Workrave alternatives for Mac, Linux, and your phone

People who search for a Workrave alternative usually aren’t unhappy with the idea. They took RSI seriously enough to install a program that interrupts them every few minutes, which is more than most of us manage. What breaks is the fit. Maybe you bought a Mac. Maybe the defaults turned deep work into confetti. We compared the closest alternatives on the same criteria (Stiff is our app, so hold us to them).

What Workrave does well, and why people leave

Workrave describes itself as a free program that assists in the recovery and prevention of repetitive strain injury. It monitors your keyboard and mouse use and runs three timers: a micro-break of about 30 seconds roughly every 3 minutes, a rest break of about 10 minutes every 45 minutes (with short exercises at the start), and an optional daily limit that tells you to stop for the day. It also keeps daily, weekly, and monthly usage statistics. It’s GPL-licensed and still maintained.

People rarely leave because of any of that. They leave because of one of these:

• No stable Mac build. The download page has a Windows installer (v1.11.4) and sends Linux users to their distro’s packages. A macOS port exists only in the development version, which the project says is less tested.
• No phone app. It watches one keyboard. Meetings are invisible to it, and so is the laptop on the sofa.
• The defaults are intense. A pause every three minutes is a deliberate choice for people recovering from RSI. For everyone else, it’s the fastest route to the Quit button.
• It looks its age. It works. It also looks like a settings dialog from 2004.

If it’s the Mac, skip to Time Out. If it’s the phone, keep reading.

Workrave alternatives at a glance

Best Workrave alternative for your phone: Stiff

Every desktop timer on this list shares Workrave’s blind spot: once you leave the computer, it stops counting. Stiff lives on the phone that comes with you, so the reminder reaches you in the meeting room and at the kitchen table, and it brings the stretch with it.

• A schedule, not a stopwatch. Pick your work days and hours, then an interval of 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes (45 is the default) and one to three stretches per session. If you’re presenting, snooze it for 10 minutes.
• The rest break, done for you. Workrave suggests exercises; Stiff hands you specific ones. There are 41 illustrated, timed stretches of 20 to 60 seconds covering the neck, shoulders, back, wrists, hips, legs, and eyes, plus 16 relief programs of 3 to 10 minutes. Free includes 26 stretches and 6 programs, with a free program for every body area.
• Statistics that nag back. Where Workrave logs your keystrokes, Stiff tracks streaks, a daily XP goal, levels, badges, and an Unstiff Score, and lets you compete in small groups with coworkers.

Where it falls short of Workrave: Stiff can’t see your computer activity, so there are no keystroke-aware micro-pauses, no screen lock, and no daily usage limit. If those are what keep you honest, keep a desktop timer for them and let Stiff handle the longer stretch break (setup below).

Best Workrave alternative for Mac: Time Out

Time Out by Dejal is the closest thing to Workrave that feels at home on a Mac. It has the same two-tier idea: a brief Micro break and a longer Normal break for getting up and moving, and you can add custom breaks on top. Floating controls let you postpone, skip, or end a break early, and you can cap how often you’re allowed to do that, which is a polite version of Workrave’s firmness.

Two details matter for ex-Workrave users. Time Out recognizes time away from your Mac as a natural break and adjusts the next reminder, and it has a Statistics view for reviewing your break habits. The core features are free; Supporter plans start at $4.99 for three months. Version 4.0 needs macOS 26, and an older 2.9.7 build runs on macOS 10.15 or later.

If you’d rather stay open source on a Mac, Stretchly and BreakTimer both run there too.

Free desktop alternatives for Windows and Linux

Stretchly: the gentler cross-platform swap

Stretchly is free and open source (BSD-2-Clause) on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Its defaults are a 20-second mini break every 10 minutes and a 5-minute long break every 30 minutes. It pauses after 5 minutes of inactivity and while Do Not Disturb is on. It has no daily limit like Workrave’s, so it’s a step down in strictness and a step up in manners. Recent versions need macOS Ventura or later. We cover its own gaps in Stretchly alternatives.

BreakTimer: the simple one with working hours

BreakTimer (GPL-3.0, Windows, macOS, Linux) trades Workrave’s three timers for one break you configure yourself, shown as a notification or a fullscreen window with your own message. Its best feature for desk workers is working hours, so it stays quiet in the evening. It can also restart the countdown when it detects you’ve been away.

Safe Eyes: the firm one for Linux

Safe Eyes (GPL-3.0) is the Linux option closest to Workrave’s spirit. It reminds you to take breaks with exercises aimed at RSI, can disable the keyboard during breaks, and pauses itself when the system is idle.

Rebuild your Workrave schedule before you uninstall

Switching apps is where good break habits go to die. The new defaults feel wrong, you mute them, and a week later nothing reminds you of anything. Spend five minutes mapping each Workrave timer to its new owner first.

The rest-break interval has outside support. OSHA’s computer workstation guidance suggests a five-minute break from computer tasks every hour, used to stand, stretch, and move, because brief pauses give muscles and tendons time to recover. A 2022 meta-analysis in PLOS ONE found micro-breaks gave small but significant gains in vigor and drops in fatigue. The overall effect on performance wasn’t significant, so take breaks for your body, not your output.

What to do with each break, once it fires:

1. Micro-pause (20–30 s). Hands off the keyboard and let them hang. Look at something across the room. Roll your shoulders back five times. Don’t reach for your phone; that just moves the strain to your thumbs.
2. Wrist flexor stretch (20–30 s per side). Arm straight in front, palm up, gently draw the fingers back with the other hand. Elbow straight but not locked. Don’t push into tingling or sharp pain.
3. Wrist extensor stretch (20–30 s per side). Same arm, palm down, gently bend the wrist so the fingers point at the floor. Elbow straight but not locked.
4. Chin tuck (5 slow reps). Sit tall and slide your chin straight back, as if making a double chin. Hold 3 seconds. Don’t tip your head down.
5. Stand and walk (1–3 min). The part every timer gets skipped for. Refill water, walk a lap, come back.

More moves for the hands are in our guide to wrist stretches for typing, and the interval question gets its own page in how often to stretch at work.

Which Workrave alternative should you pick?

For a wider field, including smartwatch nudges and phone alarms, see the best break reminder apps.

If you used Workrave because something hurts

Plenty of people install Workrave after their wrists or forearms start complaining. A break app can help you change how you work, but it isn’t treatment. The NHS page on RSI lists burning, aching, or throbbing pain, stiffness, weakness, tingling, cramps, and swelling as symptoms. It advises staying active rather than resting the area for more than a few days, and talking to your employer about how you work.

See a GP or physiotherapist if symptoms aren’t going away or are getting worse. Numbness or weakness that wakes you at night, or a hand that drops things, deserves a proper look rather than a new timer. And when you do switch apps, keep the breaks at least as frequent as they were while you recover; this isn’t the moment to test a looser schedule.