Every feature, how the competitors do it, and the GG version

Setup means hand-building a personal iOS Shortcut for each app you want to slow down, the most technical first-run flow in the category, then a rotating reason-chip screen asking why you are opening the app.

Shows a projected time saved the moment setup data is entered, then staggers the rest over a 30-day program, basic sessions first, community and leaderboard withheld until day 14 so social comparison does not scare off a new user.

Over 20 ready-to-use blocking rule presets let a new user pick a rule instead of building a schedule from nothing, the strongest first-session-to-value bridge found across the whole category.

Sets up a per-app pause and a self-written reflection line during onboarding, free and donation-supported with no paywall in the way, a choice reviewers repeatedly call out against subscription-heavy competitors.

Setup is a single recurring session, for example every weekday 9 to 1, synced automatically across every device the moment it is created, so the decision only gets made once.

Closest to the right idea. A screen asks "why do you want to open Instagram" with tappable chips: Search for Info, Distraction, Can't sleep, Stalk crush. But setup runs through Apple Shortcuts (the most technical first-run in the category), and the survey recurs at every unlock.

Per unlock, a free-text field asks "what is your intention this time", the only competitor that captures a reason in the user's own words rather than a fixed menu. Picked apps also feed 20-plus ready-made blocking rules, so setup skips decision paralysis.

Apps or categories get picked into a focus session, then Opal auto-surfaces the top "Culprits" per app with a week-over-week change. Strong on the numbers, but it never asks why you use them, so the whole thing stays about minutes, not motives.

Rules can target one feature inside an app (block Reels, leave messaging), and the friction prompt can be a personal message you write for yourself, on top of a plain "is this important?" default. A message, but not a set of reasons that adapt to the moment.

Forces a deep breath and a short wait before the chosen app opens. Calm, simple, effective at breaking the autopilot reach.

A breathing delay plus a prompt to state why you are opening the app, then a choice to continue or close.

Blocks at set times, after limits, or until an action is taken. Firmer than a pause, configurable.

Focus sessions with a stricter lock and a Focus Score. Strong for people who want a commitment device.

Ranges from playful camera actions to a strict Monk Mode you cannot turn off until the next day.

Recurring blocking rules by day and time (a "Work Time" schedule, 9 to 5), plus a friction menu set per app: write a reason, wait a delay, enter a self-set code, or none at all. Limits count opens as well as minutes, reframed as "5 Dopamine Hits" rather than a bare number.

Three-tier session strictness: Normal, Timeout with an escalating delay between breaks, and Deep Focus, which literally cannot be ended early. A Focus Score, gems, and cosmetic "block style" unlocks sit on top of the session itself.

Named recurring sessions ("Deep Work Mornings," 06:00 to 10:00, Monday to Friday) sync live across phone, laptop, and browser. Locked Mode disables logout entirely and allows only one emergency end per week.

A fully automatic 0 to 100 Productivity Pulse, time-weighted across five categories from Focus Work to Distracting, no manual tagging. Plus standing Goals with alerts and a scheduled Monday weekly digest email.

Goes one level deeper than a daily total: every auto-detected work session gets its own quality score out of 100, built from 20+ behavioral attributes, entirely in the background, no timer to start.

A straightforward pickups-and-time-per-app counter, sitting in the same free-baseline tier as Apple Screen Time and Android Digital Wellbeing.

Home screen shows Focus %, total screen time, top "Culprits," a "For You" tip, and an explicit week-over-week percent change ("down 27% since you installed Opal"). The Focus Score doubles as a currency: gems and cosmetic block-style unlocks sit on top of it.

A tree grows while you focus and withers the moment you leave the app or open a blocked one, with a whole forest of past sessions to look back on and a group mode where everyone's tree dies if one person breaks focus.

A gem currency, a Focus Score, cosmetic block-screen skins, and a public leaderboard against friends and strangers. The heaviest points economy found anywhere in this research.

Ranges from playful, game-like unlock actions to a strict Monk Mode that will not turn off until the next day, its version of a motivation floor.

Puts a "Day Streak!" counter directly on the unlock screen, next to Unlock (5s) and Don't unlock, so the number sits at the exact moment of temptation instead of a stats tab no one opens.

Squads let you share your screen time with family, friends, coworkers, or a community and challenge yourselves to reduce it together, plus a Focus Club trend view. Jomo's own help center calls it "a non-invasive approach, focusing on shared time rather than monitoring specific apps," the softest version of a leaderboard found in this research.

