Comparison

Dying Soon vs Kept

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

Head to head
About

Dying Soon

Features
Read full description

Dying Soon - Screen Time Focus & Memento Mori How much time do you have left? Stop mindless scrolling. Face your mortality. Dying Soon is a screen time app and app blocker that uses Memento Mori to help you cure phone addiction, stay focused, and remember what your time is worth. 【FEATURES】 β—† App Blocking Choose the apps that steal your time. When you try to open one, Dying Soon puts a memento mori block screen in the way: pause, breathe, remember that today is finite. β—† Screen Time Focus Use app limits and schedules to interrupt doomscrolling before it becomes your day. β—† Death Countdown Real-time display of your remaining years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Every millisecond reminds you: time waits for no one. β—† Life Grid Visualize your entire life as a grid. Red squares are years gone, gray squares are the unknown future. Switch between years, months, and weeks views to see your life from different perspectives. β—† Treasures - Wisdom Collection Unlock profound quotes about mortality as you use the app. Collect wisdom in three tiers: β€’ Common - Everyday reflections on death β€’ Rare - Wisdom from great masters β€’ Paroles - Timeless teachings from ancient scriptures Unlock quotes through daily use, notifications, milestones, and flash moments. β—† Push Notifications Set 0-10 daily reminders to keep death's shadow ever-present. 【PHILOSOPHY】 The ancient Romans said: Memento Mori (Remember you will die). This isn't about fearβ€”it's about appreciation. Only when you realize life is finite will you start taking each day seriously. "Not only greedy, but naive" β€” if you think you'll live to 80. Death makes no appointments. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. 【WHO IS THIS FOR】 β€’ Chronic procrastinators β€’ Phone addicts β€’ Those searching for life's meaning β€’ People who want change but lack motivation β€’ Everyone who will eventually die (that's everyone) Download now. Start your countdown. Because you are dying soon. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Kept

Features
Read full description

Kept helps you spend less time on the apps that eat your day. Pick one app, or up to 5, and give each one a daily limit. Kept checks in while you use it, and it can block those apps for the hours you want back, like your evenings or bedtime. Everything stays on your phone, and there are no ads. HOW IT WORKS β€’ Pick your apps in Apple's own picker. Kept doesn't block whole categories, and Phone, Messages, alarms, and any app you don't pick are never blocked. β€’ Set a daily limit of 15, 30, or 45 minutes, 1 hour, or your own number. Under its limit, the app opens as usual. Kept asks "Keep going?" after every 5, 10, or 15 minutes of use (you pick), and it can ask more often after your 3rd Keep going of the day. β€’ When the limit is used up, the app stays blocked until midnight. You can get more time inside Kept. It costs a freeze if you have one. If you don't, it costs your streak and a wait that gets longer each time that day. β€’ Protected time. Set hours when your limited apps are blocked, like Evenings from 5 to 9 PM or Bedtime from 10 PM to 7 AM. An emergency of 5 or 15 minutes is the only way through. You can turn one off for today, and it comes back on at midnight. β€’ Protect now blocks your limited apps from this minute for 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or until 9 PM. Start it from Home, Shortcuts, or Siri, or from Control Center on iOS 18 or later. A countdown shows on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. β€’ Your week shows the days and evenings you kept, how often you said I'm done, your hardest hour, and one suggestion. A Lock Screen widget shows whether Kept is on, when protected time ends, and how many apps are done for today. β€’ Every day you stay within your limits adds a day to your streak. Every 7 days you earn a freeze, which gives one app another round of today's limit. KEPT FREE AND KEPT PRO Every new install gets all of Kept Pro free for 14 days. The trial runs inside the app. You don't add a payment method or sign up, and nothing is charged when it ends. After 14 days Kept keeps working as Kept Free, with 3 limited apps, 1 protected time, 1 freeze, and Your week for this week and last. If you set up more than that, you choose what stays, and the rest is saved for later. Kept Pro adds a weekday and a weekend limit for each app and every past week in Your week. It also limits up to 5 apps, sets up to 5 protected times, and holds up to 3 freezes. β€’ Kept Pro Monthly: $2.99 per month β€’ Kept Pro Yearly: $19.99 per year β€’ Kept Pro Lifetime: $49.99, a one-time purchase Protect now, the widget, emergencies (3 a month), and turning Kept off are free on every plan. PRIVACY AND WAYS OUT There's no account, sign-in, analytics, or tracking. Your Screen Time data stays on your iPhone, and Kept never sees your apps' names as text. Kept sends one notification at most, an optional 5-minute warning, and it's off until you turn it on. Turn Kept off in Settings and everything unblocks right away. Kept turns itself back on at 6 AM, unless you choose I turn it back on. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Prices are in US dollars and may vary by country. Monthly and Yearly are auto-renewing subscriptions. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel any time in iOS Settings β†’ your name β†’ Subscriptions, or in Kept under Settings β†’ Kept Pro β†’ Manage subscription. Lifetime is paid once and never renews. Family Sharing is on for all three. Kept uses Apple's Screen Time and needs iOS 17 or later. It's made by one person. Questions and bug reports go to kept@brucelabs.io. Terms of Use: https://kept.brucelabs.io/terms Privacy Policy: https://kept.brucelabs.io/privacy Support: https://kept.brucelabs.io/support

Screenshots

Dying Soon4 screens
Kept4 screens

Verdict

The call

Dying Soon and Kept are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters β€” price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them β€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Dying Soon sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Kept sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dying Soon ships an update weekly, Kept every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Dying Soon versus Kept: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDying SoonKept
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad β€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size19 MB14 MB
Age rating9+4+
Developerε˜‰θŽ‰ 撁Wade Bruce

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Dying Soon

Subscriptions2
  • Dying Soon Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Dying Soon Pro Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$14.99
3 purchases

Kept

Subscriptions2
  • Kept Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Kept Pro Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Kept Pro Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Dying Soon free?
Dying Soon is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Kept free?
Kept is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Dying Soon or Kept have ads?
Neither Dying Soon nor Kept shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dying Soon or Kept?
Dying Soon ships an update weekly, and Kept every 4 days. Most recently, Dying Soon was updated on October 25, 2026 and Kept on October 24, 2026.

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