TollieOpal alternatives without a subscription
Opal is the best-known screen time app on iPhone, and $99.99 a year is a lot for a lock you can open with a button. Here is what the alternatives charge and which ones hold.
Why people leave Opal
Three reasons come up again and again in the reviews, and they are the three things to check in whatever you switch to.
- The price. $4.99 to $9.99 a week, $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and no way to buy it once.
- The lock is soft. Opal's "deep focus" is a software promise. The exit is a timer or a tap. Many people who leave say they got around it.
- The app keeps changing. Big redesigns moved features that paying users relied on. People who pay for a mechanic want it left alone.
Tollie closes the apps you pick. The key is a spot in your home.One booth free forever · No account · iPhone
Get TollieThe alternatives, compared
| App | How the lock works | Price | Pay once? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opal | Sessions and schedules; strict mode is a timer | $99.99 / year | No |
| ScreenZen | A waiting period and limited opens; gentle by design | Free, tips optional | Free |
| Freedom | Schedules, website blocking, desktop too | $39.99 to $59.99 / year or $199 once | Yes, $199 |
| one sec | A breathing pause before the app opens | One app free, about €15 / year | No |
| Brick | Tap a $59 NFC device to lock and unlock | $59 device, free app | Hardware |
| Tollie | Walk to a spot in your home and scan it, or walk real steps. No passcode. | Free for one booth, €59.99 once for all | Yes |
Pick by what failed you
If you want gentle and free: ScreenZen
ScreenZen does not really block. It makes you wait, then lets you in a limited number of times. People love it, and it is free. If your problem is the 2am scroll that a waiting period does not stop, it is not your app.
If you need the desktop too: Freedom
Freedom covers Mac, Windows and websites, and has a lifetime tier. Its iPhone blocking is the same kind of software lock as Opal's.
If you want a lock you can't tap open: Brick or Tollie
Both move the key off the phone. Brick's key is a device you buy. Tollie's key is a spot in your home that you scan, with a walk key for when you are out. Neither has a passcode, and neither has an "Ignore Limit" button.
What Tollie does differently
- The key isn't on your phone. You scan a corner of your kitchen or hallway once. To open a blocked app you walk there and scan it again. Away from home, you walk 100 to 2,000 real steps.
- Pay once. One booth, one key, Break Glass and every safety feature are free forever. Tollie Forever is one payment with no renewal, and shareable with your family.
- One job, no redesigns of the mechanic. No focus score, no soundscapes, no stats dashboard. A lifetime buyer is a promise that the lock stays the lock.
- An honest exit. Break Glass opens everything for 30 minutes, once a week, and tells your witness. "Too strict, locked out" is the other way blockers fail, and Tollie is built for the middle.
- Nothing leaves your phone. No account, no server, no analytics. The apps you block are never sent anywhere.
Moving from Opal takes four minutes. Pick the apps, set a bedtime or a daily budget, scan a spot in another room. The first block can run tonight, on the free tier.
Questions
Can I keep my Opal schedules?
Not as an import, but a schedule is three decisions: which apps, which hours, which days. Tollie's bedtime and workday presets cover the common ones in a tap.
Is Tollie stricter than Opal's deep focus?
Yes, in the way that matters: there is no timer or button that ends a block early. The only ways through are the toll, which means standing up, or Break Glass, which costs you your one weekly emergency and a note to your witness.
What if Tollie is too strict for me?
Start with the Easy level and one booth. Making anything easier waits 24 hours, so change it in the afternoon, not at night.
Opal, ScreenZen, Freedom, one sec and Brick are the names of other products, used here to describe them. Prices were read from the US App Store on 21 October 2026 and may have changed. The review themes come from reading the most recent public App Store reviews of each app.