Comparison

Focus Drift vs Barriers

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

Head to head
About

Focus Drift

Read full description

Focus Drift isn't another to-do list, and it isn't another time tracker. It tracks the gap between the day you planned and the day you actually had — so you can finally see where your time goes and take it back. Plan your day with priorities. Log interruptions the moment they hit, with their source and real cost. Reflect at day's end. Then let AI turn it all into a report that actually tells you something. FREE TO USE • Plan your day with time estimates and a real capacity bar • Log interruptions and unplanned work — who or what caused it, and what it cost • End-of-day reflection and a daily Focus Score • Today's report, ideas, and deadlines • Works fully offline, single device, no account needed UPGRADE TO PRO • Sync across your devices • Cloud backup and restore • Weekly and custom-range reports with trends • Full report history, plus PDF and image exports • Connect your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, any MCP client) to read your plan, add tasks, and pull your reports — hands-free WHY FOCUS DRIFT To-do apps track what you planned. Time trackers total your hours. Focus Drift tracks the difference: interruptions and their sources, unplanned work and its cost, your real daily capacity, and what carries over — then explains the patterns. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your data lives on your device. No ads, no trackers, nothing sold. Sync is optional and encrypted in transit. Tasks you mark private are never shared with AI or in reports. Plan your day. Then see what actually happened. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Barriers

Organize tasks with a calm, newspaper-like interface. Share responsibilities with family, track finances, and manage receipts. Your data stays private on your device or iCloud.

Highlights
  • Calm, newspaper-style task interface
  • Family task sharing and assignment
  • Finance tracking and savings overview
  • Receipt scanning and filing
  • Recurring task scheduling
  • Live Activities and Lock Screen integration
  • Alexa voice integration
Features
Read full description

One place for the things you have to do and the money they cost. Check off "pay the gas bill, $86.40" and Barriers offers to book it into June. Barriers is a planner for tasks and money, made for ADHD minds and for anyone whose week does not fit in their head. It reads like a newspaper rather than a checklist: one quiet page a day. No confetti, no points. THE TASKS: FREE, AND UNLIMITED • Deadlines with a countdown, and a morning page that says what is overdue and what is due today • Task alarms: tap the bell on a task, and on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26.1 or later it rings like an alarm, even on silent • Routines that repeat themselves (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) and, with family sharing, can take turns around the house • A Backburner for what matters but is not urgent, and "At some point" for what has no date at all • Five-minute tasks: mark the small things, and one comes back to you a few times a day • An evening edition that moves whatever is left to tomorrow, in one tap • Check a task off from the Lock Screen, a widget or your wrist, no app to open • One search box across tasks, expenses and receipts SAY IT ONCE "Pay the gas bill $86.40 on Friday, book the dentist Tuesday morning, milk for $3 on the way home." Barriers hears three tasks, two dates and two amounts, and shows you every one of them before a single thing is saved. Dictation is on-device by default. Or photograph a written list and let it read the lines in. One task at a time is free; several in one breath comes with Premium. THE MONEY • A statement for each month: what came in, what went out, what is left, with your pay stub photographed straight in • A bill sits in the months it is actually paid. A quarterly bill lands in those three months, not smoothed into twelve, so a month's total is what really left the account. Copy one forward and it strides four years ahead. • 23 currencies, folded into yours at reference rates • A year-end figure worked out from your own numbers, and a switch that hides every number while you are reading in public • The Annual: a one-page year-end broadsheet with its own headline, saved out as an image • Receipts: photograph one and the store, total and date are read off it. File it to the month it belongs to; an unfiled banner keeps count of the ones still waiting. Finance and Receipts are free for fourteen days; after that, Premium unlocks them with one payment that never renews. Barriers Advanced is an optional subscription that adds sub-tasks and plans the months ahead: payday and bills, set-asides, allowances, and bank statement files read on your device. The family sharing subscription includes Premium and Advanced for the person who pays. SHARE IT WITH THE HOUSE A household of two is free, whether you start it or join one. A third person needs family sharing: a separate auto-renewing subscription, monthly or yearly, two weeks free for new subscribers. It seats six, adds shared receipts and task photos, and lets you be in three households, not one. Whoever holds it pays for everyone they invite. • Give a task to one person: they accept it, or decline and say why • Put one to everybody at once • Rotate a routine around the house, so "whose turn" has an answer • A nudge, at most one per task every twelve hours • Hand a task back • A ledger of who is carrying what Joining someone's family does not unlock Finance, Receipts or Advanced for you: those stay on your own plan. PRIVATE, AND PLAINLY SO No ads, ever. No tracking. No third-party analytics. Usage statistics are off until you turn them on. Your tasks, months and receipts live on your device and sync through your own iCloud; what you hand to a family goes to that family, and if you sign in and have paid, your receipt photos are backed up so a reinstall does not take them. No account is needed for anything except family sharing. WHERE IT RUNS iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. 19 languages. Barriers does not give financial, tax or investment advice.

Screenshots

Focus Drift4 screens
Barriers4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Barriers at 5 against Focus Drift's 3. Barriers also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Focus Drift sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Barriers sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus Drift ships an update every 2 days, Barriers every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Focus Drift versus Barriers: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus DriftBarriers
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—5 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB63 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNico PoortaIV Technologies Ltd

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Focus Drift

Subscriptions2
  • Focus Drift Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Focus Drift Annual$59.991 Year
5 purchases

Barriers

Subscriptions4
  • Barriers Advanced: Monthly14 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Barriers Family: Monthly14 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Barriers Advanced: Yearly14 Days trial$19.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Barriers Family: Yearly14 Days trial$25.001 Year
One-time1
  • Barriers Premium$3.19

Questions

Is Focus Drift free?
Focus Drift is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Barriers free?
Barriers is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Focus Drift or Barriers have ads?
Neither Focus Drift nor Barriers shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus Drift or Barriers?
Focus Drift ships an update every 2 days, and Barriers every 3 days. Most recently, Focus Drift was updated on October 25, 2026 and Barriers on October 28, 2026.

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