An app blocker without a subscription

Updated 2026-09-24

Search the App Store for an app blocker and you’ll find a lot of weekly plans. For a tool you might use every evening for years, a weekly charge adds up faster than it looks. This guide explains why blockers are priced this way, what Apple says must stay free, what’s reasonable to pay for, and why one purchase is enough.

Why so many blockers charge weekly

Weekly plans are common across the App Store because they convert well: the first price looks small. Many blockers also lock basic blocking behind the paywall, so you pay before you’ve seen whether the tool helps. Over a year, a small weekly price becomes one of the more expensive apps on your phone — for something that runs entirely on the phone itself.

What Apple says must stay free

App blockers on iPhone are built on Apple’s Screen Time technology. Apple’s App Review Guidelines (section 4.10, “Monetizing Built-In Capabilities”) say apps may not charge for built-in capabilities provided by the hardware or operating system, and name Screen Time APIs among them.

In practice, that means the blocking itself — the wall in front of the apps — belongs to Apple, not to the app. A fair blocker lets you block apps without paying.

What’s fair to pay for

What an app adds on top of Apple’s wall is its own work, and that’s where a price belongs:

• How locks start and end — timers, schedules, daily limits, physical keys.
• Strict modes that remove the quick exit.
• Several separate locks for different parts of your day.
• History and insight into how your locks went.

And one thing that should never be for sale: the way out. An emergency exit you have to pay for is pressure, not a feature.

Why once is enough

A subscription makes sense for a service that keeps working for you somewhere else — syncing, storing, computing in the cloud. A blocker like this runs on your iPhone. There’s no account, no server doing work for you each week. For a tool that lives on your phone, a one-time price is the honest one.

The arithmetic

A price per week is easy to underestimate. As an illustration, a plan at $4.99 a week comes to about $259 a year, and about $778 over three years. The same tool with a one-time price costs the same after three years as it did on day one. Whatever the exact numbers for the app you’re looking at, multiply by 52 before deciding.

What to expect on privacy

Because blockers use Apple’s Screen Time, iOS never gives them the names of the apps you block — only anonymous tokens. A blocker that runs on your phone doesn’t need your email, an account or your contacts. If one asks for them, ask why. Hasp has no account; it sends anonymous usage events that you can switch off in Settings, and the policy says exactly what they contain.

Free forever in Hasp

• Locking any number of apps, for any length from 15 minutes
• Timers, a daily limit and repeating schedules
• One lock with its own key — an NFC sticker, a card or a QR code
• The emergency exit, always, with a count of how often you used it
• One Commitment lock to try, up to 25 minutes

Hasp Lifetime, paid once

• Commitment Mode without limits — no quick End button, whenever you want it
• Several locks, each with its own key — work, evening, night
• Your full history, week by week

Nothing renews. There’s no account to create and nothing to cancel. The emergency exit stays free, always.

How to judge any blocker’s price

1. Can you block apps for free? If basic blocking is paid, the app is charging for Apple’s part.
2. Is the way out free? An exit you pay for is a warning sign.
3. What does a year cost? Multiply the weekly price by 52 before you decide.
4. Do you need an account? A blocker that runs on your phone doesn’t need one.