Why look for a StayFocusd alternative in 2026?

Two reasons come up most. First, StayFocusd is owned by Sensor Tower, a mobile and web ad-intelligence company, which makes some people uneasy about trusting it with their browsing habits. Second, the extension hasn't seen meaningful development in years and its options page feels dated. It still works, but a new user in 2026 has cleaner, actively maintained options like Focuh that don't carry the same ownership question.

Is Focuh a free StayFocusd alternative?

Yes. Focuh is a genuinely free Chrome extension — no account, no email, no telemetry, no ads, and no cap on how many sites you block. There's no paid tier to upsell you to, so 'free' has no asterisk. Like StayFocusd, it runs locally in your browser and never sends your blocklist or browsing data to a server. The settings live in Chrome storage on your own device.

What's the main difference between Focuh and StayFocusd?

StayFocusd is built around a daily time budget — you allow yourself, say, 30 minutes a day on blocked sites, then they lock for the rest of the day. Focuh is built around long self-imposed challenges of 30, 91, or 180 days where blocked sites stay blocked the whole time. StayFocusd suits capping a habit; Focuh suits removing it. Pick based on whether you want a limit or a wall.

Does Focuh track my browsing like an ad company would?

No. Focuh collects no telemetry and runs no remote code. Your blocklist and your daily attempt counter stay in local Chrome storage and never leave your device — there's no server to send them to. This is the clearest practical difference from StayFocusd, whose owner, Sensor Tower, is in the business of mobile and web analytics. If data ownership is why you're switching, that's the reason to switch.

Can Focuh block apps and other browsers like StayFocusd can't?

Not the Chrome extension — no Chrome extension can, including StayFocusd. An extension only controls Chrome. But the team also ships a free Focuh desktop app for macOS that blocks at the operating-system level, covering Safari, Firefox, Arc, and native apps during a focus session. So you can run the free extension for the browser and the free Mac app for everything else, which StayFocusd has no answer for.

Is Focuh harder to bypass than StayFocusd?

In the browser, no — any Chrome extension can be disabled from chrome://extensions, and that includes both StayFocusd and Focuh. Neither is unbreakable by design. If you want blocking that's genuinely hard to switch off mid-session, that lives at the OS level: the Focuh Mac app uses Accessibility APIs and doesn't sit in the extensions page, so disabling it takes real, deliberate effort rather than two clicks.

Does Focuh have a Pomodoro mode like StayFocusd?

Not in the Chrome extension — it's a focused blocker, not a timer. StayFocusd added a Pomodoro focus mode that blocks sites during work intervals. If you want blocking plus a Pomodoro timer in one tool, the free Focuh desktop app for Mac includes a focus timer with a menu-bar countdown alongside its blocking. For a pure in-browser Pomodoro, Strict Workflow is a free single-purpose option.

I've used StayFocusd for years — is it worth switching?

If it fits your workflow and the ownership doesn't bother you, there's no urgent reason to switch. StayFocusd's daily-budget model is genuinely good and still works. Switch if you want a cleaner, actively maintained extension, if the Sensor Tower ownership concerns you, or if you want long-challenge blocking and an OS-level desktop companion. If none of those apply, keeping what works is a fine answer.

StayFocusd Alternative

Best StayFocusd Alternative for Chrome (2026)

A free StayFocusd alternative: Focuh is a Chrome extension with no account, no telemetry, and no ad-company owner — built for long focus challenges.

May 30, 2026

Why Look for a StayFocusd Alternative?

StayFocusd has been a free Chrome website blocker since 2010, and for a long time it was the default recommendation. It still works. But if you're searching for a StayFocusd alternative in 2026, you've probably bumped into one of the two things that push people to switch: the ownership, and the age.

StayFocusd is owned by Sensor Tower, a mobile and web ad-intelligence company. The extension runs locally and doesn't need to phone home to block a site, so this isn't an accusation — it's a fit question. If you're installing a tool specifically to take back control of your attention, handing that tool to an analytics company sits uneasily with some people. Only you can decide how much that matters.

The second issue is simpler: StayFocusd hasn't changed much in years. The options page is a dense wall of settings with sparse documentation, and the extension shows its 2010 roots. It's reliable, but it doesn't feel maintained.

How Focuh Compares to StayFocusd

Focuh is a free Chrome extension built around a different idea. Where StayFocusd hands you a daily time budget, Focuh hands you a challenge — block your distractions for 30, 91, or 180 days, or a custom range, and watch the habit fade over weeks instead of resetting every midnight.

