Comparison

Ascent vs Finishly

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

Head to head
About

Ascent

This app helps build healthy phone habits by pausing distracting apps and preventing mindless scrolling. It offers features like focus sessions, app limits, and reminders to promote mindful usage and productivity.

Highlights
  • Pause Exercise before opening apps
  • Focus Sessions to minimize distractions
  • Reminders to step away from time-consuming apps
  • Set daily app usage limits
  • State intentions before using apps
  • Organize essential apps with Shortcuts
  • Save bookmarks as mindful alternatives
Features
Read full description

The main goal of Ascent is to build healthy phone usage habits in the long term. Ascent pauses distracting apps giving the ability to avoid procrastination loop from the start. App prevents undesired scrolling through news feeds and short videos. Instead Ascent allows to spend time on mindful working and creating. Ascent is a powerful and intuitive app blocker that helps you stay focused and combat procrastination. With its advanced blocking and tracking features, Ascent makes it easy to take control of your screen time and achieve your goals. Pause Exercise: Ascent makes you take pause before opening a destructing app. Take your time to reflect on whether you really want to open it. You can choose to either close the app or continue using it. This feature helps you to avoid compulsive app opening and makes your phone usage more mindful and reasonable. Focus Session: Focus Session elevates your productivity by creating a dedicated space with minimized distractions. It temporarily restricts access to specific apps, ensuring your attention stays on the task at hand. This feature helps you stay deeply engaged, promoting a state of flow and maximizing your efficiency. Reminder: Reminder helps you regain control over your digital habits by guiding you away from time-consuming apps. Set reminders to activate the Pause Screen, nudging you to step back and break free from unhealthy screen time patterns, fostering a more balanced relationship with your digital environment. App Limits: Set daily usage limits on apps and websites to automatically block them and prevent overuse. Limit screen time and stay focused! Intentions: Intentions reshape your interaction with digital distractions by prompting you to pause and state your purpose before using potentially harmful apps. This feature turns impulsive screen time into a deliberate choice, helping you build a more mindful and intentional relationship with your digital habits. Shortcuts: Shortcuts transform your digital habits by letting you get more done with less taps, streamlining your workflow and minimizing interruptions. Arrange essential apps and links for quick access, so you can retrieve them when needed. By keeping your focus sharp and avoiding distractions, Shortcuts help you stay productive and intentional. Bookmarks: Bookmarks transform your screen habits by shifting your focus from algorithmic content to what truly matters. Ascent helps you save bookmarks as valuable resources, providing a mindful alternative to chaotic feeds and integrating quality knowledge into your daily routine for a more meaningful and intentional digital experience. Ascent makes it easy to set up custom blocking schedules and stay on track. You can choose to block apps for a specific period of time or during certain times of the day, and receive notifications when your blocking schedule is about to end or when you're approaching or exceeding your daily limits. This helps you stay aware of your habits and make positive changes to your daily routine. Benefits: - Better screen time control - Better productivity at work - Reduce stress, be more mindful - Better manage ADHD - Set daily work hours, sleep, and routines - Block apps to unplug and detox - Stay in focus when you need it most - You're happy and in control of your screen time screen time, offtime, screen time for focus, screen time control, limit screen time, app time limit, screen time blocker, social media blocker, app blocker, appblock, focus, stay focused, focus timer, productivity, procrastination, stop scrolling Terms (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://ascent-app.com/app-store-privacy-policy

About

Finishly

This productivity app helps you tackle tasks by connecting them to your personal motivations. It allows you to add reasons and images to your to-do items, providing visual and emotional prompts when reminders appear. Turn daunting tasks into meaningful actions with personalized encouragement.

Highlights
  • Add tasks with personal reasons
  • Include motivational images
  • Set task reminders
  • Personalized motivation prompts
  • Offline task management
  • No account required
Features
Read full description

Finishly is a to-do app that helps you start and finish tasks by reminding you why they matter. How it works: - Add a task. - Add your reasons for doing it. - Add an image that motivates you. - Set reminders. - Tap the sun icon to choose what you want to finish today. - When the reminder appears, you don’t just see the task — you see your own reason and image. Why it works: Normal to-do apps remind you what to do. Finishly reminds you why you wanted to do it in the first place. Instead of a generic nudge like “Exercise,” you can see: “Have more energy” “Feel better mentally” plus an image that pushes you to act. Instead of “Play with the kids,” you can see: “They grow up fast” plus a photo that makes the task feel important. Finishly helps turn tasks from boring items on a list into things that feel worth doing. It gives you personal motivation at the moment you need it most. No ads. No tracking. Everything stays on your device. No account needed — just open the app and start. Finishly is free to try. Premium unlocks unlimited tasks. If your to-do list isn’t helping you start, try Finishly.

Screenshots

Ascent4 screens
Finishly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Finishly at 5.0 against Ascent's 4.6. Finishly also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 84%). Ascent's advantage is ratings volume (51 vs 4). On price, update cadence, 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. Ascent sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Finishly 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

Finishly holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ascent has 51 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of Ascent's written reviews are positive against 100% of Finishly's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ascent ships an update every 3 weeks, Finishly every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Ascent versus Finishly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAscentFinishly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (51 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings51 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.5
Further details — not scored
Size109 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAscent Apps TOOEdin Cubro

Customer experience

Ascent

All ratings45 ratings
Positive91.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.9%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive83.8%
Neutral10.8%
Negative5.4%

Finishly

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Ascent

Subscriptions2
  • 1 Month Premium$2.991 Month
  • 1 Year Premium$9.991 Year
One-time2
  • Free Lifetime PremiumFree
  • Lifetime Premium$17.99
1 purchases

Finishly

One-time1
  • TaskCompletePro$9.99

Questions

Is Ascent free?
Ascent is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Finishly free?
Finishly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Ascent or Finishly?
Finishly is rated higher. Ascent averages 4.6 out of 5 from 51 ratings, while Finishly averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Ascent or Finishly have ads?
Neither Ascent nor Finishly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ascent or Finishly?
Ascent ships an update every 3 weeks, and Finishly every 10 days. Most recently, Ascent was updated on October 30, 2026 and Finishly on October 24, 2026.

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