Focus Timer vs LightYou
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Focus Timer
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Plan your day in time boxes, focus on one block at a time and see where the time went, on iPhone and now on Mac. PLAN THE DAY • Pick up to three priorities for today: your Big 3. • Put tasks into time boxes on a timeline, each with a real start and end. • Unfinished tasks come back to the list with a miss recorded, so the ones you keep dodging rise instead of sinking. FOCUS • Start a box and the session counts down to its end, on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island too. • Add at most three new tasks mid-session, so the running block doesn't turn back into an inbox. • Widgets for your Big 3, today's focus progress and a quick way into your tasks. LOOK BACK • A short review after each session: what got done, what went back and how it went. • A monthly calendar shows focus time and finished tasks day by day. • Insights chart your focus by week, month and year. ON IPHONE AND MAC • With Premium, iCloud keeps tasks, time boxes and sessions in sync between your iPhone and your Mac. • FocusMind for Mac adds a floating focus bar and a timer in the menu bar. • Import a TickTick backup or a CSV file, and export your data any time. • A Premium subscription or lifetime unlock covers both iPhone and Mac. FocusMind Premium Includes unlimited daily focus time, history older than 3 days and iCloud sync between iPhone and Mac. • Length: 1 month or 1 year, renewed automatically each period • Price: see in-app pricing for your region • Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period • Subscriptions may be managed and auto-renewal turned off in your Account Settings on the App Store Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.pentarab.com/focusmind/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.pentarab.com/focusmind/privacy
LightYou
Save, organize, and understand web articles with AI. This app transforms your reading into a searchable knowledge vault, offering a distraction-free reader, annotation tools, and spaced repetition for long-term retention. It prioritizes user privacy with local storage and optional WebDAV sync.
- One-tap article saving
- Customizable reader view
- Highlighting and annotation
- AI-powered chat and summaries
- Spaced repetition review
- WebDAV sync for cross-device access
- Offline reading
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LightYou — Your Reading Library, Reimagined Save every article worth reading. Highlight what matters. Ask AI anything about your library. LightYou turns the web into your personal, searchable knowledge vault. ▸ SAVE IN ONE TAP Share from Safari, Twitter, or anywhere on iOS. LightYou extracts the article content — no ads, no clutter, just the words. ▸ BEAUTIFUL READER Customize font, size, and theme (light, sepia, dark). Reader view strips out distractions so you can focus on what matters. ▸ HIGHLIGHT & ANNOTATE Select any text to highlight it in three colors. Add private notes. Your highlights become a searchable knowledge base. ▸ AI-POWERED UNDERSTANDING Chat with any article — ask questions, get summaries, translate passages, or explain difficult concepts. Powered by your choice of LLM API. ▸ SPACED REPETITION REVIEW LightYou surfaces articles worth revisiting on a spaced schedule, so the ideas you care about stay with you long-term. ▸ HOME SCREEN WIDGET A beautiful iOS widget keeps your top review items one glance away — with native dark mode support. ▸ WEBDAV SYNC Sync articles, highlights, and notes across all your devices via your own WebDAV server. Your data stays yours — no third-party accounts required. ▸ PRIVACY FIRST All articles stored locally on your device. AI requests use your own API keys. Optional WebDAV sync uses your own server. We never see your data. ▸ OFFLINE READING Saved articles are cached locally — read anytime, anywhere, with no connection. ▸ BEAUTIFUL IN BOTH LANGUAGES Full Chinese and English support, with typography that respects each language. Whether you're a researcher, student, writer, or just a curious reader, LightYou helps you go from "I'll read this later" to actually reading, understanding, and remembering. Start building your library today.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Focus Timer at every 5 days against LightYou's every 3 weeks. LightYou's advantage is iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Focus Timer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and LightYou sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Focus Timer ships an update every 5 days, LightYou every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Focus Timer | LightYou |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pentarab | 涛 李 |
In-app purchases
Focus Timer
- Weekly Premium$2.997 Days
- FocusMind Premium (Monthly)$4.991 Month
- FocusMind Premium (Yearly)$29.991 Year
- FocusMind Premium (Lifetime)$39.99
LightYou
- LightYou Support Tip$1.99







