Comparison

Monolith vs Focus Firewall

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

Head to head
About

Monolith

Features
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Every study session you finish raises a block. The tower grows, stays there, and in three months it tells your whole story in a single image. Monolith is a focus timer with no forests, no mascots and no rewards for things you didn't do. HOW IT WORKS โ€ข Pick 15, 25, 45 or 60 minutes, and the subject. โ€ข While the clock runs, the block's mold hangs above your tower and fills with that subject's light. You watch progress, not a number. โ€ข At zero the block drops, crowns the tower and stays for good. THE RULE Leave the app mid-session and that session doesn't build: it leaves a visible gap, the outline of a block that never happened. No red punishment, no lecture. There's a 20-second grace, because a notification isn't a distraction. YOUR CITY Every month is a tower, and months stack into a skyline you read at a glance: which subject ate your hours, which weeks you missed, how far you've come. SHARING A vertical frame with your city, your hours and your subjects. What you see on screen is exactly the image that gets exported. ACTUALLY FREE Studying and building is never charged. Monolith Pro unlocks five materials for your monolith, sessions of any length you want, unlimited subjects, full history and high-resolution sharing. No accounts, no sign-up: your study data lives on your iPhone. SUBSCRIPTION Monolith Pro is offered as a weekly, monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscription. The price is shown in the app in your currency before you confirm. Payment is charged to your Apple account on confirmation, and the subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel it in iOS Settings โ†’ your account โ†’ Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://monolith-nine-beta.vercel.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://monolith-nine-beta.vercel.app/privacy

About

Focus Firewall

Features
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Focus Firewall puts a shield in front of the apps that eat your day. Choose what to block. Choose when. That is the whole app. WHAT IT DOES โ€ข Block Now โ€” one stretch of focus, from 15 minutes to four hours. โ€ข Rules โ€” recurring schedules that run on their own, without you opening anything. "No social media, weekdays 9 to 12." โ€ข A real shield โ€” open a blocked app and you get a full screen and a short written prompt instead. โ€ข Per-app breaks โ€” need one app for a minute? Take a break that opens only that app. Everything else stays shielded. โ€ข Insights โ€” streaks and sessions, counted from what actually happened. PRIVACY IS THE POINT No account. No server. No analytics. No third-party SDKs. There is no networking code in this app at all, so there is nothing to send and nowhere to send it. When you choose apps to block, iOS hands the app opaque tokens โ€” never names. Focus Firewall never learns which apps you picked. Your iPhone draws the icons and names itself. Your Screen Time data stays inside Apple's own sandbox and never reaches us. WHAT IT WILL NOT CLAIM Focus Firewall is not unbreakable, and will not pretend to be. You can always turn off Screen Time access in iOS Settings, and no app can prevent that. Strict Mode makes a rule harder to change while it is running โ€” friction, not a lock. It also will not tell you how many hours you saved. That would mean knowing what you would otherwise have done. Everything in Insights comes from sessions the app itself recorded. And when something goes wrong โ€” permission revoked, a shield that did not fire โ€” it says so, instead of showing a reassuring checkmark. Settings โ€บ Protection check runs the whole thing end to end and reports each layer. FREE One recurring rule, three apps, Block Now up to an hour, real breaks, today's history. Not a trial. It works. FOCUS FIREWALL PRO Unlimited rules, website blocking, Strict Mode, daily app budgets, longer and more frequent breaks, weekly insights, the full coach library, your own prompts and shield message, interactive widgets, Face ID lock, and an encrypted backup. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Pro can also write your week up in plain words and turn a sentence into a rule โ€” running entirely on device. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel in Settings โ€บ your name โ€บ Subscriptions. Privacy Policy: https://yuganshjain.github.io/focus-firewall/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://yuganshjain.github.io/focus-firewall/terms.html

Screenshots

Monolith4 screens
Focus Firewall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Monolith at 15.0 against Focus Firewall's 18.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Monolith sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Focus Firewall sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Monolith versus Focus Firewall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMonolithFocus Firewall
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPod โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size36 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBenjamin GonzalezYugansh Jain

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Monolith

Subscriptions3
  • Monolith Pro (Weekly)$2.997 Days
  • Monolith Pro (Monthly)$4.991 Month
  • Monolith Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
2 purchases

Focus Firewall

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Pro Yearly$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Monolith free?
Monolith is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Focus Firewall free?
Focus Firewall is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Monolith or Focus Firewall have ads?
Neither Monolith nor Focus Firewall shows ads.

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