Pocket Student Planner vs Beacon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pocket Student Planner
Organize your academic life by tracking classes, assignments, and deadlines. Set reminders to ensure you never miss a due date. Seamlessly sync your data across all your Apple devices.
- Class creation and editing
- Assignment tracking
- Due date reminders
- Cross-device data syncing
- Note-taking for classes
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Pocket Student Planner allows you to take control of your classes and organize your schedule. With Pocket Student Planner, you can create and edit your classes with detailed notes, add assignments to your classes and set reminders to remind you before an assignment is due so you don't forget to study. The Pocket Student Planner's allows you to share and update your data between all your iOS devices with your Apple account all without needing to log in or sign up for an account in the app.
Beacon
This app helps individuals with ADHD manage tasks and time effectively. It breaks down large tasks into smaller, manageable steps and uses gentle reminders to keep users on track without causing overwhelm or guilt. It integrates with existing Apple Reminders and Calendar.
- One task at a time display
- Visual countdown timers
- Guilt-free task management
- Task shrinking for easier starts
- Task parking lot
- Integration with Apple Reminders/Calendar
- Smart capture and energy tags
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Your to-do list keeps growing, time keeps slipping, and starting feels impossible. Beacon is the calm, ADHD-friendly way to finally get things done, one gentle step at a time. Beacon is a reminders app built for the way real brains actually work, especially brains that get overwhelmed by long lists, lose track of time, or freeze at the thought of beginning. Think of it as a calm external brain: it remembers, times, and shrinks your tasks, so you do not have to hold it all in your head. WHY BEACON FEELS DIFFERENT One thing at a time. Beacon shows your next action, not your entire backlog. Less overwhelm, more starting. Time you can actually see. Every task has a calm countdown, so "later" stops turning into "too late." No red alarms, no panic. Kind on the hard days. Miss something? There is no shaming OVERDUE, no broken streak, no guilt. Beacon reframes gently and celebrates every win, the small ones too. Shrink the first step. Any task can collapse into a two-minute starting move, so the hardest part, beginning, gets easier. Park it, guilt-free. Not ready today? Set a task aside in the Parking Lot and Beacon brings it back softly when the time is right. Nothing gets lost. WORKS WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY USE Beacon sits on top of Apple Reminders and Calendar, so you keep everything you already rely on. Say a reminder to Siri and it shows up in Beacon, sorted and doable. Check it off in Beacon and it syncs right back. No migration, no starting over. WHAT YOU GET Smart capture: brain-dump a messy thought and Beacon finds the task and the time for you. Focus timer and body-double sessions to help you start and keep going. Energy tags to match tasks to how you actually feel right now. Gentle, well-timed nudges instead of a wall of notifications. Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen Live Activities, and an Apple Watch app, so your next step is always a glance away. Private by design: no account, no tracking, no cloud sync. The only thing Beacon ever sends is an anonymous crash report. WHO IT IS FOR Beacon was made for people with ADHD, and that turns out to be a lot of us: anyone who has felt buried by their own list, lost time without meaning to, or been too hard on themselves for it. If that sounds familiar, welcome. TRY BEACON FREE Start with a 7-day free trial, then keep going with an affordable subscription. Cancel anytime. Beacon. Your calm external brain. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Beacon Pro gives you full access with a 7-day free trial, then a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and you can manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://waypointapps.app/beacon/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Beacon at 5.0 against Pocket Student Planner's 4.0. Beacon also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 months). Pocket Student Planner's advantage is ratings volume (8 vs 1). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Pocket Student Planner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Beacon sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Beacon holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Student Planner has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Pocket Student Planner ships an update every 3 months, Beacon every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pocket Student Planner | Beacon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (8 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Francisco Diarte | Waypoint Apps LLC |
Customer experience
Pocket Student Planner
Beacon
In-app purchases
Pocket Student Planner
- Monthly Student Planner Pro7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- 3 Month Student Planner Pro7 Days trial$1.993 Months
- Yearly Student Planner Pro7 Days trial$7.991 Year
Beacon
- Beacon Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Beacon Pro (Annual)7 Days trial$19.991 Year









