The best app blockers for work, compared honestly

A hard lock or a gentle pause?

Blockers come in two strengths. A hard lock shuts the app or site until the timer ends, and you can't talk your way out. A gentle pause makes you wait a few seconds and asks if you're sure.

Both can work. A 2023 review of 13 apps built to cut phone use found results from weak to strong, with grayscale mode, app limits and a mix of tools doing best.

The gentle kind does better than you'd expect. In a study of one sec, the pause app, 280 people opened their chosen apps 57% less after six weeks. A follow-up experiment found the strongest part wasn't the wait. It was simply being offered the choice to stop.

So start with the softest tool that works for you. Go harder only for the sites that keep winning.

For your laptop

Freedom. Blocks apps, websites or the whole internet, and syncs across Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Chromebook. Locked Mode stops you ending a session early. Free to try for 7 days, then a monthly, yearly or one-off price. Best for: blocking on every device at once.

Cold Turkey Blocker. Windows and Mac. The free version blocks websites on a timer. Pro, a one-time payment, adds app blocking, schedules and locks that are very hard to undo. Best for: people who will try every trick to get around a block.

FocusMe. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone. Blocks apps and websites on schedules you set, and Enforced Mode makes a plan hard to switch off until it ends. 14-day free trial. Best for: a fixed weekly routine, like no news sites before noon.

For your phone

What you already have. On Android, Digital Wellbeing lets you set daily app timers and turn on Focus mode, which pauses chosen apps and their notifications. On iPhone, Screen Time lets you schedule downtime and set time allowances for apps. Free and already installed.

one sec. Adds a short pause before a chosen app or website opens, and asks if you still want to. iPhone, Android, and a browser extension for Windows, Mac and Linux. Best for: breaking the automatic reach without banning anything.

Opal. Focus rules that block apps on a schedule, a focus timer, and a Hard Mode you can't switch off mid-session. iPhone, Android and Mac. Best for: a firmer lock on your phone.

What no blocker can do

A blocker removes the exit. It doesn't remove the reason you wanted to leave.

When London School of Economics researchers filmed everyday phone use, 89% of pickups were started by the person, not the phone. Block one app and that urge goes looking for another: email, the news, a snack. At work you often can't block email or Slack at all, because you need them.

That's the half CatchScroll is built for. When the pull comes, you tap what you're feeling, like bored, anxious or stuck, and take a two-minute reset made for it. It works alongside any blocker here. The longer version is in do app blockers work?

Pick yours in five minutes

Write down the three apps or sites that cost you the most time last week. Your phone's screen time report will tell you.

If it's one or two sites on your laptop, start with Cold Turkey's free version. If it's spread across your laptop and phone, try Freedom. If it's your phone and you mostly open apps on autopilot, turn on one sec or your phone's own app timers.

Block only during your focus hours, not all day, so the block feels like help and not a punishment. After a week, check whether the urge moved somewhere else. If it did, the problem isn't the app.

More in how to reduce screen time and the best focus apps.

So, which door do you walk through most often?