Blocks vs Tsumoru
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Blocks
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Give your time to what matters. Blocks is a local-first time budget and activity timer for iPhone and Apple Watch. Choose an activity, start the timer, and spend your week with intention ā one block at a time. START A BLOCK Open Today, pick an activity, and go. Blocks keeps counting while you use other apps or put your phone down. Pause, resume, or stop from your iPhone, Apple Watch, Lock Screen, widget, Control Center, or the Dynamic Island. PLAN YOUR WEEK Set how much discretionary time you control each week and give your activities weekly goals. See progress toward each goal in Insights, explore 7-day, 30-day, 90-day, and yearly patterns, and export your history to CSV. COUNT WHAT MATTERS Use counters for things you want to record without timing. Log an occurrence now or choose a past date and time. Correct existing entries, add notes and descriptions, and explore your history. Counters have their own CSV exports and never consume your weekly time budget. SCREEN TIME ā OPTIONAL Choose apps, categories, or websites in Apple's Screen Time picker to compare scrolling with the time you intentionally tracked. Blocks uses individual Family Controls authorization, never blocks or limits an app or website, keeps its scrolling insights on device, and includes this feature free. WORKS WHERE YOU DO Start and control blocks from iPhone or Apple Watch, even when the watch is offline. Keep the current block close with Live Activities, Dynamic Island, Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, Control Center, and watch complications. APPLE HEALTH ā OPTIONAL AND READ ONLY Optionally read workouts, sleep, and mindful minutes from Apple Health. Blocks never writes to Health or sends Health data to its servers. User-initiated CSV exports include available sleep, workouts, and mindful minutes by default, with controls to exclude them before sharing. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Core tracking works without an account or cloud sync. Your records stay on your devices unless you choose to export them. No ads, tracking SDKs, or data brokers. Optional first-party product analytics are off by default and can be turned off and deleted in Settings. FREE TO USE Every feature is included for up to five active activities and three active counters. Blocks Unlimited is an auto-renewing monthly subscription that removes both limits for $2.99/month in the U.S. You can cancel in your App Store subscription settings. Existing records remain available after expiration. Terms of Use: https://timeblocks.io/terms
Tsumoru
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Track the time you spend reading, studying and practicing with Tsumoru. Start a timer, save your session, and see your hours add up. A fifteen-minute session counts too. Taking a day off never resets your total. START, FINISH, SAVE Choose a category and start the timer on your iPhone. Name your categories for what matters to you: language study, piano, reading or another skill. Create as many as you need. No NFC tag or Apple Watch required. SEE YOUR WEEK AND YOUR PROGRESS ⢠See your time by weekday in a weekly chart ⢠Review each category's total and the last 12 months ⢠Set an hours goal and daily or weekly time budgets ⢠Estimate when you will reach your goal at your pace over the last 7 days MORE WAYS TO START Start and end sessions from your Apple Watch. Use the Action button, or hold your iPhone to an NFC tag on your book or desk. Tap the tag again to finish. NFC is optional and needs a tag, sold separately, plus a Shortcuts automation set up once. PAUSED TIME DOESN'T COUNT Optionally block selected apps during a session. To use one, choose to pause and unblock, then reopen that app. Paused time is excluded from your record. Return to Tsumoru to resume the same session. YOUR TIME, AT A GLANCE See today's time and your running session on the Lock Screen, and your total and category breakdown in Home Screen widgets. Tsumoru also supports Live Activities, the Dynamic Island, StandBy and Apple Watch complications. KEEP PAGES AND NOTES Photograph the page when you finish reading to capture its page number. Dictate a note to remember what you worked on. Enable these options for each category. Text recognition and speech recognition run on your device. KEEP YOUR OWN PACE No ads, no account, no streaks, no rankings and no notification reminders. Records come from the timer. You can shorten or delete a session, but you cannot add time manually or increase recorded time. Records are stored on your iPhone and in your own iCloud. Export to CSV or JSON, or choose to save completed sessions to Calendar. REQUIREMENTS ⢠iPhone with iOS 26 or later ⢠Watch controls need watchOS 26 or later and a connection to your iPhone ⢠NFC needs a tag and a Shortcuts automation ⢠App blocking needs Screen Time permission ⢠Page capture needs camera access; dictation needs microphone and speech recognition access
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Tsumoru at none against Blocks's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Blocks sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 per month. Tsumoru asks for nothing beyond the download.
Blocks ships an update weekly, Tsumoru every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Blocks | Tsumoru |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 6 days ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No ā better |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nathaniel Gerdes | Yuta Tamaru |
In-app purchases
Blocks
- Blocks Unlimited$2.991 Month
Tsumoru
No in-app purchases








