Comparison

Deep Focus vs Anchor

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

Head to head
About

Deep Focus

Features
Read full description

Deep Focus - Deep Work Timer is a focus timer app built for deep work and flow. Use it as a study timer, work timer, or coding timer to quickly record how long you stayed focused. Your sessions are saved by project, so you can track progress over time and review your productivity with clear stats and a heatmap. Start the focus timer once, and your focus time tracking and time management habits begin to build naturally. The reason to use a focus timer is simple. When you can see how much flow time you achieved today, which projects took most of your time, and whether you are staying consistent (streak), it becomes much easier to plan your next session. [Key Features] 1. Deep Work Focus Timer (Focus Timer) • Simple controls: start, pause, resume, finish • Optional session notes after finishing: record what you worked on • Keep screen on option to prevent the display from turning off during focus • Session recovery when returning from background or restarting the app (within 12 hours) 2. Project-Based Time Tracking (Time Tracker, Work Time Tracking) • Add, edit, and delete projects • Track total deep work time per project and manage status (active/completed) • See at a glance where your focus time goes 3. Statistics and Visualization (Productivity Tracker) • Overall summary: total focus time, number of sessions, average focus time, longest streak • Period stats: today, weekly, monthly, yearly • Recent activity list to quickly review today’s deep work sessions 4. Goals and Streak (Build a Deep Work Habit) • Set a daily goal (30 minutes to 8 hours) • Real-time progress toward your goal • Stay consistent with a streak system that makes progress visible 5. Heatmap (Focus Calendar) • GitHub-style heatmap to view your last 12 weeks of flow and deep work • Color intensity increases as your focus time grows, making improvement easy to see

About

Anchor

Features
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Some apps were designed to trap you. The feed doesn't end, and "five more minutes" always seems to turn into forty. That's not a willpower problem, it's the design working as intended. Anchor blocks the apps that do this by default, so opening one is always something you decided, never a doomscroll you fell into. THE IDEA Screen Time is built to be turned on. Anchor is built to already be on. There's no timer to start and no "focus mode" to remember. The apps you choose are blocked from the moment setup finishes, permanently, as the baseline state of your phone. The difference isn't less time in these apps. It's who decides when you get it. Want in? You ask for it. Open Anchor, set how long you actually need — five minutes, twenty, whatever the moment calls for — and access is granted for exactly that long. When it runs out, blocking resumes. This is the anchor that prevents you from losing your days to doomscrolling. RECLAIMED TIME, NOT WILLPOWER Anchor isn't a fast to survive. It doesn't track streaks or shame a slip. It tracks one thing: how much of the time you used to lose is coming back to you, every day, measured against the baseline you set for yourself in onboarding. Give it your age, and it shows you how much of your life you get back without these apps quietly eating it. HOW IT WORKS • Pick the apps and websites you drift into without deciding to. • From then on, every one of them is blocked, all the time. • Reach for one anyway, and the block screen meets you instead. • Want it? Open Anchor, set a duration, and go. One deliberate ask, no lecture. • When the time's up, the block returns on its own. Set a new intent whenever you want back in. BUILT TO GET OUT OF YOUR WAY • A Home Screen widget and Control Center button to drop anchor without hunting for the app. • Ask Siri to start or check a session. • A Live Activity keeps the countdown visible in your Dynamic Island while a session runs. YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Anchor runs on Apple's Screen Time framework entirely on-device. The apps you block, the time you spend, and the breaks you take never leave your phone. There's no account, no server, and nothing to opt out of, because nothing is collected in the first place. Anchor doesn't ask you to want less. It makes sure that whenever you reach for one of these apps, it's because you decided to — not because your thumb got there first.

Screenshots

Deep Focus4 screens
Anchor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Anchor at none against Deep Focus's shown. Deep Focus's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard3 real differences · 2 level
Deep Focus versus Anchor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDeep FocusAnchor
PriceFreeFree
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSeulki EomNiklas Buehler

In-app purchases

None

Deep Focus

No in-app purchases

None

Anchor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Deep Focus free?
Deep Focus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Anchor free?
Anchor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Deep Focus or Anchor have ads?
Deep Focus shows ads; Anchor does not.

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