SqwarkSelf vs Rize
Rize tracks where your time goes and sorts it with AI. SqwarkSelf does one thing: keeps you on what you said you’d do.
Rize is an automatic time tracker for Mac and Windows. It records the app, window title and address you’re in, sorts your time into clients, projects and tasks with AI, and builds reports and team dashboards on top. It also has focus sessions and a distraction blocker.
SqwarkSelf isn’t a time tracker with a blocker added. It’s a focus guard: you say what you’re doing, and it steps in when a window you ruled out comes to the front. It keeps a log too, but only ever shows you today.
They overlap in one place worth saying out loud: Rize’s blocker is a nudge too. It’s a pop-up you can dismiss, and with its “Urge Surfing” option you can’t dismiss it for ten seconds. So the difference isn’t nudge against lock. It’s everything around the nudge.
Side by side
| SqwarkSelf | Rize | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Mac only, macOS 14 or later. | Mac and Windows, desktop only. Its FAQ says macOS 10.14.6 or later; the download page lists Apple silicon Macs. |
| 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. | Once you’ve spent more than a set time on something in your blocked list, a pop-up window or a notification. Its buttons include “This is not a distraction.” and “End this focus session now”. |
| 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. | Yes: it’s a prompt you can dismiss, or turn off for the session. With Urge Surfing on, not for the first ten seconds. We found no locked mode. |
| 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 list of blocked apps and sites, per kind of session (focus, breaks, meetings), or “Always Block”. An app it doesn’t know isn’t blocked. |
| 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. | Focus sessions can start by themselves, from calendar keywords, or on a plan; a Pomodoro mode; and an “Always Block” option per app or site. |
| Tracking and history | Logs the app, window title and site. Shows today: where the time went, the top time sinks, focus kept. | App name, window title, URL and timestamps, kept as history, with reports, exports and AI-written summaries. |
| Account | None. | Required. |
| 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. | Synced across devices through Rize’s servers, where its AI runs. It says no screenshots, keystrokes or content are captured by default, and that it doesn’t sell user data. URL and window-title tracking can be turned off. |
| Teams | None. | Yes: team plans with roles, dashboards, billable time and client reports. |
| 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. | A subscription with no free tier: from $9.99 a month billed annually (Basic), or $12.99 billed monthly. A 7-day free trial. |
What Rize does better
- Automatic sorting: AI files your time under clients, projects and tasks, with AI-written titles and summaries.
- History. Weeks and months of where your time went, with reports and exports. SqwarkSelf only shows today.
- Billable time: clients, projects, profitability and client reports.
- Teams, with roles, and a step where each person approves their own data before managers see it.
- Windows as well as Mac, and it syncs between computers.
- Sessions that plan themselves: from your calendar, on a plan, or when it notices you’re focused. Pomodoro, break detection and break reminders.
- Integrations: Google and Outlook calendars, Slack, Linear, Asana, ClickUp, Zapier, an API.
Where SqwarkSelf is different
- You say what you’re doing, in your own words, and the card hands them back when you drift; with your own Jev key, sites that can go either way, like YouTube, are checked against what you said you’d do. Rize asks whether something is on your blocked list, and how long you’ve been there.
- Only the window you drifted into goes dark, with the card in its middle, rather than a separate pop-up.
- No account. What it records stays in files on your Mac; with your own Jev key, the cases its rules can’t settle go to TypeSafe under your account.
- You pay once. No subscription.
Choose Rize if…
- you need to know where your hours went last month, not just today
- you bill clients by the hour, or report time to a team
- you work on Windows too, or across several computers
- you want sessions that start themselves from your calendar
Choose SqwarkSelf if…
- what you need is to stay on the one thing you said you’d do, now
- you’d rather not have an account, or a copy of your day in anyone’s cloud
- you’d rather pay once
- you work on one Mac, on macOS 14 or later
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 Rize’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.
- rize.io: What Rize is; desktop only
- rize.io/pricing: Prices, trial, no free tier, supported macOS
- app.rize.io/downloads: Downloads: Apple silicon Mac, Windows
- docs.rize.io/distraction-blocker/use-distraction-blocker: When the blocker appears, and its buttons
- docs.rize.io/distraction-blocker/configure-distraction-blocker: Pop-up or notification; Urge Surfing
- docs.rize.io/labels-and-app-rules/app-and-website-rules: Blocking per session type; Always Block
- docs.rize.io/focus/create-focus-sessions: Automatic, calendar and manual sessions
- docs.rize.io/automatic-tracking/tracking-overview: What is tracked; privacy settings
- docs.rize.io/getting-started/faq: Sync across devices
- rize.io/privacy-policy: Doesn’t sell user data
Rize is a trademark of its owner. SqwarkSelf isn’t affiliated with it, and this page uses no logos or screenshots of theirs.
