How to Clone Forest
Focus timer that grows a virtual tree while you stay off your phone
What is Forest?
Forest is a focus timer with one brilliant gimmick: when you start a session, you plant a virtual tree that grows for the duration. Leave the app to check Instagram and your tree dies, leaving a withered stump in your forest. Over weeks you accumulate a little woodland of completed focus sessions - a loss-aversion mechanic dressed up as a gardening game. It is the cleanest example of behavioral design beating feature count.
The app is tiny in scope. At its core it is a countdown timer, a coin economy, a grid of unlockable tree species, and a history view. The famous hook beyond the gimmick is the real-tree partnership: spend in-app coins and Forest's makers pay a charity to plant an actual tree. That turns a productivity toy into something users feel virtuous about - and gives them a reason to keep earning coins.
For a cloner, Forest is one of the most achievable apps on this chart. There is no content library to produce, no marketplace to seed, no realtime infrastructure. The build is a timer plus a sticker-album of trees plus a coin wallet. The hard part is not engineering - it is making the art charming and the loss-aversion loop feel earned rather than punitive. A solo builder can ship a credible MVP in a weekend; the differentiation comes from theme (study-focus, work-deep, screen-time-for-kids) and the quality of the illustrations.
Who it's for: Students, knowledge workers and anyone fighting phone addiction who wants a playful accountability nudge. Skews 16โ30, heavy in exam-prep and study-with-me communities. Clone opportunities target a niche: a profession, a study method (Pomodoro purists), team accountability, or a kid-friendly screen-time version for parents.
How Forest makes money
- $ Up-front app price: Forest is a one-time paid download on the App Store (around $3.99), a rare survivor of the paid-app model.
- $ In-app purchases: coin packs and premium tree species, plus a small fee to unlock the Pro feature set on some platforms.
- $ Coins-to-real-trees: users spend earned or bought coins to fund real tree planting via a charity partner - a virtuous-cycle upsell that drives coin purchases.
- $ Cross-platform unlocks: a Chrome/Firefox extension and companion apps that some users pay to sync, extending session count and spend.
Rough estimate of app-store consumer spend based on public third-party reports; the maker (Seekrtech) does not publish figures. CloneMRR is not affiliated with Forest; figures are for educational purposes.
Features to build
MVP ship this first
-
โ Focus timerSet a duration (10โ120 min), start, and watch a tree grow on a circular progress dial; a completed session plants the tree, a cancelled one kills it.
-
โ Leave-detectionIf the user switches away from the app during a session, the tree withers - the core loss-aversion hook (best-effort on web via visibilitychange, native on mobile).
-
โ Coin economyEach completed session awards coins based on duration; coins are stored in a wallet and shown on the home screen.
-
โ Tree species shopSpend coins to unlock new tree and plant species, so longer streaks visibly diversify your forest.
-
โ Forest historyA calendar/grid showing the trees you grew each day, dead stumps included, with daily and total focused-hours stats.
-
โ Tags & focus statsTag sessions (Study, Work, Read) and see a weekly breakdown of focused time per tag in a simple chart.
Full version add later
-
+ Real-tree plantingA donation milestone where spent coins fund a real tree via a charity partner, with a running counter of trees funded.
-
+ Whitelist / allow-listLet users mark a few apps or sites as allowed during a session so a quick reference check doesn't kill the tree (native on mobile, extension on web).
-
+ Friends & group plantAdd friends, see a shared forest, and start a synchronized group session where everyone's tree dies if anyone bails - social accountability.
-
+ Achievements & streaksBadges for milestones (first 100 hours, 30-day streak) and a daily-streak counter to drive habit formation.
-
+ Browser extensionA Chrome/Firefox extension that runs the same kill-the-tree timer for desktop deep work and syncs sessions to the account.
-
+ Themes & soundscapesUnlockable visual themes (seasons, biomes) and ambient focus sounds (rain, cafe) as premium cosmetic upsells.
Recommended tech stack
| Layer | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | React Native (Expo) or Swift | Reliable foreground/leave detection needs native APIs; Expo ships iOS+Android from one codebase, choose Swift only if you want the smoothest tree animations. |
| Web/PWA front end | Next.js PWA + Tailwind | A web version is a great free top-of-funnel; visibilitychange gives best-effort leave-detection without app stores. |
| Backend & sync | Supabase | The data is tiny - a wallet, sessions and unlocks per user; Postgres plus auth covers it and enables cross-device sync and friends. |
| Animation/illustration | Lottie + SVG sprites | Charm lives in the growing-tree animation; Lottie plays designer-made vectors cheaply across web and native. |
| Payments | RevenueCat (mobile) + Stripe (web) | RevenueCat wraps StoreKit/Play for coin-pack IAP and the paid unlock; Stripe handles web coin purchases. |
| Analytics | PostHog | Session-completion rate and coin-purchase conversion are the only metrics that matter - track them from day one. |
AI prompts to clone Forest
Pick your builder, copy the prompt, paste it and iterate. Enter your email once to unlock all prompts on every page - we'll also send you this full prompt pack.
