Halo vs Cat's Study
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Halo
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Most Pomodoro apps go silent between beeps. Halo doesn't. Pick brown noise, pink noise, or rain, and the sound follows every focus block. When the break starts, it fades. When the next block begins, it comes back. That's the difference. WHAT'S INSIDE A Pomodoro timer with your own focus, short-break, and long-break lengths. Auto-start the next phase or step through manually. Skip or reset at any time. Three ambient beds bundled with the app, not streamed. Brown noise for heads-down work. Pink noise for reading. Rain for the last hour of the day. A completion sound picker too: Off, Default, Chime, Bell, Soft. Tag each session by subject. General, Calculus, Design, Reading, whatever you're on. See the week broken down per subject so you know where the hours actually went. A daily focus goal (2 hours out of the box, editable), a streak that counts consecutive days you hit it, a weekly bar chart, and all-time totals. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN A Live Activity and Dynamic Island keep the countdown on your Lock Screen while you switch apps. Home-screen widgets in four sizes: Today, Streak, Stats, and This week. Full light and dark mode, follows your system. English, Espanol, Francais. WHAT'S NOT INSIDE No account. No sign-in. No cloud. No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No ads. No tracking. Everything is stored on your device. Uninstall Halo and the data goes with it. Settings has a Reset all data button if you want to wipe it without deleting the app. The only permission Halo asks for is notifications, so it can tell you when a session ends. It also uses Live Activities and Background App Refresh so the countdown stays accurate. No camera, microphone, photos, contacts, calendar, location, HealthKit, or motion access, ever. Halo works fully offline. There is no network call in the app. Free. That's the whole story.
Cat's Study
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Cat's Study is a study timer where you focus alongside a cat. Start a task and the cat in the room opens its book too. It rests when you rest and dozes off when you're done. Homework, exams, deep work or reading: it all feels a little less lonely with company. FOCUS TIMER - Stopwatch or Pomodoro, with focus and break lengths set to the minute. - Get notified when it's time to focus or take a break. - Leave the screen alone while you focus and the room dims, with only the timer showing. Handy on a desk stand. TASK PLANNER - Tap โถ next to any of today's tasks to start right away. - Sort tasks into categories like Study or Work, and set daily ones to repeat. - Can't decide? Tap "Just start" and the cat comes up with a task for you. STUDY TRACKER - Daily, weekly and monthly focus time, broken down by category. - Focus 5+ minutes in one go each day to build a streak. - Share your records as an image. ROOM AND SOUNDS - Play rain sounds, thunder, library ambience or lofi music on the turntable, even with the screen off. - Eight room themes, including Cafรฉ in the Rain, Cherry Blossom Study and Spaceship Study. - Earn coins from check-ins, focus sessions and streaks to dress up your cat and its room. NO PRESSURE - Start without signing in, or sign in to keep your records on any device. - Every feature is free, with no in-app purchases. No ads while you focus. - Dark mode supported.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Halo at none against Cat's Study's shown. On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Halo | Cat's Study |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Daily | โ |
| Ads | No โ better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 โ better | 16.6 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 140 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | youssef fakih | Lo-Fi Labs Inc. |
In-app purchases
Halo
No in-app purchases
Cat's Study
No in-app purchases









