15 Best Pomodoro Timer Apps That Survived My Brutal Testing

I was in the middle of writing an article when a Slack notification popped up. I closed it and went back to work. Then came an email alert. Then a text message. Then another Slack ping.

Before I knew it, 20 minutes had passed, and I hadn’t written a single paragraph.

This probably sounds familiar.

The average knowledge worker now gets interrupted every 4 minutes.

This might explain why, despite working longer hours than ever, you feel like you accomplish less.

In this guide, I’ve rounded up the 15 best Pomodoro timer apps that work for modern problems. Not just apps that count down from 25, but tools that:

• Block distractions automatically when you’re focusing
• Integrate with the workflows and tools you already use
• Adapt to your natural rhythms instead of forcing rigid time blocks
• Track not just time spent but actual deep work accomplished
• Create accountability systems that survive past the initial motivation
• Sync seamlessly across all your devices

Let’s begin with my favorite app.

The Best Pomodoro Timer Apps At A Glance

1. Sunsama

Sunsama is a daily planner that transformed itself into something more useful: a complete focus system that integrates with everything else you use to work.

What struck me immediately about Sunsama is how it forces intention.

Each morning, you perform a ritual of selecting the tasks you’ll tackle that day. You drag them into a single unified view from your task systems – Trello, Asana, GitHub, or whatever you use.

When you’re ready to focus, Sunsama doesn’t just give you a generic 25/5 Pomodoro cycle.

It contextualizes focus within your actual work. You can set a timer for any task, using either a standard timer or the Pomodoro method.

Focus mode hides everything else, changes your Slack status automatically, and lets you concentrate on the single thing you’ve decided matters.

What makes Sunsama most interesting isn’t its timer functionality but the philosophy behind it: work should have boundaries.

You should end your day at a reasonable time. You should know exactly what you accomplished and what you didn’t, and why.

Real Problem It Solves

Sunsama solves the modern worker’s most insidious problem: the growing disconnect between your intentions and your actions.

Sunsama addresses this by creating a daily planning ritual that forces conscious decisions about what matters today.

Sunsama Pricing

• Free trial: 14-day free trial.
• Starting paid plan: $20/month ($16/month if billed yearly).

2. Llama Life

Llama Life is a task execution system disguised as a timer app.

Marie, the founder, built it after being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. She couldn’t find tools that worked the way her brain did.

Llama Life uses timeboxing at its core, assigning fixed periods to tasks. This creates a constraint that functions as both a finish line and a starting point.

What separates Llama Life from generic Pomodoro timers is context.

Each task gets its own timer, but you also see the calculated end time for your entire list.

The most unexpected feature is the “Random Task” button. When faced with a long list, deciding where to start often triggers decision paralysis. Removing that decision point eliminates a surprising amount of friction.

For tasks that feel overwhelming, the break-down feature automatically splits them into smaller steps with suggested timeframes.

The interface remains remarkably simple despite its functionality.

You can personalize tasks with colors and emojis, create preset templates for recurring routines, and even integrate with existing tools like Todoist.

Real Problem It Solves

Llama Life solves what might be called the “list paradox”: the longer your to-do list grows, the less likely you are to tackle anything on it.

Focusing on execution rather than collection breaks this cycle.

For people with ADHD especially, it creates a structure that enables focus without becoming another source of overwhelming input.

Llama Life Pricing

• Free trial: 7-day free trial.
• Starting paid plan: $6/month or $39/year (save 45%).

3. Rize

Rize is an AI-powered time tracker that helps you measure and understand time.

Rize runs silently in the background, learning your work patterns and intervening only when necessary.

What struck me immediately about Rize is how it challenges the conventional Pomodoro approach.

Instead of forcing rigid 25/5 cycles on everyone, its AI studies your natural work rhythms and suggests breaks when your focus actually begins to wane.

This solves one of the most frustrating aspects of traditional Pomodoro timers:

Interrupting you during a state of flow just because an arbitrary countdown ended.

The difference becomes clear when you hit a stride of deep work. Rather than a timer dictating when you should stop, Rize’s AI notices patterns in your workflow and suggests breaks at natural transition points.

Rize is not limited to just tracking time, though. It transforms your behavior through subtle nudges.

When you’ve been deep in a distracting app for too long, a gentle notification appears. When you’ve worked continuously for hours, it reminds you to stand up.

These interventions are small but accumulate into better habits.

The interface presents this data clearly without judgment. You see blocks of focus time, distractions, meetings, all automatically categorized.

Real Problem It Solves

Rize solves the “Where did my day go?” problem. Most of us drastically overestimate how much focused work we actually do.

