Comparison

knoself vs Focus Blocks

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

Head to head
About

knoself

Track your time as it happens and journal your thoughts, feelings, and takeaways. Review your past efforts with AI analysis and visualize your daily rhythm. Organize tasks and sync across devices.

Highlights
  • Start timers from anywhere (widgets, watch, Mac)
  • Time cards with notes, mood, and context
  • Journal timeline and daily rhythm heatmap
  • AI analysis of time cards
  • Tagging for projects, mood, and energy
  • Task and calendar integration
  • Multi-device support with local-first data
Features
Read full description

Where did your time go? knoself captures it as it happens: tap to start, add a line when you stop, and every stretch of real effort becomes a card you can look back on. It is not another to-do list. knoself records time you already spent — and what you were thinking, feeling, and taking away. A week later, that reads far clearer than "I remember being busy." Start in three steps 1. Tap: start a timer from the Action Button, a widget, the Lock Screen, Apple Watch, or inside the app 2. Add a line: note your thoughts, mood, and context while it runs or after, with # tags and photos 3. Look back: see your rhythm in the journal timeline, 24-hour chart, and tag stats What makes knoself different 【Start Anywhere】No need to open the app first. Begin from the Action Button, Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen, Apple Watch, the Today Reminders widget, a task, or a calendar event. On Mac, press ⌘T. 【Time Cards】Every finished timer is saved as a card. Along with the duration, it keeps your notes, ideas, mood, context, and takeaways. Bring up photos and videos from that period to revisit the moment. 【Journal Timeline】The home timeline groups entries by day with date dividers, so timers and journals read as one day. An all-day journal entry captures the day without counting as focused time. 【Daily Rhythm Heatmap】A compact 6×4 heatmap sits before each date: darker cells mean more logged, split into night, morning, afternoon, and evening — the day's rhythm at a glance. 【Daily Highlights】Each day, knoself picks a few cards from your past and walks you through them. Add a fresh line as you go, or exclude tags you would rather not revisit. 【Let AI Review It With You】Share time cards with an AI and analyze them with Three Things, KPT, or 4P. On Mac, a local MCP service lets your AI assistant query records or start and stop timers after you confirm — no account, nothing uploaded. 【Tags and Statistics】Mark projects, contexts, state, energy, and mood with # tags. Time composition, a 24-hour chart, a year heat map, and tag statistics show what consumed your time and when focus comes easiest. Mindfulness, sleep, and workouts from Apple Health sit alongside your own records. 【Tasks and Calendar】Create tasks with dates, times, repeats, alerts, photos, and tags, and lay out the week as an agenda or a board. Share an image, text, or link and let on-device recognition fill in the details before you save. With Calendar access, view events, start timing from one, and write finished records back when you choose. 【Multi-device, Local First】Works on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Records stay on your device by default, iCloud sync is optional, and you start every share and export yourself. Who uses knoself - Freelancers and consultants: capture time scattered across clients and projects, so month-end is not guesswork - Students: see the hours actually spent at the desk, not the feeling of all-day study - Creators and researchers: log when ideas and flow tend to arrive, and find your own high-focus window - Anyone slowing down: revisit a past day with Daily Highlights and leave yourself one new line What it does not do knoself is built for personal records — no team timesheet approval, no client billing or invoicing, no full calendar and meeting management, and no monitoring of the apps or websites you use in the background. Privacy and data - Records stay on your device by default - Text recognition happens on device - iCloud sync is optional; no account needed to start - Sharing and export only happen when you start them What you get is not a string of minutes. It is real evidence about your attention, mood, habits, and the rhythm of your days. The first minute you record today is the one you can revisit next week. Agreements Auto-renewable subscription terms: https://knoself.com/en/iap_policy/ Privacy policy: https://knoself.com/en/privacy/ Terms of use: https://knoself.com/en/terms/

About

Focus Blocks

Features
Read full description

Pomodoro Day helps you break your day into manageable focus sessions — plan sessions at start of the day, take one session at a time, and stay focused and calm. No multitasking. No overwhelm. Plan Structure your day before it starts. Add sessions with custom durations and tags. See your calendar events alongside your focus blocks so nothing collides. Focus Start a session and the timer takes over. A mindfulness bell marks the end. Take a break, then move to the next one. Track See where your time actually goes. Daily, weekly, and monthly views show patterns by tag — so you can adjust tomorrow based on today. What makes it different • Planning-first — this isn't just a timer, it's a day planner • Calendar sync — see Outlook, Gmail, and Apple Calendar events inline • Focus music — play background music from your Apple Music library • iCloud sync — your sessions, across all your Apple devices. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

knoself4 screens
Focus Blocks4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Focus Blocks at every 2 days against knoself's every 2 weeks. knoself's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.6 vs 26.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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 and Focus Blocks sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

knoself ships an update every 2 weeks, Focus Blocks every 2 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
knoself versus Focus Blocks: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterknoselfFocus Blocks
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size111 MB9 MB
Age rating12+4+
Developerhu chundongMohit Mehta

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
2 purchases

Focus Blocks

Subscriptions1
  • Pomodoro Annual Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Unlock$4.99

Questions

Is knoself free?
knoself is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus Blocks free?
Focus Blocks is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do knoself or Focus Blocks have ads?
Neither knoself nor Focus Blocks shows ads.
Which is updated more often, knoself or Focus Blocks?
knoself ships an update every 2 weeks, and Focus Blocks every 2 days. Most recently, knoself was updated on November 5, 2026 and Focus Blocks on November 5, 2026.

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