Comparison

Focus Dial vs Ritual

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

Head to head
About

Focus Dial

This app helps you improve focus with a simple, innovative timer. Track progress over time with customizable categories and interactive widgets. Sync data across devices with iCloud support.

Highlights
  • Innovative focus dial for time adjustment
  • Timer counts up towards goal
  • Track focus across weeks, months, years
  • Interactive Home Screen widgets
  • 10 customizable categories with colors/icons
  • iCloud backup and sync
Features
Read full description

Focus Dial is here to improve your ability to focus on the tasks and hobbies you care about! SIMPLE: 
Quickly adjust your goal time before each session using the innovative focus dial! POSITIVE: Timer counts up towards your goal. Focus on what you are doing and feel good about what you have done. Progress over perfection! POWERFUL: Track your focus across weeks, months, and years. Challenge yourself to become more intentional with your time and how you spend it. See your progress at a glance on your Home Screen with powerful and interactive widgets and live activities. CUSTOMIZABLE: Use up to 10 customizable categories with your favorite colors and icons for the tasks and hobbies you focus on. Automatically follow your devices dark or light theme, or specify which one you want to use in Focus Dial. SUPPORTS ICLOUD: Back up your data and sync across multiple iPhones and iPads. Start dialing in your focus today!

About

Ritual

This app helps you regain control over your phone usage by blocking distracting apps during scheduled focus periods. It offers a deliberate window where chosen applications simply won't open, eliminating the need for willpower and preventing post-session regret.

Highlights
  • Block any app
  • Schedule focus windows
  • Manual focus sessions
  • Sealed ritual option
  • Track usage patterns
  • Private streaks
  • Home Screen widget
  • Live Activity integration
Features
Read full description

You opened Instagram for "just a second." Twenty minutes later, you don't even remember what you came for. Screen Time tells you about the scroll the next morning. Ritual stops it before it starts. Ritual is a focus app for people tired of fighting their phone. Set a ritual — a deliberate window where the apps that pull you away simply don't open. No willpower required. No shame after the fact. Just a clean intention, and the time to live it. — WHY RITUAL — The system Screen Time gives you the stats. Ritual gives you the actual block. • "Ignore Limit for 15 Minutes" is a one-tap escape on the system blocker. There is no such button in Ritual. • System limits drop after a phone restart. Ritual holds. • Sealed sessions add a 60-second breath exit. Ritual is designed so the moment of impulse can pass before the lock can. — WHAT YOU CAN DO — • Block any app. TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, mail, games, news. Pick freely from the system app list. • Schedule windows. "9–5 weekdays, no social. After 9 pm, no work." Set it once, the schedule runs forever. • Manual ritual. One tap, lock for 30 / 60 / 90 minutes — or any duration you set. • Seal the ritual. Opt into a 60-second breath exit. The ritual doesn't fail when you flinch. • See your patterns. Which apps cost the most hours, which days you held the line, which hour your willpower breaks. • Streaks that aren't a game. Your longest lock, your weekly trend, the month that turned the corner. Private. For you. • Home Screen widget. Today's lock at a glance — countdown when locked, your next ritual when idle. • Live Activity. The lock lives on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island while it's running. • Apple Watch. The countdown on your wrist, in case the phone is the thing you're trying not to look at. • iCloud sync. Schedules, history, and progress follow you to every device on your Apple ID. — THE 14-DAY FREE TRIAL — A focus app should never ambush you with a charge. You get 14 days, fully free. Your card is charged on day 14, never before. Cancel any time from Settings, one tap. We even put the cancellation link inside the app. — RITUAL PRO — Annual with a 14-day free trial, or one-time Lifetime. Both unlock everything: unlimited rituals, sealed sessions, full history, week and month insights, and every future Pro feature. Lifetime is for people who already know — yours across every iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch on your iCloud. — WHAT RITUAL IS NOT — • Not a guilt trip. The shame mirror trick stops working in three days. • Not a streak game. Your streak is private; you're not playing it for an audience. • Not a productivity hack. Productivity is a side effect of presence, not the point. — PRIVACY & PERMISSIONS — Ritual uses Apple's Family Controls framework to enforce your blocks. Everything runs on-device. We do not see which apps you block, when you lock, or how long you stay. There are no ads, no data sold, no profiles built. Read the privacy policy — it's two pages, written in plain English. — A RITUAL YOU CAN KEEP — Most blockers feel like a fight. Ritual feels like a decision you already made — to stop arguing with your phone twenty times a day, and get back the part of your life that used to belong to you. Block apps. Reclaim hours. Begin the ritual.

Screenshots

Focus Dial4 screens
Ritual4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Ritual at Free against Focus Dial's $3.99. Ritual also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). Focus Dial's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#190 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, ads and device support 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

Ritual is free to download; Focus Dial costs $3.99 up front. Ritual sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $29.99 per year. Focus Dial asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Focus Dial against 5.0 for Ritual. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Focus Dial has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus Dial ships an update every 3 weeks, Ritual every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 3, 2026 and July 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Focus Dial versus Ritual: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus DialRitual
Price$3.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (6 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
Best chart rank#190 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDigital Wave CreativeSoyeon Noh

Customer experience

Focus Dial

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ritual

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

In-app purchases

None

Focus Dial

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Ritual

Subscriptions1
  • Ritual Pro14 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Ritual Pro Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is Focus Dial free?
Focus Dial costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ritual free?
Ritual is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Focus Dial or Ritual?
Focus Dial and Ritual are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 6 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Focus Dial or Ritual have ads?
Neither Focus Dial nor Ritual shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus Dial or Ritual?
Focus Dial ships an update every 3 weeks, and Ritual every 5 days. Most recently, Focus Dial was updated on September 3, 2026 and Ritual on July 29, 2026.

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