Ascent vs OffShelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ascent
This app helps build healthy phone habits by pausing distracting applications and preventing compulsive scrolling. It offers features like focus sessions and reminders to encourage mindful usage and reclaim your time.
- Pause Exercise for reflection
- Focus Sessions to minimize distractions
- Reminders to break unhealthy patterns
- App Limits for daily usage control
- Intentions to state purpose before app use
- Shortcuts for streamlined workflow
- Bookmarks for curated resources
Read full descriptionHide 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
OffShelf
This app helps you focus by blocking distracting applications during timed study sessions. Track your progress, set goals, and study with friends to improve your productivity.
- Pomodoro and deep-work timer modes
- App blocking during focus sessions
- Study progress tracking by topic
- Daily streaks and weekly planner
- Co-study sessions with friends
- Live activity and home screen widgets
- Offline functionality
Read full descriptionHide full description
OffShelf is a study timer and study tracker for anyone whose phone keeps winning. Start a focus session, block the apps that pull you away, and watch your study hours add up, alone or with friends. Pick a topic. Press start. That is the whole ritual. — A FOCUS TIMER THAT KEEPS COUNTING — • Pomodoro (25/5), long deep-work blocks, or open-ended sessions • Face-down mode: the timer only runs while your phone lies face down. Pick it up and it pauses. • Runs on wall-clock time, so locking your phone or taking a call can't pause it or inflate it • Live on your Lock Screen, in a Live Activity and on your Home Screen widget • Timer styles you'll want to look at: a candle under the night sky, a train, a gravity timer that tilts with your phone, an hourglass and more • Study to rain, white noise, a fireplace or the forest — BLOCK DISTRACTING APPS (PREMIUM) — Pick the apps that steal your time, like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Netflix, and OffShelf blocks them with Screen Time for as long as your session runs. — A STUDY TRACKER THAT KEEPS THE RECEIPTS — Every finished session is filed under a topic, so your progress stacks up into a record you can actually look at: • Study hours per topic, with levels that climb as they add up • A daily streak, with a weekly Streak Freeze so one bad day doesn't erase a month • An activity heatmap and a daily study chart • Milestones, achievements, coins and Focus XP • Tap "Distracted" to log what pulled you away — STUDY WITH FRIENDS — • Pair with a study buddy: see when they're studying and what they finished today, and nudge them when they go quiet • Start a live co-study session and share one clock • Take on your friends in weekly focus competitions • Climb Today's Focus League, a daily leaderboard of real focus minutes — PLAN YOUR WEEK — • One weekly planner for every topic: tap to add a study block, drag to move or resize, repeat it weekly or keep it to one day • Daily focus goals for the things that can't wait • Don't know where to start? "Pick for me" chooses your next topic based on what you've been neglecting — A STUDY FRIEND THAT CHEERS YOU ON — Your study mascot keeps you company while you focus and talks to you about your day. — WORKS OFFLINE — OffShelf starts fast and works without a connection. A weak signal never stands between you and a focus session. OFFSHELF PREMIUM • Block distracting apps during focus sessions • Distraction patterns: see what actually pulls you away • Planning and focus insights • A monthly report with PDF export • Two streak rest days every week • More timer styles • The Royal Magic mascot collection • No ads Your topics, sessions, notes and schedules stay private to your account. Notification controls, account reset and full account deletion are in Settings. Start your next session in two taps. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://brjoub.com/offshelf-privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: OffShelf at 5.0 against Ascent's 4.6. OffShelf also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and review sentiment (100% vs 84%). Ascent's advantage is ratings volume (52 vs 5). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Ascent sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and OffShelf sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
OffShelf holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ascent has 52 ratings behind it against 5, 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 OffShelf's.
Ascent ships an update every 3 weeks, OffShelf weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ascent | OffShelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (52 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 52 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 213 MB | 148 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Ascent Apps TOO | Basheer Rjoub |
Customer experience
Ascent
OffShelf
Bugs and requests
Ascent
Reported bugs
10 issues- Stopped working after less than a week
- Randomly stops working on iPhone daily
- Timer doesn’t actually close apps
- App thinks time limits are set when they aren't
- Locks users out of apps
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- App says unlocked but remains locked
- Stuck in a loop
- Daily limit message appears even if not used today
- Journal feature bug: timer reaches 60, clicks journal, timer up, can use app
- On iPhone, can only select one time for all apps, not customize
Requested features
8 requests- Add short form content blocking like on Android
- Add push up feature
- Add short form content blocking like on Android
- Add Reels blocking separately
- Add Reels blocking option on Apple
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Add opportunity to choose time block duration by the user
- Add reminder notifications that time will be over soon
- Add a feature to see daily usage stats (e.g., 'you have spent X minutes today' or 'you tried to access X times')
OffShelf
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ascent
- 1 Month Premium$2.991 Month
- 1 Year Premium$9.991 Year
- Free Lifetime PremiumFree
- Lifetime Premium$17.99
OffShelf
- OffShelf Premium — Weekly$2.997 Days
- OffShelf Premium$6.991 Month
- OffShelf Premium — Annual$19.991 Year
- OffShelf Premium Lifetime$39.99








