Comparison

Focus Pals vs Fire Notes

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

Head to head
About

Focus Pals

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Focus Pals is your ultimate gamified focus and study companion to improve your productivity, self-control, and concentration on study and work! Engage in focus sessions to earn gold that unlocks a world of possibilities. In Focus Pals, your hard work is rewarded with adorable virtual pets – Pals! Collect and nurture them by purchasing eggs, each offering a chance to discover a new Pal with varying rarities from common to legendary. Embark on a journey to collect all 50 unique Pals. Choose a Pal to accompany you during your focus session, and witness them grow and gain XP as you stay focused! Level up and evolve your Pals to unlock bonus gold while focusing with them. FEATURES: - Gamified Focus Timer: Stay focused, earn gold, and collect Pals. - Choose Your Companion: Select a Pal to accompany you during your study sessions, fostering a unique connection. The Pal will gain XP as you focus. - Level Up and Evolve: You can level up your Pals and evolve them when they reach a certain level, unlocking bonus gold rewards when focusing with them. - 50 Unique Pals: Discover a diverse range of adorable virtual companions, from common to legendary. - Deep Focus Mode: Enable deep focus mode and leaving the app will make you lose your Gold and XP rewards. Download Focus Pals now and embark on a fun journey of concentration, growth, and rewards!

About

Fire Notes

Features
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Fire Notes is a private notebook for writing, scanning paper, and dictating by voice - with one unusual feature: you can burn a note. Real fire, rendered live on your screen - the paper catches, curls, chars and falls away as ash. When the flame goes out, the note is gone. It's oddly satisfying. It's also the point. WRITE ANYTHING • A fast, beautiful editor with rich text, checklists, headings and highlights • Choose your paper and your handwriting — from clean type to a looping script • Photos, shelves and pinned notes on a board you can rearrange by hand • Everything stays searchable, right up until you let it go LET IT GO • Burn a note in a moment, or hold for the full cinematic ceremony • Blow on the microphone to light the flame — yes, really • Burn-after timers: write something tonight, let it release itself tomorrow • Every burn leaves an ember in Ashes — proof something was released, without the words SCAN YOUR PAPER • Point the camera at a receipt, bill or letter — Fire Notes finds the edges, straightens the page and files it • Every scan is read on your device, so the words inside are searchable. Find a receipt by what it says, not by what you named it • Scans live in their own shelves — Receipts, Bills, Documents — separate from your notes • And when a document has done its job, shred it. The same fire, for paper you're finished with PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Your notes and your scans live on your device and in your own iCloud, never on our servers • Face ID app lock, plus a separate lock for the notes that matter most • No account. No tracking. No ads. ALSO IN THE BOX • Dictate a note out loud with on-device speech recognition • On-device AI to fix, rewrite or reshape what you wrote — nothing is sent away • Export a note as text or PDF when you decide to keep it after all FIRE NOTES+ A one-time purchase. No subscription, ever. It unlocks the document scanner, voice dictation, the AI writing tools and clean, watermark-free exports. Buy it once and it's yours, on every device you sign in with. The notebook itself stays free. Write as much as you like. Burn as much as you like. Write it down. Let it go.

Screenshots

Focus Pals4 screens
Fire Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Focus Pals at none against Fire Notes's 1. Focus Pals also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.4 vs 17.0). On price and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Fire Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Focus Pals asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 2 level
Focus Pals versus Fire Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus PalsFire Notes
PriceFreeFree
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGregoire MeyerIvan Trendafilovski

In-app purchases

None

Focus Pals

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Fire Notes

One-time1
  • Fire Notes+ Lifetime$9.99

Questions

Is Focus Pals free?
Focus Pals is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Fire Notes free?
Fire Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Focus Pals or Fire Notes have ads?
Neither Focus Pals nor Fire Notes shows ads.

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