The facts, side by side
In alphabetical order. Each fact links to where it comes from: the tool’s own website or store listing, read on the day above, and for Timer by LogicFire.app its own pages. Prices put each free version beside ours; a paid plan is named as paid, in the currency its maker gives.
| Tool | Price | Sign-up needed | Platforms | What it keeps about you | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Be Focused | The Be Focused app is “free to download and use forever”. Pro is paid. Both its US App Store listings showed a “Halloween Sale: 40% Off all our apps” banner when we checked, and these are the prices they showed during that sale: Pro at US$2.99 a month, US$19.99 a year or US$23.99 for life (App Store, US), and Be Focused Pro, a separate paid app, at US$11.99 (App Store, US). | Not stated on its own pages. Its maker’s privacy policy, for all its apps, says it uses your email address to create an account (privacy policy). | iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and “Also available for Mac”; “Single purchase unlocks Pro on iPhone, iPad, and Mac” (App Store, US). | Its maker’s privacy policy: what you enter in its apps, kept on its servers to sync your devices, and your IP address and device information, such as model and identifier (privacy policy). The free app’s App Store label says location, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites; location, contact info, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics may be linked to you; and user content and diagnostics may be collected without being linked to you (App Store, US). | Its App Store listing names “No banners, no ads” among Pro’s features (App Store, US). |
| Flowtime Timer by Habi | No price or paid plan named on its listing. Its last line, after naming its maker Habi’s apps for Apple devices, says “Free to use, no account required.” (Chrome Web Store) | Its listing’s last line, after a line about Habi’s apps for Apple devices, says “Free to use, no account required.” (Chrome Web Store). | A Chrome extension (Chrome Web Store). | Its listing says “Zero data collection — everything stays in your browser”, and that the developer has disclosed it will not collect or use your data (Chrome Web Store). | Its listing says nothing about ads either way (Chrome Web Store). |
| Forest | “Free for core focus — no credit card, no expiration.” Forest Plus is paid; its site says the price varies by region and platform (plans). | Not stated on its own pages. Signing in syncs your data and Forest Plus across platforms (App Store, US). | iPhone, iPad, Android, and a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. Its core focus works offline (FAQ). | Its iOS and Android apps’ privacy policies list, among the data they collect, your email address, username and picture, cookies, usage data, advertising identifiers (such as IDFA) and geographic position (iOS app’s policy, Android app’s policy), and of services in their Advertising sections, AdMob among them on Android, they say “This processing constitutes: a Sale in California” (privacy policies). The browser extension’s policy lists cookies and usage data, says the sites you visit are checked against your block list on your computer and not collected, and names Google Analytics (extension’s policy). Its FAQ: “your session data is stored with your account and not sold to third parties” (FAQ). Its App Store label: contact info and usage data may be used to track you, and purchases, contact info, user content, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics may be linked to you (App Store, US). On Google Play, your email address may be shared with other companies (Google Play, Australia). Its Chrome extension’s developer has disclosed it will not collect or use your data (Chrome Web Store). | “The free tier shows occasional ads (never during active focus sessions)” (FAQ), and Google Play labels it “Contains ads” (Google Play, Australia). Its policy for the Android app names AdMob, with “banners and other advertisements on Forest (Android version), possibly based on User interests” (privacy policies). |
| Pomofocus | Its timer ran with no account and nothing to pay when we tried it, and its home page lists Premium features apart from the others. Premium is paid: $3 a month, $18 a year or $54 for life, shown only as “$”, with a 7-day free trial; it adds more than 3 templates, among other features (home page). | No: its timer ran with no account when we tried it. Reports are there once you log in, and an account is made with Google or an email address (home page, sign-up page). | A web browser on a computer or phone, and desktop apps to download for Mac, Windows and Linux (home page). | Its privacy policy: usage data such as your IP address, browser, the pages you visit and unique device identifiers; cookies and similar tracking technologies “to track the activity on our Service”; advertising partners may use cookies to collect information about you; and your data is transferred to Japan and processed there (privacy policy). | Its home page lists “No Ads” among Premium’s paid features, and its privacy policy names advertising partners (home page, privacy policy). |
| Tiimo | Free version: “Basic planner, limited AI chats, 1 profile.” Tiimo Pro is paid: its 7-day trial applies to the yearly plan only, and the US App Store lists Pro in-app purchases from US$7.00 to US$54.00 without naming their periods (App Store, US). | Its FAQ: “With a subscription, you can use Tiimo across devices (phone, web, watch, etc)”, logging in to your account on each one; its web app is “one of the premium features” and needs “an active trial or subscription” (FAQ). A child under 13’s account “must be created by a parent or legal guardian” (privacy policy). | iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and a web version with Tiimo Pro (App Store, US); Android (Google Play, Australia); and Mac, which its FAQ lists too (FAQ). | Its App Store label: identifiers may be used to track you, and contact info, user content, identifiers and usage data may be linked to you (App Store, US). Google Play lists your name, email address, user IDs and other info, and calendar events, among the data it may collect, and crash logs and diagnostics, device or other IDs, app interactions and user IDs among the data it may share with other companies (Google Play, Australia). | None: “100% ad-free forever” (App Store, US). |
| Timer by LogicFire.app | Free, with or without an account (About). | No. A free account is optional: it keeps your runs on every device and adds subjects, groups and the Chrome extension (guide). | A web browser on a computer, phone or tablet, and it installs as an app from the browser (guide). On a phone, add it to the Home Screen (guide). There’s no App Store or Google Play app yet. A Chrome extension, which needs an account; Edge installs it from the same store page (guide). | Signed out, your runs, tasks and settings stay in your browser. The site keeps a record of each page you open for 90 days, with your full IP address for up to 8 days and a shortened one after (visit records). Under a hash of your address that changes every day, it also keeps yes-or-no notes that the page ran and was used, and, if you aren’t signed in, the site you came from, whether you started a run and a daily count of runs and minutes (privacy page, where you came from). If you came from one of the site’s ads on Reddit, a cookie keeps Reddit’s click ID for up to 30 days. If you make an account in that browser in that time, the site tells Reddit that the ad led to an account. Neither happens if your browser sends Global Privacy Control (privacy page). With an account it also keeps your runs, breaks and tasks; your handle, your display name if you gave one and your timezone; your email address if you sign in with one; your subject categories and the groups you are in; a label for each of your devices, such as “Chrome on Windows”; and each passkey’s id and public key (privacy page). A visit made while signed in stays linked to your account for the record’s 90 days, even if you delete the account (visit records). | Yes, from Google, when they are switched on: on the timer, the guide, the essays, and the LogicFire.app home page and list of essays. The home page loads Google’s ad code even when they are off. Google uses cookies to show them. None on this page. Account holders can hide them on the timer and the guide, for now (privacy page). |
Past the set length, tool by tool
In the same order as the table: what each one’s own pages say about a session’s length, or what we saw when we tried it.
