Best ADHD Apps in 2026: 12 Apps That Actually Help (Not Just Another List)

I’ve downloaded probably 200 productivity apps since my ADHD diagnosis three years ago. Most of them lasted about 48 hours on my phone before I forgot they existed. A few stuck. These are those few, plus some newer ones that genuinely surprised me.

This isn’t a list where I pretend every app is amazing. Some of these are brilliant for certain ADHD brains and completely wrong for others. I’ll tell you which is which.

Quick-Pick Table: Best ADHD Apps at a Glance

Tiimo: The Visual Daily Planner That Gets ADHD

Price: $3.50/mo billed annually, $10/mo monthly. Free tier available.

Tiimo was co-designed with neurodivergent people, and honestly, you can tell. It uses color-coded visual timelines instead of boring text lists. Your whole day shows up as this visual map, which is incredible for time blindness. You can actually see how much time is between meetings, how long lunch really is, when you need to start getting ready.

I started using it after my therapist told me I had “no internal sense of time.” She wasn’t wrong. Tiimo gives you that missing clock your brain refuses to build on its own.

ADHD Pros: Visual timeline fights time blindness directly. Routines are easy to set up and repeat. The design is genuinely calming, not cluttered. Won an Apple App Store Award in 2025, which feels deserved.

ADHD Cons: Can feel limited if you want deep task management. The free tier is restrictive. Calendar integration could be stronger.

Skip if… you need heavy project management. Tiimo is a planner, not a project tool.

Goblin Tools: AI Task Breakdown for Paralyzed Brains

Price: Free on web. App has optional premium subscription.

You know that thing where someone says “clean the kitchen” and your brain just… goes blank? Like, where do I even start? Goblin Tools fixes exactly this. You type in a task, and its AI breaks it into tiny, manageable steps. “Clean the kitchen” becomes “put dishes in dishwasher, wipe counters, take out trash” and so on.

The Magic ToDo tool is the star, but there’s also a tone analyzer for emails (so you stop spiraling about whether your message sounds rude) and a time estimator. It’s made by a neurodivergent developer who clearly gets it.

ADHD Pros: Destroys task paralysis. Free to use on the web. Dead simple interface with no learning curve. The tone analyzer saves me from rewriting emails fourteen times.

ADHD Cons: It’s not a full task manager. You still need somewhere to put the broken-down tasks. AI suggestions aren’t always perfectly calibrated.

Skip if… you want an all-in-one system. Goblin Tools is a utility, not a home base.

Structured: Time Blocking Without the Overwhelm

Price: Free with Pro upgrade around $5/mo.

Structured does one thing and does it well: it turns your day into time blocks. You drag tasks into slots, and you get this clean visual timeline of your day. Similar vibe to Tiimo but more focused on the actual time-blocking methodology.

What I love is how fast it is to set up. No onboarding maze. No fifteen-step tutorial. Open the app, add your blocks, go. For ADHD brains that abandon apps during setup, this matters more than any feature list.

ADHD Pros: Extremely fast to learn. Visual timeline helps with time blindness. Syncs across Apple devices and now Android and web too. The daily view keeps you from drowning in weekly or monthly overwhelm.

ADHD Cons: Pro features cost money (fair, but you should know). Less flexible than Notion or Todoist for complex projects. Recurring tasks could be more intuitive.

Skip if… you hate time blocking as a concept. Some ADHD brains rebel against rigid schedules, and that’s valid.

Focus Bear: The Routine Builder That Blocks Distractions

Price: Around $5/mo.

Focus Bear combines routine building with distraction blocking, which is a combination I didn’t know I needed. You set up your morning routine, and it literally walks you through each step. Then during focus time, it blocks distracting websites and apps. Built by a neurodivergent founder, specifically for AuDHD brains.

The “gentle nudge” approach works better for me than hard blocking. It’s like having a friend who taps your shoulder and says “hey, you were supposed to be writing, remember?”

ADHD Pros: Combines routines AND distraction blocking. Desktop app actually blocks sites (not just a phone thing). Morning and evening routine guides are surprisingly motivating. Built by and for neurodivergent people.

ADHD Cons: Interface feels less polished than some competitors. Desktop-first design means the mobile experience lags a bit. Takes time to set up your routines initially.

Skip if… you work in an environment where you can’t install desktop software. The desktop blocking is the main selling point.

Sunsama: The Calm Daily Planner (That Costs a Lot)

Price: $20/mo (annual) or $25/mo monthly. 14-day free trial.

Let’s talk about the price first. $20/mo for a planner is a lot. I know. I winced too. But Sunsama does something no other app on this list does: it forces you to plan realistically. Every morning, it walks you through a guided daily planning ritual. You pull in tasks from your calendar, email, and other tools, assign time estimates, and it literally tells you “hey, you’ve planned 10 hours of work for a 6-hour day.”

