Cortex vs Tempo

Cortex is a focus timer for deep work and study — Pomodoro 25/5, Long Focus 50/10, Short Sprint 15/3, an open-ended Flow mode, 19 ambient tracks and a sleep timer. Built for people who think for a living: students revising for exams, developers and designers in deep work, writers, and anyone with ADHD who needs sound and structure to get started. Four timer modes, three focus sounds, session history, streaks, heatmaps and Apple Health are free. Premium adds the AI Adaptive mode, 16 more sounds, the sleep timer, custom presets, Health Insights and the weekly report. No ads, no account, no sign-up. You track your workouts. Your sleep. Your macros. But not your focus. Cortex closes that gap: it measures your sessions, sizes the next one around your recovery, and shows you the hours your attention actually peaks. STRUCTURED FOCUS MODES Pomodoro (25/5) — Classic deep work intervals Long Focus (50/10) — Extended sessions for complex tasks Short Sprint (15/3) — A low-friction way to start on a bad day Flow Mode (no limit) — Open-ended, stop when you are done AI Adaptive (Premium) — Session length set for you, not guessed Custom Timers (Premium) — Your own work rhythm, up to 10 presets AI ADAPTIVE TIMER (PREMIUM) Instead of asking how long you can concentrate, Cortex works it out. With Apple Health connected it reads your heart rate variability and last night's sleep; without Health it falls back to a time-of-day model. Keep finishing your sessions and it extends them. 19 AMBIENT TRACKS Focus: lo-fi beats, acoustic, downtempo, neo-classical, space ambient, cinematic, chillwave, jazz hop, deep pulse, ethereal piano. Sleep: ethereal pads, deep drone, analog wash, submarine, harp lullaby, binaural, distant choir, zen garden, zero gravity. Three focus tracks ship inside the app and are free. The other 16 come with Premium and download on demand, Wi-Fi recommended. Audio keeps playing with the screen locked. SLEEP TIMER (PREMIUM) Six durations from 15 minutes to 2 hours. Sound fades out gradually and stops — no alarm at the end. A morning check-in records how you slept and whether you woke up rested; with Apple Health connected, the sleep screen also shows last night's stages and a sleep score. DATA, NOT FEELINGS Focus Score — weekly performance metric Peak Hours — the hours your attention actually peaks Heatmaps — focus patterns across the month Weekly Report — personalized recommendations computed on device from your own sessions (Premium; the first week is free) Streaks & Achievements — gamified progress that compounds daily CSV export of every session (Premium) APPLE HEALTH, READ ONLY Only when you tap Connect, and only three data types: heart rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep analysis. Cortex never writes anything to Apple Health. Those readings, and the recovery and sleep scores computed from them, stay on your device and are not sent to analytics. The app works fully without Health. 10 languages · Neo-brutalist design · No ads · No data selling · Usage analytics can be switched off in Settings Built for people who use Notion, Linear, and Arc — not pastel wellness apps Your brain is a machine. We help you run it at peak RPM. --- SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Cortex Premium is available as Monthly, Annual, or Lifetime purchase. - Payment is charged to your Apple ID at purchase confirmation - Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled 24+ hours before period end - Manage or cancel anytime in Account Settings after purchase - Privacy Policy: https://cortex-focus.com/privacy/ - Terms of Use: https://cortex-focus.com/terms/

You know what to do. The hard part is starting, switching, and knowing when your brain will actually cooperate. Tempo learns those patterns — your energy rhythms, your real transition costs, your reliable focus windows — and hands them back as concrete daily guidance. Built for adults with ADHD. 100% on your iPhone: no account, no cloud, nothing uploaded — the privacy label reads "Data Not Collected". WHY TEMPO IS DIFFERENT Most productivity apps hand you a to-do list and assume that starting, switching, and landing on time are free. For ADHD brains, those are the whole game. Tempo doesn't ship generic templates or streaks — it learns how one specific brain works: yours. A MORNING ENERGY FORECAST Last night's sleep, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, today's calendar — even the tone of your recent journal entries — become one honest capacity score — with the "why" behind it, so you plan the day you actually have, not the day you wish you had. TRANSITIONS THAT LAND Tempo learns how long switching really takes you — after deep work ~15 minutes, after a walk ~5 — and counts down on your Lock Screen: "Standup at 14:00 — start wrapping up around 13:40." Small, concrete micro-actions you can edit make the switch real: close your tabs, water, phone on silent. ONE-TAP CHECK-INS After an event ends: "How did that go?" Energizing, draining, hard to start — one tap, five seconds, straight from the notification. Always skippable, capped per day, silent during your quiet hours. No streaks, no guilt. PATTERNS WITH RECEIPTS "After a short night, meetings feel draining 80% of the time." Every insight is computed from your own data, shows its evidence count and confidence, and never appears until it's statistically real. Never noise, never astrology. AND MORE • A gentle nudge when you've been deep in one thing past your planned length — water? snack? • A searchable evening journal that finds tone, themes, and blockers — analyzed on-device — with your sessions and check-ins on one day-by-day timeline • One-tap decision logging — name the ones that cost you, and spot your decision-heavy days • Home Screen widgets: Daily Forecast, Next Hours with readiness scores, and your journal rhythm • A monthly report that reads like a friend explaining your month • Light and dark themes with six calm accent colors, in 10 languages PRIVACY, FOR REAL No server. No account. No analytics, no trackers, no third-party code. Everything — including the AI — runs with Apple's on-device intelligence. Export it all as one JSON file, import it back on a new iPhone, or erase it all, any time. Your patterns are nobody's business. FREE AND PRO Free forever: session tracking, one-tap check-ins, your schedule with wrap-up times, weekly stats, and 14 days of history. Tempo Pro adds the morning energy forecast, pattern insights, transition Live Activities, journal analysis, readiness on widgets, the monthly report, and unlimited history — as a monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscription (7-day free trial) or a one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel any time in your App Store account settings. Tempo is a self-knowledge and routine-support tool. It does not diagnose, treat, or replace professional care. Privacy Policy: https://tempo-adhd.netlify.app/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://tempo-adhd.netlify.app/eula.html