Comparison

Focus4Life vs Bibliome

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

Head to head
About

Focus4Life

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Focus4Life turns scattered days into focused ones. A Pomodoro timer, a real task planner and a distraction blocker in one calm app — no ads, no account, and it works completely offline. WHY IT'S QUIET Focus4Life doesn't run on anxiety. No punishing streaks, no guilt, no noise. Its timings and limits come from published research and from the original authors of each technique, and the research-backed settings carry an (i) with the source behind them. FOUR RHYTHMS, EACH WITH A REASON • Classic — 25 / 5 / 15, Cirillo's original technique • Deep Work — 50 / 10 / 30, after Cal Newport's "Deep Work" • Sprint — 15 / 3 / 10, a low-resistance way into a hard task • Ultradian — 90 / 20, the Basic Rest-Activity Cycle (Kleitman; Lavie) • A live countdown on your Lock Screen — and in the Dynamic Island on iPhones that have one — drawn by iOS itself, so it costs almost no battery • A gentle heads-up when a task runs past the limits research links to fatigue FOCUS LOCK — IT ACTUALLY STOPS YOU • Block distracting apps — and websites in Safari — during a session using Apple Screen Time: a real, system-enforced shield, fully opt-in, and only while a focus phase is running • Choose gentle friction or a firm block, per session or for good • Flip your phone face-down to drop straight into focus, and get a nudge if you pick it up too soon • Never during a break. Never while you're paused. Never without a permission you granted yourself A REAL TASK PLANNER, NOT A CHECKLIST • Priorities, due dates and repeats — daily, weekdays, weekly or monthly, ending never, on a date, or after a set number of times • Estimate a task and the app works out how many pomodoros it needs • Today, Week and Month views; on iPad, Week and Month list your actual tasks under each day • Notes on any task • Nothing reschedules itself behind your back. Overdue work is a count and a button, never a scolding PROJECTS WITH SOMETHING TO FILL Group tasks into colour-coded projects, each with an optional note on when and where you'll do the work — an “implementation intention”, shown to make follow-through markedly more likely (Gollwitzer, 1999). Give a project a goal image, estimate its tasks, and the image uncovers itself as you focus your way through the estimate. A GARDEN THAT REMEMBERS Every finished session uncovers part of a hidden picture, and longer sessions uncover more. A quiet record of effort — not a leaderboard, and not a plant that dies if you take a day off. Missing a day never takes anything away. HONEST STATS Minutes focused, sessions completed, tasks done, and your longest single session — for today and the last 7 days. Pro adds 30-day and all-time history, plus a breakdown of which apps interrupted you. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Works fully offline — no account, no sign-up, nothing in the cloud • Your data stays on your device • No ads. Not now, not ever. ONE APP, EVERY SCREEN iPhone, iPad and Mac, each running the same app with the same calm. Every device keeps its own data on itself — there is no cloud and nothing to sign in to. FOCUS4LIFE PRO Free covers the whole core loop: unlimited sessions, all four research presets, the entire task planner with repeats and notes, two projects, the Garden, and flip-to-focus. Pro is a one-time purchase — not a subscription — and unlocks unlimited projects, the full focus blocker, 30-day and all-time stats, custom timer durations, and your own photos in the Garden. It comes with a 7-day trial that asks for no payment card and simply ends. We'd love your feedback — reach us anytime at phan.business.nl@gmail.com.

About

Bibliome

Organize and search your personal document library with intelligent categorization and on-device processing. It suggests filing locations, performs keyword searches, and can even answer questions using passages from your own documents. All data remains private and offline, with optional iCloud sync across devices.

Highlights
  • Intelligent document categorization
  • On-device OCR for scans
  • Keyword search ranked by meaning
  • Answers questions from your documents
  • PDF manipulation (merge, compress)
  • Optional iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Bibliome is the mobile companion to Bibliome Library for Mac — read, search, mark up, and file PDFs on your iPhone or iPad, synced to your Mac library through your own iCloud. Get Bibliome Library for Mac: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6786826590 It also stands completely on its own, no Mac required. Point it at your documents and Bibliome suggests where each one belongs: manuals, papers, datasheets, statements, receipts, whatever your library is made of. Accept with a tap, and it learns from what you file. No uploading, no accounts, no waiting on a server. WHAT WORKS WITH NO MAC AT ALL • Suggests a category for every document and learns from your filing • Move and re-file with a tap • Searches your whole library by keyword, ranked by meaning • Reads scans with on-device OCR • Scans paper to PDF, converts documents, merges, compresses, and reorders pages • Detects dates, totals, and IDs; builds citations; exports notes • Answers questions with the passages from your own documents that address them WHAT NEEDS APPLE INTELLIGENCE Bibliome's sharpest filing and its written answers use Apple Intelligence, which requires iOS 26 on a supported iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence turned on. Without it, every feature above still works exactly the same — this is a hardware difference, not a paywall. There is no subscription and nothing to unlock. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • The app makes no network connections of its own — no servers of ours, no third parties. Your documents never reach us. • All the intelligence runs on your device, offline. • The only data movement anywhere is Apple iCloud, inside your own account: optional library sync, plus a tiny device-presence file (app version and document count — never names or contents) so your devices can notice each other. We can never see any of it. • No ads, no analytics, no tracking. Your documents are yours. ONE LIBRARY, ALL YOUR DEVICES (OPTIONAL) Turn on iCloud sync and your library is shared across iPhone, iPad, and Mac — through your own Apple iCloud account, never a third-party server. Off by default; you're always in control. Bibliome is built for people who keep a real library of documents and want it organized, searchable, and private — without handing it to anyone.

Screenshots

Focus4Life4 screens
Bibliome4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bibliome at none against Focus4Life's 2. On price, update cadence, ads 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. Focus4Life sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Bibliome asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus4Life ships an update weekly, Bibliome every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Focus4Life versus Bibliome: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus4LifeBibliome
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size35 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTu Anh PhanJoshua Langberg

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Focus4Life

One-time2
  • Focus4Life Pro — Lifetime$17.99
  • Focus4Life Pro — Lifetime$34.99
None

Bibliome

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Focus4Life free?
Focus4Life is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bibliome free?
Bibliome is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Focus4Life or Bibliome have ads?
Neither Focus4Life nor Bibliome shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus4Life or Bibliome?
Focus4Life ships an update weekly, and Bibliome every 2 weeks. Most recently, Focus4Life was updated on October 25, 2026 and Bibliome on October 28, 2026.

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