Alternative to paid apps

A free interval timer with no paywall

If a timer asked you to subscribe to save a custom interval, here is one that does not.

By Josh · July 9, 2026

An interval timer is about as simple as an app gets: work, rest, repeat. Which is exactly why so many of them look for a way to charge. You save a custom workout and hit a subscription. You want to remove the ads between rounds and there is a Pro tier. The timer works, but the useful parts are rationed.

Free Workout Timer is the version where nothing is rationed. This is an honest look at how it compares.

The usual pattern

Popular interval timers (Seconds, Interval Timer, and the various Tabata timers) tend to be free to try and then charge for the parts you use day to day: more than a couple of saved workouts, custom intervals, removing ads, or extra display options. None of that is outrageous on its own. Charging for software is fair. But a timer is a small enough thing that the wall usually lands right on the feature you opened the app to use.

How Free Workout Timer is different

The honest part

If you are a coach who needs a large library of named routines synced across a team, a paid app built for that may serve you better, and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise. Free Workout Timer is built for one person timing their own intervals, and it does that job completely, without asking for money to unlock the middle of it.

Try it

Free Workout Timer is on the App Store and Google Play, free, for iPhone and Android. It is open source on GitHub, so the “no tracking” claim is one you can verify. It is supported by donations from the people who find it useful, not by ads or a subscription. If it earns a place in your routine, there is a link to chip in, and the app is the same either way.