Comparison

Focus Train vs PhoneJail

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

Head to head
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

About

PhoneJail

Read full description

Put your iPhone or iPad in an AR jail on your real desk, then give your attention to studying, working or reading. PhoneJail combines a focus timer with app blocking to make putting your device down a deliberate part of your routine. A REAL PLACE TO PUT YOUR DEVICE Set your session length, then use your camera to scan a flat surface and place a virtual jail. Confirm the location and put your device down to begin. Your desk becomes a visible reminder of the time you chose to spend away from your screen. FEWER DISTRACTIONS WHILE YOU FOCUS With Screen Time permission, PhoneJail temporarily restricts apps and websites during your session. Choose a 5-minute session or work up to 2 hours; a 1-minute option lets you try the flow first. PICK UP TO PAUSE, PUT DOWN TO CONTINUE While PhoneJail is active on screen, lifting your device pauses the focus timer with a jailbreak warning. Put it back down and keep it steady to continue. Normal mode includes an emergency release option. OPTIONAL STRICT MODE Strict Mode is off by default and can be enabled in Settings before starting a session. It removes the emergency release button for that session. Picking up your device pauses the timer; putting it down resumes it. Complete the selected amount of focus time to finish. An unfinished strict session is preserved when you reopen the app. SEE THE TIME YOU HAVE SET ASIDE Review your focus history, streaks and trends. New failed or interrupted sessions remain in your history but do not count toward focus statistics. Existing history and its statistics are preserved. Library Mode keeps vibration alerts quiet when you are sharing a space. POWER-SAVING FOCUS AND WIDGETS Power-saving mode is on by default and respects your device’s Auto-Lock setting. Focus time continues while the screen is locked or the app is in the background, with pickup detection suspended until you return to PhoneJail. A Home Screen widget opens session setup, and a Live Activity shows remaining time on supported devices. The completion label appears at the next system refresh. Reopen the app after time expires to finish the session and remove restrictions. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, ads or tracking SDKs. Focus records and settings stay on your device, with no cloud account to maintain. Camera and motion data are processed on your device to support AR placement and pickup detection. BEFORE YOU START Requires an ARKit-capable iPhone or iPad with iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 or later. AR placement needs camera access, a flat surface and enough light. Screen Time authorization is required to start a protected focus session. Restrictions depend on iOS and your authorization settings. If iOS suspends or terminates the app, reopen PhoneJail to update the session and remove restrictions when it is complete. Available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and Indonesian.

Screenshots

Focus Train4 screens
PhoneJail4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Focus Train at Free against PhoneJail's $0.99. Focus Train also leads on device support (4 vs 2). PhoneJail's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On 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

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Focus Train versus PhoneJail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus TrainPhoneJail
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews95.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer帅 陈Shanghai Infinite Imagination Information Technology Co., Ltd

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
None

PhoneJail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Focus Train free?
Focus Train is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PhoneJail free?
PhoneJail costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Focus Train or PhoneJail have ads?
Neither Focus Train nor PhoneJail shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus Train or PhoneJail?
Focus Train ships an update weekly, and PhoneJail weekly. Most recently, Focus Train was updated on November 13, 2026 and PhoneJail on November 13, 2026.

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