A Pomofocus Alternative

The core loop will feel familiar: focused work blocks, automatic short and long breaks, a task list, and a running tally of finished sessions. The difference is the floating window — press Float and the countdown pops out into a small always-on-top pane so you don't have to keep a browser tab in view — plus everything works with no account and nothing to install.

You get one-tap presets (25/5, 50/10, 90/20, 15/3) and fully custom focus and break lengths, dark and light themes, and local session history that stays private to your device. Prefer it off the browser entirely? There's a free desktop app with a native glass float. New to the method? Start with what the Pomodoro Technique is.

The honest summary of the difference is this: Pomofocus is a well-made, deservedly popular browser timer built around a task list and a record of what you worked on, with an account so that record follows you between devices. This one is built around keeping the countdown in front of you while you work in something else, and around not needing an account at all. If your problem is losing track of time inside a task, the float window is the reason to switch. If your problem is not knowing what you spent last week on, an account-backed reporting tool is genuinely the better answer and you should use one.

The float window is the part that is hard to replicate in a normal tab. Press Float and the countdown pops into a small always-on-top pane — built on the browser's Document Picture-in-Picture support — that sits above your editor, PDF, or design tool. That removes a specific and underrated failure: switching to a browser tab to check the remaining time and not coming back, because the browser is where everything else also lives. There is also a free desktop build whose window floats over every application on the system, not just over other browser content.

The no-account part is a deliberate trade rather than a missing feature, and it cuts both ways. Nothing is sent to a server: your task list, settings, and completed-session history live in your browser's local storage on that device, so there is no sign-up, no email, nothing to delete later, and nothing that can be breached. The cost is real — clear your browser data and the history goes with it, and your phone will not show what your laptop recorded. If cross-device sync and long-term reports matter more to you than avoiding an account, that is a legitimate reason to prefer a hosted tool.

Feature by feature, the overlap is large: both run the standard focus-and-break cycle with automatic phase switching, both let you set custom focus, short-break and long-break lengths, both keep a task list you can attribute sessions to, both count completed rounds, and both are free to use for the core timer. Where this one differs is the always-on-top float, the native desktop app, per-theme colour schemes, an embeddable widget version, and a countdown driven by a real wall-clock deadline so it holds exact time through tab switches, a sleeping laptop, or a reload. Nothing here is gated behind a payment.

Worth saying plainly: if Pomofocus is already working for you, there is no particular reason to move. The technique matters far more than the timer running it, and switching tools is a classic way to feel productive without doing any actual work. The case for trying this one is narrow and specific — you want the countdown visible over your other apps, or you would rather not create an account. If neither applies, stay where you are.