- Be Focused. You “Set durations for work sessions, short and long breaks”, and each task can have its own timer settings (App Store, US). We found nothing on its pages about a session running past its length or counting up.
- Flowtime Timer by Habi. No set length: it “Counts up while you work — no countdown pressure”, with “No rigid 25-minute cycles”, then works out a break of a fifth of your work time (Chrome Web Store).
- Forest. You “Pick a focus length” (home page), and the app’s free Focus Timer is a “countdown + stopwatch” (plans). Its Firefox add-on says a seed grows into a tree “In the next 30 minutes” (Firefox Add-ons).
- Pomofocus. Its settings take the Pomodoro, Short Break and Long Break lengths in minutes (home page). When we set the Pomodoro to 1 minute and pressed START, it showed “Time for a break!” at zero, with the break at 05:00 waiting for START (home page). That is what we saw on that visit, on 27 October 2026.
- Tiimo. Its Focus Timer is “A calming countdown” (App Store, US) that “turns minutes into a visual countdown” (its site), and its 25-minute timer page suggests “25 minutes on, 5 minutes off” (25-minute timer).
- Timer by LogicFire.app. Its clock can stop at zero, keep going past it as one run (Overflow) or count up with no length (Stopwatch), as below.
What Overflow and Stopwatch do
You choose under Settings → Timer → How the clock runs, and the timer asks the first time a run reaches zero. The third way, Stop at zero, ends a run at zero with a chime (guide).
- Overflow. A chime marks zero, and the clock keeps going past it, in blue, as one run, until you press I got distracted or End session. Every 15 minutes past zero it asks Still focused?: press Still going within 3 minutes and it carries on. With no answer, the run ends at the last time you said you were still going.
- Stopwatch. No length: the clock counts up from zero until you press I got distracted or Stop. Every 30 minutes it asks whether you’re still going. With no answer within 3 minutes, the run ends at the moment it asked, keeping everything up to then.
- No run is longer than 6 hours, past zero or counting up.
Choose this if
What each one does better, in the same order as the table.
- Be Focused. Choose this if you use Apple devices and want an interval timer tied to your tasks: you set the work and break lengths, and each task can have its own timer settings (App Store, US, its page).
- Flowtime Timer by Habi. Choose this if you want a Chrome extension that counts up while you work, with no countdown, then works out a break of a fifth of your work time, with a website blocker too (Chrome Web Store).
- Forest. Choose this if you want a phone or tablet app whose free Focus Timer counts down or works as a stopwatch, with app blocking in its free Deep Focus mode, and whose core focus works offline, with a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox too (plans, FAQ).
- Pomofocus. Choose this if you want each length set in minutes, with focus and breaks that can start one after another on their own, background sounds, and desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux (home page).
- Tiimo. Choose this if you want a planner app with a countdown focus timer inside it, on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Android, and on the web with Tiimo Pro (App Store, US, Google Play, Australia, FAQ).
- Timer by LogicFire.app. Choose this if you’d like the clock to keep going past zero as one run, or to count up with no length, and to see how long each run lasted, with no sign-up.
What Timer by LogicFire.app doesn’t do
- It asks while you work. Overflow asks every 15 minutes past zero and Stopwatch every 30 minutes, and an unanswered question ends the run.
- On a phone, keep the timer on screen during a stopwatch. Once the screen locks, the stopwatch stops when it next would have asked (guide).
- The focus timer has no automatic cycle. A break starts when you press 5m, 10m or 15m. The Pomodoro timer runs focus and breaks by itself, but each focus stops at its set length and it keeps no record of your runs.
- No App Store or Google Play app yet. It runs in a web browser and installs from there as an app.
- Four focus sounds, no music. Focus sounds play brown, pink or white noise, or rain, and nothing else (guide).
- No app or site blocker. It doesn’t stop you opening anything.
- Groups of up to 8 people, not a whole class (guide).
How this page is checked
Every fact about another tool comes from that tool’s own website or store listing, read on the day above, and links to it. We keep a dated record of each: the address, the words and a screenshot. Nothing comes from memory, reviews or other lists. Facts about Timer by LogicFire.app link to its own pages.
We check every fact again every three months. The day above changes only when a fact does.
The other tools’ names belong to their owners. LogicFire.app wrote this page; none of them wrote or checked it. Spotted a fact that has changed? Write to feedback@logicfire.app.