Comparison

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai vs Focus

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

Head to head
About

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai

This app offers a private search engine and browser that blocks trackers and cookies by default. It includes AI chat features and optional tools like a VPN and email protection to safeguard your online activity and personal information.

Highlights
  • Private search engine
  • Tracker and cookie blocking
  • Private AI chat
  • Optional VPN
  • Email protection
  • Encryption enforcement
  • Fingerprinting escape
Features
Read full description

At DuckDuckGo, we believe the best way to protect your personal information from hackers, scammers, and privacy-invasive companies is to stop it from being collected at all. That's why millions of people choose DuckDuckGo over Chrome and other browsers to search and browse online. Our built-in search engine is like Google but never tracks your searches. Our browser blocks YouTube ads, invasive web ads, and cookie pop-ups, reducing distractions and helping to stop other companies from collecting your data. While our optional integrated AI features, Search Assist and Duck.ai, are private and never use your data to train AI. Oh, and our browser is free. We make money from privacy-respecting search ads, not by exploiting your data. Take back control of your personal information with the browser designed for data protection, not data collection. FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS Protect Your Searches by Default: DuckDuckGo Search comes built-in, so you can easily search online without being tracked.  Shield Your Browsing History: Our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection blocks most trackers before they load, greatly exceeding what most popular browsers offer by default.  Chat Privately With AI: Duck.ai lets you have private conversations with 3rd-party AI models, anonymized by us and never used to train AI. Secure Your Email (Optional): Use Email Protection to block most email trackers and hide your existing email address with @duck.com addresses.   Block Ads: Our browser blocks YouTube Ads, and stops invasive trackers from loading on sites, effectively eliminating targeted ads. Automatically Enforce Encryption: Shield your data from network and Wi-Fi snoopers by forcing many sites to use an HTTPS connection.  Escape Fingerprinting: Make it harder for companies to create a unique identifier for you by blocking attempts to combine info about your browser and device.  Sync and Back Up Securely (Optional): Sync encrypted bookmarks and passwords across your devices. Clear your tabs and browsing data in a flash with the Fire Button. Banish cookie pop-ups and automatically set your preferences to minimize cookies and maximize privacy. And many more protections not available on most browsers, even in private browsing mode, including protection from link tracking, Global Privacy Control (GPC), and more. DUCKDUCKGO SUBSCRIPTION Subscribers get • Our VPN: Secure your connection on up to 5 devices.     • Access to advanced AI Models in Duck.ai: Chat privately with AI models built for complex tasks. • Personal Information Removal: Find and remove personal info from sites that store and sell it.   • Identity Theft Restoration: If your identity is stolen, we’ll help restore it.   DuckDuckGo Subscription Pricing & Terms   Payment will be charged automatically to your Apple Account until you cancel, which you can do in app settings. You have the option to provide an email address to activate your subscription on other devices, and we will only use that email address to verify your subscription. For terms of service and privacy policy, visit https://duckduckgo.com/pro/privacy-terms Read more about our free Tracking Protections at https://help.duckduckgo.com/privacy/web-tracking-protections Privacy Policy: https://duckduckgo.com/privacy/  Terms of Service: https://duckduckgo.com/terms Note about 3rd-Party Tracker Protection and Search Ads: while there are some limitations following search ad clicks, viewing ads on DuckDuckGo search is anonymous. Learn more here https://help.duckduckgo.com/privacy/web-tracking-protections Privacy. Simplified. ™

About

Focus

Enhance your browsing with a customizable video player, powerful ad blocker, and advanced reading tools. Enjoy hands-free page turning, web translation, and script support for a personalized online experience.