For someone with ADHD who chronically overcommits (hi, it’s me), this is worth the price. The evening shutdown ritual is also chef’s kiss. It actually helps you stop working, which is weirdly hard for hyperfocus-prone brains.

ADHD Pros: Daily planning ritual creates structure without rigidity. Realistic time estimation fights chronic overcommitting. Pulls tasks from everywhere (calendar, Slack, email, other tools). The shutdown ritual helps you actually close your laptop.

ADHD Cons: Expensive. Seriously expensive. Can feel slow if you want to quickly dump tasks. Overkill if you don’t juggle multiple tools and calendars.

Skip if… you’re on a tight budget. There are cheaper options that cover 80% of what Sunsama does.

Todoist: The Reliable Workhorse

Price: Free tier is generous. Pro is $5/mo.

Todoist isn’t specifically built for ADHD, but a huge chunk of the ADHD community swears by it, and for good reason. Quick capture is the killer feature. Thought pops into your head? Type it, hit enter, sort it later. That “sort it later” part is key. Todoist lets you brain-dump without forcing you to organize in the moment.

The natural language input is genuinely good. Type “call dentist tomorrow at 2pm” and it just works. For ADHD brains where the friction between “having a thought” and “recording it” needs to be absolutely minimal, this matters.

ADHD Pros: Lightning-fast task capture. Available everywhere (literally every platform). Natural language input reduces friction. Free tier is actually usable, not a crippled demo.

ADHD Cons: No built-in time blocking. Can become a graveyard of tasks you’ll never do (ask me how I know). Doesn’t help with prioritization unless you build your own system.

Skip if… you need visual planning. Todoist is text-based lists, and some ADHD brains need to see their day spatially.

Notion: Build Your Own ADHD System (If You Can Finish Building It)

Price: Free tier works. Plus is $10/mo.

I have a complicated relationship with Notion. It’s incredibly powerful. You can build the perfect ADHD dashboard with task management, habit tracking, notes, and databases all connected. The ADHD template community is huge, and some of these templates are genuinely brilliant.

Here’s the problem: building your Notion system is a hyperfocus trap. I’ve spent entire weekends perfecting my setup instead of actually using it. And then I changed it all the following weekend. If you can grab a pre-made ADHD template and resist the urge to customize it into oblivion, Notion is fantastic. Big “if.”

ADHD Pros: Infinitely customizable. Amazing community templates built specifically for ADHD. Free tier is genuinely powerful. Combines notes, tasks, and databases in one place.

ADHD Cons: Setup is a hyperfocus black hole. Too many options creates decision fatigue. Can feel overwhelming without a good template. Mobile app is slower than competitors.

Skip if… you know in your heart that you’ll spend more time building the system than using it. Be honest with yourself here.

Forest: The Focus Timer That Guilt-Trips You (Gently)

Price: Free on Android (with ads). ~$4 one-time purchase on iOS.

Forest plants a virtual tree when you start a focus session. If you leave the app to check Instagram, your tree dies. It’s simple. It’s almost embarrassingly simple. And it works on me every single time because apparently I care more about a cartoon tree than my actual deadlines.

The gamification hits the right ADHD dopamine buttons. You grow a whole forest over time, and there’s a real-tree-planting partnership where your virtual trees fund actual reforestation. So you get dopamine AND you help the planet. Efficient.

ADHD Pros: Dead simple concept, no learning curve. Gamification provides dopamine that ADHD brains crave. The “your tree will die” motivation is weirdly effective. Actual trees get planted in real life.

ADHD Cons: Only works for phone-based distractions. Doesn’t help if your distraction is a different browser tab on your laptop. No task management built in. You can always just… close the app and abandon the tree (but the guilt!).

Skip if… your distraction problems are computer-based, not phone-based. Forest can’t help you stop opening Reddit on your laptop.

Focusmate: Virtual Body Doubling That Actually Works

Price: Free for 3 sessions/week. Plus is $8/mo (annual) or $12/mo monthly.

Body doubling is when you work alongside another person because their presence helps you stay on task. It’s an ADHD thing. Focusmate turns this into a service where you book 25, 50, or 75-minute video sessions with strangers who are also trying to get stuff done. You say what you’re working on, mute yourself, work quietly, then check in at the end.

It sounds bizarre. I thought it was bizarre. Then I tried it during a week where I couldn’t start a single task and ended up completing a full project proposal in one session. The accountability of a real human watching you (sort of) is powerful.

ADHD Pros: Body doubling is one of the most effective ADHD strategies, period. Free tier gives you 3 sessions per week. The structure of “declare your goal, then work, then report” is built-in accountability. Available 24/7, so it works for weird ADHD schedules.

ADHD Cons: Requires being on camera with a stranger (not for everyone). You need decent internet. Can feel awkward the first few times. The free tier’s 3 sessions may not be enough.

Skip if… being on camera with strangers is a hard no for you. No amount of productivity benefit is worth constant anxiety.

