Stretchly alternatives for Mac, tested in 2026

Keep Stretchly if you work across Windows, Linux and macOS. It is free, open source, and nothing else covers all three as well. Swap to Time Out if you want a Mac native app that dims instead of taking the screen. Try LookAway at 19 dollars if you want breaks that wait for your video calls. And if what you actually hate is the full-screen break itself, Mossy never shows one.

By Alban. I make one of these four, so weigh the last section accordingly. Prices, sizes and version numbers read on each app's own page on 11 September 2026.

Why people leave Stretchly

Three reasons come up. The break window takes your whole screen at a moment you did not choose. The Mac build is 177 MB, because it is Electron. And the breaks are a fixed list of ideas rather than the thing you needed today. None of those is a bug. That is the design, and for a lot of people it works.

It did not work for us. Ten hours a day in a chair, a bad back for years, and I tore my ACL last October, so that year was surgery, physio, and even more chair. My wife is an architect. Same chair, same ten hours. We deleted every break app we tried. They died the same way: full-screen break, lands mid sentence, you skip it, gone by day three.

Worth saying, because most comparison pages get this wrong: Stretchly is not naive about timing. It pauses when Do Not Disturb is on, it pauses after five minutes of idle, and you can list apps that suspend it. The problem is not that it interrupts at stupid moments. It is that the break itself is an interruption, by definition.

The four, side by side

Stretchly's size is the arm64 disk image from its 1.22.1 release, dated 13 August 2026. Time Out 3.1 needs macOS 26; on anything older you get version 2.9.7, which is 10.7 MB. LookAway does not publish a size.

Time Out, if you want the classic

Time Out is the closest thing to Stretchly that was actually written for a Mac. It is free, it is 10 MB instead of 177, and the break is a slow dim rather than a window slamming shut. You can rewrite the break screen yourself in HTML and CSS, which is unusual.

Two things to know before you switch. The current version, 3.1, requires macOS 26, so on an older machine you are on 2.9.7 and you will not get new features. And the supporter purchases go up to $59.99 for a lifetime tier, so "free" is true but it is a free tier, not a gift.

LookAway, if you want it to read the room

LookAway is 19 dollars, one payment, macOS 13 or later. Its whole pitch is timing: it holds the break while you are on a video call, watching something, gaming, or in a focus app. Its author has been shipping it since 2023 and answers people publicly, which counts for something in a category full of abandoned apps.

Be clear about what you are buying, though. It is a better timed interruption, not the absence of one. If your objection to Stretchly is "stop taking my screen", LookAway takes it later, not never.

Mossy, if you never want to be interrupted

I built this one. Everything below is checkable in about a minute, which is the only reason you should believe any of it.

Mossy never shows a break window. There is no dim, no lock, no full screen, and no setting to turn one on. A small plant sits in a corner of your desktop and dries out while you work, with the minutes written under it. When it is thirsty it asks, and waits a while if you say no. You can ignore it. That is a normal way to use it.

The other difference is what a break contains. You write one sentence about what your breaks should be, and every break is written from that sentence, one instruction at a time, with a timer. "Stretch my back." "Twenty push ups." "Teach me a Spanish word." Not a fixed list of stretches someone else chose.

Two numbers instead of adjectives. Across 43 machines that left the counters on, over 182 machine days, 51 % of the breaks Mossy offered were taken, measured on 10 September 2026. So roughly half get refused, and that is fine, because refusing was never a failure here. And 18 versions shipped between 12 August and 8 September, which is the only honest proof that an app is alive.

When not to use Mossy

If any of your machines run Windows or Linux, stay on Stretchly. Mossy is macOS only and will not be anything else soon.

If you want to be forced, Mossy is the wrong product and I would rather you did not download it. Use Stretchly's strict mode, which removes skip and postpone. Being unable to skip is a real need for some people, and nothing in Mossy will ever do it.

And if you want an app that talks to nothing, take Time Out. Mossy sends one request per break, because the exercise is written on the fly rather than picked from a list. There is no account and no tracker, and the privacy page lists everything that leaves your Mac, but one request is not zero.

What I cannot tell you yet

Whether it survives month two. The honest picture on 10 September 2026: of 89 machines with a usage row, 2 span more than fourteen days, and both are ours. Of the four machines that first appeared over three weeks ago, two were still active in the last seven days. Four machines is an anecdote, not a retention rate. The whole promise of Mossy is that rival apps die on day three, so that is exactly the number I am not going to dress up. Ask me in November.

I have also not run Restier or DeskRest, which show up in the same searches. I read Restier's pages for the Time Out comparison and put its prices there, but I am not going to review the feel of an app I have not used.

FAQ

Is there a free Stretchly alternative for Mac?

Two. Time Out is free with optional supporter purchases, and it is the closest thing to Stretchly on macOS. Mossy is free with no paid tier behind it, but it works differently: it never shows a break window, it wilts in the corner instead.

Can I run Stretchly and another break app at the same time?

You can, and you will get two reminders for the same sitting. Pick one. If you are testing a replacement, quit Stretchly for a week rather than running both, or you will blame the new app for the old one's interruptions.

Does Mossy block or dim my screen?

Never, and there is no setting for it. The plant wilts in a corner and a counter shows the minutes you have been working. Ignoring it is a normal way to use it. Half the breaks it offers get refused.

Does Mossy run on an Intel Mac?

Yes. The download is a universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel, and it needs macOS 12 or later. The disk image is 1.8 MB and it is notarised by Apple, so there is no command to type after installing.