Comparison

Pawcus vs Focus Train

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

Head to head
About

Pawcus

Features
Read full description

Stay focused and grow your virtual dog! Pawcus is a gamified focus timer designed to help you beat phone addiction, improve productivity, and stay on track with your goals. Transform your work into rewards. When you stay focused, your dog earns XP and levels up. If you leave the app, your companion gets lonely—giving you a heartwarming reason to keep your phone down. KEY FEATURES: Gamified Timer: sessions that make studying fun. Collect Cute Dogs: Unlock Golden Retrievers, Corgis, Huskies, and more. Track Progress: Detailed statistics, activity calendars, and focus history. Ambient Sounds: Relaxing Lo-fi and white noise for deep work. Custom Tasks: Organize your study, work, or reading sessions. Perfect for students, professionals, and anyone with ADHD or focus challenges. Download Pawcus today and find your focus buddy!

About

Focus Train

This app transforms focus sessions into engaging train journeys. Stay concentrated to travel farther, collect trip stamps, and unlock new routes. It offers a visually appealing and rewarding alternative to traditional timers.

Highlights
  • Gamified focus sessions with train journeys
  • Collect trip stamps and unlock new routes
  • Live Ticket on Lock Screen
  • One-tap widget for instant boarding
  • Customizable themes and train colors
  • Baggage blocking for distraction management
  • Native iOS design with haptics and Live Activities
Features
Read full description

Stop negotiating with yourself about when to start. FocusTrain turns every focus session into a train journey. You board, the train rolls while you work, and the deeper you go the farther it travels. By tonight you won't have "tried to focus" — you'll have a route on a map showing exactly where your attention took you. NOTHING DIES IF YOU LOOK AWAY Most focus apps motivate you with guilt: leave the screen and your tree withers, your streak burns, a number shames you. FocusTrain is built the other way around. Glance away and your train simply waits at the platform. Come back and it rolls on. It is the rare focus timer with no punishment mechanic at all — which is exactly why people who quit every other timer stay with this one. YOUR CONCENTRATION BECOMES SOMETHING YOU CAN SEE Every session you finish prints a boarding pass and inks a stamp in your book. Stations multiply, new routes and scenery unlock, the streak grows. Six months from now you won't have a bar chart you never open — you'll have a railway you built yourself, one session at a time. No other Pomodoro timer leaves you holding something worth keeping. IT STARTS AT YOUR STATION, NOT A GENERIC ONE During setup FocusTrain finds the real station nearest you and makes it your home stop. Add your own stations for the places that actually matter — your desk, your library, your café. The map is yours, not stock artwork. A TIMER YOU ACTUALLY OPEN 25 minutes, 50 minutes, or any length you set. Board in one tap from a Home Screen widget, keep a live ticket running on your Lock Screen, and see how far you have left without unlocking. Calm, quiet, no nagging. MAKE THE RIDE YOURS Unlock the full set of themes and train color palettes, dial in any custom HEX, add your own stations, and ride the Silent Car. Baggage blocking keeps distractions off the train, so the only thing on board is your attention. IT FEELS GOOD, AND THAT IS THE POINT 120Hz scrolling, haptics, Live Activities, a Home Screen widget, full Dark Mode, complete Dynamic Type. A true native iOS app, not a web wrapper. An app that feels this good is an app you will still open tomorrow — and tomorrow is the only thing that makes focus compound. IF ANY OF THIS IS YOU • You sit down to study and lose the first forty minutes to your phone. • Your best work only happens in long blocks, and every interruption costs you an hour. • ADHD makes starting the hardest part, and shame-based apps make it worse. • You've deleted three focus timers already because opening them felt like one more chore. WHAT STAYS YOURS Your trips, stats, and records never leave your device. No account required. No data collection. Location is used exactly once, during setup, to suggest your nearest station. Free to download. Available in English, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, French, and German. The platform is clear. All aboard. Privacy Policy: https://elevenapril.com/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://elevenapril.com/terms.html

Screenshots

Pawcus4 screens
Focus Train4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Focus Train at Free against Pawcus's $0.99. Focus Train also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months) and device support (4 vs 2). Pawcus's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6). On ads and iOS requirement 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

Focus Train is free to download; Pawcus costs $0.99 up front. Focus Train sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Pawcus asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pawcus ships an update every 3 months, Focus Train every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pawcus versus Focus Train: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPawcusFocus Train
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating—5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—95.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—5 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size54 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCHING-HAO FAN帅 陈

In-app purchases

None

Pawcus

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Focus Train

Subscriptions4
  • FocusTrain Premium Weekly$3.997 Days
  • FocusTrain Premium Monthly$7.991 Month
  • FocusTrain Premium Quarterly$14.993 Months
Show 1 more
  • FocusTrain Premium Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • FocusTrain Premium Lifetime$39.99
  • FocusTrain Premium$49.99

Questions

Is Pawcus free?
Pawcus costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Focus Train free?
Focus Train is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pawcus or Focus Train have ads?
Neither Pawcus nor Focus Train shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pawcus or Focus Train?
Pawcus ships an update every 3 months, and Focus Train every 6 days. Most recently, Pawcus was updated on November 9, 2026 and Focus Train on November 10, 2026.

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