Comparison

Flow vs Focus Hour

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

Head to head
About

Flow

Features
Read full description

Make space for deep focus with a timer that adapts to the way you work. Flow is a calm, flexible focus system for work, study, reading, writing, meditation, and everything in between. Create routines that fit your day, keep the countdown visible across your Apple devices, and turn each completed session into useful progress. FOCUS YOUR WAY - Create custom timers with your own name, icon, color, focus duration, break length, and rounds - Build Pomodoro-style routines for deep work, study sessions, reading, writing, or mindful breaks - Pause, skip, restart, or stop a session whenever your plans change - Choose light or dark appearance to match your space STAY FOCUSED EVERYWHERE - Follow your session from iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch - Keep the timer close with widgets, Dynamic Island, and Live Activities - Choose focus music and control Apple Music playback without leaving the timer SEE YOUR PROGRESS - Earn reward points and build streaks as sessions add up - Compare routines and review focus time, completion patterns, and your most productive hours - Use Focus Coach for practical guidance based on your focus history - Compare Flow focus time with Apple Health mindful-minute summaries REFLECT AND IMPROVE - Record your mood and distractions after a session - Add a short note about what worked or what got in the way - Search your history by routine, note, or date - Return to past sessions to spot patterns and make your next focus block better FLOW PRO only for $0.99 for Lifetime! Unlock Extensions, unlimited Custom Timers, the full History archive, advanced Insights, Focus Coach, Apple Health comparison, and Apple Music controls, Widgets, Live activity, Dynamic Island. Whether you are protecting time for a demanding project, studying for an exam, reading without distraction, or building a steadier daily rhythm, Flow gives you a clear place to begin. Find your flow, one focused session at a time. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Focus Hour

Features
Read full description

Focus Hour is a task manager, a day planner and a focus timer in one app. No account. No sign-up. No email. No ads. Open it, plan tomorrow, and start. PLAN THE DAY, THEN DO IT Lists, folders and headings for structure. Tags, saved filters and search for everything else. Subtasks, checklists, markdown notes and photo attachments on any task. Due dates, defer dates, durations, recurrence, and reminders with buttons you can act on straight from the notification. TYPE IT, DON'T TAP IT Quick add reads what you write. "Draft the report friday 2pm #work !2" lands dated, tagged and flagged without touching a single picker. A PLANNER THAT KNOWS YOUR CALENDAR Your tasks and your existing calendar events on one timeline, so the plan reflects the time you actually have. Auto-plan drops the backlog into the gaps. Calendar events are read-only and never leave your device. FOCUS, PROPERLY A real Pomodoro cycle โ€” focus, a short break, and a longer reset after a few rounds โ€” with every duration configurable. Or a plain stopwatch. Synthesised ambient beds to work under: rain, waves, fire, and three kinds of noise. Start a session on a task and the time is logged against it. BUILD THE HABITS Daily, weekday or times-per-week habits, with count goals, streaks and notes. SEE IT WITHOUT OPENING THE APP Home Screen widgets for today's list โ€” with checkboxes that work right there โ€” and for the running timer. Lock Screen widgets for what's next and how long is left. An Apple Watch app to tick things off, log habits and run a focus session from your wrist. And a share sheet that sends a link, a screenshot or selected text from any app straight to your Inbox. MADE TO LOOK LIKE SOMETHING Three skins โ€” Ink, Carbon and Terminal โ€” with hard rules, a grotesk display face and monospaced figures. Not another rounded grey list. ALSO IN THE BOX An Eisenhower matrix, a weekly review, project templates, XP levels and badges, and focus statistics by day, list, task and hour. BUILT BY ONE PERSON I built Focus Hour for myself, in a year when AI finally made something like this achievable alone โ€” then kept building whatever people asked for. No team, no investors, and no roadmap written by anyone but the people using it. And no subscription: your own to-do list shouldn't be rented back to you month after month. Your tasks, notes and photos stay on your iPhone, and your calendar is read-only and never leaves the device. No tracking of you across other companies' apps or websites, and nothing shared with data brokers. TELL ME WHAT TO BUILD See something in another to-do app that you wish this one had? Email mark@vibecode.review. I read every message and I build what people actually ask for โ€” that is how most of this app got here. Install it and plan tomorrow tonight.

Screenshots

Flow4 screens
Focus Hour4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Focus Hour at every 2 days against Flow's every 5 weeks. Focus Hour also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Flow sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Focus Hour sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flow ships an update every 5 weeks, Focus Hour every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Flow versus Focus Hour: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlowFocus Hour
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.215.1 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size11 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNeerav KothariMeng-Yi Hsu

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Flow

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Weekly Pass$0.99
3 purchases

Focus Hour

One-time3
  • Unlock All Apps I Built$5.99
  • Unlock Focus Hour$9.99
  • Unlock Focus Hour$12.99

Questions

Is Flow free?
Flow is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus Hour free?
Focus Hour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Flow or Focus Hour have ads?
Neither Flow nor Focus Hour shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Flow or Focus Hour?
Flow ships an update every 5 weeks, and Focus Hour every 2 days. Most recently, Flow was updated on October 3, 2026 and Focus Hour on October 18, 2026.

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