Tide is a calm all-rounder for the phone: a focus timer, nature sounds, sleep sounds and short meditations in one beautifully designed app. Flight does one thing, turning your focus session into a real flight, and does it in the browser. If you want an app for focus, sleep and calm on your phone, Tide covers more ground. If you want your focus sessions at the computer to feel like a journey, with the real hum of a cabin around you, Flight is the better fit.
Disclosure: Flight is our product, and this blog belongs to it. We've tried to be fair: what we say about Tide comes from its own site and app listings, checked in October 2026. Apps change, so check prices there before you decide.
At a glance
| Flight | Tide | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A focus timer you fly | Focus timer, sleep sounds and meditation |
| Runs on | Any modern browser | iPhone and Android, plus a browser extension |
| Focus session | As long as a real flight | A timer with Pomodoro and flow modes |
| Sleep features | Free sleep calculator and nap timer on our site | Sleep sounds, bedtime and nap modes |
| Meditation | A free breathing timer on our site | Guided sessions |
| Sounds | Nine real recordings, free | Many nature sounds; more with Tide Plus |
| Price | Free to start a flight | Free, with a Tide Plus subscription |
Where Tide is stronger
Range and polish on the phone. Tide puts a focus timer, a large library of nature sounds, sleep sounds with bedtime and nap modes, and meditation in one app, and its design is genuinely relaxing. If you want a single calm-down app for day and night, it does a lot.
Where Flight is stronger
- Focus at the computer. Flight runs full screen in your browser, where the work is, rather than on the phone you're trying to ignore.
- Sessions with a destination. Choosing a city to fly to sets the length and gives you a picture of progress you can watch.
- The sound of a flight, free. A real airliner cabin recording, the steady roar many people find the best sound for concentration, plus rain, storms, waves and forest.
- Free tools for the rest. Our sleep calculator, power nap timer and breathing timer cover sleep and calm in the browser, with no subscription.
A day with each
With Tide, the phone is your focus companion: a timer with rain or forest sounds during the day, a breathing session in the afternoon, and sleep sounds at night. It's one app, gently designed, for the whole day and night.
With Flight, the computer is where focus happens: a flight with the cabin hum for the morning's deep work, and, when you need them, the free tools on this site: a nap timer after lunch, the breathing timer before a presentation, and the sleep calculator for tonight's bedtime. No subscription anywhere.
Switching from Tide to Flight
- Keep Tide on the phone for sleep and meditation if you like them.
- Move focus sessions to the computer with Flight, and choose the sound you use in Tide: rain, storm or waves.
- Bookmark the free nap, breathing and sleep tools for the rest of the day.
Who should choose which
- Tide if you want one phone app for focus, sleep sounds and meditation.
- Flight if you focus at a computer and want sessions that feel like flights, with free tools for sleep and calm alongside.
Try Flight
Open Flight, choose the cabin sound, and pick somewhere to fly while you work.
