Comparison

Focus Hour vs Focus

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

Head to head
About

Focus Hour

Features
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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 โ€” focus, a short break, and a longer reset after a few rounds โ€” 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 โ€” with checkboxes that work right there โ€” 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 โ€” Ink, Carbon and Terminal โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” that is how most of this app got here. Install it and plan tomorrow tonight.

About

Focus

Features
Read full description

Make time for what matters, one focused session at a time. Focus brings a Pomodoro timer, tasks, and useful progress tracking together on your iPhone. GIVE EACH SESSION A PURPOSE Choose what you want to work on, then start the timer. Keep reading, writing, revision, and everyday work in a simple task list. Add daily time goals to the tasks you want to make room for. FIND YOUR RHYTHM Use a Pomodoro timer with focus periods and breaks, adjust the durations to suit your day, or switch to the stopwatch when you want to count up. Pause, resume, or end a session as your plans change. SEE WHERE YOUR TIME WENT Review your sessions and weekly focus time. See time by task and follow your progress toward a daily goal, so your next session starts with a clearer picture. KEEP YOUR TIMER IN VIEW Follow an active session with Live Activities on your iPhone. On supported iPhone models, your timer can also appear in the Dynamic Island. BRING YOUR DEVICES TOGETHER Use Focus on iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch. Sync your Focus data through your private iCloud database when iCloud is available. Local features work without creating a Focus account. Start with one task. Make a little time. Build from there.

Screenshots

Focus Hour4 screens
Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Focus at none against Focus Hour's 3. Focus also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 2 days). Focus Hour's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads and device support 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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Focus Hour sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Focus asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Focus Hour ships an update every 2 days, Focus daily. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Focus Hour versus Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFocus HourFocus
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 daysDaily โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPod, Apple WatchiPhone, Mac, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size52 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMeng-Yi HsuAyush Deolasee

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Focus Hour

One-time3
  • Unlock All Apps I Built$5.99
  • Unlock Focus Hour$9.99
  • Unlock Focus Hour$12.99
None

Focus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Focus Hour free?
Focus Hour is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus free?
Focus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Focus Hour or Focus have ads?
Neither Focus Hour nor Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Focus Hour or Focus?
Focus Hour ships an update every 2 days, and Focus daily. Most recently, Focus Hour was updated on October 24, 2026 and Focus on October 10, 2026.

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