Comparison

Principal Task vs RightNow Focus

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

Head to head
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

About

RightNow Focus

This app provides a focused approach to task management by presenting only one task at a time based on your available time. It helps users overcome decision paralysis and the guilt associated with long to-do lists. Features include daily summaries, timed task loops, and starter routines.

Highlights
  • One task presented at a time
  • Time-based task selection
  • Daily morning and evening summaries
  • Starter routines for various needs
  • No scrolling or long lists
  • Offline data storage
Features
Read full description

You don't need another to-do list. You need someone to tell you what to do right now. Every productivity app eventually becomes the same thing: a long list you scroll, feel guilty about, and close. The problem was never the list — deciding what to do is the hardest part, and lists make YOU do the deciding at the worst possible moment. RightNow flips it. Tell it how much time you have — 5, 15, 30, or 60 minutes — and it hands you exactly one card. Do it, or skip it. That's the whole app. HOW IT WORKS 1. Add your habits and tasks as cards 2. Pick the time you actually have 3. Get one card — the right one for right now 4. Tap Done. Feel it. Repeat. No browsing. No ranking. No scroll of shame. YOUR DAY HAS A SHAPE • Morning Brief — your first open of the day shows yesterday in one line, names today's focus, and gives you one button to start it • The loop — pick a time, get a card, all day long • Wrap Day — close the evening with your day's story: what you did, your 7-day trail, and one piece of coaching for tomorrow SMART ABOUT TIME • Morning cards deal in the morning, evening cards wait for evening • A 5-minute window gets a real 5-minute card — never a 2-hour project in disguise • Skipped something? It cycles back fairly. Hid it for today? It stays gone until tomorrow. BUILT FOR REAL LIFE • Starter Routines — five curated packs (Fitness, Sleep, Parenting, Personal Growth, Beauty) so you're never staring at a blank app • Routines — run your own ordered sequences, card by card • Someday — park ideas you're not ready for; they never nag and never get lost • History — completed tasks are kept, and restorable YOURS, PRIVATELY Everything lives on your phone. No account, no cloud, no feed, no ads. Your data never leaves your device. Try RightNow free for 7 days. If it earns its place, one purchase unlocks it forever — no subscription, ever. Stop managing your list. Start doing what's on it.

Screenshots

Principal Task4 screens
RightNow Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: RightNow Focus at none against Principal Task's 2. RightNow Focus also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ads 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. Principal Task sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. RightNow Focus asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Principal Task against 5.0 for RightNow Focus. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Principal Task ships an update every 3 months, RightNow Focus monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Principal Task versus RightNow Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrincipal TaskRightNow Focus
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZechariah SchwenkAlexander Bradley

Customer experience

Principal Task

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

RightNow Focus

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Principal Task

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
None

RightNow Focus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Principal Task free?
Principal Task is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RightNow Focus free?
RightNow Focus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Principal Task or RightNow Focus?
Principal Task and RightNow Focus are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Principal Task or RightNow Focus have ads?
Neither Principal Task nor RightNow Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Principal Task or RightNow Focus?
Principal Task ships an update every 3 months, and RightNow Focus monthly. Most recently, Principal Task was updated on October 18, 2026 and RightNow Focus on October 7, 2026.

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