Build a focus-timer app called Timbergrove, modeled on Forest.
## Core concept
When the user wants to focus, they plant a virtual tree and start a timer. The tree grows as the timer runs. If they leave the app before the timer ends, the tree dies and they earn nothing. Finished sessions earn coins they spend to unlock prettier trees. Over time they build a little forest of their focused hours.
## Pages
1. Landing page: warm forest-green hero with an illustrated growing sapling, headline 'Stay focused. Grow a forest.', email signup CTA, three benefit cards, a screenshot of a full forest, simple footer
2. Plant (home): a big circular dial with a sapling in the center, a duration picker (10/25/45/60/90 min), a 'Plant' button, the user's coin balance pill top-right, and a gentle warning 'Leave this screen and your tree dies'
3. Growing screen: full-screen, the tree animating from sapling to full tree as a ring fills, a countdown, a small 'Give up' link; if the browser tab loses focus, show a 'Your tree is wilting...' state and kill it if they don't return
4. Forest (history): a calendar grid where each day shows the trees grown (and any dead stumps), plus stat cards for today's focused minutes, this week's hours, and total trees
Tools to build your Forest clone
Describe your app in plain English and Lovable builds a full-stack web app with auth, database and deployment included.
Best for: Full-stack web apps without writing code
StackBlitz's AI builder. Prompt, run and edit full-stack apps directly in the browser, then deploy in one click.
Best for: Rapid prototypes and web apps
AI app builder with built-in database, auth and hosting. Strong for internal tools and CRUD-heavy products.
Best for: Dashboards, marketplaces and internal tools
The AI code editor. Full control over your codebase with AI agents that write and refactor code for you.
Best for: Developers who want full code ownership
Generates production-grade React + Tailwind UI from a prompt, deployable to Vercel instantly.
Best for: Polished UI and front-ends
Workers, Pages, R2 and D1 - host your clone on a global edge network with a generous free tier.
Best for: Serverless apps and APIs
Cheap VPS and managed hosting with an AI website builder. Easiest way to put a clone online on a budget.
Best for: Budget VPS and WordPress-style sites
How to make money with a Forest clone
Pick a niche the timer serves
Forest is generic. Win by aiming the same loop at one audience: a study-with-me app for exam students, a deep-work timer for developers, or a parent-controlled screen-time version for kids. Theme the trees and copy to match.
Cosmetic coin economy
The art is the product. Sell coin packs and premium tree species, biomes and seasonal themes. Cosmetics print money in habit apps because they're pure margin and feed the collection instinct.
Real-world tie-in as the trust hook
Forest's real-tree planting turns a toy into a cause. Partner with a verified planting charity and show a live counter - it justifies coin purchases and gives the app a shareable story.
Team & classroom plans
Sell group accountability: a teacher buys seats for a class, a manager for a team. Shared forests and group sessions where one quitter kills everyone's tree create social pressure worth paying for.
Frequently asked questions
How much money does Forest make?
Third-party estimates put Forest's app-store consumer spend in the low-to-mid six figures per month - roughly $300Kโ$900K - from a one-time paid download plus coin and species in-app purchases. Its maker, Seekrtech, does not publish official figures.
How hard is it to build a Forest clone?
It's one of the easiest apps on this directory. The core is a countdown timer, a coin wallet, an unlockable-tree shop and a history grid - no content library, no marketplace, no realtime. A solo builder can ship a credible MVP in a weekend with AI tools; the differentiation is art and theme, not engineering.
Is it legal to clone Forest?
The concept of a gamified focus timer is not protected - many copy it. What you must not copy is Forest's name, logo, specific tree artwork or marketing copy. Build original illustrations, pick your own name, and write your own copy and you're on solid ground. This is not legal advice; consult a lawyer for your situation.
What tech stack should I use for a focus-timer app?
React Native (Expo) or a Next.js PWA for the front end, Supabase for auth and the tiny dataset, Lottie or SVG for the growing-tree animation, and RevenueCat plus Stripe for coin-pack purchases. The prompts on this page scaffold exactly that. Note that truly killing the tree when the user leaves needs native app-lifecycle APIs - web detection is best-effort.
How much does it cost to build and run a Forest clone?
Almost nothing to start. With AI builders and free tiers (Supabase, hosting), you can launch for the cost of an Apple developer account ($99/year) and some design time for the trees. Running costs stay tiny because there's no audio or video to host - it's a small database and some images.
Does the tree really die if I leave the app?
On a native mobile app, yes - the app detects when you switch away and ends the session. On a web version, detection is best-effort (it watches for the browser tab losing focus) and a determined user can dodge it. That's why serious focus apps ship a native build for the hard enforcement and use the web version as a free funnel.
More apps to clone
CloneMRR is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Forest. Revenue figures are rough estimates based on public reports and are provided for educational purposes only. "Cloning" here means building an original product inspired by a proven business model - never copy a brand's name, logo, content or code.