Martin vs Cadence
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Martin
This AI-powered assistant learns your preferences and workflows to proactively help with tasks. It can research, set reminders, manage your schedule, and communicate via various channels, building a personal relationship to become more useful over time.
- Voice and text interaction
- Proactive task management
- Research capabilities
- Calendar and to-do management
- Email and Slack integration
- Personalized learning of preferences
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Meet Martin, your AI personal assistant. Reachable by voice, SMS, WhatsApp, email, or phone, Martin builds a personal relationship with you, getting to know what matters most. Martin can do research for you, set reminders, manage your to-dos and calendar, check your email, and use Slack. As he becomes familiar with your preferences and workflows, Martin reaches out proactively to make himself as useful as possible. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Cadence
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Cadence is a quiet, single-screen focus timer. Open it, press start, and it runs your whole working session — focus, break, focus, break, four times over, then a long break — and starts again until you stop it. Buy it once and it is yours. No subscription, no account, no ads, no analytics. Nothing leaves your phone. KEEPS TIME, WHATEVER YOU DO The timer is anchored to the clock, not to a ticking counter. Lock your phone, switch apps, or force-quit — when you come back, it is exactly where it should be. Alerts for every phase change are scheduled the moment you press start, so they arrive on time with the app closed. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN AND IN STANDBY A Live Activity shows the countdown and progress ring on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Put the phone on a charger on its side and StandBy turns it into a full-screen desk clock for the session. MADE YOUR WAY • Set each phase length — focus 5 to 90 minutes, short break 1 to 30, long break 5 to 60 • Pick an accent colour for each phase from eight curated tones; the whole screen follows it • Choose a glyph for each phase from a set chosen to suit it • Two tidy settings tabs: Timer and Appearance IN CONTROL, ALWAYS • Pause and resume with a tap anywhere on the dial • Restart just the current phase when a session gets interrupted • Skip ahead to the next phase • Stop and return to the top of the cycle • A cycle track shows all eight segments to scale, so you always know where you are HANDS-FREE Start, pause or stop from Siri or the Shortcuts app. Assign "Start or Pause Cadence" to the Action Button and begin a focus session without unlocking your phone. THOUGHTFUL DETAILS • Alerts can be marked time-sensitive so they arrive during a Focus • Optional alert sound, and an option to keep the screen awake while running • A proper landscape layout, not a stretched portrait one • Dark by design, easy on the eyes at night Cadence does not collect, transmit, or share any data.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Martin at Free against Cadence's $0.99. Cadence's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Martin is free to download; Cadence costs $0.99 up front. Martin sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $35.00 per month. Cadence asks for nothing beyond the download.
Martin ships an update weekly, Cadence every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Martin | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 4.2 (251 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 39.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 251 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Martin AI | Joshua Eastman |
Bugs and requests
Martin
Reported bugs
15 issues- Cannot login with correct credentials
- SMS/texting feature not working
- Email connection and sending failures
- Calendar integration errors and unwanted event creation
- Voice command/microphone not functioning
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- App crashes when adding dates to calendar
- Cannot connect Gmail or iCloud accounts
- 6-digit code not being sent during signup
- Conversation context lost between interactions
- Reminders not arriving or arriving late
- Badge notifications stuck and cannot be cleared
- Integration status shows inactive despite being connected
- Airpods microphone compatibility issues
- Auto-renewal without proper notification
- Internal service errors on account connection
Requested features
10 requests- Location-based reminders
- Notion integration
- Desktop/Mac application
- Better speech recognition
- More app integrations
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- Lower pricing tier
- Phone calling on behalf of users
- Improved UI/UX design
- Better voice mode functionality
- More automation capabilities
Cadence
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Martin
- Martin Basic Monthly7 Days trial$35.001 Month
- Martin Pro Monthly7 Days trial$49.001 Month
- Martin Basic Yearly7 Days trial$250.001 Year
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- Martin Pro Yearly7 Days trial$359.001 Year
Cadence
No in-app purchases









