Three timer faces
A ring, a bar, or just the numbers. Click the time to type your own length, or pick a preset like 25 / 5 or 45 / 15 in Settings. Click the little icon above it to pick your own.
New in 0.7One tidy window, and a timer icon you chooseChoose your timer icon
Make every hour count.
A calm focus timer that lives in your Mac's menu bar. It shows where your focus went, and it keeps that to itself.
Free · 3.8 MB · macOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel · No account
Session 1 of 4
FOCUS ICON
Finish thesis outline
Design review in 48m
Rain
- Finish thesis outline2/4
- Read chapter 4
- Review lecture notes
- Morning run
4day streak
12longest
1freezes
94%focused
Focus completeNice work. Time for a break.
Press Start. The demo runs 60 times faster than real life, so a session takes 25 seconds.
Free, no in-app purchases
No account
No analytics
Your data never leaves your Mac
Native Swift, 3.8 MB download
Data stays on your Mac
Light and dark
Features
Everything a focus session needs.
Nothing it doesn't.
A checklist for today
Pick the task you're focusing on. Finished ones slide out of the way.
- Draft the intro1/2
- Email the team
- Plan tomorrow
Streaks that forgive
Hit your daily goal to keep it going. Each week earns a freeze for a missed day.
0
day streak
FreezeFreeze
Your year at a glance
A heatmap of every day you focused, plus totals, a two-week chart and your most focused hour.
Sound to work to
Rain and soft noise, made on your Mac as you listen. Or your own music app's playlist. It plays when focus starts and pauses on breaks.
Out of your way
No Dock icon and no window to manage. A small arc in the menu bar shows the time left at a glance.
Focus Guard · New
Know where your focus went.
Nobody else will.
Hourlet notes which app is in front during each focus session and gives it a focus score. Mark the apps that pull you away, and it can nudge you back or hide them. It all happens on your Mac, with no cloud and no one watching.
This morning's session
Finish thesis outline · 25 min100%focused
Editor
Browser
Chat
Editor
Back to Finish thesis outline?Chat is on your distractions list.
Choose how firm it is
Mark apps and websites as distracting. Track quietly, get a gentle nudge after a grace period, or have the app hidden for you.
Track onlyNudge meHide the app
What it records
- The name of the app in front, and for how long
- Time on websites you listed, by site name
- Never page addresses, browsing history or window titles
- Never screenshots or screen contents
- Never keystrokes
- Never sent anywhere
Calendar and Do Not Disturb · New
Sessions that fit your day.
Hourlet reads your next event and ends a session a couple of minutes before it, so focus never runs into a meeting. While you focus, it can turn on Do Not Disturb for you.
Ends before your meeting
A 25-minute session that would run into Design review becomes a 22-minute one.
Design review11:00 – 11:45
22 min
Do Not Disturb, handled
Two clicks add Hourlet's shortcuts to the Shortcuts app. Then Do Not Disturb comes on when a session starts and goes off when it ends.
Do Not Disturb
How it compares
The insight of a time tracker.
The simplicity of a timer.
| Feature | Hourlet | Cloud time trackers | Basic menu bar timers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Monthly subscription | Free or paid |
| Account needed | No | Yes | No |
| Your data leaves your Mac | Never | Uploaded | Varies |
| Where your focus went | Per app, on device | In the cloud | No |
| Distraction nudges | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tasks, streaks and heatmap | Built in | Projects | Rarely |
| Plans around your calendar | Yes | Yes | No |
| Focus sounds | Built in | No | Rarely |
Privacy
Your focus stays on your Mac.
0bytes of your data sent, ever
0 focus sessions logged on this imaginary Mac, and not one byte of them sent anywhere.
- No account, no analytics. The only request is a daily update check.
- Tasks and history are plain files in a folder on your Mac.
- Delete the app and that folder, and every trace is gone.
Read the privacy policy. It's short, because there's little to say.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
Hourlet is free and made by one person, so it isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account). macOS asks you to confirm it once, the first time you open it.
STEP 1
Download and drag
Download Hourlet.dmg (3.8 MB), open it, and drag Hourlet into Applications.
STEP 2
Confirm it once
Open Hourlet. When macOS says “Hourlet” Not Opened, click Done, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. You only do this once.
STEP 3
Start at login
Turn on Settings → General → Open Hourlet at login, and it's always one click away.
To check the download is intact, run
shasum -a 256 Hourlet.dmg in Terminal and compare it with:
aea0643a6dbf7a473600efd54be66694384646729da0631ae45ed7855052457d
Prefer Terminal?
This command downloads the same disk image over HTTPS, checks its checksum and signature, and copies Hourlet into Applications. Files downloaded this way aren't quarantined, so it also skips macOS's one-time confirmation. Installing means you agree to the license.
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://hourlet.pages.dev/install.sh | bash
Read the script before running it.
Questions
Is Hourlet really free?
Yes. There are no ads, subscriptions or in-app purchases, and no account to create.
Does Focus Guard spy on me?
No. It notes the name of the app in front during a focus session, which macOS shares with every app. It never reads window titles, screen contents or keystrokes, and nothing is sent anywhere.
If you add distracting websites, Hourlet asks your browser which site its front tab is on during focus sessions (macOS asks your permission first). It compares only the site name with your list and never saves addresses or browsing history.
You can set Focus Guard to Off in Settings → Focus.
What if I lose my data?
Hourlet keeps a backup of your tasks, focus history, streaks and settings every day and before each update, and restores a damaged file from it automatically. You can also export everything to a file in Settings → Goals and import it on any Mac.
How does Do Not Disturb work?
macOS doesn't let apps switch Focus directly, so Hourlet runs two shortcuts: one that turns Do Not Disturb on, one that turns it off. In Settings → Focus, click Add Do Not Disturb Shortcuts, then Add Shortcut on each one in the Shortcuts app, and Hourlet picks them up. You can also use shortcuts of your own for any Focus. If something isn't set up, the popover tells you. Hourlet only ever turns off a Focus it turned on.
What does Hourlet do with my calendar?
Only if you turn on "Plan around my calendar". Hourlet reads your upcoming events' title, time and status, to end sessions before the next one and show it under the timer. It never changes, copies or stores your events. All-day, declined and "free" events are ignored.
Why does macOS warn me the first time I open it?
Apple only removes that warning for apps notarized through its paid developer program. Hourlet is signed with the hardened runtime but not notarized, so a copy downloaded in your browser has to be confirmed once in Privacy & Security.
Hourlet is free and made by one person, and the program costs $99 a year, so it isn't notarized. The app makes no network requests except its daily update check, and it collects nothing.
If you'd like to be sure the file hasn't been changed, compare its checksum with the one in the install steps.
Why does it ask to control Music or Spotify?
Only if you choose Apple Music or Spotify as your sound. Hourlet uses that permission to play and pause your playlist when a session starts or a break begins. It doesn't read your library or listening history.
Where is my data stored, and how do I uninstall?
In ~/Library/Application Support/Hourlet on your Mac. To uninstall, quit Hourlet from its menu, move it from Applications to the Trash, and delete that folder.
What do I need to run it?
A Mac with macOS 15 or later. It runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel.
Your next hour starts now.
Free · macOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon and Intel