Pull to Refresh vs Minder
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pull to Refresh
This app locks your most time-consuming applications until you complete physical exercises. Earn back minutes for your apps by doing push-ups, sit-ups, or other movements, with the camera accurately counting your reps. Your exercise data can be saved to Health.
- App time allowance setting
- Exercise-based rep counting
- Pose detection for accurate reps
- Health app integration
- Optional public leaderboard
- Strict mode for enhanced blocking
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Pull to refresh. Actually pull. Pick the apps that eat your day, give them an allowance, and when it runs out they lock. To get back in, you do reps. The camera counts them on your phone. HOW IT WORKS 1. Choose the apps. Instagram, TikTok, X, games — whatever you actually lose hours to. 2. Set the allowance. So many minutes a day, a few minutes an hour, or nothing at all. 3. Run out, and they shut. 4. Do a set. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, pull-ups or jumping jacks. 5. Spend what you earned, on whichever app you were reaching for. THE COUNTING IS HONEST Reps are scored from your body's joint positions, not from your phone shaking in a pocket. A rep only counts on a full movement — down to depth and back — so half-reps score nothing, and the app tells you why instead of leaving you guessing. Shaking the phone pays exactly zero. Time is measured in real use of those apps, not on a clock. Put the phone down mid-scroll and the minutes you paid for wait for you — for at least half an hour, and four times as long as the unlock for bigger ones, up to 22 hours. NO VIDEO LEAVES YOUR PHONE Pose detection runs on the device. No video is recorded, stored or uploaded, and there is no account to make. iOS hands the app opaque tokens rather than names, so it can tell that you picked an app — never what you do inside it. What does leave goes through Apple: rep counts and badge progress to Game Center once you say yes, your name and numbers to the iCloud board if you join it, and a copy of your history to your own iCloud. IT COUNTS TWICE Finished sets can be saved to Health as workouts, so reps done here go to your Move ring and show up in Fitness with everything else. RACE SOMEONE Signed in to Game Center, you get its leaderboards — this week and all time — and nine badges to earn, under your Game Center name. Nothing is sent until you say yes. On iOS 26 and later, start a Rep Race with a friend from Game Center: the biggest single set done during the race wins. Not on Game Center? Join the iCloud board under any name you like; leaving deletes your row. PRO Free covers a whole working loop: one group of apps on a daily allowance, every exercise, rep counting, Health and the leaderboards. Forever. Pro makes the lock harder — it never makes it softer: - Strict mode. A rule you cannot switch off the moment you want to. Changing it costs a cooling-off period first, which is exactly when you would have caved. - Minutes per hour. Short check-ins instead of one long sitting. - As many rules as you like, with different limits for different apps. - Your whole history, with streaks. Money never buys screen time here; reps do. Pro is a subscription, renewing until cancelled, or a one-off payment for good. Manage or cancel any time in Settings. WORTH KNOWING Blocking uses Apple's Screen Time. You will be asked to grant it on first launch, and the camera when you do your first set. Deleting the app removes every lock, whatever you have bought — this is a speed bump you chose, not a cage. Terms of Use (EULA): https://pull-to-refresh.pages.dev/terms Privacy Policy: https://pull-to-refresh.pages.dev/privacy
Minder
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Minder turns your phone into a pair of eyes that watch you work. Prop your phone up, slide to focus, and get to it. The eyes stay with you: they blink, glance around, raise an eyebrow, look proud when you've been going a while, and get very suspicious if you pick your phone up mid-session. It's body doubling for people with ADHD, or anyone who works better when someone's watching. A black screen, two eyes, and a reason to keep going. FREE, AND BUILT TO BRING YOU BACK • Slide to focus; a timer and gentle check-ins every 15, 25, 45 or 60 minutes • A daily goal ring and a streak, with one free Streak Shield every month for the day life gets in the way • Tag each session (Work, Study, Read, Write, Create) and plan it: open-ended, 25, 50 or 90 minutes • A 5-minute break when you finish, while the eyes doze off too • A Lock Screen and Dynamic Island timer while you focus • A Today widget with your goal and streak • Brown noise to focus to, made on the phone • Your week, and where the time went, by tag • "Start focusing in Minder" with Siri or Shortcuts MINDER PRO, ONE PAYMENT • Design your own eyes: every colour, shape, pupil, brow, glow and the dice • Follow my face: the front camera keeps the eyes on you. Nothing is recorded or leaves the phone • Twelve weeks of history, every session, and a CSV export • Pink noise and ocean • Your own tags, and the Week widget 99-CENT EXTRAS • Streak Shields, to keep a streak through a missed day • Focus Posters, a shareable poster of a session or a day with your eyes on it (the first one is free) • Eye packs: Galaxy, Gilded, Toxic and Blood moon, each with a new iris, a look and a matching app icon • The ambience pack: rain and a fireplace No account, no ads, no tracking. Your focus history stays on your iPhone.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Minder at none against Pull to Refresh's 2. Pull to Refresh's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 8 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. Pull to Refresh sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Minder asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pull to Refresh ships an update every 3 days, Minder every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pull to Refresh | Minder |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ivan Chernoknizhnikov | Matthew Busel |
In-app purchases
Pull to Refresh
- Monthly$12.991 Month
- Yearly$44.991 Year
Minder
No in-app purchases









