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Forest app alternatives for iPhone: 5 focus apps worth trying

By Martin Eriksson · 29 October 2026

I'm Martin, the solo developer behind Puperino. Where I mention my own app, I'll say so.

Forest made the idea famous: plant a tree, stay off your phone, and watch it grow. It's still one of the best-rated focus apps on the App Store. But it isn't for everyone. Some people find a dying tree more stressful than motivating. Others just want something new after a year of growing the same forest.

Here are five iPhone apps that keep what works about Forest, the visible reward for staying focused, and change the rest. Disclosure: Puperino is my app. I've kept the comparison as fair as I can.

Details are from the US App Store on 29 October 2026.

What Forest does well

To pick a good alternative, it helps to know what you'd be giving up. Forest grows a tree while you focus and kills it if you leave the app. It can block distracting apps with an allow list, has focus sessions with friends, tags and stats, and plants real trees through a charity partner. It's free to download, with an optional Forest Plus subscription, and has around 50,000 ratings averaging 4.8.

At a glance

1. Puperino: a puppy instead of a tree

Puperino swaps the tree for Biscuit, a puppy who curls up and naps beside your timer. Finish a session and he brings you a gift. End early and he still brings you something, just a muddy stick. Nothing dies.

You can block distracting apps during sessions, or use Stay mode, which ends the session if you leave the app for more than 10 seconds. Locking your screen is fine. The countdown and Biscuit also sit on your lock screen.

Choose it if you liked Forest's idea but want a softer consequence and a companion rather than a plant.

2. Focus Friend: the cozy decorating option

Focus Friend gives you a bean who knits while you focus. You earn decorations for its room, garden and outfits, and there's a Deep Focus mode that locks distracting apps. It has an Editors' Choice badge and around 9,500 ratings.

Choose it if collecting and decorating is what keeps you coming back.

3. Focus Plant: closest to Forest

If you like growing things, Focus Plant is the nearest match. You earn raindrops by staying off your phone and use them to grow plants and clean up magical worlds. It added app blocking in a recent version. The free version shows ads, and a monthly subscription removes them.

Choose it if you want Forest's plant-growing loop with a different art style and more exploring.

4. Study Bunny: for students who want flashcards too

Study Bunny has a customisable bunny, a study timer that encourages you when you pause, and flashcards and a to-do list built in. It doesn't block apps, and extras are sold as coin packs.

Choose it if you want your study tools and your focus pet in one place.

5. Pomocat: simple and cute

Pomocat is a minimal Pomodoro timer with a cat, white noise and a stamp calendar for each day you focus. It also runs on Apple Watch.

Choose it if you want the simplest possible app with a cute companion.

Which one should you pick?

• Leaving your phone is your main problem: stay with an app that blocks apps: Puperino, Focus Friend or Focus Plant.
• Forest's dying tree stresses you out: Puperino or Pomocat, where nothing dies.
• You love decorating: Focus Friend, then Puperino.
• You want to keep growing plants: Focus Plant.

Most of these are free to try, so install two, use each for a few days of real study, and keep the one you actually open.

Puperino

Swap the tree for a puppy. Puperino is free to download on iPhone.

Download on the App Store

Puperino

A cozy Pomodoro timer for iPhone. Biscuit naps beside you while you focus and brings you a gift when you finish.

Download on the App Store