Genuinely free, no account. Focuh has no paid tier, no email signup, and no telemetry. StayFocusd is also free, but the ownership story changes what "free" means to you.

No data leaves your device. Your blocklist and your daily attempt counter live in local Chrome storage. There's no server, so there's nothing to collect. This is the cleanest practical contrast with an ad-company-owned tool.

Built for long challenges. Focuh's model is a self-imposed streak, not a daily cap. If your problem is a reflex you want gone, a 30-day challenge does more than a fresh 30-minute allowance every morning.

An attempt counter, not just a wall. Every time you try to open a blocked site, Focuh counts it and redirects you to a quiet page. Seeing that you reached for Reddit twenty times on Monday and four times by Friday is feedback StayFocusd's budget model doesn't give you.

Feature	Focuh	StayFocusd
Price	Free, no tier	Free
Account required	No	No
Telemetry	None	Owned by Sensor Tower
Blocking model	Long challenges (30–180 days)	Daily time budget
Site cap	Unlimited	Unlimited
Attempt counter	Yes	No
Pomodoro mode	In Mac app	Yes (in extension)
OS-level desktop app	Yes (free, macOS)	No
Actively maintained	Yes	Minimal

What Focuh Does Better

The biggest gap isn't a feature — it's the desktop companion. StayFocusd is a Chrome extension and nothing else, which means it inherits every Chrome extension's ceiling: it can't touch Safari, Firefox, Arc, the Reddit app, or anything outside Chrome. The moment you switch browsers or open a native app, the block evaporates.

Focuh ships a free desktop app for Mac alongside the extension. It blocks at the operating-system level using macOS Accessibility APIs, so a focus session covers every browser and every native app at once. Run the free extension for in-browser blocking and the free Mac app for the rest, and you've closed the gap that ends most browser-only blocking by week two. The system-level vs browser blocking guide explains exactly why that gap matters.

Maintenance is the quieter advantage. Focuh is actively developed by a product-focused team, not a legacy extension on autopilot. Bugs get fixed and the UX is built for someone who wants to install, block, and start working in under a minute — not configure a packed options page first.

Where StayFocusd Still Wins

A fair comparison admits where the alternative loses. StayFocusd's daily time budget is a genuinely good model, and Focuh doesn't replicate it. If you don't want to ban a site entirely — you want fifteen minutes of it a day and then a wall — StayFocusd's budget fits that better than a Focuh challenge does. The Focuh philosophy is removal, not rationing.

StayFocusd's built-in Pomodoro focus mode is also in-browser, while Focuh's timer lives in the Mac app rather than the extension. If you specifically want a Pomodoro timer plus blocking inside Chrome with nothing else installed, that's a point for StayFocusd, or for a dedicated tool like Strict Workflow.

How to Switch from StayFocusd to Focuh

Moving over takes a couple of minutes. You don't have to uninstall StayFocusd first — run both for a day if you want to compare.

Install Focuh from the Chrome Web Store. No account, no email.
Open the Focuh icon and add the same sites you blocked in StayFocusd — reddit.com, youtube.com, twitter.com, or whatever your list was.
Pick a challenge length instead of a daily allowance: 30 days to start, or 91 or 180 if you're committing.
Start the challenge. Blocked tabs now redirect to a quiet local page, and the attempt counter starts tracking your urges.

The mental shift is the part worth naming. StayFocusd asks "how much time do I get today?" Focuh asks "how long am I going off this for?" If you've been topping up your daily budget and burning it by 10am, the challenge framing often breaks the loop that the budget kept feeding. And because the counter shows your attempts dropping over the first week, you get proof the habit is fading rather than just a daily reset.

If the urge to scroll follows you out of Chrome — into Safari, the Reddit app, or a desktop client — that's where the free Focuh Mac app picks up, blocking system-wide where no extension can reach.

Who Should Switch and Who Shouldn't

Switch to Focuh if you want a clean, actively maintained extension with no account and no ad-company ownership, you prefer long challenges over daily budgets, or you want a free OS-level Mac app to back up the browser block. For the wider field, the best free website blocker for Chrome guide lines up the alternatives side by side.

Stay on StayFocusd if the daily-budget model fits how you work, you want the in-browser Pomodoro mode, and the Sensor Tower ownership doesn't bother you. There's no shame in keeping a tool that works.

If you decide the data-ownership question matters and you want long-challenge blocking that also covers your whole Mac, install Focuh free — and add the free Mac app when the browser block isn't enough on its own.