Rize makes this debt focus visible, which is the first step toward fixing it.

By automatically detecting focus sessions and interruptions, it creates accountability without requiring constant manual tracking.

Rize Pricing

• Free trial: One day of data is retained.
• Starting paid plan: $16.99/month (billed monthly), $9.99/month (billed annually).

4. Be Focused Pro

Be Focused Pro is an Apple-only task execution system built around the constraint of time. It implements the Pomodoro method straightforwardly, where you work in focused intervals separated by breaks.

However, it doesn’t enforce the canonical 25/5 split that makes traditional Pomodoro timers feel restrictive.

You can customize everything: work interval length, short break duration, long break frequency.

Be Focused Pro integrates task management directly into the time-blocking system.

You don’t just track generic time blocks; you assign intervals to specific tasks, tag them, add notes, and track your estimation accuracy over time.

This creates an interesting feedback loop.

Most people are terrible at estimating how long tasks will take. By tracking how many Pomodoro sessions each task actually requires, you gradually calibrate your internal clock.

Be Focused Pro syncs across all your Apple devices, i.e., iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

There’s something powerful about the chronometer ticking sound that’s easy to dismiss as trivial. But this subtle audio cue creates a Pavlovian response that helps your brain settle into focus mode.

The fact that alarms sound even when the app is in the background means you can set it and forget it.

Real Problem It Solves

Be Focused Pro solves what I call the “false starts problem” in productivity. Most people don’t struggle with working, they struggle with starting to work.

By creating a clear ritual (set timer, work until it rings, take break), Be Focused Pro eliminates the activation energy required to begin difficult tasks.

Be Focused Pro Pricing

• Free trial: Be Focused free plan.
• Starting paid plan: One-time purchase: $9.99 (separate purchases required for iOS and macOS versions).

5. Focus To-Do

Focus To-Do is a task manager that uses the Pomodoro technique to help you complete your tasks.

It merges two normally separate tools.

The Pomodoro timer isn’t just bolted onto a task list, it’s integrated into the workflow.

Each task gets an estimated number of Pomodoro sessions, creating a unit of measurement more useful than vague priority flags.

This forces a kind of honesty about your work.

When you have to assign concrete time blocks to a task, you confront the true scope of your commitments.

The interface doesn’t try to be clever. It’s straightforward in a way that reduces friction.

You add a task, estimate Pomodoros, and press start. The timer runs, you work, and it logs the session.

What separates Focus To-Do from apps like Be Focused Pro is its rich data analysis. The reporting isn’t just eye candy; it shows time distribution across projects and builds a historical record of your work patterns.

Real Problem It Solves

Focus To-Do solves the execution gap, aka that deadly pause between planning tasks and doing them.

By forcing time estimates upfront and offering an immediate start button, it eliminates the decision paralysis where procrastination takes root.

In essence, Focus To-Do bridges planning and action in a single interface, addressing the core failure point of most productivity systems.

Focus To-Do Pricing

• Free trial: Basic functionality with ads.
• Starting paid plan: $1.99/month.

6. Toggl Track

Toggl Track is time-tracking software that became something more: a complete measurement system for how teams spend their time.

Unlike apps built specifically for the Pomodoro technique, Toggl approaches time from the opposite direction. It captures how you’re already spending your time and makes this visible.

This creates an interesting tension in how you work. When you know you’re being measured, you behave differently.

The timer follows you everywhere:

Browser extensions that integrate with over 100 tools (including Jira, Salesforce, and Asana), desktop apps, mobile apps, and even offline tracking that syncs later.

You never have an excuse not to track.

However, Toggl’s most powerful feature might be its Timeline view, which is a background tracking feature that observes which apps and websites consume your attention.

It is a safety net for when you forget to start the timer, which happens constantly with manual systems.

The interface doesn’t try to be clever or cute. It’s utilitarian in the best sense: one-click timers, favourites for recurring tasks, and keyboard shortcuts that become muscle memory over time.

Real Problem It Solves

Toggl solves the amnesia problem of knowledge work. By creating an objective record, Toggl forces you to confront the gap between your perception and reality.

This matters especially for freelancers and client-facing teams. When you bill by the hour, accuracy isn’t just about productivity, it’s about honesty.

Toggl Track Pricing

• Free trial: A free plan with up to 5 members with unlimited time tracking.
• Starting paid plan: $10/member/month.

7. EARLY (formerly Timeular)

EARLY is unique among focus tools because it starts with a different question. Instead of “How can I focus better?” it asks, “Where is my time actually going?”

