Pomodoro Timer vs Focus Hour
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pomodoro Timer
This app helps you focus on tasks using a Pomodoro timer. It offers customizable sessions, break timers, and visual feedback with floating bubbles. Track your progress with detailed history and trends.
- Pomodoro and focus timer
- Customizable session and break times
- Flip control for starting/pausing
- Focus history and trend analysis (Pro)
- Live Activities support
- Optional iCloud sync
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Make room for one thing at a time. BubbleFocus is a Pomodoro and focus timer for studying, reading, writing, and getting work done. Choose a tag, set your time, and let a glass bubble keep you company. A SIMPLE WAY TO BEGIN Start with a tap, or enable flip control on a supported iPhone: place it face down to begin, pick it up to pause, and put it down again to continue. Flip control works while the app is open on the home screen. FIND YOUR OWN RHYTHM Choose a countdown or use the Pro count-up timer for open-ended work. Pause and resume when you need to. After a session, choose your break and enjoy the floating bubbles before returning to your next task. SEE WHERE YOUR TIME GOES Keep your focus history organized with tags. Review completed sessions, then explore trends, a weekly timeline, tag distribution, and a yearly heatmap with Pro. Focus sessions of at least five minutes are saved as valid records. BUILT FOR EVERYDAY USE Follow your timer through Live Activities on supported devices. Use light or dark appearance and choose a photo for your home background. No BubbleFocus account is required. Optional iCloud sync keeps focus history and tags in sync; active timers stay on the device where they started. Alarm alerts are free on supported devices running iOS 26 or later and require system authorization. Adding time to a completed countdown is also free, using "+2 min" in the app. BUBBLEFOCUS PRO Pro adds count-up timing, longer sessions up to 180 minutes, complete statistics, unlimited tags, and the Apple Watch companion. Pro is available through a monthly or yearly subscription, or a lifetime purchase. Features that require Pro are marked in the app. Availability of system features depends on your device and OS version. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. A lifetime purchase does not renew. BubbleFocus 2.0 is the new name and design of WaterFocus. Privacy Policy: https://policy.oneleaf.fun/bubblefocus/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Focus Hour
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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 — focus, a short break, and a longer reset after a few rounds — 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 — with checkboxes that work right there — 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 — Ink, Carbon and Terminal — 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 — 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 — that is how most of this app got here. Install it and plan tomorrow tonight.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Focus Hour at none against Pomodoro Timer's shown. Focus Hour also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Pomodoro Timer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Focus Hour sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Pomodoro Timer ships an update every 2 weeks, Focus Hour every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pomodoro Timer | Focus Hour |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 荣九 蔡 | Meng-Yi Hsu |
In-app purchases
Pomodoro Timer
- BubbleFocus Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
- BubbleFocus Pro Annual7 Days trial$2.991 Year
- Lifetime Pro$0.99
- Lifetime Pro$2.99
Focus Hour
- Unlock All Apps I Built$5.99
- Unlock Focus Hour$9.99
- Unlock Focus Hour$12.99









