The facts, side by side
In alphabetical order. Each fact links to where it comes from: the tool’s own website or store listing, read on or before the day above, and for Timer by LogicFire.app its own pages. Prices put each free version beside ours; a paid plan is named as paid, in the currency its maker gives.
| Tool | Price | Sign-up needed | Platforms | What it keeps about you | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus To-Do | Free to download, with in-app purchases, on the App Store and Google Play (Google Play, Australia), and its Chrome extension offers in-app purchases (Chrome Web Store). On the US App Store they are Lifetime at US$11.99, 3 Months at US$3.99 and Focus To-Do Premium at US$1.99 on its iOS listing (App Store, US), and Lifetime at US$11.99, 3 Months at US$3.99 and Focus To-Do Premium at US$3.99 on its Mac listing (App Store, US, Mac). Its privacy policy ties Premium features to an account (privacy policy). | No: it “provides local mode without registering an account”. Without one, tasks don’t sync between devices and are lost if you uninstall the app (privacy policy). | Android, Android tablet, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Windows and a Chrome extension (its site), and Wear OS (Google Play, Australia). | Its privacy policy: with an account, your email address and password, and synced task data such as titles, content, due dates and pomodoros; what it collects is stored in China (privacy policy). Its App Store label lists user content, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics as collected but not linked to you (App Store, US). Google Play lists your email address and photos among the data it may collect, and crash logs among the data it may share with other companies (Google Play, Australia). | Its Google Play listing showed no “Contains ads” label when we checked (Google Play, Australia). Its privacy policy says it occasionally relies on outside companies for services such as “providing advertising measures (only if you have your prior express consent)”, passing information on to them (privacy policy). |
| Opal | Free: “Free, forever”, $0 a month on iOS, Android and Mac, with “1 Rule” and the “Opal Score (Today only)”. Opal Pro is paid, shown only as “$”: Yearly is $8.29 a month, “$99.99 billed annually”; Monthly is “$19.99/month”, shown with “$239 billed annually”; Lifetime is $399, a “One Time Payment”. Students get “up to 50% off Opal Pro” (pricing page). Its store listings say free with in-app purchases (Google Play, Australia). The US App Store lists, some more than once, Yearly Plan at US$99.99, Monthly Plan at US$19.99, Weekly Plan at US$4.99 and at US$9.99, Opal Student Weekly at US$9.99 and Opal Pro Subscription at US$49.99 (App Store, US). | Its terms: “You can choose to sign up for a free account, or to sign up for a premium account with additional features.” (terms) | iPhone, Mac and Android: “Available on iPhone, Mac and Android”, blocking apps “whether it's on your phone or desktop” (its site). Its App Store listing says “Only for iPhone” (App Store, US), and on Android 14 and above it uses Android’s AccessibilityService to manage the apps on your block list (Google Play, Australia). | Its policy, on its terms page: on iOS it shows information about the apps you use “but we do not store any of this data”, and on Android “Detailed app-usage data processed through these mechanisms remains on your device”; it keeps contact information and user identifiers linked to you, and your phone number if you use Social Features; it may collect your name and location; and with Social Features on, your daily total screen time is shared with confirmed friends through its servers (terms). Its listings say “Your data never leaves your device.” (Google Play, Australia) and that “personal browsing data never leaves your device” (App Store, US). Its Google Play data safety section says approximate and precise location may be shared with other companies; that it may collect crash logs, your name, email address, user IDs and phone number, device or other IDs, and app interactions and installed apps; and “Your data isn’t transferred over a secure connection” (Google Play, Australia). Its App Store label: identifiers may be used to track you, and purchases, contact info, user content, identifiers and usage data may be linked to you (App Store, US). | Its terms: “On Android, we also offer a free ad-supported tier.” and “Upgrading to Opal Pro removes all advertising.” (terms) |
| Timer by LogicFire.app | Free, with or without an account (About). | No. A free account is optional: it keeps your runs on every device and adds subjects, groups and the Chrome extension (guide). | A web browser on a computer, phone or tablet, and it installs as an app from the browser (guide). On a phone, add it to the Home Screen (guide). There’s no App Store or Google Play app yet. A Chrome extension, which needs an account; Edge installs it from the same store page (guide). | Signed out, your runs, tasks and settings stay in your browser. The site keeps a record of each page you open for 90 days, with your full IP address for up to 8 days and a shortened one after (visit records). Under a hash of your address that changes every day, it also keeps yes-or-no notes that the page ran and was used, and, if you aren’t signed in, the site you came from, whether you started a run and a daily count of runs and minutes (privacy page, where you came from). If you came from one of the site’s ads on Reddit, a cookie keeps Reddit’s click ID for up to 30 days. If you make an account in that browser in that time, the site tells Reddit that the ad led to an account. Neither happens if your browser sends Global Privacy Control (privacy page). With an account it also keeps your runs, breaks and tasks; your handle, your display name if you gave one and your timezone; your email address if you sign in with one; your subject categories and the groups you are in; a label for each of your devices, such as “Chrome on Windows”; and each passkey’s id and public key (privacy page). A visit made while signed in stays linked to your account for the record’s 90 days, even if you delete the account (visit records). | Yes, from Google, when they are switched on: on the timer, the guide, the essays, and the LogicFire.app home page and list of essays. The home page loads Google’s ad code even when they are off. Google uses cookies to show them. None on this page. Account holders can hide them on the timer and the guide, for now (privacy page). |
