App Usage Limiter vs Focus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
App Usage Limiter
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You already know how much time you want to give an app. Free Full Usage Limiter is what makes that decision stick. Pick an app, give it a daily budget, and when the budget runs out the app stops opening. That's it. No streaks, no coaching, no account to create. SET LIMITS THE WAY YOU ACTUALLY THINK • Per app — give one app its own daily budget. • Per folder — group several apps together and give them a single shared budget. Twenty minutes across all your social apps, however you split it. When the budget is gone, they all lock at once. TWO WAYS TO BE STOPPED Friction mode leaves a door, but makes you work for it. To buy back a few minutes you type out a full sentence by hand — pasting is rejected — and then sit through a countdown that restarts if you leave the app. Most of the time you'll close it instead. That's the point. Absolute mode has no door. When the time is gone, it's gone until midnight. An absolute limit also can't be loosened or deleted afterwards; you can only make it stricter. Choose it when you already know you'll negotiate with yourself later. IT NOTICES WHEN YOU KEEP TRYING Every time you hit the lock screen, the message changes. The first one is a gentle nudge. By the tenth it isn't gentle, and it tells you how many times you've tried today. Seeing that number is usually what breaks the loop. SEE WHAT YOU GOT BACK A weekly report shows how much less you used your phone compared to the same point last week — overall and app by app. Not a guilt chart. Just the hours you took back. BUILT TO BE BORING ABOUT YOUR DATA No account. No sign-up. No subscription. No ads. No analytics. No third-party code of any kind. There is no server, because there is nothing to send anywhere. Your limits live on your iPhone and nowhere else. Your usage numbers are read inside an isolated system extension that Apple does not let apps read from — which means even this app cannot see them. That's also why the main screen shows a progress bar rather than a live countdown: iOS genuinely does not allow it. HONEST LIMITATIONS • Requires Screen Time permission. It's what makes blocking possible. • Blocks can take up to a minute to appear after your time runs out. That's how iOS reports usage. • Deleting this app removes every block, including absolute ones. Apple does not allow that door to be closed, and we'd rather tell you than pretend otherwise. Free, completely. There is no paid tier to upsell you to.
Focus
This app helps you stay focused by blocking distracting applications for set periods. It uses your own words as reminders and offers features like scheduled focus windows and detailed screen time insights. An emergency pass allows brief access to a blocked app once per session.
- Strict app blocking sessions
- Scheduled focus windows
- Live Lock Screen countdown
- One emergency pass per session
- Screen time insights
- Standalone timer and alarms
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Focus is the app blocker that keeps your word for you. Pick a task, set a duration, and hold to commit. From that second, your chosen apps are locked behind a shield — and there is no snooze, no "remind me in 15 minutes", no way around it. The only way out is through. WHY FOCUS WORKS WHEN WILLPOWER DOESN'T Every distracting app is built by teams whose whole job is to keep you scrolling. Focus levels the field: once you commit, the decision is out of your hands. Open a blocked app and the shield answers with your own words — "I committed to finish my thesis until 21:30." Not a system warning. Your promise, held up to you. STRICT SESSIONS • Choose a task, a duration, and hold to start — a deliberate gesture, not an accidental tap • Blocked apps stay blocked until time is up; the session cannot be cancelled • A live countdown on your Lock Screen keeps the goal in sight • One Emergency Pass per session: unlock a single app for five minutes, then the wall returns FOCUS ON A SCHEDULE • Recurring focus windows for work, study, or sleep — your mornings block themselves • Real alarms that ring from a locked phone, so a schedule is a commitment, not a suggestion • Each rule runs on Apple's Screen Time system, enforced by iOS itself SEE THE PAYOFF • Watch your screen time fall week by week, right next to your focus hours • Per-app insight: what an app cost you before Focus, and what it costs now • Streaks and lifetime stats that never judge, only count TIMER & ALARMS • A clean standalone timer with proper, full-volume alarms • Pick a classic ring or search a song you love as your alarm sound PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account required. Blocking runs on Apple's Screen Time framework, and your activity never leaves your iPhone. We couldn't read it even if we wanted to, because iOS doesn't allow anyone to. The only thing we keep is anonymous usage statistics, never your content. WHO IT'S FOR Students who lose evenings to their phone. Writers, developers, and makers guarding deep work. Anyone who has deleted an app on Sunday and reinstalled it on Monday. Your time is the only thing you truly spend. Focus makes sure it goes where you promised. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ · Privacy Policy: https://itsfocusapp.github.io/focus-legal/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: App Usage Limiter at none against Focus's 2. Focus's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 9 days). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Focus sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per 7 days. App Usage Limiter asks for nothing beyond the download.
App Usage Limiter ships an update every 9 days, Focus every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | App Usage Limiter | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.4 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JAIME MANUEL SERRANO GONZALEZ | Mustafa Anıl Kaya |
In-app purchases
App Usage Limiter
No in-app purchases
Focus
- Focus Pro Weekly$5.997 Days
- Focus Pro Yearly7 Days trial$49.991 Year
Questions
Is App Usage Limiter free?
Is Focus free?
Do App Usage Limiter or Focus have ads?
Which is updated more often, App Usage Limiter or Focus?
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