Comparison

Pause vs Sober Side Up Plus

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

Head to head
About

Pause

This app provides short, guided sessions to help you slow down, breathe, and reconnect with your faith amidst a busy life. It offers various session lengths and guided programs to foster inner peace and spiritual connection.

Highlights
  • Short guided prayer sessions
  • Customizable session lengths (1-10 mins)
  • Daily rhythm reminders
  • Guided soul check-ins
  • Multi-day guided programs
  • Focus on spiritual connection
Features
Read full description

Life moves fast. Your soul doesn’t. The Pause App offers a simple way to step out of the noise, release what you’re carrying, and reconnect with God in the middle of your busy day. Built around short, guided pauses, the app helps you slow down, breathe, and return to a grounded place of peace and presence. Whether you have one minute or ten, these gentle moments create space for your soul to recover. Inspired by the practice shared in Get Your Life Back, Resilient, and Experience Jesus. Really., the Pause App began as a tool our team used every day—and has become a daily rhythm for people around the world. What you can do with the Pause App • Take short “Pauses” to reset your mind and heart - Choose from 1-, 3-, 5-, or 10-minute sessions designed to help you let go, recenter, and reconnect with God. • Build simple daily rhythms - Set reminders that fit your life—morning, evening, or anytime you need a breath. • Check in with your soul - A quick, guided way to name where you are and receive a gentle next step. • Go deeper with guided programs - Explore multi-day journeys like 30 Days to Resilient and Experience Jesus. Really.—designed to strengthen your inner life and help you walk with God in a grounded, honest way. Why people love the Pause The Pause App is simple on purpose. No pressure. No performance. Just small, honest moments to breathe again, reconnect with God, and recover the life of your soul. If you’re feeling tired, overwhelmed, distracted, or simply hungry for a deeper connection with God in the flow of real life, the Pause is a gentle place to begin.

About

Sober Side Up Plus

This app supports your recovery journey by offering tools for tracking progress, journaling, building routines, and accessing educational resources. It prioritizes privacy with offline functionality and no account requirement, helping you rebuild a life free from substance escape.

Highlights
  • Track sobriety milestones and achievements
  • Private journaling for thoughts and feelings
  • Daily tasks to build healthy routines
  • Seven Standards reflection assessment
  • Progress graphs and timeline visualization
  • Local resource directory
  • 100+ recovery lessons and 70+ tools
Features
Read full description

CRACKED, NOT BROKEN You are not broken. You might feel cracked after addiction, trauma, chaos, or everything life has thrown at you. But cracked is not broken. Stopping the substance is only the beginning. Recovery is rebuilding a life you no longer need to escape from. WELCOME TO SOBER SIDE UP Sober Side Up is a private, offline-centered recovery companion. Track your journey, build routines, reflect, journal, learn skills, find resources, and see progress—while keeping recovery information on your device. RECOVERY JOURNEY Track an optional sobriety date, milestones, achievements, meetings, events, photos, personal wins, and other moments in the life you are rebuilding. Your Journey records how far you have come—not simply days passed. CREATE YOUR RECOVERY JOURNEY BOOK Choose meaningful moments and turn them into a personalized, printable PDF booklet with milestones, events, notes, and photos. PRIVATE JOURNAL Record thoughts, feelings, challenges, successes, setbacks, and goals. Looking back can help you recognize patterns and see change. DAILY TASKS & AVATAR Daily Tasks help you stay active, focused, and engaged when old routines disappear. Completing tasks reduces your character's Burden and changes your avatar's appearance. The goal isn't perfection. It is doing small things that move today in a healthier direction. SEVEN STANDARDS ASSESSMENT Use 21 plain-language questions to reflect on physical stability, emotional clarity, motivation, daily structure, environment, identity and personal growth, and support and connection. This is not a diagnosis or medical judgment. It is a reflection tool for identifying areas that may need attention or are getting stronger. Each Standard includes a 10-image visual progression and history. TIMELINE & PROGRESS GRAPHS Your Timeline brings important activity together chronologically. Progress graphs compare assessments over time. A difficult day does not erase earlier progress. LOCAL RESOURCES Find food, housing, healthcare, treatment, recovery-support, and community resources. Add your own meetings, organizations, contacts, and services. 100+ RECOVERY LESSONS Explore 100+ lessons on recovery, relationships, coping skills, personal growth, youth topics, and everyday challenges. Lesson Studio lets you create, organize, export, and share lessons without sharing private recovery records. 70+ PRACTICAL RECOVERY TOOLS Explore 70+ practical tools for cravings, stress, isolation, conflict, motivation, setbacks, and other challenges. Results can suggest relevant tools. EVERYTHING WORKS TOGETHER Your assessment can guide you toward tools and lessons. Daily Tasks give you something practical today. Your Journey, Journal, Timeline, and graphs help you see change over time. Recovery is bigger than a score, lesson, meeting, or sober date. Sober Side Up is designed to help you see the whole journey. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your recovery belongs to you. Sober Side Up works offline with no account required. Information stays on your device unless you choose to export it. Create a user-controlled backup to protect progress or restore it on another device. Sharing a lesson never shares your journal, assessments, Journey, Timeline, profile, or other private recovery information. You decide what leaves your device. CRACKED, NOT BROKEN Stopping the substance may be where recovery begins. Rebuilding your life is where the journey continues. Sober Side Up was built to help you keep moving forward—one task, one lesson, one entry, one milestone, and one day at a time. Sober Side Up is an educational and recovery-support tool. It does not provide counseling, diagnosis, medical treatment, detox supervision, legal advice, or emergency services.

Screenshots

Pause4 screens
Sober Side Up Plus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Sober Side Up Plus at none against Pause's shown. Sober Side Up Plus also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Pause's advantage is ratings volume (5.9K vs 1). On price, rating, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Pause against 5.0 for Sober Side Up Plus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pause has 5.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pause ships an update every 2 months, Sober Side Up Plus every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pause versus Sober Side Up Plus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPauseSober Side Up Plus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (5.9K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews98.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings5.9K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB424 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperRansomed Heart MinistriesMICKEY EUGENE RAYMENT

Customer experience

Pause

All ratings5,347 ratings
Positive98.6%
Neutral0.8%
Negative0.6%
Written reviews807 reviews
Positive98.3%
Neutral0.6%
Negative1.1%

Sober Side Up Plus

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

Bugs and requests

Pause

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App freezing or not opening on certain devices
  • Inability to progress through 30-day program when encountering technical issues

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to control volume of background music
  • Option to continue background music after meditation ends
  • Offline access to download individual pauses

Sober Side Up Plus

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Pause

No in-app purchases

None

Sober Side Up Plus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pause free?
Pause is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sober Side Up Plus free?
Sober Side Up Plus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pause or Sober Side Up Plus?
Sober Side Up Plus is rated higher. Pause averages 4.9 out of 5 from 5.9K ratings, while Sober Side Up Plus averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pause or Sober Side Up Plus have ads?
Pause shows ads; Sober Side Up Plus does not.
Which is updated more often, Pause or Sober Side Up Plus?
Pause ships an update every 2 months, and Sober Side Up Plus every 3 days. Most recently, Pause was updated on November 3, 2026 and Sober Side Up Plus on October 24, 2026.

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