Comparison

CereVault vs Orbital Focus

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

Head to head
About

CereVault

Features
Read full description

CereVault is a private AI chat app for your Mac. It talks to large language models running on your own machine or local network — Ollama, LM Studio, and CereVault Serve — so your conversations never leave your control. No cloud account, no telemetry, no data sent to anyone else's servers. WHY CEREVAULT • Truly private — models run locally, so your prompts, files, and chats stay on your hardware. • Works with the tools you already use — auto-discovers Ollama, LM Studio, and CereVault Serve on your machine or LAN. • Universal app — one download runs natively on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. NEW: AGENT MODE Turn on Agent mode and your local model can do more than chat. In a request → act → respond loop, it can: • Search the web (via your own Brave Search key) • Remember durable facts about you, stored locally • Read files from folders you explicitly grant • Write, move, and delete files — off by default, and every change asks first Every tool action is shown inline so you always see what the agent did, and an info button in the chat header summarizes exactly which model, tools, folders, and memory are in play. NEW: WORKSPACES Create separate workspaces, each with its own enabled tools, memory, granted folders, permissions, model, and chat history. Keep a locked-down read-only research space and a separate one that can edit a project folder — switching is instant. NEW: MCP SERVERS Connect external Model Context Protocol tool servers to a workspace and their tools join the agent right alongside web search and files. Every third-party tool call asks for your confirmation first. NEW: AUTOMATIONS Schedule a saved prompt to run on its own — every few minutes, hourly, or daily — and CereVault runs the agent and saves the result as a new chat. Runs are read-only by default. MORE • Vision — attach images for vision-capable models (Gemma 3, Llava, Qwen-VL, and more) • Voice dictation — on-device speech, so audio doesn't leave your Mac • Markdown rendering — headings, code blocks, tables, and lists render cleanly • Drag-and-drop image attach, tap-to-zoom thumbnails, adjustable text size • Native text selection and one-tap Copy / Copy as Markdown on any message CereVault puts a capable AI assistant on your Mac without giving up your privacy. Bring your own local models and keep every conversation yours.

About

Orbital Focus

This app transforms focus sessions into space missions, with longer focus times leading to higher orbits. It features customizable missions, a living 3D Earth visualization, and gamified progress tracking. Optional app blocking and ambient soundscapes enhance concentration.

Highlights
  • Themed focus sessions with space mission progression
  • Living 3D Earth visualization with real-time data
  • Gamified progress tracking with ranks and rewards
  • Optional app blocking for distraction-free work
  • Ambient focus music and soundscapes
  • Live Activities and Apple Watch companion app
Features
Read full description

Your attention is the most powerful engine you own. Orbital Focus turns every focus session into a rocket launch — pick a destination, strap in, and the only way to arrive is to stay on task. The longer you focus, the higher you fly. A 15-minute warm-up is a suborbital hop. 25 minutes is one clean orbit of Earth. A focused hour parks you in geostationary orbit, 35,786 km up. Push past 90 minutes and you leave Earth orbit entirely. Every minute is real thrust. HOW A MISSION WORKS • Pick a destination — a 15-minute Suborbital Hop, 25-minute Low Earth Orbit, a 45-minute rendezvous with Station Aurora, a full hour in High Earth Orbit, or a 90-minute Deep Space run to lunar distance. Each is a fixed block of focus. • Name your payload (the thing you're actually doing) and choose a crew role — Work, Study, Read, Create, Code, Write, Train, Plan, Chores, or Relax. • Feel the countdown. A cinematic haptic launch ritual — ignition rumble, Max-Q, stage separation — marks the real milestones of your session. • Fly a living 3D Earth. Watch your spacecraft climb its true trajectory over a hand-rendered planet with daylight, city lights, and every flight you've ever flown. • Coast phases = built-in breaks. Long missions split into burn segments with short coasts between them — pomodoro, in orbital mechanics. Fully configurable, or fly one unbroken burn. THE HANGAR Every focused minute earns Δv. Spend it across a fleet of real rockets — from the workhorse Falcon 9 to the mighty Falcon Heavy — and upgrade engines, tanks, and avionics. Launch from seven real-world pads: Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg, Baikonur, Kourou, Tanegashima, Wenchang, and Starbase. Premium also unlocks an exotic collection of legendary sci-fi capital ships, for pilots who want to fly something out of a movie. A LOYALTY PROGRAM FOR YOUR ATTENTION Climb six ranks, Cadet to Mission Commander, by logging real focus time. Ranks unlock new destinations and craft. Your lifetime distance is measured in light-seconds — and it only ever goes up. LAUNCH LOCKDOWN Optional app blocking powered by Apple's Screen Time. While a mission is in flight, your chosen distracting apps are shielded. Leave early and you don't crash — re-entries and pad scrubs still bank partial credit. Orbital Focus never punishes you for being human. THE CUPOLA Look out the window. Stream real satellite imagery of the world passing beneath your spacecraft — a live view from orbit, in flight. FOCUS MUSIC Download ambient flight-deck soundscapes on demand and cache them for offline sessions. Deep Space pilots can also pick a station skin — five orbital outposts to fly past. MISSION REPLAYS Scrub through recreated historic launches — Sputnik 1, Vostok 1, Crew Dragon Demo-2, the Space Shuttle and more — and watch them fly out on the same living globe. EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK Live Activities on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. An Apple Watch companion that flies on your wrist. Home Screen and Control Center widgets. Share your mission to a TV or the big screen. STREAKS, ACHIEVEMENTS, LOGBOOK Daily launch streaks, 16 achievements, and a full flight logbook with charts of where your hours actually go. ORBITAL FOCUS PREMIUM (optional) The core app is free, forever. Premium adds the live Cupola view, Advanced Insights and your full Flight Log, exclusive craft and destinations, and alternate app icons. Subscribe monthly or yearly, or unlock it once for life. Your focus minutes always bank — free or Premium. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads in the app. We never sell your data. Every mission record lives on your device, and Screen Time data never leaves your phone. Built for students, makers, writers, engineers, and anyone with ADHD-adjacent attention who needs the session to feel like it matters. Wheels stop. Mission complete. Fly again tomorrow. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

CereVault3 screens
Orbital Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Orbital Focus at Free against CereVault's $9.99. Orbital Focus also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 weeks). CereVault's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Orbital Focus is free to download; CereVault costs $9.99 up front. Orbital Focus sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. CereVault asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CereVault ships an update every 5 weeks, Orbital Focus every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
CereVault versus Orbital Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCereVaultOrbital Focus
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating—5.0 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—88.9% of reviews
Number of ratings—11 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB301 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrett BakkerRed Honey LLC

In-app purchases

None

CereVault

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Orbital Focus

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • LifetimeFree

Questions

Is CereVault free?
CereVault costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Orbital Focus free?
Orbital Focus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do CereVault or Orbital Focus have ads?
Neither CereVault nor Orbital Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CereVault or Orbital Focus?
CereVault ships an update every 5 weeks, and Orbital Focus every 2 weeks. Most recently, CereVault was updated on September 15, 2026 and Orbital Focus on September 20, 2026.

Other comparisons