Five Windows timers you can start without paying first do not do the same job: LiquidFocus can pause for an empty chair, Focus To-Do keeps a task board in the timer window, Pomotroid is only a countdown, the Windows 11 Clock app needs no install, and Flow shows other people's timers in a shared room.
Two of them also sell a paid tier for extra task boards, cloud accounts, phone sync, a shared room, or a project board. Compare the countdown, the task list, the break length, the account requirement, and the camera check on your own PC.
LiquidFocus for an empty chair. Focus To-Do for a task board in the timer window. Pomotroid for a countdown alone. The Clock app for no second program on Windows 11. Flow for a shared room with other people's timers, on the menu bar or in the system tray.
Ahead of installing
See whether the minutes can be changed, 25 and 5 being a starting point rather than a rule for every task, and whether the bell is hard to miss on Windows. See whether the task you are doing is visible on the timer or stuck in a second window, and whether the countdown keeps running after you leave the chair. Those checks separate the five apps below more cleanly than a star rating would.
LiquidFocus
LiquidFocus looks for a face in the frame after you turn the camera check on, and it does not follow your eyes across the screen. A face that leaves has to stay outside the frame for the seconds you set, 5 seconds unless you change that wait, and only then does the timer record an interruption and pause. The pause from the camera resumes once your face is back in the frame, while a pause you started yourself stays paused. Frames are checked on the computer and then discarded, with no video stored or sent, and you can leave the check off to use only the countdown.
The defaults are 25 minutes, a 5-minute break, and a 15-minute break after 4 blocks, the break staying stopped unless you turn auto-start on. The camera check is Pro, and the download includes 14 days of Pro, the core timer having no time limit, no account, and no telemetry. LiquidFocus has two-way Todoist sync, so tasks can show in the timer and a completion can go back, but it does not show a shared room of other people and it does not dim the other windows. That dimming control is FocusDim, described on the HazeOver for Windows page.
The To-Do board
Focus To-Do puts a board in the same window as the timer. You drag a card between columns named To-Do, In Progress, and Done, the timer sitting on the card you picked, with subtasks, repeating tasks, and optional white noise in the same app. It syncs across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and the web, which matters when the list has to appear on a phone as well as the PC. Some advanced parts are paid at $2.99/mo, the shared window meaning more controls on screen than a bare countdown, and the app does not use the camera.
Pomotroid
Pomotroid runs Pomodoro cycles and little else: open source, on GitHub as Splode/pomotroid, so you can read the code yourself, with no account and no need for a connection. Intervals, the notification sound, an always-on-top window, keyboard shortcuts, and themes are all in the app, which is built on Electron. It keeps no task list and syncs nothing between PCs, fitting where the list already lives in another program. Readers leaving Be Focused on a Mac can use the Windows alternatives page for a wider set than this countdown alone.
The Clock app on Windows 11
Windows 11 includes a session timer in the Clock app, with nothing to download, a task from Microsoft To Do, a playlist from Spotify, a countdown on the taskbar, and Do Not Disturb for the length of the session. The countdown can run offline, while To Do sync needs a connection and a Microsoft account, and the tab is absent on Windows 10. It does not look for a face, nor is it LiquidFocus.
Flow
Flow lets you create or join a room, public or private, where other people run timers at the same time and you can see those timers. Ambient sound, a chat used on the breaks, and leaderboards come with the room, the shared room needing a connection, a paid tier listed at $4/mo. The chat can pull you off the task where you wanted a quiet countdown, though the app also runs as a solo timer if you never join a room.
Side by side
| Feature | Liquid Focus | Focus To-Do | Pomotroid | Windows Focus | Flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus Detection | ✓ | - | - | - | - |
| Task Integration | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | - |
| Cross-Platform Sync | - | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Team Features | - | - | - | - | ✓ |
| Customizable Intervals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Statistics & Reports | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open Source | - | - | ✓ | - | - |
| Offline Mode | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - |
| Price | Free | Free/$2.99/mo | Free | Free | Free/$4/mo |
| Windows 10 Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | - | ✓ |
The Free cell on LiquidFocus is the core timer. The camera check is Pro, and 14 days of Pro come with the download.
The countdown
The camera check stays off until you turn it on, frames are not stored or sent, and the installer sends no telemetry, with no account required for the core timer and 14 days of Pro included in the download.
Download for WindowsTimer beside the failure
An empty chair
LiquidFocus pauses for a face that has left the frame, once you have turned the camera check on, then resumes that camera pause when the face returns, a pause you started yourself staying paused. Where the failure is a timer that keeps counting an empty chair, this is the check that notices.
A list in another window
Focus To-Do keeps the board and the timer together, with columns and subtasks, so the card you are doing can move to In Progress without a trip to a separate list. The paid parts sit at $2.99/mo, as the table already says.
Only the bell
Pomotroid counts down, stays available offline, and does not ask for an account. Pick it where a board, a camera, or a shared room would be extra furniture on the desktop.
Already on Windows 11
On Windows 11 the Clock app already has the session timer, with Do Not Disturb and Microsoft To Do, a plain countdown plus those Windows hooks, and it will not pause because you left the chair.
Other people
Flow shows the other timers in a shared room, the part a solo app does not copy, needing a connection, the paid tier in the table being $4/mo. Skip the room where the chat would become the task you sat down to finish.
The 25-minute pattern, including the break you start yourself, is on the Windows Pomodoro page.
FAQ
Which timer pauses when your face leaves the frame?
LiquidFocus does, after you turn the camera check on, that check being a Pro feature with 14 days of Pro included in the download. Pomotroid is only a countdown with public code, and on Windows 11 the Clock app needs no install of its own.
Can I use these timers on Windows 10?
LiquidFocus, Focus To-Do, Pomotroid, and Flow run on Windows 10, the Clock session being the one that needs Windows 11.
Which of these timers run offline?
LiquidFocus, Pomotroid, and Focus To-Do run the countdown offline, and the Clock timer also runs offline, though Microsoft To Do sync needs a connection and Flow needs one for the shared room.
Which timer also shows your tasks?
Focus To-Do has a board with columns and subtasks in the same window as the timer, LiquidFocus has two-way Todoist sync, and the Clock session connects to Microsoft To Do where you already use To Do.
Which of these timers is open source?
Pomotroid puts the code on GitHub as Splode/pomotroid, so you can read it.
How does LiquidFocus decide to pause?
After you turn the camera check on, LiquidFocus looks for a face in the frame and does not follow your eyes. If the face stays out for the seconds you set, the default wait being 5 seconds, the timer records an interruption and pauses, then resumes that pause once the face is back, a pause you started yourself staying paused. Frames are checked on the computer and discarded, with no video stored or sent, and you can leave the check off to use only the countdown.