Comparison

DOTS vs Mosaic

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

Head to head
About

DOTS

Visualize your finite time and protect it from distractions. Set daily app limits, schedule downtime, and track reclaimed hours to live more intentionally. Features include a life grid, focus mode, and weekly reflections.

Highlights
  • Life grid visualization
  • Focus mode to block distractions
  • Daily app time limits
  • Scheduled downtime
  • Weekly reflections
  • Time reclaimed tracking
Features
Read full description

You have one life. About 4,000 weeks, if you're lucky. DOTS shows you every single one - as a grid of dots - so the time you have stops being an abstraction and starts feeling real. Then it helps you protect it. THE LIFE GRID Each dot is one week of your life. See the weeks you've already lived, the one you're in right now, and the ones still ahead. It's a quiet, powerful reminder that your time is finite - and worth defending. FOCUS MODE Start a focus session and DOTS shields the apps that pull you away. No willpower battles, no endless scrolling. Just the space to do what actually matters to you. DAILY LIMITS Set a daily time budget for the apps that eat your hours. When you hit your limit, DOTS steps in with a calm reminder of the commitment you made to yourself not a guilt trip, just a nudge back to your intentions. MINDFUL BLOCKING Choose the apps and categories you want to manage. DOTS uses Apple's Screen Time technology to block them on your terms, for the time you decide. Everything is opt-in and fully in your control. WEEKLY REFLECTIONS Look back on how you spent your time, notice your patterns, and set intentions for the week ahead. Small, honest check-ins that compound into real change. BUILT FOR YOU, AND ONLY YOU DOTS manages your own device, for your own goals. It is not a parental-control or tracking app. Your usage data stays private - stored on your device and synced only to your personal iCloud. We don't collect it, sell it, or share it. WIND-DOWN The "just ten minutes" that becomes two hours, fixed. Set a bedtime window and a short allowance. You get your few minutes, a gentle heads-up as the time runs low, then your apps wind down until morning. Keep it and your sleep streak grows. SCHEDULED DOWNTIME Block the apps that pull you away on a schedule that fits your life - work hours, school, dinner, deep work. Set it once and it runs every day, on its own. PER-APP LIMITS Give each app its own daily budget instead of one shared timer. Keep essentials like Maps, your bank, and Messages always allowed, and get a heads-up a few minutes before a limit is reached. TIME WON BACK See the hours you reclaim from focus sessions and protected nights add up as a growing field of green dots. The cost of a screen is easy to feel - now the winnings are too. LIFE LIVED A ten-second daily check-in: did you actually use the time you saved the way you meant to? It builds a quiet record of the days you showed up for your own life, not just the time you saved. MILESTONES Count down to the dates that matter - a birthday, a goal, a someday - in weeks. Seal a letter to your future self that opens on the very day it arrives. ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN AND WITH SIRI Follow your focus countdown live on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, and start or end a session hands-free with a Shortcut. WHY DOTS IS DIFFERENT Most screen-time apps treat the symptom. DOTS starts with the why: a clear, visceral picture of how precious your time is. Once you feel that, blocking an app stops feeling like a restriction and starts feeling like a choice - your choice. Privacy Policy: https://novarch.lol/dots-privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://novarch.lol/dots-terms Your life. Your time. Your choice. Download DOTS and start protecting the weeks you have left.

About

Mosaic

Features
Read full description

Mosaic turns your habits into something you actually want to look at. Every day you complete a habit, you paint one tile. Miss a day, and it stays blank — a mosaic that's a mirror of what you actually did, not what you meant to do. Keep it up, and watch a real, physical-feeling piece of art fill in: faceted gems, hand-cut stained glass, polished marble, glowing neon, retro pixel art, and soft watercolor washes — seven materials, five color palettes, and four layouts (grid, hex-packed, concentric year-rings, or a golden-ratio spiral), all combining differently for every habit. YOUR MOSAIC, ALL TOGETHER Beyond individual habits, "Your Mosaic" brings your check-ins into collections you can keep. Reveal a picture one tile at a time over 30 distinct days, spread across weeks or months. Missing a day does not take away earned tiles. Choose from bundled artwork for free, or use your own photo with Mosaic Plus. Keep finished collections and start another. BUILT-IN MOTIVATION, NOT GUILT See the effort you have already put in, with habit history, calendar corrections, weekly check-ins, and weekly-goal progress. Mosaic Plus adds longer progress comparisons. Return when you can — your earned artwork stays yours. SHARE WHAT YOU BUILT Export your mosaic as a share card, a 9:16 story, a square post, an animated video, or a full wallpaper for your Lock Screen — built for the moment you actually want to show someone what a month of showing up looks like. At the end of the year, get a "Wrapped"-style annual poster of your whole year in tiles. EVERYWHERE YOU ARE Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets so you can complete today's tile without opening the app A full Apple Watch app to check off habits from your wrist Siri and Shortcuts support to log habits by voice Gentle local reminders — set per habit, never spammy MADE FOR REAL LIFE Set habits to daily, a number of times per week, or specific days. Track streaks, best streaks, and total completions. Archive and restore habits, and create an optional backup file to save where you choose. Habits live on your device — Mosaic doesn't require an account or track you. FREE TO START Track up to three active habits, choose from bundled artwork, and share standard exports for free. Mosaic Plus unlocks unlimited active habits, every palette and material, personal-photo collections, and deeper progress with a one-time lifetime purchase or an auto-renewing monthly subscription. Existing ownership of standalone seasonal packs remains honored. Your habits, as a masterpiece. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

DOTS4 screens
Mosaic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: DOTS at every 8 days against Mosaic's every 2 months. Mosaic's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. DOTS sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Mosaic sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DOTS ships an update every 8 days, Mosaic every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
DOTS versus Mosaic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDOTSMosaic
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS26.117.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB44 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperNovarch LLCLav Chaudhary

In-app purchases

4 purchases

DOTS

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Premium$1.997 Days
  • Monthly Premium$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$49.99
3 purchases

Mosaic

Subscriptions1
  • Mosaic Monthly$2.991 Month
One-time2
  • Summer Splash Pack$3.99
  • Mosaic Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is DOTS free?
DOTS is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mosaic free?
Mosaic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do DOTS or Mosaic have ads?
Neither DOTS nor Mosaic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DOTS or Mosaic?
DOTS ships an update every 8 days, and Mosaic every 2 months. Most recently, DOTS was updated on October 24, 2026 and Mosaic on October 18, 2026.

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