Forest has been the default focus app on phones for over a decade. You plant a tree, it grows while you leave your phone alone, and it dies if you open Instagram. Simple, cute, and effective for a lot of people.
This page is published by Kaizen, which makes a Pomodoro timer with Focus Rooms and app blocking, so our app is in the list. Prices and features below were checked on each company's site or app store listing on September 26, 2026, and each entry says where Forest is still the better pick.
What Forest does well
- It actually blocks apps. Deep Focus mode kills the tree if you leave, Time Guard blocks on a schedule with no timer running, and Plus adds a custom allow list and multi-app Time Guard.
- Loss aversion works. Watching a tree die is a surprisingly strong nudge, and twelve years of iteration have tuned it.
- Real trees. Forest says it has planted over 2.1 million real trees through Trees for the Future. That is its own figure, but the program is real.
- A free stopwatch. The timer counts down or up, and both are on the free plan.
- Plant Together. Friends grow one tree in a shared session, and if one person quits, everyone's tree dies. It is the closest Forest gets to company.
- Scale. Forest reports more than 60 million downloads and a 4.8 rating on the App Store.
Why people go looking for something else
- No desktop app. Forest runs on iOS and Android, with Chrome and Firefox extensions for browser blocking. There is no Windows or Mac app, so a work day at a laptop mostly happens outside it.
- Ads on the free tier. Since Forest moved to a free-with-subscription model in late 2025, the free version shows occasional ads outside of focus sessions. The old one-time purchase is gone for new users.
- No tasks, no habits. Forest tracks focus time with tags. It does not track what you were working on, and it has no habit tracker.
- A tree is not company. Losing a tree is a stick. Some people want a room full of other people working, which is a different motivator entirely.
- It is still a subscription. Forest Plus is $5.99 a month, with annual plans at $32.49 and $35.99 in the US App Store listing, all labeled early-bird prices.
Quick comparison
Scroll sideways to see the whole table.
| Tool | What it is | Blocks apps | Other people | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | Tree timer: leave and it dies | Yes | Friends, via Plant Together | Yes, with ads | Plus from $5.99/mo |
| Kaizen (ours) | Pomodoro timer with app blocking, camera-free rooms, tasks, and habits | Yes, 3 apps free | Rooms of 2 to 50, public or private | Yes, no ads | €3.99/mo or €39.99/yr |
| Pomofocus | Browser timer with a task list | No | No | Yes, with ads | Price shown in-app |
| Flocus | Aesthetic browser dashboard | No | No | Yes | $9/mo, $5/mo yearly, $99 lifetime |
| LifeAt | Animated workspace with timer, tasks, notes | No | Co-working rooms with chat and video; synced timer on Pro | Yes | $12/mo, $8/mo yearly |
| StudyStream | Live video study rooms | No | Hundreds, in video rooms | Yes, limits unpublished | Premium about $7/mo |
| Focusmate | Booked 1:1 video sessions | No | One matched stranger | 3 sessions a week | $8/mo yearly, $12/mo monthly |
Currencies are the ones each company publishes. Platforms, tasks, and habits for each tool are in the sections below.
Start with what you want instead of a tree
"I want other people." Kaizen for camera-free rooms of 2 to 50, drop in any time; the body doubling guide explains why that works. StudyStream if you want hundreds of people in a video room. Focusmate if you want one stranger and a booked slot. The Focusmate alternatives page compares those three properly.
"I want a timer on my computer." Kaizen runs on Windows and in any browser with the same account as your phone. Pomofocus has downloads for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Flocus and LifeAt live in a browser tab.
"I want to see where my time went." Kaizen logs minutes against the task you pinned and fills focus-time habits automatically. Pomofocus estimates how many Pomodoros a task will take and reports on it.
"I want the pretty part." Flocus and LifeAt are built around scenes and themes. Kaizen has a growing catalog of still and animated timer backgrounds and focus music, with a free selection to start.
"I just need a timer, right now, in a tab." Pomofocus. No account needed to start, no install, nothing to configure.
"I need something to physically stop me opening apps." Forest or Kaizen, and the difference is the shape. Forest, on Plus, picks what stays open during a planting session and kills the tree when you leave. Kaizen picks what closes, ties the block to a work session that ends on its own, and lets you set the exit in advance. Nothing else on this page blocks anything.
The alternatives in detail
Kaizen
Ours. A Pomodoro timer with four presets (Classic 25/5, Quick 15/3, Extended 50/10, Long Focus 90/15), custom sessions from 5 to 180 minutes, and a free count-up stopwatch. What Forest does not have: Focus Rooms, where you run your timer next to other people and see who is focusing, on a break, or away, with no camera and no mic. Joining rooms is free with no session limit. Tasks track their own time when you pin one, habits fill from focus minutes, and stats show streaks and focus by tag.
Free covers the full timer, a selection of backgrounds and music, 7 tasks, 5 habits, 30 days of stats, blocking 3 apps during focus sessions, joining any room, and hosting a private room for up to 4, with no ads. Premium is €3.99 a month or €39.99 a year with a 14-day trial, and adds unlimited tasks, habits and blocked apps, the stricter blocking levels, public and bigger rooms, the full music and background library, and all-time stats. iPhone, iPad, Android, the web, and Windows.