What struck me immediately about EARLY is its physical manifestation.

While other apps exist purely in software, EARLY offers an optional physical tracker – an octahedron where each face represents a different activity.

You flip the tracker to whatever you’re working on, and it logs your time automatically.

When tracking time requires opening an app, finding the right project, and clicking start, the friction ensures most people won’t do it consistently.

But flipping a physical object on your desk?

That becomes a habit through muscle memory alone.

The tracker sits on your desk as a constant reminder of your intention. When you catch yourself drifting to social media or email, the physical presence of the tracker creates just enough friction to make you reconsider.

For those who prefer digital-only solutions, EARLY offers multiple tracking methods: automatic tracking of applications and websites, keyboard shortcuts, and mobile tracking.

Real Problem It Solves

By making your actual behavior visible without judgment, EARLY creates a feedback loop based on reality rather than aspiration. This is more powerful than it sounds.

In essence, EARLY reveals the economy of your attention, showing exactly what you’re paying for with your most finite resource: time.

EARLY Pricing

• Free trial: 30-day free trial.
• Starting paid plan: $9/month ($7.5/month when billed annually).

8. Session

Session is a simple and minimal Pomodoro timer for Apple users.

Session approaches the problem from both ends. It doesn’t just count down 25 minutes; it actively removes the things competing for your attention.

When you start a timer, Session blocks the websites and apps you’ve designated as distractions.

Instead of giving you a timer and wishing you luck against the endless pull of social media and notifications, it reshapes your environment.

Session follows the standard Pomodoro structure but adds reflection.

After each session ends, it asks what you accomplished and if you got distracted. This creates a feedback loop that most timers lack.

Session exists exclusively in the Apple ecosystem, which is both a limitation and an advantage.

The limitation is obvious: no Windows or Android. But the advantage is that it can deeply integrate with macOS and iOS in ways cross-platform apps can’t.

It changes your Slack status automatically when you’re focusing. It can trigger Apple Shortcuts to play specific music when you start working, or change smart bulb colors when you take breaks.

Real Problem It Solves

Session solves the mismatch between intention and environment.

While most productivity apps give you a timer and moral support, Session reshapes your digital landscape.

Its power isn’t in counting down 25 minutes, but in removing the $20 billion of attention-engineering working against you during those 25 minutes.

For ADHD users especially, it bridges the critical gap between wanting to focus and actually starting – which explains why PhD candidates credit it with completing their dissertations.

Session Pricing

• Free trial: Free plan with basic functionality with analytics from the past 2 days.
• Starting paid plan: $4.99/month or $3.33/month if billed yearly.

9. Forest

Forest makes you feel guilty. The concept is almost childishly simple.

You plant a virtual tree when you want to focus. Leave the app during your focus session, and your tree dies. Stay focused, and your tree grows.

Eventually, you build a forest representing all your focused time.

Forest transforms productivity from an abstract goal into something concrete that can live or die. Humans evolved to care deeply about nurturing living things.

Forest hijacks this instinct.

When I first heard about Forest, I was skeptical. Growing virtual trees seemed like a gimmick. But there’s something oddly affecting about watching your tree wither because you couldn’t resist checking Twitter.

The real stroke of genius in Forest is connecting virtual trees to real ones.

After accumulating enough coins from successful sessions, you can plant an actual tree through their partnership with Trees for the Future. They’ve planted over 1.8 million real trees this way.

The mechanics of Forest are well-executed.

You set a timer (typically 25 minutes for a Pomodoro session), plant your seed, and then resist the urge to leave the app.

The growing animation provides just enough visual feedback to be satisfying. Over time, you build an entire forest visualizing your focused hours.

Real Problem It Solves

Forest solves the psychological warfare between you and your phone.

That virtual tree creates a living stake in your focus session that triggers the same neural pathways as caring for a pet or plant.

When you’re about to check Instagram, it’s no longer an abstract productivity failure; you’re killing something you’ve nurtured.

This emotional manipulation works precisely because it transforms digital discipline from willpower (which depletes) into caregiving (which energizes).

Forest Pricing

• Free trial: Free plan for Android users.
• Starting paid plan: One-time purchase: $3.99 (iOS).

10. Focusmeter

Focusmeter is an Android-only Pomodoro app that acknowledges an uncomfortable truth: your ability to rest determines your ability to focus.

Focusmeter elevates rest to equal status with work.

It doesn’t confine you to the canonical 25/5 Pomodoro structure, either.

Want to try the 52/17 method instead?

