Session Timer Review

Best Features, Pricing, Alternatives & Verdict

You may have heard of Session and are just curious about what it does. In this review, I'm going to overview what the time application does and whether it's a good bet for your personal time tracking and whether it's going to get you in a flow state for the day.

What is Session Timer?

Session is a focused timer and reporting for personal time tracking.

What does Session timer do?

Session is a focus timer application available on iOS and Mac, featuring a clean, simple layout. Not only does it provide a good experience for managing focus, but it also unlocks reporting to reveal mood and constructive feedback on productivity during sessions. This helps to analyze ways to improve.

One of the highlights from this review is that, as a personal time tracking application, it stands out for its beautiful, minimal, and simple design. Additionally, it includes an analytic layer that is candid with users who appreciate the quantified life. It also offers insights on how to enhance each session, making it beneficial for freelancers.

It could be useful for employees aiming to improve their focus time at home in remote work situations.

Best Session Features: Pros

Here's our best features from our in-depth review:

1. Analytics & Reports

The analytics and reports within Session are among the best features.

Although it might seem like just a timer at first glance, there's actually reporting within it that provides insights into your total focus for the day. It shows when you were most focused, how much break time you had, and when you were most distracted. Additionally, it tracks your mood after each session, allowing you to look back on previous days to see whether you were focused, neutral, or distracted. While this is a self-report tool, it offers the reflection you might need.

There are also categories and intentions that help break down the type of work you did, which is particularly useful for freelancers who want to see how much time they're spending. You could even replicate this for clients you're working with on a particular project, and you can see a timeline of the day with notes for each intention. This is a really nice experience because it allows you to delve into details about what went well during the session, what can be improved, or just notes you might want to reference.

Personally, I love the layout and the information it provides is informative without being overwhelming, which can happen with some tracking applications that might not end up being practical or useful.

2. Focused Timer

The session timer is favored by anyone who needs to track time, as well as by those who enjoy using the Pomodoro technique. This method was developed by another Francesco in the 1980s, and honestly, it's quite effective. You can easily start with the dial on the session and also effortlessly select a category or change your intention, eliminating any friction from the get-go.

The minimal design is particularly appealing because it addresses any initial issues, offering a range of options in settings like changing music, pausing, stopping, and the ability to jot down notes right before a session, which intrigues me. Although I might not use it myself, there's a mindfulness aspect that encourages you to take a moment to breathe, allowing you time to reflect on your tasks before beginning. To be honest, this feature seems better suited for those who need it, though I don't find it very helpful.

Fortunately, there's a skip option, which I use almost every time.

Additionally, there are small but useful features like viewing your calendar and reviewing what sessions you've completed throughout the day. The ability to adjust the time by adding or subtracting five minutes is handy for when you're feeling stressed or need a little extra time to finish a task.

3. Website Blocking

Finally, one of the features that I only discovered a few weeks back, but is one of the ones that I really liked during this review, was the website blocker. Initially, I thought it was just a simple way to add a list of sites that you don't want to visit when you're working or focusing, but when I dug a little bit deeper, I found that there's actually a profile setting that you can set up so that there are different types of profiles.

For example, if you wanted to set up a profile for when you're working in your office or when you're working in a coffee shop, you can have different parameters on the length of breaks and the type of intense activity that you're doing.

This is particularly helpful because you can also set up notifications and app blockers, so you can go beyond just the websites. You can also specify which websites you want to view when you're focused and which ones you don't want to view during your focus time, and ones that you want to view on your break as well.

So, if there are ones that lead you down a rabbit hole and create a poor break, then you can even block things on Instagram for that time, which is really nice. So, it's a very well thought out experience for managing the type of profiles, although there is a slight setup cost for this. But to be honest, if I set up and spend a bit of time on it, it would probably pay dividends within a couple of weeks.

How much does Session timer cost?

Session is $4.99 per month, monthly or $39.99 annually.

Session Pricing: Explained

Session offers a pricing plan that allows you to get access for free with unlimited sessions and breaks and gives you two days' worth of analytics. This also connects with your calendar application, so this is great for getting started.

There is a $4.99 per month pricing which pretty much gives you access to every single feature, including backing up to the cloud, automatic creation of Apple Calendar events, and much more between devices. So, it's well worth looking at the pricing, as although it might be pricier in comparison to other applications, it's actually well presented. As Session Pro, you get a seven-day free trial as well.

Session App Verdict: Worth It?

When it comes to using Session, it's actually one of the best personal time tracking applications on the market. Yes, it is limited to iOS and macOS, but to be honest, the quality of the application is brilliant.

It allows you to stay in a focus session with all the features you need to implement that, like the website blocker, the sounds, and also the general structure of the application to reflect on what you've done in the sessions. But also, being able to give you a sense of reporting on how the sessions went is phenomenal.

So, it's one of my favorite applications when it comes to using it as a timer, and to be honest, it's perfect not just for those who are working from home and want to be able to get into a flow state but also for freelancers tracking lightweight projects. If you don't want something as intensive as Toggl Track or those types of more intense freelance applications and you just want to get into flow states, then this is a brilliant application for that, and it's well worth the investment.

It is also available on the Setapp subscription, which, if you already pay for it, is a great value for the $9.99 per month and is included. Otherwise, you can get it accessible through a $4.99 pricing per month, which for freelancers, considering the investment you're making, is going to be a good payoff. And for outside of freelancing too.

Best Session Timer Alternatives

Session alternatives include the likes of Toggl Track.