Capsla vs Benchpad

Capsla is a quiet Pomodoro timer for studying, deep work and anything that needs your full attention. Set your focus length, short and long breaks, and the number of cycles. Block distracting apps while you focus: Capsla asks for Screen Time access and lifts the block the moment the phase ends. The timer is wherever you look: in a Live Activity and the Dynamic Island, on the Lock Screen, in the Smart Stack on Apple Watch, in widgets, in Control Center and on the Action button. Ask Siri to pause or start, and the answer comes with a card and buttons for the next step. You rarely need to open the app. Notifications do real work. A quiet heads-up a few minutes before focus ends, a signal when a phase is over, buttons to start the break or the next focus right from the banner, and a reminder if you forget to come back after a break. Statistics show where your attention went: net focus time by week, month and all time, a chart by day, the hours you focus best, days in a row and time by tag. History starts the day you install Capsla, and the app never fills in numbers it did not record. Export all of it as a CSV file whenever you like. On iOS 27, the statistics widget can fill a whole Home Screen page. FEATURES • Custom focus and break lengths from 1 to 999 minutes, 1 to 10 cycles • Block distracting apps during focus • Add one or five minutes to a running focus • Live Activity, Dynamic Island, Lock Screen and Apple Watch Smart Stack • Timer and statistics widgets, a Control Center control, the Action button • Siri and Shortcuts: start, pause, resume, skip a break, ask how long you focused today • Tags with icons and colors; a Focus filter can pick the tag for you • 16 sounds and three vibration patterns, chosen separately for each phase • Calm animated backgrounds, including a slow breathing mode • Dark Mode, VoiceOver, larger text and increased contrast • 17 languages BUILT HONESTLY No ads. The core of Capsla, including the timer, app blocking, statistics, tags, widgets and Siri, is free and stays free. There are no screens asking you to buy anything, and no buttons that stop working until you pay. There is no Capsla account. Tags and focus history sync only through your own iCloud; settings stay on your iPhone. The Privacy screen lists every event the app has sent, a real list from your device, and two switches turn collection off.

Benchpad is a scratchpad, not a second brain. Three pads. You name them — Work / Personal / Scratch, Today / This Week / Someday, whatever fits your head. No folders, no tags, no filing decisions. Open, type, close. WRITE WITHOUT DECIDING Every note app asks "where does this go?" before you've written a word. Benchpad doesn't. Three pads means the decision is already made. WORKS ON A PLANE Offline-first, not offline-tolerant. Every keystroke saves to your device before any network request. Sync happens in the background when you're online — and merges conflict-free if you edited on two devices at once. CONSTRAINT IS THE PRODUCT Benchpad is for people who want to write things down — not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop. When you can't create infinite folders, you write instead of organizing. Constraint isn't a compromise. It's the product. A REAL EDITOR Headings, checklists, tables, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images, file attachments all with slash commands and a block editor. NO AI. NO ADS. NO DATA MINING. Nothing reads, summarizes, or trains on your notes. Notes are encrypted at rest. Plain markdown — copy everything out anytime, no lock-in. FREE FOREVER, REALLY One pad, the full editor, offline support, sync, and an archive of 100 notes — free, no credit card, no time limit. Pro ($10/year flat) unlocks all three pads, all six themes, attachments, voice-note audio, and Markdown/PDF export. Benchpad is for people who want to write things down — not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop.