Forest is one of several apps that rewards you for not interacting with your phone for an amount of time that you specify. There's a wide range of these available now, with slightly different features in each one.

What makes this a "green" app is the fact that if you pay for the "Plus" subscription, the coins you earn by growing the virtual trees can be put towards planting real ones via Trees for the Future. Currently each user can only buy up to 5 of these total, but seasonal events can provide the opportunity to fund more.

So at that point, the question is, which of these slightly different apps has the features you want and need? Which ones measure and reward time and tasks in a way that works for you? Do you need the focus app to be just a gamified kitchen timer, or do you want it integrated with other functions like a to-do list?

Points in favor of Forest:

• It has a wide variety of trees, unlocked in the order you want, though the ones needed for daily quests may influence your decisions for a while. Obviously there are more in the Plus subscription.
• Favorite combinations of tree types, planting length, and label (was this a tree for chores, study time, etc.?) are easy to save without tying them to some larger goal or to-do list.
• Daily quests and seasonal events provide variety, and past event-exclusives are often available to purchase with the rarer (but not entirely paid-exclusive) Time Crystals currency.
• With a little research into how the planting algorithm works, you can create a grid of trees laid out exactly as you want it. Fans in the Subreddit often show these off.

Points against Forest:

• As of December 2025 (at least in the USA), it nags you very hard to pay for the Plus subscription. This is so irritating that it has single-handedly driven users to find alternatives in regions where it gets rolled out.
• The daily quests are such a potent source of coins, relative to actually planting trees, that relatively little time spent focusing is actually required to make fast progress.
• The limit of planting five real trees is off-putting; once that limit has been reached, it's no longer especially motivating. (They do claim that more opportunities are forthcoming, and with the Plus subscription now available in more areas, they may have the funding to do it. Seasonal events sometimes allow planting more trees, especially for Earth Day.)
• Seasonal events use the developers' time zone in China to determine when the day clicks over. This is probably not a serious issue for anyone who uses the app heavily and thus isn't at risk of losing out on a reward from a close call, but it's a tricky surprise for new users in other places: just something to be aware of.

If Forest doesn't quite appeal to you, you might try Flora instead.