Quick answer
Yes — Deepdesk is a one-time-purchase alternative to Centered. It costs $15 once, while Centered runs ~$10/mo — about $120 per year, every year. Pomodoro engine, session intents, floating mini timer, generated ambient noise & focus stats. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Centered's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Deepdesk if you are an individual or small team paying Centered ~$10/mo for work your own machine can do. Deepdesk costs six weeks of Centered — and it keeps working after every focus startup pivots or shuts down.
Stay with Centered if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Deepdesk does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Deepdesk | Centered | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $15 once | ~$10/month |
| Cost over 2 years | $15 | ~$240 |
| Account required | Never | Yes |
| Works offline | Always | Partly |
| Pomodoro + intents + tasks | Yes | Yes |
| Floating mini timer | Yes | Yes |
| Ambient noise | Generated locally | Streamed |
| Source code | MIT, yours | Closed |
| 5-year cost | $15 | $600 |
Where Centered still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Centered's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Centered is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Deepdesk wins
- Price, permanently. $15 once versus $120/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- Pomodoro engine. Configurable focus / short break / long break lengths, auto-cycling, long break after every N sessions, pause and skip.
- Session intents. Answer "what are you working on?" before each session — every intent lands in your session log.
- Tasks with pomodoro tallies. Add tasks, pick the active one, and watch its 🍅 count grow as you complete sessions.
The math
Deepdesk costs six weeks of Centered — and it keeps working after every focus startup pivots or shuts down.
- After 1 year: Deepdesk has cost you $15 total — Centered has cost $120.
- After 3 years: Deepdesk is still $15 — the subscription is at $360.
- After 5 years: Deepdesk is still $15 — the subscription is at $600.
Common questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/focus-dashboard-mvp. $15 buys the signed installer, auto-shortcuts and zero setup.
How is the ambient noise generated?
Mathematically, in real time — white/pink/brown noise and droplet-synthesized rain as pure sample-buffer math through WebAudio. No audio files are shipped and nothing streams, which is why it works offline forever.
Does it block distracting websites or apps?
No — Deepdesk is a timer, intent and stats tool, not a blocker. Pair it with a hosts-file blocker if you need hard enforcement. Centered's coaching nudges and Flow music are also things Deepdesk deliberately doesn't do.
Can paused time leak into a session?
No — the Pomodoro brain is a pure tick-driven state machine fed wall-clock deltas. Pausing simply stops feeding ticks, so paused minutes can't count. The engine has its own test suite.
Try Deepdesk — $15, one time
Or get Deepdesk plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.