Focus apps for iPhone split into two families: ones that make a session feel worth finishing, and ones that make the distracting apps unreachable while you work. The best pick depends on which half of the fight you keep losing, the starting or the staying.
Disclosure first: one of these five focus apps is ours, enough., and where another app suits you better, this list says so.
Ratings and prices come from the US App Store, checked this week. If your focus problem is specifically the workday, we've also written about phone distraction at work.
1. Forest
App Store rating 4.8 from 48,766 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: $3.99 one-time on iOS (source)
Platforms: iPhone, Android
Forest has held its place for a decade with a single mechanic: start a session, plant a virtual tree, and it grows while you stay off your phone. Leave early and it dies. Over months, your record of finished sessions becomes a forest, and the company plants real trees with Trees for the Future along the way. At $3.99 once, it's the only app here with no subscription. It won't stop you opening Instagram outside a session, and it doesn't try to.
Best for: making yourself start focused sessions, especially Pomodoro-length ones.
2. Opal
App Store rating 4.7 from 83,913 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + $99.99/yr Pro (source)
Platforms: iPhone, Android, Mac
Where Forest rewards finishing, Opal removes the ways to quit. Scheduled focus sessions block your chosen apps, and the harder difficulty settings take away mid-session escape entirely. An Opal Score gives the day a number. It's the premium option at $99.99 a year for Pro, and whether that's justified depends on how much unprotected time you're losing; our full look at Opal's price runs the numbers.
Best for: staying in sessions you've already scheduled, with no exit to negotiate.
3. enough.
Our app. Newer than the others here, with far fewer App Store ratings, so judge it on fit rather than review count.
Price: Free 7-day program + $49.99/yr Complete (source)
Platforms: iPhone
This one's ours, and it skips sessions entirely. You tell it where and when you focus, your desk, your office, your nine-to-five, and the apps you chose are already blocked whenever you're there. No timer to start, nothing to remember on the day. Quick Block covers the one-off library afternoon. The honest limits: iPhone only, and the newest, smallest app on this list. The 7-day program is free; Complete is $49.99 a year.
Best for: focus tied to a place or a schedule rather than a session you start by hand.
4. BePresent
App Store rating 4.8 from 58,545 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + $79/yr (source)
Platforms: iPhone
BePresent brings other people into your focus. Group sessions let you and your friends go heads-down at the same time, streaks and leaderboards keep the score visible, and Beast Mode hard-locks the distracting apps when it matters. For solo deep work it's less specialized than Opal or Forest; with a study group or a competitive streak, it's the one that keeps you coming back. Free tier available, $79 a year for everything.
Best for: people who focus better when someone else is focusing too.
5. Freedom
App Store rating 4.4 from 5,562 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: $39.99/yr (one-time Forever pricing varies) (source)
Platforms: iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, browser
Freedom's case is coverage: one session can block distractions on your iPhone, your laptop, and your browser at the same time, and Locked mode keeps you from rewriting the session halfway through. Its iPhone rating (4.4) sits below the rest of this list, and the app feels most at home when a computer is involved. If your focus dies in browser tabs rather than on your phone, none of the others reach there.
Best for: deep work that spans phone and laptop, where a phone-only block just moves the problem.
Picking the right focus app for your iPhone
Start or stay: that's the question. If starting is the wall, Forest makes it a game worth winning. If staying is the wall, Opal holds the door shut. If your focus happens at the same desk on the same schedule, that's what we built enough. around. If you need company, BePresent. If the laptop leaks too, Freedom.
Any of the five beats installing three of them half-heartedly. Pick the one that matches your wall and give it two weeks.
Ratings and prices checked on the US App Store, 20 July 2026.
