Tomatoro vs Focus4Life

Tomatoro is a focus timer built around the Pomodoro Technique — designed for people who take their deep work seriously. Whether you're studying, coding, writing, or just trying to stay off your phone, Tomatoro keeps you in the zone with smart timers, beautiful environments, and zero subscriptions. --- STAY FOCUSED, YOUR WAY • Classic Pomodoro: 25-minute focus blocks with short and long breaks • Deep Focus mode: Extended sessions for serious, uninterrupted work • Creative Flow: Flexible sessions designed for writing and creative projects • Commitment Mode: Blocks pause, skip, and stop while a session is active — no excuses --- LIVE ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN • Live Activities with Dynamic Island support — see your timer without unlocking your phone • Lock screen widgets that update in real time • StandBy support: beautiful full-screen timer on your bedside table • Apple Watch companion: start, stop, and check your sessions from your wrist --- PREMIUM FEATURES (ONE-TIME PURCHASE) • Focus Environments: Immersive visual themes — Zen Garden, Rainy Library, Retro Office • Concentration Sounds: 6 ambient soundscapes — Rain, Ocean Waves, Forest Rain, River, and more • Advanced Statistics: Weekly charts, streaks, and detailed session history • Alternative App Icons: Choose the look that fits your style • Timer Profiles: Pre-configured setups for Deep Work, Light Study, and Creative Flow • StandBy Themes: Match your nightstand aesthetic No subscription. Pay once, own it forever. --- BUILT FOR FOCUS NERDS Tomatoro tracks your sessions, breaks, and daily streaks so you always know how productive you've been. The app speaks English and Spanish — switch languages without leaving the app. Compatible with iPhone and Apple Watch. Requires iOS 16.6 or later.

Focus4Life turns scattered days into focused ones. A Pomodoro timer, a real task planner and a distraction blocker in one calm app — no ads, no account, and it works completely offline. WHY IT'S QUIET Focus4Life doesn't run on anxiety. No punishing streaks, no guilt, no noise. Its timings and limits come from published research and from the original authors of each technique, and the research-backed settings carry an (i) with the source behind them. FOUR RHYTHMS, EACH WITH A REASON • Classic — 25 / 5 / 15, Cirillo's original technique • Deep Work — 50 / 10 / 30, after Cal Newport's "Deep Work" • Sprint — 15 / 3 / 10, a low-resistance way into a hard task • Ultradian — 90 / 20, the Basic Rest-Activity Cycle (Kleitman; Lavie) • A live countdown on your Lock Screen — and in the Dynamic Island on iPhones that have one — drawn by iOS itself, so it costs almost no battery • A gentle heads-up when a task runs past the limits research links to fatigue FOCUS LOCK — IT ACTUALLY STOPS YOU • Block distracting apps — and websites in Safari — during a session using Apple Screen Time: a real, system-enforced shield, fully opt-in, and only while a focus phase is running • Choose gentle friction or a firm block, per session or for good • Flip your phone face-down to drop straight into focus, and get a nudge if you pick it up too soon • Never during a break. Never while you're paused. Never without a permission you granted yourself A REAL TASK PLANNER, NOT A CHECKLIST • Priorities, due dates and repeats — daily, weekdays, weekly or monthly, ending never, on a date, or after a set number of times • Estimate a task and the app works out how many pomodoros it needs • Today, Week and Month views; on iPad, Week and Month list your actual tasks under each day • Notes on any task • Nothing reschedules itself behind your back. Overdue work is a count and a button, never a scolding PROJECTS WITH SOMETHING TO FILL Group tasks into colour-coded projects, each with an optional note on when and where you'll do the work — an “implementation intention”, shown to make follow-through markedly more likely (Gollwitzer, 1999). Give a project a goal image, estimate its tasks, and the image uncovers itself as you focus your way through the estimate. A GARDEN THAT REMEMBERS Every finished session uncovers part of a hidden picture, and longer sessions uncover more. A quiet record of effort — not a leaderboard, and not a plant that dies if you take a day off. Missing a day never takes anything away. HONEST STATS Minutes focused, sessions completed, tasks done, and your longest single session — for today and the last 7 days. Pro adds 30-day and all-time history, plus a breakdown of which apps interrupted you. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Works fully offline — no account, no sign-up, nothing in the cloud • Your data stays on your device • No ads. Not now, not ever. ONE APP, EVERY SCREEN iPhone, iPad and Mac, each running the same app with the same calm. Every device keeps its own data on itself — there is no cloud and nothing to sign in to. FOCUS4LIFE PRO Free covers the whole core loop: unlimited sessions, all four research presets, the entire task planner with repeats and notes, two projects, the Garden, and flip-to-focus. Pro is a one-time purchase — not a subscription — and unlocks unlimited projects, the full focus blocker, 30-day and all-time stats, custom timer durations, and your own photos in the Garden. It comes with a 7-day trial that asks for no payment card and simply ends. We'd love your feedback — reach us anytime at phan.business.nl@gmail.com.