# Free vs Paid ADHD Apps: What You Actually Get *Plenty of free ADHD tools are genuinely good, and some free apps are expensive in other ways. How to tell the difference, and when paying is worth it.* URL: https://orbit.groot-apps.com/guides/free-vs-paid-adhd-apps/ By Aron de Groot · Published 6 September 2026 · 738-word read In short Several of the most effective ADHD tools are free: your phone's built-in timer, Screen Time, a paper notebook, a library, and a friend on a video call. Where money buys something real is in structure that runs itself, external presence, and the absence of an advertising business model. Free apps funded by ads are optimising for time in app, which is the opposite of what you want. Key facts - The highest-value ADHD interventions — body doubling, visual timers, a physical anchor — cost nothing. - An ad-funded app is paid for in attention, which is the resource in shortest supply. - Subscriptions align the developer with your continued success; ads align them with your continued scrolling. - Free trials are only informative if you deliberately test a bad day during them. - Orbit is a paid app. The free things on this list will help some people more than it will. ## Start with the free things that work This is written on a website that sells an app, so take the bias into account — and then notice that the list below is genuinely where most people should start. - A visual timer. The built-in timer on your phone, or a physical one on the desk. Making duration visible is one of the highest-yield interventions there is, and it costs nothing. - Paper. A notebook and pen next to you catches thoughts faster than any app, works with no battery, and is not a trapdoor into a browser. - Screen Time and Focus modes. Already on the phone, already capable of blocking most of what an inhibition problem needs blocked. - A library or a friend on a video call. Body doubling is the most effective informal ADHD strategy most people report, and the free version is the same as the paid version. - Alarms placed before transitions. Not at them. Free, and it works. If those solve your problem, you are finished. Nothing sold in this category outperforms a physical timer for someone whose only difficulty is losing track of an hour. ## What "free" usually costs Free software is paid for somehow. The three common models point in very different directions. | Model | Who pays | What it optimises for | |---|---|---| | Advertising | You, in attention | Time spent in the app | | Data | You, in information | Profiles worth selling | | Subscription | You, in money | You continuing to find it useful | The first one is a direct conflict with what an ADHD tool is for. An app funded by ads is measured on how long it holds you, and you came to it to spend less time deciding and scrolling. The incentive is pointed the wrong way, and no amount of good intent in the design team fully corrects that. The second matters more than it looks for a routine app, because the data is not abstract: it is when you sleep, when you take medication, and which weeks went badly. The third is the honest arrangement, and it has an obvious cost: it is not free. ## What money can actually buy Not motivation, and not focus. Three things, and they are worth naming precisely: Structure that runs itself. Sequencing held outside your head, the current step shown on the Lock Screen, no maintenance. Free tools mostly do not do this, because it takes ongoing engineering. External presence. Widgets and Live Activities are not decoration for an ADHD app — they are the difference between a five-second recovery and a lost morning. See why widgets matter. The absence of a hostile business model. No ads, no engagement mechanics, no re-engagement email written in a disappointed voice. If an app is not providing at least one of those, the subscription is buying a database you could have kept in a notebook. ## How to test before paying - Use the trial deliberately, not passively. Set it up on day one and then skip a day on purpose in the first week — see shame-free habit apps. The thing you are buying is how the app behaves when you fail. - Prefer a short trial you actually use over a long one you forget. A week you engaged with tells you more than a month you did not. - Check what happens to your data when you stop paying. Can you export it? - Set a calendar reminder two days before the trial ends. This is the most predictable ADHD tax there is, and it is one line in a calendar. - Compare annual to weekly. Weekly plans are usually several times the annual cost over a year. If you already know you will still be using it in three months, the yearly plan is the cheaper decision. ## Where Orbit sits, stated plainly Orbit is free to download with a free trial, then €2.99 per week, €44.95 per year, or €79.99 once for lifetime access. There is no permanently free tier. There are no ads and no third-party analytics SDK, which is why it has to be paid for by the people using it. If your problem is time blindness, a €10 physical timer will probably help you more. If your problem is that you know your morning perfectly and still cannot get through it, that is the specific thing Orbit was built for, and the trial exists so you can find out before paying. Full pricing and platform detail is on the fact sheet. ## Frequently asked **Are free ADHD apps any good?** Some are excellent, and several of the most effective ADHD tools are not apps at all: a visual timer, a paper capture notebook, your phone's built-in Screen Time controls, and a standing arrangement to work alongside someone. Try those before paying for anything, because if they solve it you have finished. **Why do ADHD apps cost so much?** Small audiences and no advertising revenue. An app that refuses ads has to be funded by the people using it, and a niche app has few of them. Whether that is worth it depends on whether the app removes a specific failure you can name. **Why isn't Orbit free like other ADHD apps?** Because the alternative funding models point the wrong way. An ad-funded app is measured on how long it holds your attention, which is the opposite of what an ADHD tool should optimise for, and a data-funded one is selling when you sleep and when you take medication. That leaves charging the people who use it: free download and a trial, then EUR 2.99 per week, EUR 44.95 per year, or EUR 79.99 once. ## Sources and further reading - ADHD in adults — overview — CHADD - Executive function skills — CHADD - Orbit fact sheet — Groot Apps ## Orbit builds these routines for you Orbit is an ADHD routine builder for iPhone: templates instead of blank screens, an ambient orb that runs each step with you, and streak freezes so a missed day doesn't undo a month.