Pomodoro by Elsa vs Cairn
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pomodoro by Elsa
This app helps you focus on tasks and take restorative breaks with a customizable timer. It offers features to block distractions, build better routines, and track your progress. Syncs across devices and integrates with Apple Health.
- Customizable focus and break durations
- Distraction blocking
- Progress tracking and daily goals
- Ambient soundscapes
- Cross-device sync
- Apple Health integration
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Make time for what matters. Pomodoro is a thoughtful focus timer built for steady work and restorative breaks. Choose a rhythm that fits your day, reduce distractions, and see the progress you are making—without creating an account. FOCUS YOUR WAY • Set custom focus, short-break, and long-break durations • Choose how many sessions come before a long break • Start, pause, reset, or auto-start the next session • Organize sessions with your own task tags • Keep time visible with Nightstand mode and Live Activities BUILD A BETTER ROUTINE • Review sessions, focus minutes, streaks, and active days • Set a daily goal and follow your progress • Get personalized Focus Coach insights from your session history • Add optional daily and session-completion reminders • Save completed sessions as Mindful Minutes in Apple Health MAKE SPACE TO CONCENTRATE • Block selected distracting apps during focus sessions • Choose ambient music and soundscapes for your workspace • Personalize color themes, fonts, and timer size FOCUS ACROSS YOUR DEVICES • Start and track sessions from Home Screen widgets • Use Siri and App Shortcuts for quick timer controls • Connect your focus mode with Focus Filters • Continue from the Apple Watch companion app • Keep preferences and history in sync through iCloud The core timer is free to use. Pomodoro Premium is an optional one-time purchase that unlocks the Focus Coach, advanced app blocking and reminders, and every theme, font, and focus sound. No subscription. Health, notification, and Screen Time access are optional and requested only when you use the related feature. Pomodoro is a productivity aid and does not provide medical advice or guarantee particular outcomes.
Cairn
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Focus that leaves something behind.Cairn is a calm Pomodoro and deep-work timer. Finish a focus session and it forges a small, one-of-a-kind keepsake — a piece of generative art that's yours to keep, forever.No streaks to guilt you. No trees that die. No ads, no subscription, no tracking. Buy it once.Plant a focus. Grow a garden of your work.Every completed session blooms into a unique keepsake and joins your terrarium — a quiet, growing record of the time you gave your attention. Each one is deterministic and permanent: the same focus always grows the same object, and it never withers.Why Cairn feels different• A keepsake, not a chore. Reward without the gamified guilt — nothing dies if you stop.• Buy once, keep forever. One purchase unlocks everything. No subscription, ever.• Private by design. 100% on-device. No account, no ads, no tracking, works offline.• Calm, not hustle. Built for deep work, study, and reading — not dopamine loops.Everything you'd want in a focus timer• Pomodoro and custom-length sessions for study, work, and reading• A living garden/terrarium of everything you've grown• A diary calendar and honest stats — hours, rhythm, materials• Home & Lock Screen widgets, Live Activity & Dynamic Island, Control Center• Apple Watch app with complications — start a focus from your wrist• Full iPhone + iPad, light & dark, and accessibility supportCairn Pro — one purchase, foreverUnlock every material, palette, and the full garden with a single buy-once purchase. No subscriptions, no upsells.Focus is fleeting. What you make of it doesn't have to be.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pomodoro by Elsa at none against Cairn's 1. Pomodoro by Elsa also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Cairn sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Pomodoro by Elsa asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Pomodoro by Elsa | Cairn |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 157 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Elsa Lozano | Pham Van Hai |
In-app purchases
Pomodoro by Elsa
No in-app purchases
Cairn
- Cairn Pro · Lifetime Unlock$1.99
Questions
Is Pomodoro by Elsa free?
Is Cairn free?
Do Pomodoro by Elsa or Cairn have ads?
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