PhoneStop vs Freedom
The cross-device blocker. One session locks your laptop and your phone at the same time.
The short version
Pick Freedom if your distraction is spread across a laptop and a phone and it happens during work you can schedule around. Pick PhoneStop if the problem is your Android phone, in the evening, at a time nobody schedules.
| PhoneStop | Freedom | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Android | iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome |
| Price | Free | Subscription, with a lifetime option (around $100) |
| What it does when you hit the limit | Full-screen stop, then a reset and a one-tap lock | Blocks the sites and apps on your list for the scheduled session |
| Warns you before the limit | Yes — at roughly 60, 30 and 10 minutes left | Session start and end notices |
| How it enforces | Foreground service and a display-over-apps overlay | A local VPN profile to filter traffic, plus app blocking |
| Blocks individual apps | No — it budgets your whole screen time | Yes — apps and websites, across your devices at once |
| Account needed | No | Yes |
| Data leaves the phone | No — the app holds no internet permission | Yes — account and cross-device sync |
How each app stops you
Freedom's advantage is reach: one session covers the laptop, the tablet and the phone, so you cannot simply move the habit to another screen. Locked Mode stops you cancelling it.
PhoneStop covers one device and does not block anything on it. What it adds is the count — every minute of screen time spends from one daily budget — and a stop at the end that is impossible to miss and always escapable. Freedom is a fence around your working hours. PhoneStop is a meter on your whole day.
Where Freedom is the better choice
- Every device at once, which nothing else in this list does properly.
- Website blocking, which needs the VPN and which PhoneStop cannot do at all.
- Locked Mode, for people who will absolutely cancel their own session.
- Mature and stable after more than a decade.
Where PhoneStop is the better choice
- Free.
- No VPN profile and no account. PhoneStop cannot see your traffic because it never touches it.
- Unplanned time is covered by default — there is no session to remember to start.
- A stop you can pass through honestly. Freedom's answer to "I really need this now" is to break the session; PhoneStop's is a button that extends the window and admits it.
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, 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 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, and get stopped when it does.
Android. Coming to Google Play — no account, no ads, no data leaves your phone.
Questions people ask
Does Freedom need a VPN?
On mobile, Freedom installs a local VPN profile so it can filter website traffic. Nothing is routed to a remote server for the blocking itself, but it is still a VPN profile on your phone, and that is a real objection for some people.
Is there a free version of Freedom?
There is a trial with a limited number of sessions rather than a permanently free tier. For free options see Freedom alternatives.
Can Freedom limit total screen time?
Not as a daily budget. Freedom blocks a list for a session or a schedule; it does not count down the hours you have spent across the whole phone.