Focus Timer vs Zazen · Mindful Timer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Focus Timer
Read full descriptionHide full description
Some brains need something to hold onto before they can settle into work. Focus Timer gives them 110 sounds to hold onto — layered, looping, and timed. Open it, tap play, start working. No account. No onboarding. No ads. LAYER WHAT YOUR BRAIN LIKES Stack up to 6 sounds at once and set the volume of each one independently. Brown noise under rain. A fan under a keyboard. Whatever combination makes the room feel right. Save it and it's one tap away tomorrow. 110 SOUNDS IN 6 CATEGORIES Nature (24) — ocean waves, rivers, waterfalls, forest birds, crickets, frogs, whale songs Weather (16) — rain (light, heavy, monsoon, tropical), rain on a tent, on a tin roof, on a window, thunder, wind Ambient (39) — fireplace, campfire, fans, washing machine, singing bowls, wind chimes, heartbeat, and the textures: whispering, page turning, fabric rustling, bubble wrap, hair brushing, sand pouring, a cat purring Urban (19) — coffee shop, library, office, keyboard typing, pencil writing, train journey, subway, restaurant murmur Binaural (6) — delta, theta, alpha, 4Hz, solfeggio 432Hz and 528Hz White Noise (6) — white, pink, brown, green and blue noise, plus lo-fi vinyl crackle A FOCUS TIMER THAT STARTS AT 5 MINUTES Not 30. Some days the whole job is starting. Drag the dial to anything from 5 to 120 minutes, or run it open-ended. When the session ends you get a soft chime, not a jolt — and you can add time without restarting. STREAKS THAT DON'T PUNISH YOU Your focus days fill in a calendar. They never reset to zero. You will never get a notification telling you that you broke something, or watch anything die because you stopped early. Stopping early is allowed here. SEE THE MINUTES ADD UP Every session is logged automatically. Minutes focused this week, your longest session, which mixes you actually come back to, and which ones you abandon. All on-device. KEEPS PLAYING WHILE YOU WORK Lock the phone or switch apps — the mix keeps running, with controls on the lock screen. WORKS OFFLINE Every sound is bundled with the app. Nothing streams, nothing buffers, nothing needs a connection. Sounds start the instant you tap. WHY FOCUS TIMER - Playing in under 5 seconds from launch - No account, no onboarding, no ads — free or paid - Background playback with lock screen controls - Restores your last session when you reopen - Nothing leaves your device. No analytics, no tracking FAIR PRICING The free version is genuinely usable: 18 sounds, 3 layers, 3 saved mixes, and every session length — 5 to 120 minutes, or open-ended. Pro unlocks all 110 sounds, 6 layers, unlimited saves and full history. Buy it yearly, or buy it once and never think about it again. ABOUT THE RESEARCH Many people with ADHD say steady background noise helps them settle in. A 2024 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (13 studies, 335 participants) found a small but statistically significant benefit of white and pink noise on task performance in young people with ADHD — and, notably, the opposite effect in people without it. The mechanism is still debated. Focus Timer is a wellness app, not a medical device, and it does not diagnose or treat anything. Talk to a clinician about ADHD. Open it. Pick a sound. Start. For more details, please refer to our privacy policy and terms of use. Privacy policy: https://sites.google.com/view/nguyendangnam-privacy-policy/home Term of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Zazen · Mindful Timer
Read full descriptionHide full description
Zazen is a calm, focused meditation timer for phone and smartwatch. Start, pause, resume, and finish a session from either device. Choose when the first reminder should occur and how often later reminders repeat. The smartwatch provides discreet haptic feedback while the phone plays a brief sound. Key features: • Control sessions from phone or smartwatch • Customize the first reminder and repeat interval • One haptic for the first reminder, two for the second, and so on • Pause without counting paused time • See the total duration when a session ends • Keep a private history of completed sessions • Review monthly, quarterly, half-year, and yearly statistics • Keep all meditation data on your devices Zazen requires no account, contains no ads, and does not track you.
Screenshots
Verdict
Focus Timer and Zazen · Mindful Timer are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Focus Timer | Zazen · Mindful Timer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dang Nam Nguyen | 超才 姜 |
In-app purchases
Focus Timer
No in-app purchases
Zazen · Mindful Timer
No in-app purchases