A friends leaderboard ranked by screen time, streak, and focus hours, deliberately withheld until day 14 of Opal's 30-day onboarding program so habits form before social comparison enters the picture.

Freedom's signature move is a named, recurring session (Deep Work Mornings, 6am to 10am, Monday to Friday) synced across every device you own. Strong as a solo commitment device, but this research pass found no group or partner-visibility layer attached to it at all.

Book a slot, get matched with a stranger over video, say your task goal out loud, work independently on camera for 25 to 75 minutes, then check in together at the end. Presence as accountability, a genuinely different lever than blocking or scoring. Free for 3 sessions a week.

ScreenZen's core mechanic is an escalating pause before a chosen app opens, climbing from about 5 seconds toward 60 by the tenth daily attempt, with a streak counter shown right on the unlock-decision screen. Its own privacy page mentions optional social accountability data, though the partner mechanic itself is not detailed anywhere in this research.

Focus Score, day streaks, and lifetime focus hours, reported cleanly and updated constantly. It is genuinely good at making progress visible.

A miss commonly resets a streak or a tree. The mechanic rewards not breaking a chain, not understanding why the chain broke.

Granular time-tracking, categorized by app and hour. Built for people who already know what they want to change and just need the data.

The rotating breathing pause and reason chips are real friction in the moment, but the actual override sits one layer down: turn off the Screen Time permission in iOS Settings and the whole system disappears with it. Nothing gets logged, nothing gets talked through, the slip just evaporates.

A streak counter sits right on the unlock-decision screen next to Unlock and Don't unlock, which one reviewer said was exactly what stopped them from "just unlocking" and "breaking my streak." The same reviewer turned frustrated when bugs made the lockout duration wrong, so a technical glitch read as a personal failure.

Deep Focus mode has no early exit, and deleting the app does not lift the block either. That is exactly what people who wanted a real commitment device praise, but a separate reviewer reports the app still blocked after deletion by mistake, which turns one accidental setup choice into a lockout with no visible way back.

Strict Mode is the most hardened lock in the category studied, once active it can block uninstalling the app itself and even lock device settings entirely on Android. It is popular with people who want the decision taken out of their hands, but the research is blunt that a lock this total turns the app into an adversary the moment someone actually needs out.

Monk Mode is a literal hard lock that cannot be turned off until the next day, a valid choice for someone who wants a true commitment device. But a fixed timer has no room for the ordinary reasons life actually interrupts a plan, an emergency, a missed alarm, a genuine need, so the only response to any of them is the same wall.

Opal says it can display information about a used app on your own screen without storing it, and that detailed Android usage stays on-device. The promise lives in a help article, not on a screen you'd actually see day to day. source

one sec hides the identity of the app you picked behind a cryptographic token, so the app itself never has to know which app it is pausing. A genuinely private piece of engineering, buried in a technical write-up. source

Jomo states plainly that it has no access to a user's app and content data, the same category-standard line every serious blocker uses at signup. source

The breathing pause is free, but personalization like Journaling, Ask for Intention, and custom intervention duration sit behind a subscription. A one-time lifetime license (around $40) is floated in user discussion as the honest alternative to recurring fees.

Free forever tier gives basic blocking and a same-day Focus Score. Deep Focus and Hard Locks, the exact mechanic users describe crying with relief over, sit behind Pro at $8.29/month ($99.99 billed annually). A Teams tier hides its real price behind "Contact for pricing."

Free plan already includes Squads and Reports. Annual is $29.99 for Strict Mode and up to 10 sessions. Single Purchase is $99.99 once, forever, shared with 5 family members, plus a $14.99/year student tier, a rare, real escape from subscriptions in this category.

Free already blocks apps, websites, or the entire internet, synced across unlimited devices, with custom blocklists. Premium ($3.33/month, billed yearly, 7-day free trial) adds scheduling and Locked Mode. Forever ($199) removes the subscription outright.

The core app itself is free and donation-supported, no subscription at all, a real rarity in this category. The only paid product is Halo, a $49 one-time physical geofencing puck that blocks apps only near a set radius, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

App Store lists it "Free, In-App Purchases," but the actual price is reported three different ways across sources: $7/month, $50/year, and a $9.99/week trial. On its own Launch HN thread, an early user called the subscription "egregious" next to One Sec's $40 lifetime license.