Marinara earned its following: a free, open-source Pomodoro timer that did one thing well. Hourcraft runs the same classic cycle — free, in Chrome’s side panel — with one difference of substance: every finished pomodoro lands in a real time-tracking history, so your focus rounds add up to an honest picture of the week. Also on Microsoft Edge Add-ons, same extension.
Add to Chrome — it’s free25 minutes of work, a 5-minute break, a longer break every fourth round, and a prompt when each phase ends — running in the side panel beside your tabs, with the toolbar badge counting the minutes. No credit card, and no account needed — in the side panel or at hourcraft.app; sign in with just your email, no password, when you want your history on another device. Hourcraft Pro adds custom intervals, an optional chime, and re-chime reminders if you tend to miss the first ping. If you’re new to the method itself, we keep a plain reference on how the 25/5 cycle works and what the research actually shows.
A dedicated Pomodoro timer rings a bell and counts your rounds. Hourcraft does that too — and then writes the result down: your finished cycles consolidate into one clean session on the task you picked, tagged 🍅 ×N, with breaks automatically excluded. Day and week views show where the focused time actually went, and the same history follows you to the web app at hourcraft.app.
| Hourcraft | Marinara | |
|---|---|---|
| Classic 25/5 Pomodoro, free | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom durations | Pro | Free |
| Where it lives in your browser | Side panel (Chrome) or sidebar (Edge) + toolbar badge | Toolbar timer |
| Account required | None (optional email sign-in, no password, to sync) | None |
| Open source | — | Yes (MIT) |
| Task time-tracking & session history | ✓ — cycles land on real tasks | Pomodoro stats |
| Follows you across devices | Web app + phone; live sync on Pro | — |
Marinara details reflect its public documentation and may change — check its Chrome Web Store listing or GitHub for current status.
If all you want is the bell — no account, open source, custom durations without paying — a dedicated Pomodoro timer like Marinara or one of its forks is a perfectly good answer, and you should use one. Hourcraft earns its place when you want the other half: pomodoros that turn into a trustworthy record of where your focused hours went.
Yes. The classic cycle — 25/5 with a longer break every fourth round and a prompt at each phase — is free for everyone. Custom intervals, the chime, and re-chime reminders are part of Pro.
No — hourcraft.app and the Chrome side panel both track time with no account at all, and what you track stays in that browser until you choose to save it to one. Signing in is optional and password-free (a one-time email link or code); Marinara signs you in nowhere, and Hourcraft only when you want your history to follow you between the side panel, the web app, and your phone.
On Pro, yes — all four values are adjustable. Free runs the classic 25/5. Marinara offered custom durations for free; if tweaking intervals matters more to you than tracked history, that’s a fair point in its favor.
No. Marinara is (MIT, on GitHub), and if that matters to you, it’s a legitimate reason to prefer it or one of its forks.
Free plan, no credit card — the classic cycle is waiting.
Add to Chrome — it’s free