Comparison

LiquidText vs Deep Work & Focus

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

Head to head
About

LiquidText

This app provides a dynamic workspace for reviewing and organizing information from documents and webpages. It allows users to extract key facts, connect ideas across different sources, and annotate content for research, writing, or study.

Highlights
  • Import documents and webpages
  • Extract and organize excerpts
  • Connect ideas with ink links
  • Compare document sections
  • Annotate PDFs, Word, and PowerPoint
  • Search across all documents
Features
Read full description

*** Named “Most Innovative iPad App of the Year” by Apple App Store *** LiquidText offers a fast, natural way to review, gather, and organize information across all your documents and webpages—then apply the results to writing reports, meeting prep, or simply studying. Pull out key facts and connect them together, squeeze a document to compare sections, draw a line to connect ideas in different documents, comment on multiple pages at once, build upon your thoughts, and much more. ► WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: * "If you want to experience the power of going beyond paper, you can download LiquidText" – Cult of Mac * One of Macworld’s Top 24 Apps for iPad Pro * One of Time Magazine's Ten Best apps for iPad Pro * * "There's a better way to organize your research, and the app is it." – iMore, Serenity Caldwell * “All you need for deep research projects.” – Macworld, Jackie Dove * "The world changed with...LiquidText" – Law360, Paul Kiesel * "LiquidText may just be *the* app for reviewing and annotating PDFs using Apple's tablet and stylus." – CIO Magazine, James Martin * “One of the most powerful, original iPad apps I've tried in years” – Federico Viticci, MacStories.net ► LIQUIDTEXT’S COMPLETE FEATURE SET INCLUDES: (Features with * require a paid upgrade.) Import • Create a workspace and import all the documents and web pages you need • Compatible with PDF, Word, and PowerPoint document types • Import from Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Box, email, and more • Import content from webpage or send to LiquidText directly from Safari • Instant OCR to select text in scanned documents; do a full document-OCR to search as well!* • Import documents & metadata directly from reference managers (supports Zotero and Mendeley)* Interact • Pull excerpts from all the documents in your project into the Workspace area • Add your own notes (typed or written) to the Workspace area • Freely draw on your notes, or on the workspace itself* • Organize excerpts and notes into groups • Connect anything - draw live “ink links” that span pages, documents, notes, and more* • Create mind-maps by drawing “ink links” connecting your excerpts/notes to one another * • Get context - tap notes and excerpts to find original source Compare • Pinch a document to compare different distant pages side by side • Collapse text to see annotated parts side-by-side • Collapse text to view search results(s) side-by-side • Import unlimited number of documents into a project, view up to 3 at once* Annotate • Freely draw* or highlight on your document, notes, or the workspace itself • Add margin notes/comments to text, images, notes, and excerpts • Comment on two or more selections simultaneously • Replace document with a newer version (and annotations are brought to new doc)* Search • Search for keywords across all your LiquidText documents • Find keywords in title or text of your documents* • Bulk highlight, tag, or link to your search results* Realtime Collaboration • Invite colleagues into your shared projects and work together in near realtime* • Leave comments and notifications for your collaborators* • Privacy controls: set whether each workspace & document in your project is shared or private* Easy Export • Export your project as a PDF (includes your Workspace and documents) • Export your project as a Word file (converts your notes/excerpts into a linear document) • Send a full LiquidText file for those with the app. • Send files by email or to Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Zotero, and more* Sync & Backup* • Real-time, cross-platform sync • Continuous cloud backup • Multi-device display: • Use your desktop or tablet as additional display for your other device • Use your tablet for freehand inking while viewing and keyboarding on your desktop See our terms of use at https://www.liquidtext.net/terms-of-use Learn more at LiquidText.net | Better Than Paper

