Freedom alternative

Freedom is the blocker that follows you from one device to the next: start a session on your Mac and the same apps and sites go dark on your phone. If you’re looking for an alternative, it’s rarely because the sync fails — it’s because a session ends, and nothing was asked of you to end it. This page says what Freedom does well, where it stops, and what Tempo does differently, including the one thing it doesn’t do at all.

What Freedom does well

Freedom blocks by session. You build blocklists of apps and websites, or cut the entire Internet with one switch, then start a session now, schedule one for later, or set a recurring plan that comes back every week at the same hours. The block runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, Chromebook, iPhone, iPad, Android and Chrome, and it syncs: one session covers all your devices at once. Nobody else does that, and for someone who works on a computer it changes everything — the phone is only half the problem.

Locked Mode adds the wall. During a locked session you can’t quit the app or remove anything from the blocklist; the end button disappears after the first minute; support won’t end a session for you. What’s left is one emergency exit per week, which recharges seven days after use, and an optional five-minute break each day; since the latest versions, both can be switched off or removed for good across the whole account. Recurring sessions turn that into precommitment: you decide on Sunday what Tuesday morning looks like. Add Focus Sounds and human support, and you have a mature tool that has been at this longer than most.

Where Freedom stops

The limit is the shape of the thing. A session is a window: it protects the hours you booked, and outside them the apps are open. When the block lifts, it lifts because the clock ran out or because you used your weekly exit. Nothing is asked in exchange — no effort, no proof, just time passing or you insisting. Freedom has no notion of exercise at all, and doesn’t claim one.

The second limit is how deep the block goes on a phone. Freedom’s own help says that on iOS, Locked Mode doesn’t stop you from switching off the Screen Time permission in Settings. Tests found the rest: deleting and reinstalling the app clears a session in about half a minute; disabling the VPN profile Freedom installs for browsers other than Safari, or a spell of airplane mode, opens the gate. That VPN profile also takes the single VPN slot iPhone allows and has a cost in battery. Reviewers report an uneven experience on Windows and Android, a Chrome extension that disconnects silently, and Android makers that revoke the accessibility permission Freedom needs.

Third: you need an account. Email and password, sessions driven from a web dashboard, blocklists and sessions synced through Freedom’s servers. That’s the trade for the sync, and it’s a fair one, but it means the block lives partly outside your phone. And the free tier is short: seven sessions to try, then only start-now sessions of up to two hours.

What Tempo does differently

• A permanent block, not a session. The apps you chose are closed by default, all day, every day. Nothing to start, nothing to schedule, no dashboard. What opens them is one balance of screen minutes shared across all of them; real usage spends it minute by minute — the count follows the system’s own Screen Time: 43 minutes debited for 44 counted by iOS, measured on device. At zero, everything closes at once, without opening Tempo.
• The exit is an effort already made. The balance is earned only by moving: workouts read from Health or Health Connect, credited with a per-sport rate, or steps when there’s no watch (a thousand steps is about ten minutes of walking, paid at walking’s rate). You pick your exchange rate at setup: ×1, ×2 or ×3. Credit lands without opening the app, and it expires after 24 hours. There is no emergency exit, because the exit is the workout you already did.
• Hand-entered workouts don’t count. A workout typed into Health is left out of the totals; only what a sensor recorded counts. With a watch on iPhone, Tempo also reads heart rate and pays more than your rate when you push, never less.
• Nothing to switch off outside the app. On iPhone, Tempo goes through Apple’s own picker (apps, categories, Safari websites) and iOS itself applies the block; it holds with Tempo closed. No VPN profile, no session to end, no server whose connection can drop. Strict mode makes any loosening wait 24 hours while hardening is immediate, and on iPhone it can remove the Delete App button from the Home Screen.
• No account, no server. Nothing leaves the device, there are no analytics, and there’s nothing to create to get started; the App Store listing carries the “Data Not Collected” label. The flip side, said plainly: no sync, and no computer version.

Who Freedom suits better

If your distraction lives on a computer, stay on Freedom. Tempo has no Mac, Windows or Linux version, no browser extension and no sync: a block set on your phone stays on your phone. Freedom is also the better tool if you want to cut the whole Internet for an evening, block websites in every browser, or run a plan that comes back every Tuesday without you touching it. And if moving more is simply not part of what you want, Tempo’s mechanism is just one more constraint.

Pricing on both sides changes: check it on the App Store, Play and Freedom listings rather than in a comparison page — this one included.

Frequently asked questions

Freedom vs Tempo: which one holds better?

They answer different questions. Freedom protects a window you booked; its own help says the Screen Time permission can be switched off on iOS, and tests found that reinstalling the app or dropping the VPN profile does the same. Tempo holds a permanent block applied by iOS, and its exit is an effort already made; outside strict mode you can still uninstall it and the block falls. Neither is parental control. The difference is what the exit costs: an hour of clock time on one side, an hour of movement on the other.

Can I keep Freedom and add Tempo?

Yes. They don’t interfere in principle, but two blockers on the same apps step on each other: a balance earned in Tempo won’t open an app Freedom is holding closed. The clean split is Freedom for the computer, websites and the whole Internet, Tempo for the apps on your phone. Tempo doesn’t touch your Freedom account, sessions or history.

Does Tempo run on my Mac, or sync between devices?

No. Tempo runs on iPhone and Android, with an Apple Watch companion, and everything stays on the device: no account, no server, so nothing to sync. That is the first reason to stay on Freedom if your distraction lives on the computer.