We built an ADHD app. So reviewing competitors might seem self-serving. But we used every one of these apps before building UpOrbit, and we built it specifically because of what they get wrong. Here's what we found — the good and the bad.
What to look for
Low activation cost. If the app requires setup before it helps you, most ADHD brains will abandon it within a week.
External time cues. Time blindness is core to ADHD. Visual time representation compensates for what your internal clock can't do.
Shame-free design. Broken streaks and guilt-trip notifications trigger shame spirals that make everything worse.
The apps
Sunsama — beautiful, expensive, assumption-heavy
Daily planner that time-blocks your day. Gorgeous design. The problem: it assumes you can estimate how long tasks take. If your estimates are wrong by 40% (typical with ADHD), your whole day collapses by noon. $20/month.
Focusmate — the best body doubling app
Pairs you with strangers for work sessions via video. Genuinely one of the best tools for task initiation. Limitation: only for focused work sessions. Not a system.
Habitica — gamification that works for some, shames others
Tasks as RPG. Complete tasks, earn gold. Miss tasks, your character dies. For some ADHD brains the game layer works. For others, watching your character die is a shame spiral in pixel art.
Structured — simple visual timeline
Timeline-based day planner. Good: visual time addresses time blindness. Bad: no ADHD-specific features. No transition support, no energy matching. Apple-only.
Finch — emotional support pet
Virtual pet that grows with self-care tasks. Gentle, cute, genuinely low-pressure. Limitation: it's a wellness app, not a productivity tool.
What we built differently
UpOrbit exists because we couldn't find one app combining visual time awareness, shame-free design, transition support, energy matching, and task initiation tools. It's free, it's a web app, and it's designed for brains that work differently.