Screen Time Control vs OffShelf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Screen Time Control
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Pawse Pawse helps you pause before opening distracting apps on autopilot. When you reach for Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, X, Safari, games, or another distracting app without thinking, Pawse adds a short moment to stop and choose. How Pawse works 1. Choose the apps, websites, or categories you want to protect. 2. Turn on Screen Time protection. 3. When a protected app opens, Pawse gives you a brief pause. 4. Notice why you reached for your phone. 5. Keep it blocked or open intentionally for three minutes. Pawse is designed for the moments when boredom, stress, tiredness, or habit turns into an automatic scroll. Build phone control one interruption at a time - Choose routines for bedtime, mornings, work or study, idle moments, anxiety, and procrastination. - Record whether you avoided an autopilot open or chose a brief intentional open. - See your daily and weekly saves, protected time, current streak, and common triggers. - Use prompts to identify whether you were bored, tired, anxious, lonely, procrastinating, or acting from habit. - Keep protection active with a simple stop challenge instead of turning it off automatically. - Optionally use movement and focus goals when they are configured for a protected app. Care for your cat Pawse gives your phone-control practice a small, living consequence: a cat that needs care. - Food arrives daily and is measured in spoons. - Feed your cat to extend its care window. - If your cat goes 24 hours without food, it dies and you can adopt a new cat. - Opening a protected app uses one spoon when food is available. - You can still open a protected app when the pantry is empty. - If you open with no food to deduct, the next day’s food grant is reduced by 30%. Repeated empty-food opens compound the reduction. You can buy optional food packs in the Pawse shop through the App Store: 1, 6, or 24 cans. One can equals six spoons. Screen Time and Health access Pawse uses Apple’s Screen Time and Family Controls features to protect the apps, websites, and categories you select. If you choose movement-based goals, Pawse can read steps, walking or running distance, and active calories from Apple Health. Pawse does not write Health data. Who Pawse is for Pawse is for people who: - Open apps without thinking - Scroll when bored, anxious, or tired - Lose time before sleep - Want a calmer way to reduce social media use - Want more control over their attention - Prefer a quiet pause instead of another feed or focus timer Pawse helps you replace: urge → open app → scroll → regret with: urge → pause → choose → regain control Start with one pause today. Legal Privacy Policy: https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/live/c6b3b553-b590-4632-a2f3-1ae51cf6367a Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
OffShelf
This app helps you stay focused and motivated while studying. It offers customizable focus sessions, flashcards, and AI-powered study suggestions. You can also study with friends for added accountability and track your progress with detailed dashboards.
- Customizable focus sessions
- Flashcard creation and review
- AI study suggestions
- Collaborative study with friends
- Progress tracking dashboard
- Offline functionality
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The focus timer that keeps the receipts. Most study timers forget you the moment the session ends. but OffShelf files every finished session against a topic, so your hours, streaks and progress stack up into a record you can actually look at. Pick a topic. Press start. That is the whole ritual. — A POMODORO TIMER THAT DOES NOT LOSE TIME — The timer runs on wall-clock time, so backgrounding the app, locking your phone or taking a call cannot pause it or inflate it. It stays live on your Lock Screen, in a Live Activity, and on your Home Screen widget. Close OffShelf completely and it is still counting. Choose your own rhythm — classic 25/5, long deep work blocks, or no structure at all — and pick a timer style you actually want to look at. — YOUR SHELF, YOUR SUBJECTS — Every subject, skill or project lives as a topic on your shelf. Turn on exactly the panes you want for each one: a focus timer, a task list, notes, or a quiet notes-only topic. Swipe between them mid-session without breaking focus. Give a topic a target and a deadline and it becomes a goal you are measurably closing in on. — PROGRESS YOU CAN SEE — This is the part other focus apps skip. OffShelf turns finished sessions into: • Hours logged per topic, and levels that climb as they add up • A daily study streak, with a weekly Streak Freeze so one bad day does not erase a month • An activity heatmap and a daily study chart • Milestones and achievements as you cross them • Coins and Focus XP for time studied and work finished • A leaderboard ranked on real activity — PLAN THE WEEK, NOT JUST THE HOUR — Set recurring schedule blocks for the subjects you keep meaning to get to, and today-only focus goals for the ones you cannot put off. When you genuinely do not know where to start, OffShelf picks a topic for you, based on what you have been neglecting and how close you are to levelling up. No guessing, no blank page. — STUDY WITH A FRIEND — Pair with a study buddy and see when they are actually studying, what they have finished today, and what is still on their plan. Send a nudge when they go quiet. Start a live co-study session and share a clock. Accountability without either of you having to perform. — BEAT PROCRASTINATION BY MAKING IT VISIBLE — Self discipline is easier when the evidence is on your side. Streaks give you something to protect, levels give you something to climb, and the heatmap makes a skipped week impossible to argue with. — WORKS WHEN YOUR SIGNAL DOES NOT — OffShelf starts fast and works offline. A weak connection never stands between you and a focus session. OFFSHELF PREMIUM • Distraction tracking — see what actually pulls you away • Planning and focus insights • Two streak rest days every week • More custom timer styles • The Royal Magic mascot collection • An ad-free app Your topics, sessions, notes and schedules stay private to your account. Notification controls, account reset and full account deletion are in Settings. Start your next session in two taps. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://brjoub.com/offshelf-privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: OffShelf at 15.0 against Screen Time Control's 17.6. On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Screen Time Control sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and OffShelf sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Screen Time Control ships an update every 5 days, OffShelf weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Screen Time Control | OffShelf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 188 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rajesh Budhiraja | Basheer Rjoub |
In-app purchases
Screen Time Control
- Nomophobes Plus Monthly$2.991 Month
- Nomophobes Plus Annual$19.991 Year
OffShelf
- OffShelf Premium — Weekly$2.997 Days
- OffShelf Premium$9.991 Month
- OffShelf Premium — Annual$79.991 Year