Where Forest wins: the browser extensions, Plus's allow-list model, and scheduled blocking. Forest blocks websites in Chrome and Firefox on a laptop, blocks everything except the apps you allow once you are on Plus, and Time Guard runs on a schedule with no timer going. Kaizen blocks a list you choose, on iPhone, iPad, and Android only, during a session or until you turn Block now off. And the tree, obviously, which Kaizen has no answer to.
Pomofocus
Pomofocus is a free browser Pomodoro timer with a task list, per-task Pomodoro estimates, and daily, weekly, and monthly reports. There are downloadable builds for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Premium adds projects, yearly reports, exports, a Todoist integration, and removes the ads, though Pomofocus does not publish the price outside the app.
Where it wins: zero friction. It loads in a second and needs no account to start. Where it loses: no official phone app, ads on the free tier, no social features, no habits, and the interface is a timer and a list.
Flocus
Flocus is an aesthetic browser dashboard: timer, to-dos, stats, ambient sounds, and a big library of themes including custom and YouTube video backgrounds. Free gets you the timer, three tasks, one day of stats, and a few themes. Flocus Plus is $9 a month, $5 a month billed yearly, or a $99 lifetime deal that Flocus says ends September 30, 2026.
Where it wins: looks, and music-service integrations on Plus. Where it loses: browser only, no mobile app, no social features.
LifeAt
LifeAt is an immersive workspace: an animated scene with a timer, tasks, notes, a calendar, and music. There is a free tier and a Pro plan at $12 a month or $8 a month billed yearly (both labeled early-bird), plus Mac and Windows desktop apps. Its co-working rooms, public or invite-only, add a group Pomodoro timer, chat, and video, and the pricing page lists the synced timer and unlimited chat and members under Pro.
Where it wins: the scene library, the desktop apps, and co-working with video if you want it. Where it loses: no mobile app, and the synced co-working features are on Pro.
StudyStream
If what you want from Forest's Plant Together is other people, StudyStream is the far end of that spectrum: live video rooms with hundreds of students in them, 24/7, on web, iOS, and Android, with timers, tasks, and streaks built in. Free tier with unpublished limits; Premium around $7 a month in the US App Store.
Where it wins: presence at scale. Where it loses: it is video, and there is no app blocking.
Focusmate
Focusmate is booked 25, 50, or 75-minute video sessions with a matched stranger. Three free sessions a week, then $8 a month billed annually or $12 monthly. Browser only.
Where it wins: the strongest commitment device on this list, an appointment with a person who can see you. Where it loses: the camera is mandatory, and there is no app. The Focusmate alternatives page has the full comparison.
When to stay with Forest
If the tree is what stops you picking up your phone, do not replace it. Forest's blocking is real, the free tier now covers the core loop, and Plant Together handles friend groups. Three things Forest still does that Kaizen does not: it blocks websites in a desktop browser, on Plus it works as an allow list instead of a block list, and it can block on a schedule with no timer running.
Questions
Which Forest alternative blocks apps?
Kaizen. It blocks up to 3 apps free on iPhone, iPad, and Android, unlimited on Premium, with three strictness levels and an exit you configure in advance. Forest blocks with Deep Focus while a tree is planting, on a schedule with Time Guard, and with an allow list on Plus. How app blocking works.
Does Kaizen block websites like Forest's browser extension?
On iPhone and iPad it does: you pick Safari domains in the same Apple picker as the apps, and on the free plan they share the 3-app limit. On Android and on a computer, no. Forest's Chrome and Firefox extensions still cover the desktop browser, and Kaizen does not.
Is there a free alternative to Forest?
Kaizen's free plan has the full Pomodoro timer, blocking for 3 apps, Focus Rooms to join, and no ads. Pomofocus is free in the browser. Forest itself is free with ads since late 2025.
Does Forest have a stopwatch mode?
Yes. Forest's timer runs as a countdown or a stopwatch, and both are free. Kaizen's Stopwatch mode is free too, and it also works in Focus Rooms, where other people see your time counting up.
Is there a Forest app for Windows or Mac?
No. Forest has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox but no desktop app. Kaizen has a Windows app and runs in any browser. LifeAt has Mac and Windows apps. Pomofocus offers desktop downloads.
Which Forest alternative has a social feature?
Kaizen's Focus Rooms, camera-free, for 2 to 50 people. StudyStream and Focusmate if you want video. The virtual study rooms guide compares every way to study with other people online.
Do any of these plant real trees?
Only Forest. If that matters to you, it is a reason to stay.
Sources
Checked on September 26, 2026 at forestapp.cc (opens in a new tab), Forest's App Store listing (opens in a new tab), pomofocus.io (opens in a new tab), flocus.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), lifeat.io/pricing (opens in a new tab), LifeAt's co-working page (opens in a new tab), StudyStream's App Store listing (opens in a new tab), focusmate.com/pricing (opens in a new tab), and my-kaizen.com/pricing.