SmilingEyes vs Time Out, LookAway and Stretchly
These are three of the best-known break reminder apps for Mac, and they're all genuinely good — one is free and open source, one is free with optional support, one is a polished paid app with a loyal following. Here's an honest look at where SmilingEyes differs, including the cases where one of them is the better buy.
Feature comparison
Details for the other three were taken from their own websites and documentation on 4 August 2026. Prices are in USD as listed by each app. Apps change — check their sites before you buy, and tell us if anything here has gone out of date.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column →
| Feature | SmilingEyes | Time Out | LookAway | Stretchly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free tier, then Pro at $5.99/mo, $24.99/yr with a 7-day trial, or $34.99 once. | Free. Optional non-renewing "Supporter" purchases from $4.99 (3 months) to $19.99 (12 months). | $19 once for one Mac, $29 for two. Also on Setapp, and a subscription version on the Mac App Store. | Free, open source (BSD-2-Clause). |
| Free tier | Yes — 20-20-20 timer, menu bar controls, every theme, three focus presets and reminders, forever, no account. | Yes — the whole app is free; supporting is voluntary. | No free tier listed on its pricing page. | Yes — everything is free. |
| How it decides to nudge you | Detects your actual blink rate and posture through the camera, on-device, and nudges based on what it sees. | Scheduled — breaks and micro-breaks on a timer. | Scheduled, with smart pausing. Its blink and posture features are described as reminders; its materials don't mention a camera. | Scheduled — mini and long breaks on a timer, with idle detection. |
| Camera required | Only if you turn on Blink & Posture. Frames are processed on-device and never stored or uploaded. | No camera used. | No camera used. | No camera used. |
| Auto-pause for meetings and video | Yes — Pro. Pauses for video playback and calendar meetings. | Via its scriptable "Perform Actions" system rather than built-in detection. | Yes, and it's a strength — meetings, calls, video, fullscreen games, screen sharing. | Pauses on idle; no meeting or video detection. |
| Guided eye exercises | Yes — Pro. | No. | No. | Break ideas and suggestions, not guided exercises. |
| iPhone companion | Yes — free app, syncs stats, Live Activities, home-screen widget. | No. | Yes — LookAway Mirror syncs Mac breaks to iPhone. | No. |
| Insights & history | Yes — Pro, up to 90 days. | Yes — activity tracking for breaks, app usage and time away. | Yes — usage statistics, including website tracking. | No usage statistics. |
| Scripting & automation | Custom intervals, per-alert sounds and smart pause rules on Pro. No AppleScript API. | Best in class — actions can run scripts, speech, sounds and notifications around every break. | AppleScript and Shortcuts support. | Configurable intervals and strict mode; no scripting API. |
| Platforms | macOS 26+ and iPhone. | macOS 26+ for the current version (an older build supports macOS 10.15+). | macOS 13+, plus iPhone; Windows listed as coming soon. | macOS 12+, Windows and Linux. |
Sources: Time Out by Dejal, LookAway, Stretchly. Checked 4 August 2026. Prices and terms change — always confirm directly with each app before you buy. Trade marks belong to their respective owners.
When one of the others is the better choice
Being straight about this matters more than winning the comparison. Pick one of these instead if it fits you better:
- Stretchly, if you work across Windows or Linux as well as Mac, or you want something free and open source that you can read the code of. Nothing here beats free and cross-platform.
- Time Out, if you want to script what happens around a break. Its actions system runs scripts, speech and notifications before, during and after breaks, and no one in this category does that better. It's also free.
- LookAway, if you want to pay once and be done for the least money — $19 for one Mac against our $34.99 lifetime — or if automatic pausing during meetings, calls and games is the feature you care most about. It's a well-made app with a long head start on us.
- Any of them, if you don't want a camera involved at all. Our detection is optional and on-device, but "optional" isn't "absent", and that's a reasonable line to draw.
What SmilingEyes has that none of them do: it watches whether you're actually blinking and how you're sitting, rather than assuming a timer knows. If that's not the part you want, one of the three above will serve you well.
Want it to notice more than the clock does?
SmilingEyes' free tier covers the Mac basics. Pro adds real on-device blink and posture detection and an iPhone companion — try it and see the difference.
Download SmilingEyes