Garden Timer vs Bloom Focus Timer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Garden Timer
This app transforms focus sessions into a growing virtual garden. Each completed focus period contributes to the evolution of your persistent garden world, offering a unique visual representation of your productivity. Ambient soundscapes enhance deep work sessions.
- Persistent virtual garden growth
- Dynamic Island and Lock Screen integration
- Ambient soundscapes for focus
- Detailed focus analytics (Pro)
- Landscape Desk Mode (Pro)
- Ad-free experience (Pro)
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Every time you focus, something grows. Garden Timer turns your focus sessions into a cherry blossom garden that remembers every minute you put in. Not a disposable plant that resets. A living world that evolves — bare branches to first buds to full bloom — all built by you showing up. Set your timer. Put the phone down. When you come back, your garden has grown. WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT Other focus apps grow a single tree and forget it. Garden Timer builds a persistent world across every session. Your garden is yours — it accumulates, it changes, it reflects how far you've come. That's not a gimmick. That's the thing that makes you open the app again tomorrow. YOUR FOCUS, ALWAYS VISIBLE Start a session and your timer appears on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen. Glance at your phone without picking it up. See your time counting down, your garden stage progressing, right there. No need to unlock. No temptation to open anything else. SOUNDS THAT ACTUALLY HELP Rain on leaves. Morning birds. A quiet stream. Not a generic white noise loop — ambient soundscapes designed to pair with the garden you're growing. Put your headphones in and disappear into deep work. BUILT FOR iOS 26 Liquid Glass interface. Smooth crossfade animations between growth stages. Native SwiftUI from the ground up — this isn't a web app stuffed into a shell. It feels like it belongs on your phone because it was built for your phone. GARDEN PRO Unlock every garden scene with 12 growth stages, all ambient sound packs, unlimited session history, detailed focus analytics, landscape Desk Mode, and an ad-free experience. Start with a free trial. The people who build something every day are the ones who show up again. Your garden is proof you did. Privacy Policy: https://jmrely.github.io/gardentimer-site/privacy.html Support: https://jmrely.github.io/gardentimer-site/support.html
Bloom Focus Timer
This app uses a unique approach to time management by gamifying focus sessions. Grow a virtual forest by completing work or study periods, with your trees' survival depending on your commitment. It also offers a collaborative mode for shared focus sessions.
- Gamified focus timer
- Virtual tree growth
- Forest building
- Unlock new tree species
- Collaborative focus sessions
- Track work history
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A focus timer should be simple. Bloom is a timer for work and study, and not much else. Pick a tree, choose how long you want to focus, and start. The tree grows while you work, and joins your forest when the session ends. Longer sessions grow bigger trees. New species unlock as your hours add up. Give up early and your tree dies. Plant with a friend: share your code, start one countdown together, and if either of you gives up, both trees die. Over time you end up with a forest you built yourself as a quiet record of the work you've done.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Bloom Focus Timer at 3 against Garden Timer's 1. Bloom Focus Timer also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Garden Timer sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Bloom Focus Timer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Garden Timer against 5.0 for Bloom Focus Timer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Garden Timer | Bloom Focus Timer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 315 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ely Martinez | MAXIMILIAN ANTON MICHLITS |
Customer experience
Garden Timer
Bloom Focus Timer
In-app purchases
Garden Timer
- Garden Pro3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Garden Pro7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Lifetime Garden Pro$49.99
Bloom Focus Timer
- Buy me a coffee$4.00









