RescueTime vs focus.music
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Automatic time tracking
- Distraction blocking (Focus Sessions)
- Activity categorization
- Task timers
- Offline activity logging
- Home screen widgets
- Productivity goals and alerts
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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.
focus.music
This app helps you achieve deep focus faster and maintain it longer through adaptive music environments. It learns your preferences to personalize sessions for sustained concentration during work or study.
- Adaptive focus environments
- Personalized session learning
- Human-composed music
- Focus sessions, not playlists
- Customizable session timers
- Research-backed design
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Ever sit down to work, only to find yourself distracted before you've even started? If you struggle with distractions, have ADHD, or find it difficult to get started, you're not alone. focus.music combines scientifically designed music with an adaptive system that helps you settle into work faster and stay focused longer. Start a session and begin. GUIDED OR MANUAL. YOU CHOOSE. There isn't one right way to use focus.music. Choose Guided Mode if you'd like focus.music to recommend focus environments based on your sessions. Choose Manual Mode if you already know what works best for you and want to browse and choose your own focus environment. Switch between them whenever you like. FOCUS SESSIONS, NOT PLAYLISTS This is not a playlist app. It is a focus environment designed for real work. Set a 25-minute, 50-minute, custom, or free-flow session. Name your task. Press play. Let the music support the work instead of competing for your attention. HUMAN MUSIC Every track is composed and performed by professional musicians. No AI-generated audio. No vocals competing for your attention. No endless playlists to sort through. Just carefully crafted focus environments designed to help you stay in the zone. A SYSTEM THAT LEARNS WITH YOU The more you use focus.music, the better it understands what helps you stay engaged. It learns from the sessions you complete and gradually makes better recommendations, while always leaving you in control. BUILT ON 16 YEARS OF RESEARCH focus.music combines more than 16 years of research into music, attention, and cognitive performance with behavioral data gathered across millions of real focus sessions. Our goal is simple. Help you spend less time trying to focus and more time doing meaningful work. BUILT FOR REAL WORK Use focus.music for: - Deep work - Writing - Studying - Coding - Planning - Creative work - Reading - Research - Admin tasks - Any task where staying focused matters TRY IT FREE Start with a 7-day free trial and experience the difference for yourself. Make your hours count. SUBSCRIPTION - FOCUS.MUSIC FULL ACCESS A focus.music subscription unlocks every focus environment and energy level, unlimited focus sessions, full timer control with 25-minute, 50-minute, custom, and free-flow sessions, plus uninterrupted playback. - Monthly: $4.99 per month - Annual: $39.99 per year (save 33%) - 7-day free trial with full access - no charge during the trial - Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase - Your subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period - Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period, at the rate of your selected plan - You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your App Store account settings after purchase - Any unused portion of the free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription - We'll remind you by email before your trial ends. Cancel anytime in two clicks. Privacy Policy URL: https://focus.music/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://focus.music/terms Support URL: https://focus.music/faq Marketing URL: https://focus.music
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: RescueTime at 4.3 against focus.music's 3.7. focus.music's advantage is review sentiment (50% vs 21%) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 4 weeks). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. RescueTime sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month and focus.music sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
RescueTime holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 6 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 21% of RescueTime's written reviews are positive against 50% of focus.music's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
RescueTime ships an update every 4 weeks, focus.music every 10 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | RescueTime | focus.music |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (4 ratings) — better | 3.7 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 21.4% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.4 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RescueTime | Dulcetta |
Customer experience
RescueTime
focus.music
In-app purchases
RescueTime
- Solo Monthly14 Days trial$9.001 Month
- Solo+ Monthly14 Days trial$15.001 Month
- Solo Yearly14 Days trial$84.001 Year
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- Solo+ Yearly14 Days trial$143.991 Year
focus.music
- Focus Music Monthly$4.991 Month
- Focus Music Yearly$39.991 Year