Brain.fm: Focus Music Backed by Actual Science

Price: $8.33/mo (annual at $99.99/year) or $14.99/mo. 14-day free trial.

Brain.fm isn’t a lo-fi beats playlist on YouTube. It uses something called “neural phase locking” to create music that actually modulates your brain activity. There’s peer-reviewed research behind it. The focus mode is specifically designed for sustained attention, which is the exact thing ADHD brains struggle with.

I was skeptical. Very skeptical. Then I put it on during a writing session and realized two hours had passed without me once reaching for my phone. That doesn’t happen to me. The music isn’t music you’d listen to for fun. It’s more like… textured sound that fades into the background and keeps your brain engaged just enough.

ADHD Pros: Actually backed by neuroscience research. The focus mode is noticeably different from regular music or white noise. Works across all devices. Also has modes for sleep and relaxation (ADHD brains struggle with those too).

ADHD Cons: Not cheap. The music can feel repetitive after long sessions. You need headphones for the full effect. Doesn’t replace other productivity tools.

Skip if… you already have a focus music system that works for you. If lo-fi hip hop does the trick, don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Finch: Self-Care for the ADHD Brain That Forgets to Eat

Price: Free (very usable). Finch Plus is $5.83/mo (annual at $69.99/year) or $9.99/mo.

Finch is a self-care app disguised as a virtual pet. You take care of a little bird by completing self-care tasks, and the bird grows and goes on adventures. Sounds childish? Maybe. But dopamine doesn’t care about “childish.” When brushing my teeth feels like climbing Everest some days, having a little bird that cheers for me actually helps.

The app gently reminds you to drink water, take breaks, move your body, and reflect on your day. For ADHD brains that forget basic self-care because they’re hyperfocusing or paralyzed, Finch is a soft entry point to building habits without pressure.

ADHD Pros: Gamification makes self-care feel achievable. Zero pressure, no streaks that punish you for missing a day. The free tier is genuinely great. Covers the basics that ADHD brains forget: hydration, movement, rest.

ADHD Cons: Not a productivity tool. Won’t help you manage tasks or projects. Can feel too simple if you want depth. The cute aesthetic isn’t for everyone.

Skip if… you’re looking for task management or planning. Finch is about self-care, not work.

Lunatask: Privacy-First Task Management for the Paranoid (and Smart)

Price: Free tier available. Premium is $6/mo (annual) or $8/mo monthly. Lifetime option at $225.

Lunatask is the app I recommend to people who say “I like Todoist but I wish it encrypted my data.” Everything in Lunatask is end-to-end encrypted. Your tasks, your habits, your mood journal entries. The developer can’t read them. Nobody can.

Beyond privacy, it packs in task management, habit tracking, mood tracking, energy tracking, and a Pomodoro timer. It uses automatic prioritization based on deadlines, energy levels, and importance. For ADHD brains who struggle with “what should I work on right now?” this is a real answer.

ADHD Pros: Automatic prioritization fights decision fatigue. Built-in mood and energy tracking helps you understand your patterns. End-to-end encryption for people who care about privacy. Combines tasks, habits, and journaling in one place.

ADHD Cons: Smaller team means slower feature development. Desktop-first, mobile apps are catching up. The interface is functional but not beautiful. Smaller community means fewer tutorials and guides.

Skip if… you need something with a huge ecosystem of integrations. Lunatask is more of a standalone fortress than a connected hub.

FAQ

What’s the single best ADHD app if I can only pick one?

Depends on your biggest struggle. For task paralysis: Goblin Tools (free). For time blindness: Tiimo. For can’t-start-anything energy: Focusmate. There’s no single answer because ADHD shows up differently in everyone.

Are ADHD productivity apps worth paying for?

Some of them, yes. I’d happily pay for Sunsama and Brain.fm every month. But start with free tiers first. Most apps on this list have usable free versions. Try before you spend.

Can apps replace ADHD medication?

No. Hard no. Apps are tools that complement treatment, not replacements for it. If your doctor recommends medication, an app won’t substitute for that. They work best together.

Why do I keep downloading ADHD apps and then never using them?

Because novelty-seeking is literally an ADHD trait. The dopamine hit of finding a new app is real, and it wears off fast. My advice: pick one or two apps from this list, commit to using them for 30 days, and ignore every “best apps” article (including this one) until those 30 days are up.

Do these apps work for people without ADHD?

Most of them, yes. But features like visual timelines, body doubling, and automatic prioritization are solving specifically ADHD problems. If you don’t have those problems, a simpler app might serve you better.

What about apps not on this list?

I intentionally kept this to 12 because decision fatigue is real and giving you 47 options would be cruel. I’ve tried many others. These are the ones worth your time in 2026.

Keep reading:

• Best Planners for ADHD in 2026
• Body Doubling Apps for ADHD: How Working With Strangers Saved My Productivity