Comparison

Five Hours vs VisibleHour

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

Head to head
About

Five Hours

Features
Read full description

Unlock Your Potential with Five Hours Follow the 5-hour rule by setting aside one hour a day for focused learning, experimentation, or reflection. Five Hours is a minimalist, privacy-focused productivity app designed to help you stay consistent and intentional with your personal growth. Unlike traditional time trackers, this app emphasizes quality over quantity. It’s all about documenting what you learned, how you grew, and the skills you developed. Key Features: β€’ Quick Logging: Add a new session with a title, notes, activity type (Learn, Experiment, Reflect), date, duration, and the skills you worked on. β€’ Weekly View: See all your entries for the current week and track your progress at a glance. β€’ History & Filters: Browse your full session history with powerful search and filtering. β€’ Private by Design: No accounts. No ads. No tracking. Your data stays on your device. If you’re serious about personal growth, Five Hours helps you stay accountable, one hour at a time.

About

VisibleHour

Features
Read full description

An always-visible view of time on your phone, your wrist, and your spatial workspace. The day, drained as it passes. Your session, draining as you work. A quiet tap on your wrist when you've been at something too long. For when 30 minutes feels like 5. VisibleHour is a single-purpose external time sense β€” designed for people whose internal clock isn't always reliable. For time blindness. For hyperfocus. For the moments when "just five more minutes" becomes an hour. The dial isn't a clock face you check. It's a clock face you live alongside, on every surface you already glance at. Three rhythms, on every screen. The day. Your waking hours rendered as a draining amber arc β€” from the moment you start your day until you wind it down. Tells you how much day is in front of you, not just what time it is right now. The session. A focused block β€” 15, 25/5 Pomodoro, 30, 60, or 90 minutes. The pie at the center drains as time passes β€” a visual timer at session scale. Tap it to zoom into a visual timer face with minute marks. Pomodoro mode shows two amber tones β€” work, then a softer break. The body. A quiet tap on the wrist at the interval you set β€” 60, 90, or 120 minutes. No banner. No streak. No "you've been at this for two hours" guilt. Just a tap that says: notice the time. Optional desk mode β€” keep your phone or iPad awake during a session so the dial stays visible while you work. Cross-device sync. Start a session on your Vision Pro while working in spatial. Within a second, the Live Activity appears on your iPhone Lock Screen and the dial fills on your Apple Watch. Stop on the Watch β€” every screen clears together. Powered by iCloud private database, with no telemetry leaving your device. Calendar-aware. Optionally show your day's events on the dial β€” a quiet ink line for each meeting, sitting alongside your session. Tap the dial to surface the next event's title. Widgets everywhere. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets on iPhone. Native complications on Apple Watch in four families. A spatial widget on Apple Vision Pro that coexists with your email, your MacBook display, and whatever else is in your spatial workspace. What it isn't. This is not a habit tracker. Not a productivity hammer. Not a notification machine. There are no streaks, no leaderboards, no "you used the app 12 days in a row" celebrations. There's no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no ads. The whole product is one quiet answer to a quiet question β€” how much time has passed? Privacy. No tracking. No analytics. No third-party services. The only data that ever leaves your device is the small piece of state that syncs through your private iCloud (active session, day boundaries, awareness interval, appearance preference). Calendar events are read locally on each device β€” they never sync to the cloud. Made quietly by sthreelabs.

Screenshots

Five Hours4 screens
VisibleHour4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: VisibleHour at every 3 months against Five Hours's every 7 months. VisibleHour also leads on device support (4 vs 1). Five Hours's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Five Hours costs $1.99 and VisibleHour $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Five Hours ships an update every 7 months, VisibleHour every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Five Hours versus VisibleHour: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFive HoursVisibleHour
Price$1.99 β€” better$4.99
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 3 months β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro β€” better
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size3 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTiago Costasthreelabs LLC

In-app purchases

None

Five Hours

No in-app purchases

None

VisibleHour

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Five Hours free?
Five Hours costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is VisibleHour free?
VisibleHour costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Five Hours or VisibleHour have ads?
Neither Five Hours nor VisibleHour shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Five Hours or VisibleHour?
Five Hours ships an update every 7 months, and VisibleHour every 3 months. Most recently, Five Hours was updated on October 16, 2026 and VisibleHour on October 19, 2026.

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