| Toggl | Toggl’s Free plan is $0, “Free for a limited number of users” and “free forever”, with manual and real-time timers, focus mode, calendar integrations and personal reports. Paid plans are shown only as “$”: Starter is $9 per user per month on Annual or $12 on Monthly, and Premium $16 per user per month on Annual or $24 on Monthly (pricing page). | Toggl’s online timer ran with no account when we tried it, and says “For advanced features, sign up for a free Toggl account.” (online timer) Its browser extension asks you to log in to Toggl (Chrome Web Store). Toggl says Toggl Track stays “available and supported for existing users” (pricing page). | “Web, mobile, desktop apps and browser extension”: Android, iOS and iPad; Windows and macOS; Firefox and Chrome (pricing page). | Its privacy policy: your full name, email address, country of residence and time zone when you register; the date and time of each login, “along with your IP address (giving us your approximate location)”; what you enter, record and store in Toggl (its “Organization Data”), which it processes “on the Organization Owner’s behalf”; and, when you visit its websites, it “may (depending on the site visited, resource accessed, device used and your hardware and software settings)” collect your IP address, approximate location, entry and exit pages, referral sites and keywords, session time and duration and what you do there (“pages viewed, links followed, clicks made”), among other things (privacy policy). Its plan comparison lists “Desktop activity tracking” and “Auto track selected pages via browser extension”, and the same page says “No screenshots, no surveillance” (pricing page). | Its privacy policy: “We do not sell personal information for money, but we may ‘share’ personal information”, as state laws define it, “with analytics and advertising partners for cross-context behavioural advertising when you consent to non-essential cookies”; and some third-party cookies “may result in advertisements or other messages being displayed to you based on your browsing history” (privacy policy). |
What Timer by LogicFire.app measures
- A run is the unbroken stretch from pressing Start focus until you press I got distracted or End session, or the clock stops at zero. Stretches under 5 seconds aren’t recorded (guide).
- The chart shows one bar a day, for 3 to 180 days. A bar’s height is that day’s average run, an orange tick marks its longest run and a dotted line the total time focused. Its colour is the day’s consistency score, from 0 to 1, for how even the runs were (guide, consistency score).
- It counts what you tell it. The page can’t see where your attention is, so a run lasts until you press, and time in another tab still counts. The Chrome extension counts only while the computer is in use, until a minute after your last key or mouse move, and the first beat when you come back can add up to a minute and a half (guide, extension).
Choose this if
What each one does better, in the same order as the table.
- Focus To-Do. Choose this if you want a pomodoro timer joined to a to-do list on your phone, watch and computer, with your work time shown by day, week and month and by project, and a local mode with no account (its site, privacy policy).
- Opal. Choose this if you want an app on iPhone, Mac or Android that blocks the apps you choose, on your phone or desktop, and tracks your screen time and focus hours, with an Opal Score and a Focus Report (its site, App Store, US, Google Play, Australia).
- Timer by LogicFire.app. Choose this if you want to time each stretch of focus yourself, with one press when your attention goes, and see your average and longest run for each day, in a browser, with no sign-up.
- Toggl. Choose this if you want to track time for yourself or a team, with timers, a focus mode, calendar integrations and reports, on the web, a phone, a computer and in a browser extension, with a free plan for a limited number of users (pricing page).
What Timer by LogicFire.app doesn’t do
- It doesn’t see where your attention is. A run lasts until you press I got distracted, so it measures what you notice. On the page, time in another tab counts.
- It doesn’t record which websites or apps you use. The page can’t see them, and the Chrome extension has no permission to read your tabs, your history or other sites: it asks Chrome whether the computer is in use and, once you allow it, reads this site’s look cookie (privacy page).
- No Firefox add-on. The extension is for Chrome (and Edge). In Firefox the timer works in a tab.
- Signed out, your record stays in one browser. A free account keeps it on every device.
- No App Store or Google Play app yet. It runs in a web browser and installs from there as an app.
- Four focus sounds, no music. Focus sounds play brown, pink or white noise, or rain, and nothing else (guide).
- No app or site blocker. It doesn’t stop you opening anything.
- Groups of up to 8 people, not a whole class (guide).
How this page is checked
Every fact about another tool comes from that tool’s own website or store listing, read on or before the day above, and links to it. We keep a dated record of each: the address, the words and a screenshot. Nothing comes from memory, reviews or other lists. Facts about Timer by LogicFire.app link to its own pages.
We check every fact again every three months. The day above changes only when a fact does.
The other tools’ names belong to their owners. LogicFire.app wrote this page; none of them wrote or checked it. Spotted a fact that has changed? Write to feedback@logicfire.app.