Comparison · checked August 2026

Forest vs Stoiq

Forest is one of the best-loved focus apps ever made, and it earned that. It is also a phone habit whose whole mechanism is a thing you grew dying when you slip. Stoiq is a Mac app with somebody in it, and nothing in it ever dies. Here is the comparison, including where Forest wins.

See the table Which one should you pick?

Written by Stoiq. Every fact about Forest below was read off their own site in August 2026 and is linked at the bottom of this page.

What Forest is

The fair description.

Forest is a focus timer with a hook. You start a session, a tree grows on your screen while you stay off your phone, and the forest you build up is a running record of the time you actually protected. Deep Focus adds app blocking on top of the timer, group sessions let you plant alongside other people, and the company plants real trees through a partnership with Trees for the Future.

It is enormously popular for a reason: the mechanism is instantly legible, it costs nothing to try, and the record it builds is genuinely pleasant to look at. If your phone is the thing eating your day, Forest is a serious answer and has been for over a decade.

Side by side

The whole difference, in six rows.

Forest compared with Stoiq, checked August 2026
What	Forest	Stoiq
How it works	You start a timer and a tree grows while you stay off your phone. In their words: “During each focus session, a tree grows while you stay focused. Open another app, and the tree dies.” Deep Focus adds app blocking with an allowlist.	Say what you're working on and pick a length. A small companion sits in the corner of your Mac while the block runs. Drift to a distracting site and he checks in first — one tap takes you back to the sentence you left. Keep going and the page goes behind him until the block ends.
Where it runs	Their site lists iPhone, iPad, Android, and a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. No native Mac or Windows app.	macOS 14 or later, a Chrome companion, and iPhone. There is no Windows build and no Android build.
What it costs	Free with no expiry and no card, plus an optional Forest Plus subscription. Their own site quotes no figure — it says pricing “varies by region and platform” and sends you to the stores. The US App Store listing shows in-app purchases at $5.99 monthly and $32.49–$35.99 annually. The old one-time Pro is “no longer available for purchase on any platform”.	$79 once, and that is the end of it. There is a $7.99 a month plan if you would rather rent it. 30-day refund, no questions.
When you slip	The tree dies. Their site is direct about it: to open another app during Deep Focus you tap Give Up, “which kills your tree”.	Nothing dies. There is no streak to break, no score to keep and no chart of your worst week. Everything you have grown stays grown, and coming back after four days away costs you nothing at all.
Who's with you	A tree, a forest, and other people if you use group sessions. No character — what keeps you honest is a record you would rather not spoil.	A character with eyes, actually present while you work. He notices, he asks before he blocks, and he says nothing at all while you're on track.
Rent or own	Subscription for Plus. People who bought the old one-time Pro keep it; it is no longer sold.	One payment. Nothing renews, nothing lapses, and there is nothing to cancel.

Forest is a trademark of its owner and we have no affiliation with them. Their column describes their product in our words; where a number appears in it, the page it came from is linked below.

Which one

Sometimes the answer is theirs.

You are shopping, not being sold to. Here is the honest split, and the left-hand card is not a courtesy — if one of those lines is you, buy Forest and get on with your afternoon.

Choose Forest if

Forest is your answer

Your phone is the problem, not your Mac. Forest lives where the scroll lives and Stoiq does not.
You are on Android, or you want this on an iPad. Stoiq has neither, and is not going to pretend otherwise.
The dying tree genuinely works on you. Loss aversion is a real mechanism, and for a lot of people it is the only thing that ever stuck.
You want the real trees. The Trees for the Future partnership is a genuine thing Forest does and we do not.
You want to focus alongside friends in a shared session. Forest has group sessions; Stoiq has nothing like them.
Free is enough. Forest's free tier has no expiry and does not ask for a card.

Choose Stoiq if

Stoiq is your answer

The work you are avoiding is on your Mac, in a browser tab, at four in the afternoon.
A dead tree makes you feel worse and then you delete the app. Nothing in Stoiq ever dies, and there is no streak to break.
You want to be asked before you are blocked, because sometimes the tab really is the work.
You would rather pay once than hold another subscription.
You want help deciding what to do, not just a timer. Say the pile out loud and get one clear next step back.

The difference underneath

Everything else stands in your way.

Every tool in this category works by standing between you and the thing you were about to do. It blocks the site, it charges you a breath, it locks the machine, or it kills something you grew. All of that works, and some of it works very well.

Stoiq is the one with somebody in it. A small companion sits in the corner of your Mac while the block runs, notices when the scroll starts, and asks first — because sometimes the tab is the work. Nothing you have grown ever dies, there is no streak to break and no score to keep, and coming back after four days away costs you nothing at all.

That is not a feature list. It is the reason people still have it installed in week three.

Join

Own it once. Nothing renews.

$79, once — you’re in as a Day One. The Mac app, the browser companion, iPhone, and every character we ever make. Nothing lapses and there is nothing to cancel.

The longer case for Stoiq

$79once · no subscription

Stoiq for Mac, yours for good.

The small print

Where these facts came from.

Snapshot checked August 2026. Every claim about Forest on this page was read from the pages listed below on that date. Prices and platforms change, and theirs may have changed since. If you find something here that is out of date or unfair, write to hello@stoiq.ai and we will fix it — that goes for Forest too.

Prices are shown as their own site shows them, in the currency it shows them in, and several of these companies price differently by region. Check the number on their page before you buy anything.

Forest — home and pricing — https://www.forestapp.cc/
Forest on the US App Store — in-app purchase list — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/forest-focus-for-productivity/id866450515

We are not affiliated with Forest and this page is not endorsed by them. Their name is used here to identify their product, which is the only reason it appears.

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