ESS Mobile vs Life Oar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ESS Mobile
This app offers flexible time tracking for employees, allowing them to punch in/out, review hours worked, check schedules, and manage benefit balances. It facilitates communication with supervisors for attendance-related matters and supports various time entry methods.
- Flexible time tracking
- Review hours worked
- Check schedules and benefit balances
- Request time off
- Enter tips and mileage
- Communicate with supervisor
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ESS Mobile is a smart, adaptive app that, when used with your employer's Attendance on Demand system, provides employees with flexible time tracking options. You have access to the information needed to track your hours worked and review schedules or benefit balances. Notifications can be sent when your time card needs action, such as the addition of a missing punch. Messages can be exchanged with your supervisor to record attendance-related activities like an absence or if you will be late for your shift. Using ESS Mobile hourly employees may be able to punch in and out, request time off, or enter tips. For employees that simply report total hours worked multiple time sheet views are available. Additional operations such as entering mileage, expenses, or tips are also available. Contact your payroll administrator or Attendance on Demand service provider for additional details. Note: ESS Mobile uses location services to obtain your location during app usage. Continued use of the app or background GPS tracking can dramatically decrease battery life.
Life Oar
This app integrates tasks, schedules, relationships, and well-being into a single platform. It offers AI-powered assistance for personal organization, group coordination, and journaling to enhance happiness and simplify daily life.
- AI-powered social life system
- Personal task and schedule management
- Group creation and shared experiences
- AI chat assistant for groups
- Personal journal and well-being tracking
- Habit and goal monitoring
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Life Oar – Your AI-Powered Social Life System Life is complicated. Between managing daily responsibilities, maintaining relationships, and taking care of our mental and physical health, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the demands of everyday life. Life Oar is designed to help you navigate it all. Our vision is to enhance happiness and improve everyday life by bringing tasks, schedules, relationships, and personal well-being together in one intelligent, connected platform. Simplify Life. Strengthen Relationships. Improve Well-Being. Life Oar combines powerful productivity tools with AI-driven assistance to help bring order to the chaos of daily life. Personal Organization Create and manage personal tasks, events, and schedules. Organize important locations and reminders. Keep track of daily activities, habits, and personal goals. Groups & Shared Experiences Create groups with friends, family, or anyone you want to stay connected with. Share tasks, events, schedules, and locations. Coordinate responsibilities and stay on the same page. Your AI-Powered Life Oar Guide Every group includes an AI-powered chat assistant. Ask questions, get suggestions, and explore new perspectives. Give your Life Oar Guide commands and let AI help take some of the work off your shoulders. Personal Journal & Well-Being Record daily journal entries and track the metrics that matter to you. Monitor patterns related to sleep, mood, stress, anxiety, energy, and other aspects of daily life. Gain insights into your habits and well-being over time. More Than Productivity. A Better Way to Live. Life Oar isn't just about getting more things done. It's about making room for what matters most: your health, your happiness, and the people in your life. Let Life Oar help you navigate life's journey, one oar stroke at a time.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Life Oar at 5.0 against ESS Mobile's 1.7. Life Oar also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.6). ESS Mobile's advantage is ratings volume (355 vs 2). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Life Oar holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ESS Mobile has 355 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
ESS Mobile ships an update every 3 months, Life Oar fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ESS Mobile | Life Oar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.7 (355 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 2.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 355 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Attendance on Demand, Inc. | Jonathan McPhail |
Customer experience
ESS Mobile
Life Oar
Bugs and requests
ESS Mobile
Reported bugs
17 issues- Connect button treats input as editable text field
- App fails to load or shows blank white screen
- Location services report incorrect location
- Login credentials rejected despite correct information
- Clock-in button disappears or becomes non-functional
Show 12 moreShow fewer
- App freezes when entering information
- Cannot proceed past login screen
- App crashes on latest iOS versions
- Automatic logout without user action
- Cannot clock in to new job within one minute of clock out
- Punch functionality only works on second attempt
- Controls render off-screen on certain devices
- App incompatible with iOS 15
- Timesheet data fails to load
- Notifications sent to wrong phone numbers
- Pay stubs missing tip percentage and hourly information
- Redundant navigation buttons on same page
Requested features
12 requests- Face ID or biometric authentication
- Remember me/stay logged in functionality
- Current time display on home screen
- Manager approval system for early out/late in requests
- Ability to view all punch times and historical data
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Support for multiple employers without app reinstallation
- Landscape mode support
- Easy password reset functionality
- Loading indicators for better UX
- Visible phone number management (primary/secondary)
- Better accessibility and menu navigation
- Improved pay stub formatting and clarity
Life Oar
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ESS Mobile
No in-app purchases
Life Oar
No in-app purchases









