Brick vs Foqos

Both lock your apps behind an NFC tap. Brick sells you the puck for $59; Foqos is free and open source, and works with any cheap tag you already have.

By Ruslan Shchuchkin, who built PhoneStop · Last checked September 2026 · Read this page as Markdown

The short version

Choose Foqos if you are on iPhone and want this for nothing. It is free, open source, and does the same job as Brick using a cheap NFC tag or even a printed QR code. There is no account and nothing leaves your phone.

Choose Brick if you want a finished object and cross-platform support. It is a designed puck, it works on iPhone and Android, and for some people paying $59 for a single tidy device beats sourcing tags and setting up open-source software.

If you are on iPhone and comfortable with a little setup, Foqos gives you Brick's mechanism for free.

How each one stops you

Both flip a block that lives in the operating system. Foqos uses Apple's Screen Time API and lets any NFC tag, or a QR code, act as the physical switch, so the hardware cost is a few cents. Brick pairs its own puck with the same kind of OS-level blocking, and sells the puck as a single polished product on both platforms.

The enforcement is the same idea; the difference is whether you buy a finished device or assemble the free version yourself.

Where Brick wins

• A designed, single object rather than a loose tag.
• iPhone and Android, where Foqos is iPhone-only.
• Nothing to set up beyond the app and the puck.
• Support and a warranty behind a physical product.

Where Foqos wins

• Free and open source, against Brick's $59.
• Any cheap NFC tag or a printed QR code works.
• No account, nothing leaves the phone.
• Auditable code, for people who want to see what it does.

The cheapest version is still an iPhone-only toggle

Foqos proves the mechanism costs almost nothing, which is worth knowing. But it is iPhone-only, and both it and Brick are still a switch you flip for a set of apps you chose, leaving the rest of the phone open and keeping no count of your day. If you are on Android, Foqos is not even on the table.

PhoneStop is the Android answer, and it works differently on purpose: one daily budget for the whole phone, drained by every app, with a warning before it runs out and a stop when it is gone. It is free, needs no tag, and an iPhone version is coming. The saving with Foqos is real; it just does not change what is being measured.

Disclosure: we make PhoneStop, so treat our own entry with the scepticism it deserves. Everything else here is written from public information and hands-on use; prices and platforms were checked in September 2026 and change often, so check the vendor before you pay.