# Freedom alternatives for Mac, without the subscription

Freedom is the right answer when the phone is the problem, but if what breaks your day is one Mac tab opening itself, you are paying a subscription for cross-device sync you never use.

- URL: https://swiftfox.studio/blog/freedom-alternatives-for-mac
- Covers: https://swiftfox.studio/apps/nomore, https://swiftfox.studio/apps/pawodoro, https://swiftfox.studio/apps/tally
- Published: 2026-08-19
- Updated: 2026-08-27
- Publisher: Swiftfox Studio (https://swiftfox.studio)

## In short

- Freedom costs $8.99 a month, $3.33 a month billed annually, or $99.50 once, and what that buys is the one thing free Mac blockers cannot do: blocking the iPhone in the same session.
- SelfControl is free, open source and unbreakable until its timer runs out, and Cold Turkey's free tier already blocks websites on a timer, so try both before paying anyone.
- Screen Time is free and built in, but its website limits only work properly in Safari and Apple exposes no API, so no third-party app can read or extend what it collects.
- A hard block turns a decision into a countdown that the reflex simply waits out. Friction at the moment you open something is a different mechanism, and for a single Mac it is usually the one that sticks.

## What Freedom is actually good at

Freedom blocks apps and websites on a schedule, everywhere you are signed in at
once. Start a session on the Mac and the phone goes quiet too, which is the one
thing almost nothing else on this page does. It runs on macOS, Windows, iOS,
Android and ChromeOS, has no device limit, ships blocklists you can edit, and
adds focus sounds if you want them.

Pricing is a free tier, $8.99 a month, $3.33 a month billed annually, or $99.50
once for lifetime access, which was $199 before the current discount.

If the hole in your day is the phone rather than the Mac, buy Freedom and stop
reading. iOS blocking is genuinely hard to build and Freedom is the mature
answer to it. What follows is for people whose problem is one machine.

## Why people go looking anyway

**The subscription outlives the problem.** Blockers are bought during a bad
month. Nine good months later the charge is still there, and $8.99 a month is
more than most of the software on the same Mac cost once.

**It needs an account and a session.** A blocked list only applies inside a
session you started, on a device that has synced. That is the price of working
across five platforms, and it is overhead if you only ever wanted one Mac to
behave.

**The wall is the wrong shape.** A hard block for two hours turns a decision into
a countdown, and the reflex just waits it out. Plenty of people discover they
did not want to be locked out, they wanted to be asked.

## Start with the free ones

**Screen Time** is already on your Mac. App Limits and Downtime cover the blunt
version of this for free, and if that turns out to be enough you have saved
yourself an app. Two limits are worth knowing before you rely on it: website
limits only apply properly in Safari, and Apple exposes no Screen Time API, so no
third-party app can read or extend it.

**SelfControl** is free and open source, Mac only, and famously unforgiving. You
set a blocklist and a timer, and until the timer ends nothing undoes it - not
quitting, not deleting the app, not restarting. When you genuinely need a wall
rather than a nudge, it is still the best free answer.

**Cold Turkey Blocker** has a free tier that blocks websites, keeps exceptions,
runs timed blocks and shows statistics. Pro is a one-time purchase of around $40
and adds app blocking, scheduled blocks, locking modes and Frozen Turkey, which
locks the whole computer. It is the strictest thing on this page and the usual
recommendation for people who have already beaten every softer blocker.

Between those three, most of the "block a site for two hours" job is covered
without a subscription.

## Friction instead of a wall

![The NoMore menu bar popover listing three streaks - Instagram at 12 days on Firm, Reddit at 8 days on Firm, YouTube Shorts at 26 days on Gentle - above a New streak button](https://swiftfox.studio/nomore/listing/shot-1.jpg "Each entry is a named streak with its own sites, apps and strictness, not a line in one big list.")

**[NoMore](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/nomore)** takes the opposite view: nothing is on a timer and
there is no session to start. An entry is blocked while it is on the list, and
each one is a named streak with a day count, its own sites and apps, and a
strictness of Gentle, Firm or Brutal. A streak can be held to a window of the day
- active hours, off by default - but that is one From and one To, not a
timetable.

When you open something on the list, it puts a screen in front of it. Not an
error page: your streak, and a lopsided choice.

![The NoMore friction screen reading 8 days without Reddit, with Step back as the large primary button and Open anyway as a small link beneath it](https://swiftfox.studio/nomore/listing/shot-2.jpg "The day count first, then a large Step back and a small link that spells out what opening costs.")

The small link works. NoMore is friction, not a lock, and it says so: anyone
determined to get past it will, in about four seconds. What it changes is the
reflex - the tab you open without deciding to - by making the cost visible at
the moment of the decision rather than in a weekly report.

