SqwarkSelf vs Focus (heyfocus)
Focus, from heyfocus.com, is a Mac blocker with a lot of control and a Locked Mode. SqwarkSelf is a smaller Mac app that asks instead of blocking. Same platform, similar price, different idea.
Focus, from heyfocus.com, is a menu-bar app for the Mac, like SqwarkSelf. It blocks websites (with wildcards, exceptions and regular expressions) and apps, runs sessions, schedules and a Pomodoro timer, and keeps statistics. Locked Mode keeps a session going even if you restart.
Both are Mac only, both run locally, and both are one-time purchases. The difference is the idea: Focus blocks what’s on your list for as long as you said; SqwarkSelf asks, for ten seconds, when a window you ruled out comes to the front, and hands your own words back.
Side by side
| SqwarkSelf | Focus | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Mac only, macOS 14 or later. | Mac only. Its site says “macOS Sequoia Ready!” and gives no minimum version. The newest version on its changelog was 2.4.1, from August 2025. |
| When you drift | Only the off-task window goes dark, with your own words on it and a ten-second ring. Then the app is hidden, or the browser goes back to a tab you were working in. | A blocked page is replaced with a quote. A blocked app is hidden; if it keeps coming back, closed, and in the end force-quit. |
| Can you get past it? | Always. On a watch, “This is work” lets it through for the rest of the watch, and your call is logged; under a house rule, “Pause for 10 min”. There is no lock. | Without Locked Mode, you can stop. With it, the session survives a restart; you can ask for an unlock token, given at once the first time, and after that depending on how often you’ve used them. |
| What counts as a distraction | The kinds of thing you ruled out: social, chat, video, news, shopping. Built-in rules and your own entries settle the obvious cases (ad managers count as work). With your own Jev key, unknown sites and either-way ones like YouTube are checked against what you said you’d do. | Your blocklist, or an allow list that blocks everything else. Domains, single pages, wildcards, exceptions, regular expressions, and a default list. |
| Schedules and all-day rules | House rules: any of those five can be blocked all day, with a 10, 30 or 60-minute pause. No schedules. | Schedules by day and time, overnight too, and they can be locked. Break Mode and a Pomodoro timer. |
| Tracking and history | Logs the app, window title and site. Shows today: where the time went, the top time sinks, focus kept. | Time focused per day, week, month and year, per profile. |
| Account | None. | None described. The licence is shown when you buy, and sent by email. |
| Where your data lives | In local files on your Mac. Nothing it records is sent to us. With your own Jev key, the cases the rules can’t settle go to TypeSafe. | Its site: “Focus is private, it runs locally and never sends sensitive data off your Mac.” |
| Teams | None. | Bulk licences for teams, priced on request. |
| Price | US$49 once, for up to 3 Macs (not on sale yet). 14 days free; after that, logging and the Today view stay free. | One-time: $49 with a year of major updates and three of minor ones, or $129 with lifetime updates. A 7-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. It can be used on any Mac of yours. |
What Focus does better
- Control: wildcards, exceptions, regular expressions, single pages, and single YouTube videos let through while the rest is blocked.
- A Locked Mode that survives a restart, and a Password Mode where someone else holds the password.
- Schedules, overnight too, plus breaks, Pomodoro and profiles.
- Statistics by week, month and year.
- Scripting: shell hooks, a URL scheme, AppleScript.
- Any Mac of yours on one licence, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Where SqwarkSelf is different
- It never force-quits or closes anything on its own. It hides the app, or switches the browser to a tab you were working in.
- It blocks kinds of thing from a built-in list, so there’s little to write, and with your own Jev key, sites that can go either way, like YouTube, are checked against what you said you’d do. The tutorial you need next Tuesday can get through without a rule written in advance.
- Only the drifting window goes dark, with ten seconds to decide, and “This is work” when it’s wrong.
- US$49 covers up to 3 Macs, updates included. (Focus’s $49 includes a year of major updates and three years of minor ones, on any Mac of yours; $129 gets lifetime updates.)
Choose Focus if…
- you want a lock, or someone else holding the password
- you want fine control over exactly what’s blocked, and schedules
- you want statistics over months
Choose SqwarkSelf if…
- blocks keep catching your work, and you’d rather be asked
- you want nothing closed or quit unless you pressed the button
- you want little setup: one sentence and a length
What SqwarkSelf doesn’t do
- Mac only: no iPhone, no Android, no Windows.
- No hard lock. On a watch you can always say “this is work”; a house rule can always be paused.
- No schedules, and no reports beyond today.
- No team features.
- It’s new: a first version, from a very small company.
What we checked
Everything in Focus’s column comes from these pages, read on 21 September 2026. If something has changed since, their page is right and this one is out of date.
- heyfocus.com: What Focus is; Mac only; privacy line; trial
- heyfocus.com/checkout: Prices, updates, activations, guarantee, team licences
- heyfocus.com/changelog: Version 2.4.1, August 2025
- heyfocus.com/docs/getting-started/blocking-applications: Hide, close, force-quit
- heyfocus.com/docs/features/advanced-url-blocking: Wildcards, exceptions, regular expressions
- heyfocus.com/docs/help/blocking-youtube: YouTube blocked by default; single videos let through
- heyfocus.com/docs/features/locked-mode: Locked Mode
- heyfocus.com/docs/help/how-to-disable-focus: Unlock tokens
- heyfocus.com/docs/features/schedule: Schedules
- heyfocus.com/docs/features/statistics: Statistics
- heyfocus.com/docs/features/scripting: Scripting
- heyfocus.com/docs/help/focus-is-private: Privacy
- heyfocus.com/docs/account/retrieve-license: The licence by email
Focus is a trademark of its owner. SqwarkSelf isn’t affiliated with it, and this page uses no logos or screenshots of theirs.