Or experiment with 90-minute deep work sessions followed by 30-minute breaks?

Focusmeter adapts to whatever rhythm works for your brain.

What separates true productivity tools from mere timers is data. Focusmeter excels here by letting you tag sessions and visualize patterns across days, weeks, and months.

The tagging system reveals which activities drain you most quickly and which you can sustain for longer periods.

I was skeptical about the export feature at first. I was like, who needs CSV exports of their work sessions?

But I realized how valuable this seemingly technical feature is for recalibrating your estimates.

The interface isn’t trying to win design awards. It’s functional, clear, and gets out of your way. The focus is literally on focus, not on the tool itself.

Real Problem It Solves

Focusmeter solves the rest deficit.

It recognizes that strategic rest isn’t an admission of weakness but the foundation of sustainable performance.

You begin to see patterns: those 52-minute deep work sessions followed by actual 17-minute breaks (not just checking email) produce measurably better output than marathon stretches.

Focusmeter Pricing

• Free trial: Free plan with no ads, unlimited modes, and basic analytics.
• Starting paid plan: $12/year for Pro features, including custom UI colors and extended analytics.

11. Pomofocus

PomoFocus is a web-based Pomodoro timer that feels like it was built by someone who actually needed it. Not a product manager with a checklist of features, but someone who got tired of being distracted.

The interface is deliberately minimal.

You add tasks, estimate how many Pomodoros they’ll take, and press start. The timer counts down, you work, it rings, you rest. Then you do it again.

One subtle feature that most people overlook is the estimated finish time. When you assign Pomodoros to your tasks for the day, PomoFocus calculates when you’ll be done.

This creates a boundary that most knowledge workers desperately need but rarely create for themselves. Knowing you’ll be finished at 5:37 pm is strangely liberating.

The visual reports aren’t mere vanity metrics.

They show your focus patterns across days, weeks, and months, creating a feedback loop that most people never establish with their work.

What separates the premium version from the free one are genuinely useful additions: project tracking, yearly reports, CSV exports, and integration with Todoist and other apps through webhooks.

Real Problem It Solves

PomoFocus solves the “productive procrastination” trap, where you spend more time managing your productivity system than doing actual work.

Most focus tools give you a rope to hang yourself: endless customization, complex workflows, and feature bloat that fragments your attention.

PomoFocus does the opposite. It creates just enough friction to prevent distraction without becoming another distraction itself.

Pomofocus Pricing

• Free trial: Free version with core functionality.
• Starting paid plan: $3/month, $18/year, or $54 lifetime.

12. Focus Keeper

Focus Keeper is a timer that stays a timer.

What struck me about Focus Keeper was a strange realization: the best productivity tools often require the least thought to use.

In that sense, Focus Keeper is like a hammer. You don’t think about the ergonomics of your hammer while driving a nail.

You just hit the nail.

Focus Keeper revolves around a simple premise: work for 25 minutes, rest for 5, and then repeat.

After four cycles, take a longer break. The interface is deliberately minimal – a circular timer that fills as you progress, changing color from red (work) to green (rest).

This visual feedback creates a subtle psychological effect.

As the timer fills, you feel a small satisfaction in watching your progress accumulate. It’s one of those design choices that seems obvious only after someone has done it well.

Focus Keeper’s customization options address a fundamental truth that most productivity systems ignore: different work requires different rhythms.

Writing code might demand 45-minute sessions for you, while writing prose might work better in 20-minute bursts.

Focus Keeper lets you adjust accordingly.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is one that’s not immediately obvious: the analytics. Focus Keeper tracks your sessions over time, creating visual charts that reveal patterns in your work habits.

Real Problem It Solves

Focus Keeper solves the invisible tax of task-switching that most knowledge workers don’t even realize they’re paying.

The Pomodoro interval works because it’s just long enough to achieve flow but short enough that “I’ll focus for 25 minutes” doesn’t trigger the same resistance as “I’ll focus all afternoon.”

It transforms ambiguous time into concrete units, making the abstract tangible.

Focus Keeper Pricing

• Free trial: A free plan.
• Starting paid plan: In-app purchases start at $3.99/month.

13. Flow

Flow is the antithesis of bloated software.

It doesn’t try to be your task manager, your calendar, your note-taking system, and your kitchen sink.

The first time I opened Flow, I experienced a strange feeling: relief.

There were no tutorials, no complicated onboarding, no “ecosystem” to learn. Just a timer, ready to go. Dare I say that Flow is the cleanest Pomodoro app I have ever used for Apple devices.

Flow does one thing, Pomodoro timing, and does it exceptionally well.

