Just an App That Respects Your Brain
I got a side of justice sensitivity with my personal blend of ADHD. That means a lot of apps make me angry.
Not annoyed. Angry.
Angry at the “are you sure?” loops when I try to cancel. Angry at the downgrade button hidden in a menu six layers deep. Angry at apps that hope I forget I subscribed, as if my forgetfulness is a revenue stream they’ve earned.
That’s how I came to the ethic that powers Tailor. And it’s nonnegotiable.
No dark patterns. Ever.
No hoping you forget. No hiding the button. No endless loops of shame if you want to quit. If you don’t want to use Tailor anymore, you should be able to leave as easily as you arrived. That’s the bare minimum of respect.
So I had to build an app that’s good enough to keep users without trickery. No problem, right?
Free is complete. Period.
I don’t believe in shipping a crummy experience just because you haven’t paid me yet.
Free Tailor has everything you need to use the app and get the benefits. The full core functionality — planning, sprinting, and unpacking with your AI companion. All eight doubles (they unlock as you use the app, not for money). The intentions backlog where you store your tasks. The insights into your own focus data.
I didn’t let the existence of a Pro tier wreck the free tier.
A Pro user, in my mind, is a free user who likes the app so much they want more. Not a user who got a 14-day taste test and then got cut off from all the good stuff.
So here’s what’s actually locked behind Pro:
- High-quality text to speech
- Creating your own custom doubles
- Deeper insights and trends from Tailor on your focus habits
- Ad-free
And here’s what’s never locked behind a credit card:
- Planning, sprinting, and unpacking
- All eight doubles
- The intentions backlog
- Your focus data insights
About ads (because I have to be honest with you)
I hate ads in productivity apps. They’re productivity poison. The last thing you need when you’re trying to focus is a dancing video interrupting your flow.
So free users will never see an ad during their productivity loop. Never during a sprint. Never when you’re typing in your backlog. Never during your debrief. That’s antithetical to what this app is for.
But ads are a necessary evil. I need to cover infrastructure and inference costs. I’m not a VC-funded startup, I don’t have private equity backers or angel investors with money to burn. I’m just one person.
Here’s the compromise: you watch one 15-second ad after your sprint concludes to unlock the next one. That’s it.
Your sprint ends. The memory card is written. Then — and only then — you have the option to watch a 15-second ad before sprinting again. No pop-ups. No banners. No mid-focus interruptions. Just a single, transparent ask at a natural break point.
If you like the app enough that you want to upgrade to Pro and get additional functionality, that’s great. But I’m not going to build an app that can’t deliver a solid free experience without going broke.
The real goal
I’m not trying to get rich. The goal is to make the thing I need and share it with the other people who need it. That’s all.
If you’ve ever felt trapped by an app that didn’t respect you — your time, your attention, your right to leave — you already know why this matters.
Tailor isn’t perfect. But it isn’t going to keep subscribers by tricking them. If you don’t like the app, I want you to walk away free and clear and never worry about it again.
—Catherine