“Disappointed With Recent Updates — I’ve been using this app for years and had always enjoyed it. Even when I wasn’t using it regularly, I would recommend it to others. With these most recent updates—the focus tasks glitching, the new…”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 2,019 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-06.
4.8 ★49,512 ratings
—Downloads
4+Age rating
891 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
**Stay off your phone and a tree grows. Leave early and it withers. That's Forest, the focus timer used by 60 million people worldwide.**
Top productivity app in 136 countries. Recommended by The New York Times and Business Insider.
"Forest works well, and if your goal is to be more in the moment, ignore your phone and actually talk to your friends when you are with them, this is the app for you." — The New York Times
Together, our community has planted over 2 million real trees on Earth through our partnership with Trees for the Future.
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STAY FOCUSED
Forest helps you overcome phone addiction, reduce distractions, and build deep work habits. Whether you are studying for exams, working from home, or simply trying to be more present, Forest gives you a reason to stay on task.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 5.29.1 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 5.29.1, updated 2026-10-02.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Says how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
2 themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 3
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 12 distinct reviewers (0.6% of 2019 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Paywall blocks the basics
The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.
What we saw: Paywall blocks the basics: raised by 33 distinct reviewers (1.6% of 2019 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: States a price, or offers a one-time purchase
The app's own text offers a one-time or lifetime purchase, or reviewers report that the price is stated clearly.
What we saw: Reviewers report clear pricing: raised by 7 distinct reviewers (0.3% of 2019 reviews scanned)
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“Now with noisy, endless ads — Used to love this app but in the past week they turned on super noisy, lpng, violent video game ads at the end of focus sessions which defeats the entire point of the app. giving it a couple more days but if…”
“I love Forest — It’s a really awesome app, but it does annoy me how many pop up ads there are, but overall, great app. Would recommend”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 5.29.1.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business modelFree
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.