A tree can wither.
A block doesn't care.

Forest's core mechanic is a session. You plant a virtual tree, choose a duration, and Forest's Deep Focus mode blocks your selected apps for that window. Leave early or open a blocked app mid-session and the tree can wither, a gentle guilt mechanic layered on top of real blocking. It's a genuinely clever way to make focus visible, and Forest's Time Guard feature can extend blocking outside of active sessions too.

The difference is what happens by default, before you've done anything. Forest requires you to start something, plant a tree, pick a length, for blocking to kick in. Fella doesn't have a starting state to opt into. Apps are blocked from the moment you set them up, every day, with one 5-minute emergency unlock. There's no tree to plant and nothing to remember to begin.

No session to remember to start. Forest's blocking is genuinely effective while a session is running, but it depends on you actively beginning one every time. Fella removes that step entirely, the block is just the default state of the app.

A real daily limit, not a tree you can let die. Ending a Forest session early has a consequence, a withered tree, but it's still a choice available to you in the moment you're most likely to make it. Fella's one 5-minute unlock a day is the only exception, and it locks itself back up automatically.

Built for social apps specifically, not just deep-work blocks. Forest's roots are in focus timers for work and study sessions. Fella is built around the specific problem of distracting apps staying available all day, every day, whether you're "trying to focus" right now or not.