# Carrel: Focus Reader & Blocker — EPUB, PDF & Screen Time Limit

> EPUB, PDF & Screen Time Limit (iPhone/iPad app by AVE ROYD SANTIAGO.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/carrel-focus-reader-and-blocker/id6813603261 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [AVE ROYD SANTIAGO](https://appshunter.io/developer/1871664223)
- Category: Books, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 12+
- Requires: iOS 27.0 · 40 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-10-21
- Data updated: 2026-10-26

## What is Carrel?

Carrel is an e-reader with an app blocker built into it. Reach for your feed and your book asks to go first: read ten pages, and twenty minutes of your apps are yours.

EPUB, PDF, plain text and comics, and a block built on Apple's Screen Time. The phone you pick up to scroll becomes the phone you pick up to read.

HOW IT WORKS
You choose which apps wait, and when: all day, evenings, working hours, or hours of your own. Reach for one and Carrel asks you to read first. Read to earn the time back, then take it at once for a window of your apps, or bank it for when you want it.

A READER FIRST
• Books brought in from Files, AirDrop or the share sheet
• Five classics included, and seventy thousand more from Project Gutenberg, free
• EPUBs and plain text set with care: face, size, spacing, margins and justification, with themes for day and night
• Reading help in EPUBs: line focus, read aloud, OpenDyslexic · overlays in all four
• Time left in the chapter or the book, measured in EPUBs from your own reading pace
• Focused sittings: say how many pages, and the page tells you when you reach it
• Your place and your marks kept in step between iPhone and iPad, each device keeping its own files

WHAT YOU KEEP
• Highlights and notes gathered in Marks, and passages photographed from a printed page
• A written review for every book, and close reading: five questions on a passage you kept

THE BLOCK
• Four strictness tiers, Gentle to Locked. Above Gentle, weakening the block waits thirty seconds, or two hours at Locked · switching it off included
• Emergency unlocks when you really need one: five a week at Standard, two at Strict, none at Locked
• Reinstall on the same device and your strictness, hours, banked minutes and spent unlocks come back

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
No account, no analytics of ours, no ads, and no server of ours for your reading to be sent to. Your library and marks stay on your devices and in your own iCloud, unless you send them to Readwise or Obsidian yourself.

FREE
• Blocking three apps, and one book of your own on top of the classics and the whole catalogue
• Every strictness tier, the ready-made hours and your own
• Your goal, your reading streak and your first freeze
• Your marks and their sync, and your statistics
• Widgets, a Live Activity while you read, and a Focus filter that blocks while your Focus is on

CARREL+
• Blocking as many apps as you like, plus whole categories and websites
• Every book of your own, however many you bring in
• Paper books on the same shelf, counting toward a goal in pages
• Shelves inside shelves, tags, series order, covers and notebooks
• Recaps, answers about what you've read, and close-reading help, on devices with Apple Intelligence
• Routines: your own hours with a reading goal on them, and more freezes than the first
• Your own libraries over OPDS, such as a Calibre server
• Export to Markdown, CSV and JSON, with an Obsidian folder and Readwise kept up to date
• The moving version of a mark's card, your own themes, and fonts you add yourself

Carrel+ is Lifetime, bought once, or a subscription: Carrel+ Yearly or Carrel+ Monthly, renewing a year or a month at a time. Prices are shown before you buy, and all three work with Family Sharing. Carrel+ Yearly opens with seven days free if you have not had the trial, and any unused part is given up on subscribing. Payment is taken from your Apple Account at purchase and within 24 hours before each period ends, and a subscription renews at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the period ends, in your Apple Account settings.

HONEST ABOUT ITS LIMITS
Screen Time can be switched off in Settings at any moment, and Carrel has its own page saying so. Nothing here pretends to be a lock you cannot open. Carrel holds your own apps on your own device, not anyone else's.

Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Privacy: https://carrel.roydsantiago.com/privacy/

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Carrel+ Yearly | $19.99 | per year |
| Carrel+ Monthly | $4.99 | per month |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Carrel+ Lifetime | $79.99 | one-time |


## Is Carrel safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Carrel.

## Is Carrel legit?

Carrel: Focus Reader & Blocker has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Carrel is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 2 releases)

### 1.0.1 — 2026-10-25

On iPhone Duo, folded, the Carrel+ page now shows every plan without scrolling.

### 1.0 — 2026-10-22

No release notes.

## More apps by AVE ROYD SANTIAGO

- [TILT: ADHD Focus & Study Timer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tilt-adhd-focus-and-study-timer/id6758234044)
- [Afloat Budget & Income Planner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/afloat-budget-and-income-planner/id6787879778)

All apps by AVE ROYD SANTIAGO: https://appshunter.io/developer/1871664223

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-26.*