Comparison

Opal vs Freedom.

Both want to keep you off the apps and sites that eat your day, but they go after the problem from different angles. Opal is an iPhone screen-time app. Freedom blocks across all your devices. And there is a free third option worth knowing about before you pay for either.

Prices and features change. Confirm current details on each app's site.

What is the short answer?

Opal is for people who live on their iPhone and want softer, screen-time style limits. Freedom is for people who want firm blocking everywhere they work. GoFlow is for people who want their blocking tied to a focus timer and would rather not pay a subscription. You can be honest about which one you are.

How does Opal work?

Opal sits on top of Apple Screen Time on iPhone and iPad. You set sessions or schedules, group the apps you want to limit, and Opal puts a gate in front of them. It shows you charts of your screen time so you can watch the trend. The experience is polished and the nudges are gentle, which suits people who want to cut back without going cold turkey. The trade-off is that it leans Apple-only and the full feature set sits behind a yearly plan that has run near 99 dollars a year.

How does Freedom work?

Freedom is a cross-device blocker. You build blocklists, set sessions or schedules, and it can lock sites and apps on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows at the same time. A "locked mode" makes it harder to quit mid-session. That reach is the main reason people pick it: one block covers every screen you own. The trade-off is that it is a subscription, and it is a blocker rather than a focus timer. It keeps you out of the bad stuff but does not time your work or track what you got done.

Where does GoFlow fit?

GoFlow takes a different bet. It starts with the work block itself. You set a timer, Pomodoro, fixed, or open, and the free Focus Guard extension blocks the sites you chose the moment a round starts, then unblocks them when it ends. So you are not blocking all day or remembering to flip a switch. The block lives and dies with your focus session. It is free, runs in the browser, keeps your data on your device, and needs no account. See how the blocker works.

The honest limits: GoFlow does not sync across devices, and its blocking is a desktop browser extension, so it stops distracting websites on your computer, not apps on your phone or other macOS programs.

Side by side

This is a snapshot. Features and prices move, so confirm details on each app's own site.

Where Opal wins

Opal is the better pick if your problem is your iPhone. It plugs straight into Screen Time, the limits feel gentle instead of harsh, and the reports help you see the habit clearly. If you want to cut phone time without a hard wall, Opal does that well.

Where Freedom wins

Freedom wins when you need real blocking on more than one device. If you bounce between a laptop and a phone all day and want a single block to cover both, plus a locked mode that is hard to escape, Freedom is built for exactly that. It is the strongest of the three at wide, firm blocking.

Where GoFlow wins

GoFlow wins when you want a timer and a blocker in one free tool, with nothing to sign up for. If most of your real work happens on a computer and you want blocking that turns on and off with your focus sessions, it gives you that without a subscription and without sending your data anywhere.

Common questions

---

Keep reading