Comparison

knoself vs PACT

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

Head to head
About

knoself

Effortlessly track your time across work, study, and daily activities. Turn your efforts into detailed time cards with notes, tags, and photos for insightful review. Organize tasks with reminders and integrate with Apple Health for a holistic view of your day.

Highlights
  • Quick start timing from multiple widgets
  • Detailed time cards with notes and photos
  • Integrated reminders and calendar view
  • Multi-dimensional tagging for context
  • Apple Health data synchronization
  • Insightful review charts and AI reflection tools
  • Multi-device support with local-first storage
Features
Read full description

If you move between work, study, rest, and everyday life but cannot clearly say where your time went, knoself connects planning, time tracking, time logs, and review in one personal app. knoself includes: 【Quick Start】Start from the Action Button, Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen, Apple Watch, Today's Reminders widget, an in-app task, or a system calendar event. Add text, tags, and photos while the timer runs, or adjust its start time. 【Time Cards】Every period of real effort becomes a time card. Along with time spent, keep notes, ideas, mood, context, and takeaways so you can understand the moment later. 【Journal Timeline】Pick a journal-style timeline or a continuous stream. Days get clear dividers, so timers, journals, and reflections read in order; an All-day journal entry captures the day without adding focused time. 【Images and Clipboard to Tasks】Share an image, text, or link from Photos or another app, or explicitly read supported clipboard content. On-device text recognition extracts useful details; confirm the title, date, time, and destination before creating a task or calendar event. 【Tasks and Calendar】Create tasks with dates, times, repeats, alerts, photos, and tags. View the week as an agenda or board. With Calendar access, view events and start timing from one, then write completed records to your calendar when you choose. 【Multi-dimensional Tags】Use # tags for projects, contexts, state, energy, or mood, then review your time from different angles. 【Health Data】Bring mindfulness, sleep, and workout periods from Apple Health together with manual time records. 【See That Moment】Open a time card to find nearby photos and videos and view Screen Time context. These details are read only after you open this view. They are not written to the record or uploaded. 【Daily Highlights】Revisit selected time cards from your past each day. Add a fresh reflection without replacing the original, and exclude tags you do not want to see again. 【Review and Reflection】Use time breakdowns, 24-hour distribution, yearly heatmaps, tags, and task statistics to see what takes your time and when you enter a focused, productive state. Open the cards behind each chart, or share selected records with AI tools for review using Three Good Things, KPT, or the 4P model. On Mac, a local MCP service lets AI assistants query and control timers with your confirmation. 【Multi-device and Local-first】Use knoself on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Records stay on the device by default, with optional iCloud Sync. Sharing and export happen only when you choose. What knoself is good for - Record real effort across work, study, reading, exercise, quick tasks, and everyday life. - Organize to-do lists, repeating items, and calendar plans, including plans captured from images, text, or links. - Add context with time logs, notes, journals, thoughts, mood, photos, and takeaways. - Review your rhythm through tags, charts, time distribution, photo context, and rest state. - Open related time cards or share selected content with AI tools for deeper reflection. What knoself is not for knoself is not designed for team timesheets, client billing, or full calendar management. It does not monitor every app or website in the background. Screen Time context appears only after you deliberately open See That Moment, inside the system-provided read-only report. Privacy and Data - Records are stored locally by default - Image text recognition runs on the device - iCloud Sync is optional - Sharing and export are initiated by you - No account is required to start recording A time tracker gives you more than a list of minutes. It gives you real evidence of your attention, mood, habits, and daily rhythm. Start recording this minute. Agreements Subscription Agreement: https://knoself.com/en/iap_policy/ Privacy Policy: https://knoself.com/en/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://knoself.com/en/terms/

About

PACT

Features
Read full description

PACT is a minimalist focus timer built on a single, uncompromising idea: a commitment you either keep or consciously break. ■ THE EXCEPTION SYSTEM: ZERO EXCUSES What makes PACT radically different is how it handles interruptions. You cannot simply pause the timer and walk away. Every break in focus forces a permanent choice: • Allow an Exception: You can pause, but your reason becomes a permanent rule for all future sessions. What you allow once, you must allow forever. Your exceptions define who you are as a focuser. • Break the Pact: Surrender entirely, and your accumulated chain instantly resets to zero. There is no neutral option. Over time, your exception rules build an honest, unforgiving record of how you actually work — not how you think you do. ■ DESIGNED FOR DEEP WORK • Pre-Commitment Buffer: Reserve a session in advance. A timed countdown gives you a moment to sit down, complete your start ritual, and mentally prepare before the timer locks in. • Visual Accountability: Every completed session adds an unbreakable link to your chain. Watch it grow. Protect it at all costs. ■ BUILT FOR PURE FOCUS PACT is intentionally minimal. • No social feeds. • No gamified streak animations. • No meaningless badges or rewards. Just you, your word, and the timer. ■ SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE • System-adaptive Light and Dark modes designed to blend into your workflow. • Fully localized in English, 中文 (Chinese), Français (French), and 日本語 (Japanese). PACT is for people who take their commitments seriously. Make the pact. Keep it.

Screenshots

knoself4 screens
PACT4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PACT at none against knoself's 3. PACT also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). On price, 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

Both are free to download. knoself sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PACT asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

knoself ships an update every 3 weeks, PACT daily. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
knoself versus PACT: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterknoselfPACT
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size121 MB31 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developerhu chundongChuyue Zhang

In-app purchases

3 purchases

knoself

Subscriptions2
  • Knoself Pro monthly subscription1 Month trial$0.991 Month
  • Knoself Pro yearly subscription1 Month trial$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime Member$14.99
None

PACT

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is knoself free?
knoself is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PACT free?
PACT is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do knoself or PACT have ads?
Neither knoself nor PACT shows ads.
Which is updated more often, knoself or PACT?
knoself ships an update every 3 weeks, and PACT daily. Most recently, knoself was updated on October 15, 2026 and PACT on October 19, 2026.

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