Mechanically it watches the frontmost application and asks the browser for the
current tab, then compares both against a list held on your Mac. There is no DNS
filter, no VPN profile and no proxy, so no URL you visit ever leaves the machine.
It reads a tab's address and an app's name, and forgets both.

![The NoMore statistics view with total clean days, the longest streak, active streaks and a chart of the hours triggers cluster in](https://swiftfox.studio/nomore/listing/shot-3.jpg "Clean days, the longest streak, and the hour of the day the urge actually lands - computed locally, uploaded nowhere.")

Two honest costs. It is one Mac: no iPhone app, no sync, and nothing stops you on
another device. And a video already playing in a background window keeps playing,
because the block acts when you open something, not on the network.

It is $8.99 one-time with a 30-day trial that needs no card and no email, and it
is covered feature by feature in
[how to block websites on a Mac](https://swiftfox.studio/handbook/how-to-block-websites-on-mac).

## Where the alternatives win

**Freedom** wins on the phone, and that is not a small win. It also wins on
scheduling: recurring sessions that start themselves at 9am are its native shape.
NoMore's active hours only narrow a block to the same window every day - they
never start a session for you.

**Cold Turkey Pro** wins on strictness. Blocks survive restarts, reinstalls and a
determined user, and Frozen Turkey can take the whole machine away from you.
NoMore will never do that, because it is built on the assumption that you can
always get through and should have to look at the number first.

**SelfControl** wins on price and honesty about scope: free, open source, one
job, no account.

**Screen Time** wins on being already installed, and on covering an iPhone that a
Mac app cannot see.

None of them, including NoMore, fixes the underlying question of where the hours
actually go. That is measurement rather than blocking, and it is
[Tally](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/tally)'s job.

## Side by side

| Tool | Shape | Devices | Account | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Freedom | Scheduled sessions | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, ChromeOS | Required | $8.99/mo, $3.33/mo yearly, $99.50 once |
| Cold Turkey Pro | Hard blocks, locking | Mac, Windows | No | Around $40 once |
| SelfControl | Timer you cannot undo | Mac | No | Free |
| Screen Time | Limits and Downtime | Apple devices | Apple ID | Free |
| NoMore | Friction at the moment you open it | One Mac | No | $8.99 once |

Pick by what actually fails. If you lose the evening to the phone, it is
Freedom. If you have already talked your way past three blockers, it is Cold
Turkey. If a Mac tab opens itself while you are working, a wall is more than you
need and a number in front of it is usually enough.

If starting is the problem rather than stopping, a timer is the better tool:
[Pawodoro](https://swiftfox.studio/apps/pawodoro) and the rest are cut by which moment they act on in
[the best focus apps for Mac](https://swiftfox.studio/blog/best-focus-apps-for-mac).

_Prices and features checked on 27 August 2026._

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a free website blocker for Mac?

Two good ones. SelfControl is free and open source: you set a blocklist and a timer, and nothing undoes it until the timer ends, including deleting the app. Cold Turkey's free tier blocks websites with exceptions, timed blocks and statistics. Screen Time is also already installed, though its website limits only apply properly in Safari.

### Can a Mac app block my iPhone too?

No. A macOS app has no reach onto iOS, so anything claiming to block both is syncing a session through an account, which is exactly what Freedom sells and does well. On the phone itself the free option is Screen Time's App Limits. If your evenings go to the phone rather than the Mac, that is the problem to solve first.

### Do these blockers route my traffic somewhere?

Some do. A blocker built on a DNS filter, a VPN profile or a local proxy sees every address you request, which is a real privacy trade for a focus tool. NoMore uses none of the three: it reads the frontmost app's name and the current tab's address on your own Mac, compares them to a local list and forgets both, so nothing about your browsing leaves the machine.

### Should a blocker be impossible to bypass?

It depends what is failing. If you have already talked your way past three blockers, you want Cold Turkey Pro or SelfControl, where the block outlives your intentions. If the problem is the tab you open without deciding to, an unbypassable wall is more than you need, and a visible cost at the moment of the decision does the work instead.

### Does a blocker stop something that is already playing?

Not usually, and it is worth knowing before you install anything. A blocker that acts when you open an app or a tab has nothing to act on for a video that started ten minutes ago in a window behind your editor. A network-level blocker can cut that off, at the cost of routing your traffic through something.

### What do these cost?

SelfControl and Screen Time are free. Cold Turkey's free tier blocks websites, and Pro is around $40 one-time. Freedom is $8.99 a month, $3.33 a month billed annually, or $99.50 once for lifetime access. NoMore is $8.99 one-time with a 30-day trial that needs no card and no email, and the license covers up to 3 Macs.