It’s impossible not to be biased about something you’ve created, but I’m going to make this analysis as honest as I can, really.

That includes acknowledging that these two alternatives to Mind Focus have some pretty good things going for them, and I won’t deny that, because it helps no one.

That said, there are important differences and it’s worth understanding them before paying for any of the options.

Brain.fm

Brain.fm has been at this for years and has genuine scientific backing.

Its premise is that functional music (composed specifically to affect brain states) can improve focus, sleep or relaxation more effectively than conventional music.

The creators of Brain.fm have published research, collaborated with neuroscientists and it’s not a company that appeared out of nowhere with a pretty app and vague promises.

What is true is that its aim and methods are very different from Mind Focus and it’s a subscription.

Around 7 dollars a month if I’m not mistaken, or somewhat less if you pay annually.

Also, it requires an internet connection to work (the offline mode exists, but it’s limited and tied to an active subscription).

On top of that, it’s a black box and you don’t know exactly what they’re doing to the audio or why, you just trust that the algorithm does something.

But the point is that if you stop paying, it disappears.

All of it.

On the other hand, Brain.fm doesn’t use the same principles as Mind Focus, nor the same science and approach.

It’s a different path, and maybe better suited for some, but it is really not the same as Mind Focus.

Endel

Endel goes down the road of minimalist luxury. Its soundscapes are adaptive and change according to the time of day, the weather, and even your heart rate, if you have a connected wearable.

The interface, I must say, is very beautiful and I genuinely like its style, so kudos to them. It has also done collaborations with artists and there’s a real aesthetic care.

What happens is that, again, Endel needs a subscription, around 5–6 dollars a month. In the same way, it also requires a connection for most of its functionality.

The point is also that it’s ambient music with certain intelligent capabilities, not isochronic tones, nor any other technique with a documented mechanism, so it’s not a real alternative to what Mind Focus does best.

Endel is a system that generates pleasant soundscapes that adapt to your context, and that may or may not help depending on how you concentrate.

What is true is that it works well for some people. Especially those who struggle with silence and find music with lyrics distracting. In fact, for creative work in particular, Endel has its devoted fans.

But if you’re looking for something with a proven mechanism of action, Endel doesn’t give you that. What it gives is a well-designed sound experience and in that respect it’s very good, if you can afford it and it fits your way of working.

Mind Focus

Mind Focus uses isochronic tones, a different technology from functional music and soundscapes.

Those tones are amplitude pulses at specific frequencies that, through the brainwave entrainment mechanism, favour beta, gamma or alpha wave states depending on the goal.

Pure documented physiology (the science of which I go into more depth on this same website) and it has the advantage that you can understand exactly what each technique of Mind Focus is doing and why.

Also, following what I already said when talking about ethics and philosophy, there’s no subscription.

There’s a free version that is also very generous (not a stripped-down version that many apps call free so you feel like everything’s missing) and a single purchase gives you everything, present and future.

Mind Focus costs the same as one of those cream-and-caramel-laden coffees and it’s one and done, that’s it. No renewals, fine print or expiration notices.

On the other hand, Mind Focus works completely offline. It reports nothing to any server because there is no server.

Your session data lives on your phone and doesn’t leave it.

What Mind Focus doesn’t have is music. No melodies, no soundscapes, no composition (I don’t have the budget for artists either, yet…).

So if what you’re looking for is background sound with a certain musical character, Brain.fm or Endel will do it better. Mind Focus is pulses, proof and science, more oriented towards function and effectiveness than sensory aesthetic experience.

And what Mind Focus does have that the other two don’t is integration with productivity techniques.

The classic Pomodoro is integrated directly, the tone knows what phase of the session you’re in, switches between work and rest, adapts the frequencies…

And so does the Flowmodoro in the Pro version, where you define the interval duration according to your own rhythm.

It’s not just a sound that you put on in the background while you use a separate timer, everything is in one place and used in the most effective way that scientific evidence supports for delivering improved attention and focus.

Now, with all of this, obviously I would personally choose Mind Focus, since I created it, I use it and it works. But I’m not everyone, and these kinds of decisions must be completely free.

In fact, I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive apps, because Mind Focus can run in the background with whatever music you want, which doesn’t stop you from combining the best of all worlds.