Highlights
  • Customizable video player
  • Userscript support (JavaScript, Tampermonkey)
  • Advanced reading mode
  • Hands-free auto page turning
  • Powerful ad blocking
  • Web translation
  • Bookmark syncing
Features
Read full description

【Video Mode】 Customizable player supporting floating video, playback speed control, picture-in-picture, DLNA and AirPlay casting, and one-click screen lock. 【Userscripts】 Supports both JavaScript and Tampermonkey 5.3.0 syntax. After years of user feedback, Focus has greatly improved compatibility with various scripts, ensuring more scripts run smoothly on Focus. 【Reading Mode】 The best reading mode on iOS, supporting automatic preloading of the next page, font size, line height, margin adjustments, and webpage theme selection. Supports text filtering and regular expression rule filtering. 【Auto Page Turning】 Hands-free page turning for novels, comics, or forums. Supports search engines like Baidu, Google, Bing, and Yandex. Try it out now! 【Redirect Blocker】 Can block malicious app redirects within webpages. 【Custom Homepage】 Add your favorite websites to the homepage and set a personalized browser homepage. 【Web Translation】 Super fast translation, making it easy to understand any webpage and breaking down language barriers. 【Ad Blocking】 Powerful ad-blocking feature supporting AdBlock Plus and AdGuard syntax. Includes ad tagging, webpage blacklists, and custom ad rules. 【Bookmark Sync】 Import bookmarks from Safari, Chrome, and Alook into Focus and export Focus bookmarks to those browsers, ensuring seamless bookmark syncing. 【URL Scheme】 Open URLs via Shortcuts: FocusBrowser://search?url=search term or link. 【Other Features】 Supports iPad, iCloud bookmark sync, dark mode, incognito mode, ad marking mode, fingerprint/FaceID login, feedback, and full-screen mode. 【Privacy & Security】 Focus respects your privacy. Incognito mode doesn’t save browsing history, cache, or cookies.

Screenshots

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai4 screens
Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai at 2.4M against Focus's 4.9K. DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and chart position (#14 vs unranked). Focus's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Focus sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai against 4.7 for Focus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai has 2.4M ratings behind it against 4.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai's written reviews are positive against 54% of Focus's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai ships an update weekly, Focus every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai versus Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuckDuckGo, optional Duck.aiFocus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.4M ratings) — better4.7 (4.9K ratings)
Positive reviews65.3% of reviews — better53.8% of reviews
Number of ratings2.4M — better4.9K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#14 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size240 MB34 MB
Age rating+1717+
DeveloperDuckDuckGo, Inc.庆彬 邓

Customer experience

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai

All ratings2,399,972 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral1.7%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews3,295 reviews
Positive65.3%
Neutral8.0%
Negative26.7%

Focus

All ratings4,932 ratings
Positive91.8%
Neutral2.4%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews78 reviews
Positive53.8%
Neutral9.0%
Negative37.2%

User reviews

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai

From 2.4M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and efficient
  • 🔒 Excellent privacy protection
  • 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
  • 🔥 Effective ad and tracker blocking

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and glitches
  • 🔍 Slower page load times compared to other browsers
  • 🔍 Inconsistent search quality compared to Google

Focus

From 4.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast download speeds
  • 👍 Useful features
  • 💡 Powerful script support
  • 🔒 Effective ad-blocking

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and reloading issues
  • 🔋 Draining battery life
  • ⛔ Removal of download functionality

Bugs and requests

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Inability to set DuckDuckGo as default browser on iOS
  • Refresh button hidden in menu instead of standalone

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add support for voice search
  • Improve tab management and history navigation
  • Introduce customizable font and theme options

Focus

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Incompatibility with certain websites
  • Inconsistent script performance
  • Inability to export bookmarks

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add mute tab button
  • Implement desktop mode
  • Improve video playback controls
  • Restore video download feature

In-app purchases

7 purchases

DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai

Subscriptions7
  • DuckDuckGo (Plus, Monthly)7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • DuckDuckGo monthly$9.991 Month
  • DuckDuckGo (Pro, Monthly)$19.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • DuckDuckGo (Pro, Monthly)7 Days trial$19.991 Month
  • DuckDuckGo (Plus, Yearly)7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • DuckDuckGo annual$99.991 Year
  • DuckDuckGo (Pro, Yearly)7 Days trial$199.991 Year
1 purchases

Focus

One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$4.99

Questions

Is DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai free?
DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus free?
Focus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai or Focus?
DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai is rated higher. DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.4M ratings, while Focus averages 4.7 from 4.9K ratings.
Do DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai or Focus have ads?
Neither DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai nor Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai or Focus?
DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai ships an update weekly, and Focus every 3 weeks. Most recently, DuckDuckGo, optional Duck.ai was updated on September 24, 2026 and Focus on September 23, 2026.

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