About

Deep Work & Focus

Features
Read full description

Observatory is a calm focus and deep-work app. Start a session on one task, stay with it, and see real patterns in how you focus. Free to start. When you drift or pause, that time isn't counted as focus. When you focus, it counts. And a quiet day is never treated as a failure. FOCUS Start a focus session on a single task and stay with it A glowing orb that keeps you company while you work, with no pressure and no gamification Drift detection: leave the app and a gentle reminder brings you back Pauses and drifts are tracked, and never counted as focus Six focus environments: Rainfall, Tide, Hearth, Nightfall, Drift and Forest Ambient focus sounds to help you settle in See your calendar alongside your day, and turn events into focus tasks PROGRESS Today's focus inside rings for your daily goal, active days and on-task rate Clear charts of your focus time, with more detail on shorter ranges A heatmap of when your sessions tend to start across the week Records and a Grind Score, drawn from your own sessions Your trajectory over time, so you can see how you're changing Focus time per project and per task, including estimate versus actual A COMPANION THAT LEARNS YOU Discovers your patterns: when you focus best, your strongest days, how your sessions run deepest Tells you what it notices in plain words, based on your own sessions Suggests small experiments, and gives an honest read on whether they worked A weekly review that brings your week together and shows what changed A Story of your focus to look back on When there isn't enough data to say something, it says so MAKE IT YOURS Focus themes, Home backdrops, orb colours and sounds Light and dark mode A daily focus goal and a weekly consistency goal Every number and sentence in Observatory comes from your own sessions. It won't flatter you, and it won't shame you. DETAILS https://observatoryfocus.com observatoryapp2026@gmail.com OBSERVATORY PREMIUM The core focus timer, stats for the week and month, recent trends and a few projects are free, always. Premium unlocks: Every pattern and the complete picture of how you focus Personalised suggestions and experiments Your full history and long-term trends The weekly review All focus themes, Home backdrops, sounds and orb colours Unlimited projects Premium is available as a monthly or annual subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://observatoryfocus.com/privacy Download Observatory and do the work that matters.

Screenshots

LiquidText4 screens
Deep Work & Focus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Deep Work & Focus at none against LiquidText's 13. Deep Work & Focus also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). LiquidText's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. LiquidText sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $5.49 per month. Deep Work & Focus asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LiquidText ships an update every 2 weeks, Deep Work & Focus every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
LiquidText versus Deep Work & Focus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLiquidTextDeep Work & Focus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (6.4K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews49.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings6.4K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size317 MB128 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperLiquidText, Inc.Rohan Agarwal

Bugs and requests

LiquidText

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent crashes and data loss issues
  • Inconsistent behavior with Apple Pencil
  • Text selection and highlighting problems
  • Sync issues between iPad and Mac versions
  • Unexpected changes to existing annotations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved palm rejection and writing experience
  • Better export and sharing options
  • Thumbnail/outline view for easier navigation
  • Ability to rotate and resize text/image annotations

Deep Work & Focus

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

13 purchases

LiquidText

Subscriptions10
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, Stu7 Days trial$5.491 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, StPr7 Days trial$5.491 Month
  • LiquidText Unlimited, Mo, Stu7 Days trial$10.901 Month
Show 7 more
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly7 Days trial$10.901 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, Upg7 Days trial$10.901 Month
  • LiquidText Unlimited, Yr, Stu7 Days trial$19.001 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly, Stu7 Days trial$54.901 Year
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly, Upg7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • LiquidText Unlimited, Yr7 Days trial$189.991 Year
One-time3
  • LT Pro - For Students$19.99
  • LiquidText Pro$29.99
  • LiquidText Pro II$89.99
None

Deep Work & Focus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LiquidText free?
LiquidText is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Deep Work & Focus free?
Deep Work & Focus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do LiquidText or Deep Work & Focus have ads?
Neither LiquidText nor Deep Work & Focus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LiquidText or Deep Work & Focus?
LiquidText ships an update every 2 weeks, and Deep Work & Focus every 4 days. Most recently, LiquidText was updated on October 21, 2026 and Deep Work & Focus on October 8, 2026.

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