Opal alternatives: free, stricter and softer

Quiet Wall · 5 November 2026

What Opal does, and the alternatives people move to: free ones, stricter blockers, gentler pause apps and one that is none of these. App Store prices.

One of the apps below is ours, and it is marked. Every price and platform comes from the app's own App Store page, with the date it was checked.

What Opal does

Opal · iPhone, Mac, Android · Free; subscriptions from $4.99 a week to $99.99 a year

Blocks chosen apps and websites on a schedule, in timed sessions or after daily limits, using Apple's Screen Time API. Shows usage stats, a score and a leaderboard with friends.

Opal is a blocker built around sessions, schedules and daily limits, with a picture of where the time went and friends to keep each other honest. People look for an alternative for different reasons: the price of the subscription, wanting something stricter or softer, or wanting something without a score and a leaderboard.

opalapp.com · details as of 22 October 2026

Free alternatives

Screen Time · iPhone, iPad, Mac · Free; built into iOS, iPadOS and macOS

Apple's own, in Settings. Reports time spent in apps and websites, pickups and notifications; gives app categories a daily time allowance and sets schedules for when apps are available.

Most of what a blocker does, without a download: time allowances, schedules and a weekly report. The difference is that it is easy to tap past.

support.apple.com · details as of 22 October 2026

ScreenZen · iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows · Free; optional tips from $5 to $40

Adds a wait before a chosen app opens, which can grow with each open. Sets daily goals per app, and can block apps for set times, after a number of opens or past a Screen Time limit.

A wait before an app opens, growing each time, with strict blocking when needed. Free, apart from optional tips.

screenzen.co · details as of 22 October 2026

Alternatives that block

Freedom · iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, Android, Chrome · Free; Premium from $8.99 a month or $39.99 a year; $199 once

Blocks chosen apps and websites, or the whole internet, during sessions started by hand or on a schedule and synced across devices. Locked Mode stops a running session from being quit.

Covers the laptop as well as the phone, and Locked Mode makes a session impossible to end early.

freedom.to · details as of 22 October 2026

Jomo · iPhone, Mac · Free; Jomo Plus $5.99 a month, $29.99 a year or $99.99 once

Blocks chosen apps, app categories and websites during focus times you schedule, with optional breaks, and shows screen-time statistics. Uses Apple's Screen Time API.

Scheduled blocking for iPhone and Mac with breaks built in, and a lower price than Opal's yearly plan.

jomo.so · details as of 22 October 2026

Brick · iPhone, Android · App free; the Brick device costs $59

A free app and a small device sold separately. Tapping the phone on the device blocks chosen apps, and only tapping it again unblocks them. Has schedules and a few emergency unblocks.

The block lives in a device you tap the phone on, and only that device can end it.

getbrick.com · details as of 22 October 2026

Alternatives that do something else

one sec · iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Chrome · Free; one sec pro $6.99 a month, $19.99 a year or $99.99 once

Shows a short pause, such as a breathing animation, before a chosen app or website opens, then lets you decide whether to go on. Can end an app session after a set time.

A pause before an app opens, and a question. For people who want to keep their apps but stop opening them on reflex.

one-sec.app · details as of 22 October 2026

BePresent · iPhone, Android · Free; subscriptions from $3.99 a month

Blocks apps during solo or group sessions, sets daily screen-time limits with an optional money stake, ranks users on weekly leaderboards and gives points for partner rewards.

The social side of Opal taken further: group sessions, leaderboards and an optional money stake.

bepresentapp.com · details as of 22 October 2026

Quiet Wall · iPhone · Free; Extras $4 a month, $25 a year or $50 once

A timer for doing nothing: a reminder arrives, the phone goes across the room, and a sound ends the session. Each session is logged as a brick on a wall. Extras can block other apps during a session.

Ours. Not a blocker for the whole day: ten minutes at a time with the phone across the room and a blank wall to look at, until a sound brings you back. With Extras, the rest of the phone stays shut for the length of it.

apps.apple.com · details as of 22 October 2026

Choosing between them

if Opal's price is the problem: ScreenZen, or Screen Time's schedules
if you want a block that cannot be ended early: Freedom's Locked Mode, or Brick
if the score and leaderboard are the problem: an app built around something else, like Jomo's schedules or one sec's pause
if you want the time back rather than managed: Quiet Wall

Read on

The best screen time apps for iPhone — Screen time apps do different things: block, pause, compete or empty the room. Eight of them grouped by what they do, with prices from the App Store.
Brick alternatives, with and without a device — Brick puts the lock in a device you tap. The alternatives do it in software, add a pause instead, or cost nothing. What each does, with App Store prices.