Stratum vs Focus Keeper: A Classic Pomodoro Timer With No Idea What's Due
A practical comparison for students deciding between Stratum and Focus Keeper for study sessions, distraction control, and deadline tracking.
Focus Keeper is one of the oldest names in this category — a straightforward, tomato-themed Pomodoro timer that's stayed close to Francesco Cirillo's original 25/5 method for years. It's simple by design, it's built a large long-term user base, and it recently added an "Enhanced App Blocking" feature to its changelog. That update makes it worth a fresh, direct comparison.
This page isn't saying Focus Keeper is a bad app. It's for students comparing tools and deciding whether Stratum is the better fit for actually getting through exam season.
Quick comparison
| Stratum | Focus Keeper | |
|---|---|---|
| Distraction control | Real iOS Screen Time app blocking, core to the product since day one | Recently added "Enhanced App Blocking" as a changelog update — not the app's original design or main feature |
| Deadline tracking | Dual-view calendar showing exactly how far away exams and assignments are | No exam/assignment calendar — timer and basic session tracking only |
| Study analytics | Streaks, hours studied, subject breakdown, weekly summary | Basic session and break tracking; deeper stats are part of the paid tier |
| Design | Modern, built around a student's actual workflow | Long-serving app with an interface that reviewers describe as dated |
| Access | No forced notification permissions to use core features | Some users report the app won't fully open until notification permissions are granted |
| Platform | iOS (Android in progress) | iOS and Android |
Where Focus Keeper genuinely wins
Focus Keeper's biggest asset is its simplicity and longevity. It does the original Pomodoro method with almost no friction — set an interval, start, get a break reminder, repeat — and it's been doing that reliably for long enough to build a genuinely large, loyal base across iOS and Android. If all you want is a no-frills 25/5 timer with a task list bolted on, it does that job without any learning curve.
Where Focus Keeper falls short for actual studying
The app-blocking update is worth reading carefully. It appears as a recent line in Focus Keeper's own changelog — "Enhanced App Blocking to help protect your focus and reduce distractions" — added onto a product whose core identity, by its own description and years of reviews, has always been a pure timer-plus-task-list. That's a very different starting point than a product built from the ground up around actually locking a student's phone, and it shows in the rest of the feature set: there's still no exam or assignment calendar, and no subject-level breakdown of study hours anywhere in the app.
There are also friction points that matter for a "focus" app specifically: user reviews report that Focus Keeper requires notification permissions before it will even open, which is an odd requirement for a tool whose entire purpose is minimizing interruptions. Reviewers also consistently describe the interface as dated compared to newer entrants in the category.
Why Stratum wins for students
Stratum's app blocking isn't a bolt-on feature added in a later update — it's the foundational design, built using iOS Screen Time from the start to lock the specific apps a student chooses for the length of a session. Beyond that, Stratum adds the two things Focus Keeper has never had: a dual-view calendar that shows exactly how many days remain until an exam or assignment, and a stats screen that breaks study time down by subject with streaks and weekly summaries — turning a plain timer into a full picture of how a student is actually spending their limited study hours.
Verdict
If you want the purest, simplest possible Pomodoro experience and don't need deadline tracking or subject-level insight, Focus Keeper's long track record makes it a safe, familiar pick. If you need your focus timer to actually understand your exam calendar and show you where your hours are going by subject — not just count minutes — Stratum is built for that job specifically.