If you're reading this at 1am mid-doomscroll: welcome, you're the target audience. UK searches for app blockers are up 60% this year, and there are now half a dozen serious options. Here's how they actually differ — including where each one falls down, ours included.
| App | Price (UK) | Blocking strength | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opal | ~£75–100/yr | Strong (Deep Focus mode) | Priciest option; solo willpower model |
| Brick | ~£50 one-off device | Strongest (physical NFC unlock) | You can leave the brick at home; hardware faff |
| one sec | Free / ~£20/yr | Gentle (adds friction, not walls) | Friction fades; easy to skip past |
| AppBlock | Free / ~£25/yr | Good scheduling | Utility feel; nothing keeps you accountable |
| Forest | ~£4 one-off | Soft (gamified trees) | Charming, but a dead tree never texted you back |
| Pact (us) | Free / £24.99/yr | Strong + social enforcement | Needs 3+ mates — useless as a solo app (by design) |
Every blocker above — including the excellent ones — has the same failure mode: the app can't stop you from abandoning the app. Apple rightly won't let software imprison you, so every strict mode ends at a settings toggle. The stats are grim: most people delete their blocker within weeks, usually right after the first late-night override, because nothing happened when they did.
That's the gap Pact was built for. Same real blocking as the strict apps — but your squad sets the rules together, and switching the blocker off isn't private anymore. Your mates get the notification. The squad streak dies. You owe the coffees. Different physics.
Honest recommendations: deepest pockets and solo discipline → Opal. Want a physical ritual → Brick. Want gentle friction → one sec. Want your group chat as the enforcement mechanism → that's Pact, and it's free with your mates.