Comparison

BUSY vs MLX

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

Head to head
About

BUSY

Enhance your productivity by blocking distracting apps and muting notifications. This tool offers customizable focus sessions, including Pomodoro-style workflows, and provides insights into your distraction attempts to help you improve focus.

Highlights
  • Customizable focus sessions (timer, Pomodoro, no time limit)
  • Distraction blocking (apps, notifications)
  • Accountability features (no skipping sessions)
  • Distraction attempt tracking
  • Apple Watch integration
  • Customizable timer themes
Features
Read full description

BUSY — Focus Timer & Distraction Blocker
 Stay focused. Get more done. 
Block distracting apps and notifications while adding structure to your day. Choose short focus sessions with regular breaks or switch to deep focus mode. Work without interruptions on iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac.
 FEATURES: - Instant Focus. Start focusing in one tap. Choose Pomodoro-style sessions with breaks or work without time limits. - BUSY Bar Сontrol. Connect and manage your BUSY Bar from your phone. Start focus sessions, block distractions, update firmware, connect to Wi-Fi, and more. - Music Themes. Choose visual themes with music designed to support deep, focused work. - Block Distractions. Automatically block distracting apps and mute notifications so you stay in control. - Track Your Attempts. See how often you try to open blocked apps and build stronger focus habits. - Structured Focus Sessions. Stay consistent with focus intervals designed to improve productivity. - Apple Watch & Mac Support. Start, stop, or manage sessions from your Apple Watch or Mac. Everything syncs instantly.
 BUSY helps you stay focused, reduce distractions, and build better work habits — across all your devices.

About

MLX

This AI studio runs entirely on your device, processing conversations, voice recordings, and generated images locally. It offers hands-free calling, voice cloning, and image generation without any account creation, subscriptions, or tracking.

Highlights
  • On-device AI processing
  • Hands-free voice calls
  • Personalized voice cloning
  • Text-to-image generation
  • Offline model functionality
  • No account or tracking
Features
Read full description

MLX-Serve is a private AI studio that runs entirely on your iPhone. Every conversation, voice recording, and generated image is processed on-device by open-weight models — nothing you type, say, or create ever leaves your phone. There is no account to create, no subscription, and no tracking of any kind. MUSIC Generate songs locally using your device ! You can also play it back in the background and use MLX-Serve as a player for your generated music on the go. CHAT Talk with capable open language models (Google Gemma 4) right on your device. Ask questions, brainstorm, draft messages, get things explained. Some models can even understand photos you attach. CALL Tap Call inside any conversation to talk to the AI hands-free, like a phone call. Your speech is transcribed on-device and the reply is read back aloud. Speaker and handset modes are both supported, and the transcript is saved to your chat. VOICE CLONE Record about eight seconds of your voice and have the AI speak text in your own voice, using an on-device text-to-speech model. Great for narration and fun. IMAGES Generate images from a text prompt with an on-device diffusion model (FLUX.2). Tap a result to zoom in, save it to your photo library, or share it. FULLY PRIVATE, FULLY OFFLINE - Runs 100% on-device using Apple MLX and the Metal GPU. - No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. - The network is used only to download the AI models you choose from Hugging Face. After a model is downloaded, that feature works offline. REQUIREMENTS Models are multi-gigabyte downloads and on-device AI is demanding, so MLX Chat requires a recent, high-performance iPhone. Download over Wi-Fi is recommended. You pick which models to download and can delete them anytime to reclaim space. Open models are provided under their respective licenses (Gemma, Apache 2.0). MLX Chat is an independent app and is not affiliated with Google or Apple.

Screenshots

BUSY4 screens
MLX4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: MLX at 4.6 against BUSY's 3.8. MLX also leads on review sentiment (75% vs 58%). BUSY's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.2). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. MLX sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BUSY asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

MLX holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 10 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of BUSY's written reviews are positive against 75% of MLX's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BUSY ships an update fortnightly, MLX every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
BUSY versus MLX: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBUSYMLX
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (13 ratings)4.6 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.3% of reviews75.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13 — better10
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.2
Further details — not scored
Size160 MB211 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperFlipper - FZCODavid Dalcu

Customer experience

BUSY

All ratings13 ratings
Positive69.2%
Neutral7.7%
Negative23.1%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive58.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative25.0%

MLX

All ratings10 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative10.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

In-app purchases

None

BUSY

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

MLX

One-time1
  • Music Generation2 variants$4.99

Questions

Is BUSY free?
BUSY is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MLX free?
MLX is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, BUSY or MLX?
MLX is rated higher. BUSY averages 3.8 out of 5 from 13 ratings, while MLX averages 4.6 from 10 ratings.
Do BUSY or MLX have ads?
Neither BUSY nor MLX shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BUSY or MLX?
BUSY ships an update fortnightly, and MLX every 3 weeks. Most recently, BUSY was updated on November 4, 2026 and MLX on November 5, 2026.

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