distraction blocking require a subscription. **For Teams** RescueTime also offers team plans with shared projects, team dashboards, manager insights, and centralized settings. Team plans are only available at rescuetime.com. **Privacy** RescueTime does not record keystrokes, capture screenshots, or read message and website content. You control what is tracked, can pause tracking at any time, and can export or delete your data whenever you choose.

Screenshots

EARLY4 screens
RescueTime4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: RescueTime at none against EARLY's shown. EARLY's advantage is ratings volume (148 vs 4) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. EARLY sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.00 per month and RescueTime sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

EARLY holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: EARLY has 148 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 34% of EARLY's written reviews are positive against 21% of RescueTime's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 weeks. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
EARLY versus RescueTime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEARLYRescueTime
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (148 ratings) — better4.3 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews34.3% of reviews — better21.4% of reviews
Number of ratings148 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 4 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.4
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB61 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTimeular GmbHRescueTime

Customer experience

EARLY

All ratings146 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral2.7%
Negative8.9%
Written reviews99 reviews
Positive34.3%
Neutral23.2%
Negative42.4%

RescueTime

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive21.4%
Neutral3.6%
Negative75.0%

Bugs and requests

EARLY

Reported bugs

30 issues
  • Login flow bugs (user does not exist/already exists)
  • App logs out frequently
  • App disconnects from internet
  • Inputting entries via iOS app is difficult
  • Stuck during setup
Show 25 more
  • Tracker pairing issues
  • App gets stuck during setup
  • Cannot create an account (bouncy scroll)
  • App logs out and gives constant errors trying to log back in
  • UI doesn't load properly
  • Hardware die doesn't activate consistently
  • App crashes when expanding/editing entries
  • iPad app is a scaled iPhone app, not optimized
  • Cannot submit more than 1000 characters in iOS app entries
  • Tracker not pairing with phone app
  • Mac app buggy, Bluetooth buggy, iOS app buggy
  • Cannot edit activities properly, glitches out
  • Cannot delete activities
  • Cannot 'forget' device
  • App has to remain open to register task changes
  • App complains about connectivity
  • Undo button placement issue on iPhone
  • Unclear which device handles Bluetooth
  • Tracker won't connect to the app
  • Cannot pause and restart timers
  • App refuses to keep changes to hours/events
  • App is cloud-based, no offline access
  • App would not save activities
  • UI constantly gives errors on iPhone 6S
  • Editing tasks locks in incorrect time

Requested features

15 requests
  • Home screen widgets
  • Dark mode
  • Apple Watch integration
  • Customizable colors
  • Set and manage goals
Show 10 more
  • Direct tracker connection to services
  • More integrations with other apps
  • iPadOS app support
  • Siri integration/voice commands
  • Ability to restart timers
  • Offline functionality
  • Badge indication on app icon for running timer
  • Ability to edit time blocks
  • More advanced analytics
  • Lifetime subscription option

RescueTime

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

EARLY

Subscriptions2
  • Personal Pro$14.001 Month
  • Personal Pro$139.001 Year
4 purchases

RescueTime

Subscriptions4
  • Solo Monthly14 Days trial$9.001 Month
  • Solo+ Monthly14 Days trial$15.001 Month
  • Solo Yearly14 Days trial$84.001 Year
Show 1 more
  • Solo+ Yearly14 Days trial$143.991 Year

Questions

Is EARLY free?
EARLY is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RescueTime free?
RescueTime is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, EARLY or RescueTime?
EARLY is rated higher. EARLY averages 4.5 out of 5 from 148 ratings, while RescueTime averages 4.3 from 4 ratings.
Do EARLY or RescueTime have ads?
EARLY shows ads; RescueTime does not.
Which is updated more often, EARLY or RescueTime?
EARLY ships an update every 4 weeks, and RescueTime every 4 weeks. Most recently, EARLY was updated on October 25, 2026 and RescueTime on October 25, 2026.

Other comparisons