Comparison

Scaffold vs Bloom Focus Timer

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

Head to head
About

Scaffold

Build a thriving city by staying focused on your tasks. This app combines a focus timer, app blocker, and routine planner to turn your productive sessions into tangible city growth. Earn rewards, unlock new buildings, and visualize your progress.

Highlights
  • Focus timer for tasks
  • App blocking
  • Routine planner
  • City building visualization
  • Progress tracking
  • Friend collaboration
Features
Read full description

Build your city by focusing. Scaffold is a focus timer, app blocker, routine planner, and city-building productivity app. Choose what you want to accomplish, protect your time from distracting apps, and turn your real-life progress into a city that grows with you. Whether you’re studying for an exam, working on a project, building better routines, or managing ADHD distractions, Scaffold gives your effort a visible payoff. Every completed session helps construct something permanent. FOCUS THAT BUILDS SOMETHING • Set a flexible focus timer for studying, work, reading, creative projects, or anything else that matters. • Choose a building before you begin, then place it or advance its construction when you finish. • Earn coins for your focused time and use them to unlock new buildings and neighborhoods. • Organize sessions with custom topics and save your favorite setups for later. • Select distracting apps and categories to block during sessions using Apple’s Screen Time controls. BUILD ROUTINES THAT REWARD YOU • Create reusable, step-by-step routines for mornings, evenings, studying, exercise, cleaning, or your own daily rituals. • Give each step its own timer, move through your routine one task at a time, and pause whenever you need to. • Follow active routines from your Lock Screen with Live Activities and reminders. • Complete eligible routines to earn Upgrades that advance your buildings faster. DESIGN A CITY THAT IS YOURS • Start with a lively starter neighborhood and expand it as your progress grows. • Collect over 50 building designs and visual variants. • Build roads, arrange neighborhoods, customize buildings, and shape your own skyline. • Watch buildings progress through construction stages as you invest more time. • Unlock larger neighborhoods as your city expands. SEE YOUR PROGRESS • Review focused time, completed sessions, routines, active days, favorite topics, and city growth. • See how your productivity changes across days, weeks, months, and years. • Create shareable progress cards featuring the city your effort has built. BUILD WITH FRIENDS • Add friends and visit the neighborhoods they choose to share. • Bring shared neighborhoods into your world and show off your favorite parts of your own city. • Earn free neighborhood unlocks through your first friendships. SCAFFOLD PREMIUM Scaffold’s complete focus, routine, and city-building loop is free. Premium members can unlock dozens of additional building variants, access longer-term monthly and yearly insights, and share up to three neighborhoods with friends. Your membership also supports continued development and regular releases of new buildings. No account is required to begin focusing and building your city. Your time is already building your future. Now you can watch it build a city. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://scaffoldfocusapp.com/privacy

About

Bloom Focus Timer

This app uses a unique approach to time management by gamifying focus sessions. Grow a virtual forest by completing work or study periods, with your trees' survival depending on your commitment. It also offers a collaborative mode for shared focus sessions.

Highlights
  • Gamified focus timer
  • Virtual tree growth
  • Forest building
  • Unlock new tree species
  • Collaborative focus sessions
  • Track work history
Features
Read full description

A focus timer should be simple. Bloom is a timer for work and study, and not much else. Pick a tree, choose how long you want to focus, and start. The tree grows while you work, and joins your forest when the session ends. Longer sessions grow bigger trees. New species unlock as your hours add up. Give up early and your tree dies. Plant with a friend: share your code, start one countdown together, and if either of you gives up, both trees die. Over time you end up with a forest you built yourself as a quiet record of the work you've done.

Screenshots

Scaffold4 screens
Bloom Focus Timer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Bloom Focus Timer at weekly against Scaffold's every 4 weeks. Bloom Focus Timer also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Scaffold sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month and Bloom Focus Timer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Scaffold against 5.0 for Bloom Focus Timer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scaffold ships an update every 4 weeks, Bloom Focus Timer weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Scaffold versus Bloom Focus Timer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScaffoldBloom Focus Timer
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHoelscher Ventures, LLCMAXIMILIAN ANTON MICHLITS

Customer experience

Scaffold

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bloom Focus Timer

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Scaffold

Subscriptions1
  • Scaffold Premium$4.991 Month
1 purchases

Bloom Focus Timer

One-time1
  • Buy me a coffee$4.00

Questions

Is Scaffold free?
Scaffold is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bloom Focus Timer free?
Bloom Focus Timer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Scaffold or Bloom Focus Timer?
Scaffold and Bloom Focus Timer are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Scaffold or Bloom Focus Timer have ads?
Neither Scaffold nor Bloom Focus Timer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scaffold or Bloom Focus Timer?
Scaffold ships an update every 4 weeks, and Bloom Focus Timer weekly. Most recently, Scaffold was updated on October 31, 2026 and Bloom Focus Timer on November 6, 2026.

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