# PhoneStop vs Cold Turkey Blocker

The strictest blocker ever made, for desktops. It cannot touch your phone.

*Source: https://phonestop.app/vs/cold-turkey · Last checked August 2026 · PhoneStop — A daily screen time budget that stops you. A free Android app, on Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.phonestop.*

## The short version

These two barely compete, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Cold Turkey
owns the desk; PhoneStop owns the phone. If you came here looking for a Cold Turkey alternative because you
wanted it on your phone, that is the entire answer — there is no phone Cold Turkey, because no mobile operating
system will let an app lock you out that hard. Buy Cold Turkey for the laptop, run a budget on the phone, and
stop looking for one tool to do both.

| | PhoneStop | Cold Turkey Blocker |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Platforms | Android | Windows and Mac. There is no phone version |
| Price | Free | Free tier for websites; one-time purchase for Pro (around $39) |
| At the limit | Full-screen stop, then a reset and a one-tap lock | Blocks, and Frozen Turkey locks you out of the whole computer |
| Warns before the limit | Yes — 60, 30 and 10 minutes left | No |
| Enforcement | Foreground service + display-over-apps overlay | Desktop software with a lock that survives a restart |
| Blocks individual apps | No — whole-phone budget | Yes — sites, applications and the entire machine |
| Account needed | No | No |
| Data leaves the phone | No | No |

## How each app stops you

Cold Turkey is built on one principle carried further than anyone else has
carried it: **the undo must be impossible.** No password, no safe word, no uninstall — you set a timer and you
live with it. For a deadline on a laptop, nothing else comes close.

PhoneStop is built on the opposite principle: **the undo must be honest.** A phone is not a laptop. You may
genuinely need it while you are driving, at work, or in an emergency, and an intervention that cannot be escaped
is one you eventually uninstall on a bad evening — taking the good evenings with it. So PhoneStop always leaves
a door: one tap extends the window, the app says plainly that you took the extension, and the budget carries on.
The stop is a full screen you have to deal with, not a wall you cannot pass.

![A PhoneStop budget warning arriving on top of another app.](https://phonestop.app/assets/warning-dark-640.e3c6fb7e.webp)

*A warning notification at 30 minutes left*

![The PhoneStop over-limit takeover screen.](https://phonestop.app/assets/takeover-dark-640.c0f44075.webp)

*The full-screen stop, 57 minutes over budget*

## Where Cold Turkey Blocker is the better choice

- **The hardest lock in the category.** Frozen Turkey has no real competitor on any platform.
- **One-time purchase.** No subscription, at a price most phone apps charge every year.
- **No account and no telemetry.** It is desktop software in the old sense: it runs on your machine and talks to
  nobody.
- **It blocks by site, by application, by schedule, and by whole machine** — the range is enormous.
- **It works offline**, which matters for a tool whose job is to survive your attempts to defeat it.

## Where PhoneStop is the better choice

- **It runs on the device the time actually goes into.** This is the whole comparison.
- **Free.**
- **It measures.** PhoneStop's entire model is a daily total; Cold Turkey has no opinion about your numbers.
- **Warnings before the wall**, at roughly 60, 30 and 10 minutes left, inside whatever app you are using.
- **An escape you do not have to lie to yourself to take.**

## What PhoneStop does at the limit

The whole product is three moments. Warnings arrive as the budget empties, inside whatever app you are in:

> **PhoneStop — 30 minutes left**
> Half an hour of budget to go. A good moment to pick where it goes. [PAUSE]
>
> **PhoneStop — Time's up**
> You are out of budget for today. Take a minute, then lock the phone. [PAUSE]

Then, at zero, the screen is taken over: a fifteen-second breath or twenty squats, and a button that locks the
phone. If you genuinely need it, one tap extends the window and says so honestly, because an intervention you
cannot escape is one you uninstall.

*Disclosure: we make PhoneStop. Prices and platforms were checked in August 2026 and change often — check the vendor before you pay.*

**PhoneStop** is a free Android app: set a daily screen time budget, get warned before it runs out, get stopped when it does. An iPhone version is coming soon. Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.phonestop · https://phonestop.app/

## Questions people ask

### Does Cold Turkey work on Android or iPhone?

No. Cold Turkey is Windows and Mac only, and there is no mobile version planned. Its lock depends on privileges that neither Android nor iOS grants to an app.

### What is the phone equivalent of Cold Turkey?

Nothing matches it, because no phone OS permits a block that cannot be undone. The nearest in spirit is hardware — [Brick](https://phonestop.app/vs/brick) or Unpluq — where the undo is a physical object in another room.

### Can I use Cold Turkey and PhoneStop at the same time?

Yes, and it is the pairing we would actually recommend. Cold Turkey handles the laptop during work hours, PhoneStop handles the phone all day. Neither knows about the other and neither needs to.

## Keep reading

- [Cold Turkey Blocker alternatives](https://phonestop.app/alternatives/cold-turkey)
- [Why blocking one app does not lower your screen time](https://phonestop.app/why-blocking-apps-does-not-work)
- [Every PhoneStop comparison](https://phonestop.app/compare)