The interface achieves that elusive quality that most designers chase but few capture: it feels inevitable.

When you see it, you think, “Of course this is how a timer should work.” The circular progress indicator fills clockwise as you work, changing color when it’s time to rest.

There’s a subtle feature that I wager you’ll like: the metronome.

It sounds trivial, but this audio cue creates a Pavlovian association between the sound and deep work. After a few sessions, your brain starts to enter focus mode just hearing it.

Real Problem It Solves

Flow solves the self-sabotage loop of modern work. Most of us start our day with good intentions, but our digital environment is actively engineered against us.

You open a timer app, and before you can start, you have checked 3 notifications, responded to 2 emails, and forgotten what you sat down to do.

What makes Flow powerful isn’t just blocking distractions (many apps do that) but creating a psychological moat around your intention.

Flow Pricing

• Free trial: A free plan with core functionality.
• Starting paid plan: $2.99/month.

14. Otto

Otto (Chrome extension) is built on a more accurate model of how minds work. It calls itself “a little friend for a wandering mind,” which is a description I find surprisingly apt.

I first noticed something different about Otto when I realized it doesn’t scold you for getting distracted. Instead, it approaches distractions as a natural part of being human.

Otto combines timer functionality with website blocking, but that description undersells what makes it interesting.

Plenty of apps do both of those things. What sets Otto apart is how it reduces the friction of getting started.

Getting started is the hardest part of any task.

Once you’re ten minutes in, continuing isn’t that hard. It’s those first few moments when your brain presents you with a dozen escape routes: check email, look at Twitter, clean your desk, make coffee.

Otto addresses this through what they call “workflows”. Essentially, they are decision prompts that guide you to take the first step.

Another feature I found unexpectedly useful is their “autoblock” functionality.

Rather than completely blocking distracting sites, you can set time limits. This acknowledges another truth about productive work: sometimes, you need controlled access to potentially distracting tools.

Otto’s task management system also contains a subtle insight.

They emphasize naming your focus sessions based on the principle that naming things gives them meaning, and meaning creates intention.

Real Problem It Solves

Otto solves the beginning-continuation paradox of focused work.

Once you’re fifteen minutes into a task, continuation has momentum. It’s those first moments when your brain generates an impressive array of escape routes.

Otto acknowledges your wandering mind as a feature rather than a bug and then works with it rather than against it.

Otto Pricing

• Free trial: Basic free plan with unlimited Pomodoros and website blocking.
• Starting paid plan: $24/year or $59 lifetime.

15. Productivity Challenge Timer

Productivity Challenge Timer is the drill sergeant of time management apps. It’s the rare app that doesn’t pretend to be your friend.

Productivity Challenge is known for its bluntness.

The developer writes in the description: “The purpose of this app is not to promote a healthy work-life balance, but to get you to work harder.”

It works like a Pomodoro timer with an attitude problem.

You can’t pause sessions. You can’t end them early. If you set 25 minutes, you’re committed to 25 minutes. It even demotes your rank if you slack off.

This sounds harsh, but there’s wisdom here. You and I need something that prevents us from lying to ourselves about how much we work.

The mechanics are simple.

You pick a project, start a timer, and do the work. Over time, you build a detailed record of exactly where your time goes.

What’s clever about the ranking system is how it hijacks our competitive instincts.

We evolved to care deeply about status within a tribe. Productivity Challenge Timer leverages this ancient wiring to make you care about maintaining your “Master” or “Legend” status.

Real Problem It Solves

Productivity Challenge Timer solves the “self-accountability deficit”, that peculiar human ability to rationalize away our own procrastination even as we’re doing it.

It is effective because it refuses to participate in this self-deception.

For freelancers and independent workers especially, it replaces the missing accountability structure that employed people take for granted.

Productivity Challenge Timer Pricing

• Free trial: Free plan with in-app purchases.
• Starting paid plan: $8.99 for in-app purchases.

Time to Focus: Pick Your Pomodoro Tool and Start Today

I’ve shown you 15 Pomodoro timer apps that solve real problems.

Start small.

One 25-minute session.

No phone. No email.

Just the single most important task you’ve been avoiding.

When that timer rings, you’ll have done more meaningful work than most people accomplish in a day of fractured attention.

The tools in this guide range from minimalist timers to complete productivity ecosystems.

Some use guilt, others use data, and still others use physical objects. There’s something here that matches how your particular brain works.

So here’s your homework:

Choose one app from this list. Install it now. Set a 25-minute timer. And get to work on the thing that matters most.

The rest will take care of itself.