Tonic vs Scrollmaxxing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tonic
This app helps you build good habits by making them unlock your other apps. It allows you to set limits on distracting apps and rewards productive behavior. You can customize rules to integrate with your existing life and achieve your goals.
- Habit-based app unlocking
- Customizable screen time limits
- Integration with Apple Health
- Flexible rule setting
- Productive minute banking
- Escalating pause feature
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Your phone works in the wrong order. Tonic isn't just another app blocker: your good habits unlock your apps, and the ones that only need boundaries get limits that fit. You bought the books. You downloaded Duolingo. You signed up for the meditation app. Tonic puts those things first, and lets your phone cooperate with the life you're already building. HOW IT WORKS Set any app as a reward for your good habits. Tonic tracks what would be too hard to log yourself: your progress in apps like Kindle or Duolingo, calories burned, whether you meditated this morning, even whether you've gotten outside. Require your habits each day, or bank productive minutes to spend later. For apps that only need boundaries, Tonic adapts to the problem: screen time limits by hours or by visits, cooldowns between sessions, or moments of pause that escalate the more you reach for it. You choose what locked looks like: a gentle nudge toward the good thing, a strict wall, or a pause that grows each time you haven't earned it. WORKS WITH THE APPS YOU ALREADY LOVE Reading, workouts, meditation, steps, sunlight, and sleep come straight from Apple Health and your Apple Watch, or from time spent in the productive apps you choose. No logging, no proof photos, no check-ins. And the unlock is real: when your habit counts, the shield lifts on its own. You don't open Tonic to prove anything or unlock anything by hand. Finish your reading, and your apps are simply open when you reach for them. WHAT YOU CAN SET UP Every app is a different problem. Rules can look like: "Don't let me into social media for longer than five minutes at a time until my watch has registered 20 minutes of sunlight." "Make it harder each time I reach for Instagram if I've used it more than Duolingo today." "After 5 visits on the weekend, make me pause when I reach for Slack or Teams." "When I reach for social media in the morning, redirect my phone to my journaling app." "Hard block mobile games until I've worked out three times in the last week, then give me an hour each earned day." YOURS TO CONTROL Tonic is self-directed and built for adults. You pick the apps, you set the rules, and you can change them whenever you want. No account. No parent. No lock you can't open. Your habits stay on your device. Tonic never sees which apps you chose, and your rules never leave your phone. Pick one app that gets in your way and one habit you keep meaning to do. Start there. A tonic for your habits. Break the bad, build the good. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tonichabits.com/privacy
Scrollmaxxing
This app quantifies your daily screen time against global users and offers quests to earn back scroll time. Complete activities like running or reading to earn coins, which you then spend to unlock usage of your favorite apps. It aims to help you manage and reduce excessive phone usage.
- Global screen time percentile ranking
- Earn coins by completing offline quests
- Spend coins to unlock app screen time
- 20+ built-in quests
- Global leaderboard
- Shareable rot score cards
- On-device data processing
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scrollmaxxing tells you exactly how rotted your brain is — then pays you to fix it. every day, your screen time gets ranked against real users worldwide. not a vague wellness score — an actual percentile. rotting harder than 80% of people? that's your number. but knowing you're cooked isn't enough. scrollmaxxing gives you quests — real things like running, reading, meditating, deep work — and pays you in coins for completing them. then you spend those coins to buy back your scroll time. earn it before you burn it. HOW IT WORKS scrollmaxxing uses your scroll time to rank you globally. complete quests to earn coins. spend coins to unlock screen time for your favorite apps. no account required. QUESTS 20+ built-in quests across body, mind, grind, and more. track streaks. earn coins for every minute you put in. add quests to your routine and build the habit. THE STORE spend your coins on screen time. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 — you decide. you can't scroll until you've earned it. RANKINGS global leaderboard. see how your country scrolls. your rot tier updates as your habits change — from built different to chronically online to something much worse. SHARE YOUR ROT generate a shareable card with your rot score and lifetime projection. how many years will you spend on your phone? YOUR DATA screen time is processed entirely on your device. we never see your actual usage — only the anonymous percentile you choose to share. *All features described above require a subscription. Terms of service: https://monroyindustries.xyz/ScrollMaxxing/scrollmaxxing-termsofservice.html Privacy policy: https://monroyindustries.xyz/ScrollMaxxing/scrollmaxxing-privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Tonic at freemium against Scrollmaxxing's subscription. Tonic also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (43 vs 2). On price, rating, in-app purchases and device support 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. Tonic sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Scrollmaxxing sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Tonic against 5.0 for Scrollmaxxing. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tonic has 43 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Tonic ships an update every 4 days, Scrollmaxxing every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 17, 2026.
| Parameter | Tonic | Scrollmaxxing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (43 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 95.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 43 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.4 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sets Studio LLC | Monroy Industries, LLC |
Customer experience
Tonic
Scrollmaxxing
In-app purchases
Tonic
- Tonic Unlimited7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Tonic Unlimited7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Scrollmaxxing
- Full Access (Weekly)$1.997 Days
- Full Access (Yearly)$29.991 Year









