Comparison

Self Care Pet vs Screen Time Control

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

Head to head
About

Self Care Pet

Cultivate daily mindfulness and emotional well-being with a virtual pet companion. Nurture your pet by reflecting on positive thoughts, building healthy habits, and reducing stress through a comforting, private journaling experience.

Highlights
  • Virtual pet companion
  • Daily positive thought journaling
  • Mindfulness and gratitude practice
  • Emotional well-being tracking
  • Offline functionality
  • Privacy-focused design
  • Customizable pet and interface
Features
Read full description

Self Care Pet is your gentle daily companion for mindfulness, gratitude, and emotional growth. Designed to help you build positive habits in a fun and comforting way, Self Care Pet brings you a lovable virtual creature that thrives on one thing: your daily positive thoughts. Whether it’s a small win, a grateful moment, or a kind reflection, writing one positive thing each day helps your pet grow happier— and helps you nurture your own emotional well-being at the same time. HOW IT WORKS • Select your personal pet companion from a selection of animated characters • Name your pet and begin your self-care journey • Write one positive thought a day to keep your pet happy and glowing • Your pet responds with warm, encouraging messages • Keep a daily streak and watch your pet react to your consistency • View your past entries and reflect on your progress over time • Share your favorite moments with beautifully designed cards • Miss a day? No pressure. Your pet might feel a little sad, but there’s always tomorrow WHY IT MATTERS Self Care Pet is built around the science of gratitude and consistency. Even a brief moment of reflection each day can shift your mindset, reduce stress, and boost emotional resilience. The app gently supports you in forming a healthy habit without judgment or pressure—just encouragement, connection, and care. DESIGNED TO FIT INTO YOUR LIFE • Minimalist, soothing interface to avoid overwhelm • Works offline and requires no sign-up to get started • No ads or distractions—just you and your pet • Light and dark modes to match your mood • Privacy-first approach: your thoughts stay yours PERFECT FOR • Anyone looking to build a self-care routine • People dealing with stress, burnout, or emotional fatigue • Students, professionals, parents—anyone who wants a mindful daily check-in • Fans of journaling, mood tracking, or virtual companions Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Terms and Conditions: https://termsandconditions-jr.netlify.app Privacy Policy: https://termsandconditions-jr.netlify.app/privacy-policy

About

Screen Time Control

This app helps you build healthy habits by locking distracting apps until your goals are met. It uses photo proof for habit verification and offers a personalized visual world to motivate your progress. Rest days are accommodated without breaking your momentum.

Highlights
  • App blocking until habits are completed
  • Photo proof for habit verification
  • Customizable habit enforcement
  • Progress tracking that forgives missed days
  • AI-generated personalized visual worlds
  • On-device privacy for all data
Features
Read full description

LockLive is an app blocker and habit tracker in one. Choose the apps that distract you, and they stay locked until the habits that build your life are done. You already know the life you want: calmer mornings, a body you've cared for, real time with the people you love, a craft you actually returned to. And you know exactly where that time goes instead. The scroll. The game that was going to be ten minutes. The limits you set and ignore. The app you delete and download again by Thursday. Willpower isn't the plan anymore. LockLive is. YOUR APPS WAIT UNTIL YOUR HABITS ARE DONE Choose the apps that take your time - the feeds, the games, whichever ones pull you. Each day they stay locked until the habits you've gated are finished - then they open. No countdown to bargain with, no limit to dismiss. Apple's Screen Time technology does the blocking, entirely on your device. THE HABIT APP THAT CAN'T BE LIED TO Anyone can tap Done and keep scrolling. When it matters, LockLive asks for proof: snap a photo of the made bed, the shoes on your feet, the page you wrote. Your promise to yourself, protected from your own five seconds of weakness. YOU CHOOSE THE TEETH Every habit gets exactly the enforcement you give it: just track it, prove it with a photo, or lock apps behind it. Every lock is set by you and only you. Lock & Live is your own hand on the door - never a nanny. PROGRESS THAT FORGIVES YOU Firm about today, kind about yesterday. There are no streaks to break: a missed day is a dip in your score, not a reset to zero. The gate holds today's line; it never punishes you for yesterday's. BUILT FOR REAL LIFE Rest days are part of the plan, not a failure of it. Rest a habit for sickness, travel, or a hard week, and its progress holds while Lock & Live picks back up with you. There is always an honest way through a hard day - that's what makes the locks livable. A WORLD PAINTED FOR WHAT YOU'RE BUILDING Describe what you're working toward in a few words, and Lock & Live's AI paints you a space for it: a beautiful, personal world made just for you. Your habits live inside that space, building the life it pictures. It's a glimpse of who you're becoming, not another gray checklist. PAINTING CREDITS & PURCHASES Painting your space is powered by AI, so it runs on credits. Your subscription includes 30 painting credits each month, and creating or changing a painting uses one. If you want to keep adjusting beyond your monthly amount, you can buy an optional one-time pack of 50 extra credits ($4.99) that never expire. Everything else - all your habits, locks, history, and core features - is included with your subscription and never uses credits. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything lives on your device. No account, no cloud, no one watching over your shoulder. Even proof photos never leave your phone. The reward was never the phone. It's the mornings, the body, the work, the people - the life your habits build while the feed waits its turn. Your apps can wait. Your life can't. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.locknlive.com/privacy

Screenshots

Self Care Pet4 screens
Screen Time Control4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Screen Time Control at every 2 days against Self Care Pet's every 11 months. Screen Time Control also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Self Care Pet's advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Self Care Pet sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Screen Time Control sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Screen Time Control holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Self Care Pet has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Self Care Pet ships an update every 11 months, Screen Time Control every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Self Care Pet versus Screen Time Control: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSelf Care PetScreen Time Control
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (9 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings9 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB116 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJAVIER DE JESUS ROCHA AHUMADAJohn Engleman

Customer experience

Self Care Pet

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Screen Time Control

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

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Self Care Pet

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Access$3.997 Days
  • Premium Access$49.991 Year
3 purchases

Screen Time Control

Subscriptions2
  • Sona Habits Pro (Monthly)$9.991 Month
  • Sona Habits Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time1
  • 50 Painting Credits$4.99

Questions

Is Self Care Pet free?
Self Care Pet is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Screen Time Control free?
Screen Time Control is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Self Care Pet or Screen Time Control?
Screen Time Control is rated higher. Self Care Pet averages 4.7 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while Screen Time Control averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Self Care Pet or Screen Time Control have ads?
Neither Self Care Pet nor Screen Time Control shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Self Care Pet or Screen Time Control?
Self Care Pet ships an update every 11 months, and Screen Time Control every 2 days. Most recently, Self Care Pet was updated on October 30, 2026 and Screen Time Control on October 31, 2026.

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