ftns.ai vs Forest: A Fitness Habit Game Where Rest Isn’t a Miss vs a Focus Timer Where Trees Die

This Forest app review is for anyone who uses Forest, or is weighing it up, and wonders if it is still worth it. Short answer: if you want a timer that grows a tree while you stay off your phone, Forest does exactly that, free at its core. If you want a private game about showing up for workouts, rest days, sleep and food, where a missed day never takes back what you built, ftns.ai, a fitness habit game, does a different job. Many people could use both.

Forest belongs to a family of apps where you look after something, here a tree, by looking after a habit. We mapped that family in our guide to care-loop apps and compared ftns.ai with another plant game, Plant Nanny. Forest is one of the longest-running apps built around a growing tree, so it gets its own look.

What is the Forest app?

Forest is a focus timer for iPhone, Android and desktop browsers: you start a session, a tree grows while you stay off your phone, and finished sessions build into a forest you can look back on.

You pick a session length and a tree. Deep Focus blocks other apps during a session, Time Guard blocks chosen apps on a schedule, and Mindful Space offers soundscapes and guided breathing. Focus Challenge sets missions, and Plant Together is a shared session with people you invite. With Forest Plus, Focus Analytics breaks down your focused time, including streaks.

Forest is made by Seekrtech, an independent studio in Taiwan, and has been on iPhone since 2014. It is a tree growing habit app, though the habit it targets is focus, not fitness. Through the nonprofit Trees for the Future, Forest says it has funded more than 2 million real trees, and Plus users can spend in-app rewards to plant up to five per account.

What Forest is genuinely good at

• It is simple: one tap starts a session, and the tree makes time away from your phone visible.
• The core is free with no time limit, including the app blocker (Deep Focus) and scheduled blocks for one app or site (Time Guard).
• The record is lovely: sessions add up to a forest you can see at a glance.
• It works across iPhone, iPad, Android and browsers, with one account.
• It is well rated: 4.8 stars from about 50K ratings on the US App Store and 4.3 from about 814K reviews on Google Play (checked 29 October 2026).

Is Forest free? What does Forest Plus add?

Yes. Forest’s core focus timer is free with no time limit, and Forest Plus is an optional subscription with a free trial. The old one-time Forest Pro is no longer sold to new users.

Free includes the focus timer, Deep Focus, Plant Together, scheduled blocks for one app or site, one soundscape and the missions. Plus adds pauses of up to five minutes without losing the tree, a custom allowlist, scheduled blocks for more apps, Focus Analytics and custom tags, every seasonal and exclusive tree, all soundscapes, faster in-app rewards and real-tree planting.

If you searched for Forest Premium, the paid tier today is called Forest Plus. Prices are shown in the app before you subscribe and vary by country and platform. Cancel and your forest and history stay. People who already own Forest Pro keep it.

What happens if you leave the app mid-session?

In Forest, giving up a session early costs you that session’s tree. Forest’s own tagline puts it simply: stay off your phone and a tree grows, “leave early and it withers.” That loss is deliberate, and Forest says so.

With Deep Focus on, other apps are blocked, and the only way out is to give up. Forest’s help pages add that without Deep Focus you can switch apps without losing the tree. Forest says dead trees stay in your forest as an honest record, not a verdict. Plus users can pause for up to five minutes; free users can’t.

Some people love the stakes. Others say losing a tree to an interruption they didn’t choose feels unfair.

That design suits a session you choose to protect. A habit you keep for years, like exercise, has a different shape: rest days are part of it, and life gets in the way. That is the limit of a forest focus app for habits beyond the desk.

Is the Forest app worth it?

It is worth it if a growing tree is what keeps you off your phone while you work or study, and the free version lets you find out at no cost. If your real goal is to keep showing up for exercise, it is not built for that job.

Forest is a focus timer, not advice. Questions about attention, sleep or how you feel are for a qualified health professional, not an app.

What ftns.ai is for

ftns.ai is a fitness habit game for iPhone. Your twin, a living 3D avatar of you, reacts when you log and rebuilds weekly from what you actually tracked. It is not a body scan; here is what a digital twin is.

One Life Score, 0 to 100, comes from six categories: nutrition, training, recovery, sleep, mood and consistency.

Here is the flip side: in ftns.ai, nothing you built can wither. Both apps have streaks; the difference is what a stumble costs. In ftns.ai, streak freezes cover the days life gets in the way. Rest isn’t a miss. XP never decreases. Ever. More in is it okay to miss a day.

Your coach builds a workout plan when you ask, from your goal, pace, equipment and the exercises you rule out. Offered, never imposed, it waits in the coach inbox until you add it. Your coach is a game feature, not a health professional.

It is also private. No social feed, no friends list, no leaderboards. More in why there is no social side.

ftns.ai vs Forest at a glance

Forest details from its official website and its US App Store and Google Play listings, checked 29 October 2026.

Who should pick which, and using both

• Pick Forest if you want help staying off your phone while you study or work, like seeing time as trees, want a free app blocker, or are on Android or a desktop browser.
• Pick ftns.ai if you want the exercise habit itself to be the game, rest days that count instead of costing you, and progress that never goes backwards.
• Use both: Forest for the hour you want to protect at your desk, ftns.ai for the fitness habit you want to keep for years. They do different jobs and do not connect to each other.

More comparisons: ftns.ai vs Daylio.

A Forest app alternative for your fitness habit

If you are looking at a Forest app alternative, or apps like Forest, for exercise rather than focus, a private fitness habit game is a different kind of tool: nothing you build can wither, and showing up is what counts.

If that sounds like you, try ftns.ai. It is a paid iPhone membership, free for 7 days, then $14.99/mo or $167.99/yr, so you can see whether the habit sticks before you pay. For more apps built around looking after something, see our guide to care-loop apps.

One app grows a tree while you stay away. The other just wants you back tomorrow.