Forest alternatives
Forest grows a tree while you stay off your phone and blocks other apps while you focus. If you want something like it, the right alternative depends on which part you need: the tree, the blocking, another person, or somebody to decide what to work on.
Each app is described from its own public pages, checked on 28 September 2026. Nothing here is ranked, and prices and plans are left out because they change often. If something has changed, write to us and it will be corrected.
Sailyn is our product and is in this list; the others are not ours.
Flora
A focus timer in which a tree grows while you stay off your phone and dies if you leave for other apps. You can plant together with friends, and it also has a habit tracker and a to-do list. It runs on iPhone, Android and Chrome, and works with tree-planting organisations.
Suits you if you like Forest's tree and want to grow one with friends.
Freedom
An app and website blocker that works across Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android and Chrome at once. You make block lists, schedule sessions ahead of time, and can lock a session so it cannot be ended early.
Suits you if blocking is the main thing you need, on every device at the same time.
Focusmate
A service that matches you with another person on video for a 25, 50 or 75 minute session. You each say what you will work on, work in silence, and check in at the end.
Suits you if another person watching is what gets you started.
Your phone's own focus settings
Your phone may already have part of this. On an iPhone, Focus modes silence notifications and can hide home screen pages while you work. On Android, Digital Wellbeing has a Focus mode that pauses the apps you choose.
Suits you if you would rather not install anything new.
Sailyn
A planner that also runs the focus session. It picks one task from your deadlines and your week, pays coins when you press Start, and holds chosen apps shut on Android and chosen sites in a desktop browser. It cannot block apps on an iPhone, where it uses Focus mode, a lock screen card and reminders instead. A day off costs nothing.
Suits you if the hard part is deciding what to work on and starting it.
The longer comparison with Sailyn
Sailyn is free while in beta and runs in a browser, so there is nothing to install to try it.
Know what you need to do, but can't get started? Sailyn gives you one next step, a plan that adapts, and no penalty for difficult days.