Comparison

Screen Star vs Cuke

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

Head to head
About

Screen Star

This app helps you reclaim lost time by blocking distracting applications. It uses a unique mascot and visual progress tracker to motivate you to stay on track with your goals, offering a more emotional approach to screen time management.

Highlights
  • Smart app blocking
  • Custom daily goals
  • Year-by-year progress tracker
  • Home screen widget with live mascot
  • Mascot tones for mood reflection
  • Streak tracking
Read full description

You're not weak. Your attention is being stolen. The average person loses 20.3 years of their life to their phone. Not metaphorically. Actual years, summed across actual hours, gone to feeds engineered by teams of engineers to keep you scrolling past the part of your day you wanted to live. Screen Star is the screen-time app that stops pretending this is a willpower problem. — WHAT IT DOES • Block the apps stealing your day. Set a goal once. Star handles the rest. No daily babysitting, no "are you sure?" pop-ups asking you to negotiate with yourself at 11pm. • See your years coming back. A 90-box life grid shows you the years you've already lost and the years you can still reclaim. The math is unsentimental. The recovery is real. • Pick how Star talks to you. Four moods: cheerful, sassy, sad, glowing. Star reflects how the day is going. Stay on track and Star glows. Slip, and Star slumps. You'll feel it before you read the number. • Glowing on your home screen. The Screen Star widget puts the mascot on your home screen so you see how you're doing every time you unlock. A face you don't want to disappoint is a better blocker than any timer. • A streak you'll actually keep. No 50-flame guilt loops. Just a quiet counter: how many days in a row you stayed under your goal. Cruising days add up. Star notices. — WHY IT WORKS Most screen-time apps make you feel ashamed and then give you a "Just 1 More Minute" button. Screen Star doesn't. The blocker is the blocker. The mascot does the emotional work. You set it up once, then you live your life. This isn't about deleting Instagram. It's about getting your evenings back. Your mornings. Your weekends. The hours you keep promising yourself you'll spend on the thing you actually care about. — WHAT'S INSIDE • Smart blocking powered by Apple Screen Time (Family Controls) • Custom daily goals per app, per category, or all-at-once • Year-by-year progress: lost, saved, reclaimed • Lock screen + home screen widget with live mascot state • Four mascot tones to match how you talk to yourself • Streak tracking, weekly + monthly progress views — PRIVACY Screen Star uses Apple's Family Controls and DeviceActivity frameworks. App usage data stays on your device. We never see which apps you use or how long you use them. Your screen time is yours. Read the full policy at getscreenstar.com/privacy. — SUBSCRIPTION & FREE TRIAL All of the features above are available during the free trial and with an active subscription. Screen Star is a subscription app. When you download Screen Star, you can start a 3-day free trial. After the trial, an active subscription is required to continue using the app and its features. Subscription prices and plan lengths (for example, weekly or yearly) are shown clearly on the purchase screen in the app. Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your Apple ID account settings. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. Terms: getscreenstar.com/terms Privacy: getscreenstar.com/privacy Support: getscreenstar@gmail.com Terms of use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ — You're not weak. You're outgunned. Star evens the odds.

About

Cuke

Features
Read full description

Cuke is a calm routine planner and visual timer for ADHD brains — with a small cucumber who never scolds. Pay once, keep it forever: no subscription, no streaks, no shame. Most habit apps punish a missed day: a streak breaks, a number turns red, a notification says "we miss you." Cuke doesn't keep score. Miss something and it quietly fades and waits. Come back after a hard week and today simply starts at zero. MEET CUKE A cucumber keeps you company on every screen. It holds on to the routine you're in, tugs the next one into your day, and lies down under the one that moved to later — cheerful every time. It has five faces and not one of them is disappointed. Finish a routine and it celebrates. Every active day adds a little brine to its jar, and the jar only ever fills. TIME YOU CAN FEEL • A shrinking ring for every step, not a number climbing — a time-blind brain can see ten minutes leaving. • A step-by-step routine player with gentle audible cues, so a locked phone still moves you forward. • Running late? A quiet "shifted +12 min" chip. Nothing turns red. • Focus blocks on your own terms: 10, 25 or 45 minutes, with a real break. ROUTINES THAT STICK • Start with one routine — morning, shutdown, meds & basics — or build your own in a minute. • Basics you can check off anytime: meds, water, food, with an optional time-sensitive reminder for the ones that matter. • Unmissable alarms, opt-in only: for medication, for the end of a focus block, or to wake straight into a routine. • Miss a routine and it moves to later. Skip a step and nothing is owed. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN • Live Activity and Dynamic Island show the current step and the time left. • Home and Lock Screen widgets show what's next, quietly. • Siri and Shortcuts: "Start my routine in Cuke", "Log my meds in Cuke", "What's next in Cuke". SKILLS FOR STUCK MOMENTS • Box breathing in a jar: the brine rises as you breathe in, and an optional vibration follows your breath, so it works with your eyes closed. • Get unstuck: name the wall, slice the task into small rounds, start with one. • Ground yourself in 90 seconds. Nothing here is tracked or graded. A REVIEW THAT ONLY GROWS A calm weekly review of what actually happened — patterns in plain language, never grades, never leaderboards. An optional on-device pattern coach notices things like "mornings hold, evenings slip" and says so gently. It runs entirely on your phone. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads. Cuke has no servers of its own — your data lives on your device and syncs only through your own private iCloud. Analytics are anonymous and content-masked; your routines and notes never leave as text. If you choose to download the optional on-device AI model, only the model comes down; nothing about you is ever sent to us. HONEST PRICING Your first routine is free, forever. Unlock unlimited routines with a single $24.99 purchase — one time, no subscription, nothing that renews. Cuke offers skills, not therapy. If things feel heavy, a professional is the right tool. Works on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or later.

Screenshots

Screen Star4 screens
Cuke4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Screen Star at 18.0 against Cuke's 26.0. On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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. Screen Star sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Cuke sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Screen Star ships an update every 2 weeks, Cuke fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Screen Star versus Cuke: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScreen StarCuke
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (11 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKhanh Nam BuiEmre ALICI

Customer experience

Screen Star

All ratings11 ratings
Positive72.7%
Neutral27.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Cuke

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Screen Star

Subscriptions3
  • Screen Star Pro$3.997 Days
  • Screen Star Pro3 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Screen Star Pro7 Days trial$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Screen Star Lifetime$134.99
1 purchases

Cuke

One-time1
  • Anchor Lifetime$24.99

Questions

Is Screen Star free?
Screen Star is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cuke free?
Cuke is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Screen Star or Cuke have ads?
Neither Screen Star nor Cuke shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Screen Star or Cuke?
Screen Star ships an update every 2 weeks, and Cuke fortnightly. Most recently, Screen Star was updated on October 25, 2026 and Cuke on October 25, 2026.

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