Comparison

Focus vs Hjarni Notes & Memory

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

Head to head
About

Focus

Features
Read full description

You pick up your phone to do one thing. 40 minutes later, you've done everything except that thing. Lose 4 hours a day to your phone and that's 120 hours a month: enough to finish the thing you keep putting off. Focus locks your distracting apps and puts those hours into it. Finished in weeks. Not someday. NAME THE THING Write the one thing you keep pushing to tomorrow. Focus shows how many hours it needs and how many weeks it takes at your pace, so it stops being "someday". LOCK YOUR APPS, THEN WORK Start a block and the apps you chose are locked until it ends. The screen shows what this hour is going into. No pause button, no quick peek. LOCKED BEFORE YOU REACH Set the times you usually lose it, like after work or late at night. Focus locks your apps at those times by itself, even when the app is closed. (Pro) SEE THE HOURS COME BACK Every block adds to your "taken back" time. Your week shows your screen time next to the hours you put into your thing and the pieces you finished. FINISH IN WEEKS Focus keeps your finish date in weeks: on pace, ahead or behind. Miss a day and the next block picks up where you left off. BUILT FOR BRAINS THAT DRIFT One task at a time. One clear next step. Nothing to set up before you can start. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your screen time stays on your iPhone. Focus uses Apple's Screen Time framework and never sees which apps you use or for how long. Your tasks never leave your devices except through your own iCloud. FREE AND PRO Your first 3 locked blocks are free. Pro unlocks unlimited locked blocks and scheduled locks. Choose weekly, yearly, or Forever with a single payment. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Manage or cancel in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.bytenpixels.com/privacy

About

Hjarni Notes & Memory

This app acts as a central knowledge base, allowing you to store notes in plain Markdown. It integrates with AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT, giving them a persistent memory based on your controlled notes. Share context with your team and maintain consistent AI interactions.

Highlights
  • Markdown knowledge base
  • AI assistant memory integration
  • Plain text notes
  • Team note sharing
  • Customizable AI instructions
  • Versioned note changes
Features
Read full description

Your AI starts from zero every conversation. Hjarni gives it a memory built from notes you control. Write a note on your phone. Ask Claude or ChatGPT about it on your laptop, and it already knows. Hjarni is a Markdown knowledge base with a built-in MCP server. Notes, folders, tags. That is the whole product. MCP is not a plugin bolted on afterwards. The app was built around it. Call it a second brain, a personal wiki, a PKM system or a Zettelkasten. It is one place to keep what you know, in plain Markdown, so both you and your assistant can read it. HOW IT WORKS Save a note once. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP client. Your AI reads your notes, follows your instructions, and writes new notes that fit your system. Save project decisions, preferences and research. Ask your assistant to remember something and it writes the note for you. Save a session summary to pick up where you left off, or turn finished work into a guide you can reuse. Stop re-explaining your stack, your customers, or your style guide at the start of every conversation. Write once. You both remember. ON YOUR IPHONE Capture a note in seconds from the New tab. Triage it later from the Inbox. Search everything you have written. Read anywhere. This is the capture and read-anywhere companion. The long editing sessions happen on the web. That is on purpose. ONE MEMORY, EVERY ASSISTANT Claude and ChatGPT each keep their own memory, and neither one shares. Hjarni sits outside both. Switch assistants, keep your context. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and anything else that speaks MCP. MEMORY YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ Assistant memory is a black box. Hjarni is not. Every note is plain Markdown you can open, search, and edit. Every change is versioned, so you can see what your AI wrote, diff it, and revert it. Export everything, any time, in a format that opens anywhere. SHARED NOTES FOR YOUR TEAM Team folders give everyone the same context. Your conventions, your decisions, your onboarding docs. Every teammate's AI reads the same thing, so nobody has to be the person who remembers. YOU OWN THE INSTRUCTIONS Set instructions per folder and per team. Tell your AI how to format notes, which tags to use, what tone to write in. Your AI works the way you work. SIMPLE BY DESIGN We left features out. No databases. No kanban boards. No page builders. Hjarni is a place to write and organize. The constraint is the feature. WHO IT IS FOR Developers, teams, founders, researchers, writers, travelers. Anyone who has typed the same context into a chat window twice. HJARNI PRO Hjarni is free to use, with a limit on how many notes you can keep. Pro removes the limit and adds file attachments, imports, email capture, and folder collaborators. Pro is an auto renewing subscription, monthly or annual. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews unless you turn off auto renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for the renewal within 24 hours before that. Manage the subscription and turn off auto renew in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://hjarni.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://hjarni.com/privacy

Screenshots

Focus4 screens
Hjarni Notes & Memory4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Hjarni Notes & Memory at every 3 days against Focus's fortnightly. 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Focus sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Hjarni Notes & Memory sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus ships an update fortnightly, Hjarni Notes & Memory every 3 days. Both last shipped on November 9, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Focus versus Hjarni Notes & Memory: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocusHjarni Notes & Memory
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size96 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJiten Siddhpuraevert van den bruel

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Focus

Subscriptions4
  • Focus Pro Weekly$2.997 Days
  • Focus Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Focus Pro Annual7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Focus Pro Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Focus Premium$3.99
  • Focus Executive Lifetime$69.99
2 purchases

Hjarni Notes & Memory

Subscriptions2
  • Hjarni Pro Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Hjarni Pro Yearly$119.991 Year

Questions

Is Focus free?
Focus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hjarni Notes & Memory free?
Hjarni Notes & Memory is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Focus or Hjarni Notes & Memory have ads?
Neither Focus nor Hjarni Notes & Memory shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus or Hjarni Notes & Memory?
Focus ships an update fortnightly, and Hjarni Notes & Memory every 3 days. Most recently, Focus was updated on November 9, 2026 and Hjarni Notes & Memory on November 9, 2026.

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