Jolt vs Phone Jail
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Jolt
This app helps you reduce screen time and build healthier phone habits by blocking distracting apps and setting usage limits. It offers personalized insights, focus sessions, and challenges to keep you motivated and in control of your device.
- Block distracting apps and websites
- Set daily duration and open limits for apps
- Focus sessions with optional breaks
- Customizable schedules and prebuilt templates
- Deep Focus Mode with non-bypassable timers
- Personalized habit insights and progress tracking
- Join global challenges and earn rewards
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You know exactly what you should be doing right now. So does your phone - and it's betting you'll check it anyway. Jolt is built for people who are done losing that bet. —— KNOW IF YOU'RE ACTUALLY IMPROVING Attention Forecast - New Before your day starts, Jolt tells you how it's likely to go. One predictive score built from last night's sleep, your 28-day usage trend, your streak, and your blocking discipline. Attention Score: One number. Every day. Your Focus, Sleep, and Discipline combined. It rises when all three do - it won't let one good habit carry the weight of two bad ones. Watch it over 7, 14, 30 days. The direction it moves is the most honest feedback you'll get. Discipline Score: The gap between the limits you set and the limits you actually held. Not whether you blocked Instagram - whether you stayed blocked when it counted. Most people are surprised by this number. That's the point. Focus Score: Most people think they're focused. The Focus Score measures whether they actually were - how much deep work you completed, how many sessions you finished without quitting, how little you touched your phone mid-session. The score doesn't round up. Sleep Score: Your last pickup before bed. Your first reach in the morning. How many times you interrupted your own sleep. Tracked, scored, shown back to you every day. —— SET LIMITS THAT ACTUALLY HOLD Duration Limit: Daily time cap on any app - 30 minutes on Instagram, 20 on YouTube. When it hits, it locks. No snooze, no exceptions. Open Limit: Cap how many times you open an app each day. Three opens on Twitter. Five on Reddit. Once you've hit the number, it's done. Blocking Modes: Easy: a breathing pause before the app opens. Medium: rapid taps or a timed challenge - your brain earns the unlock. Hard: nothing gets through. Hard Mode: Set it once. Can't edit, delete, or override it until the next day. Your morning self makes the rules. Your evening self lives with them. —— FOCUS SESSIONS Focus Flights - New: You don't start a timer anymore. You book a flight. Pick a destination reachable in your focus window. Choose your seat: First Class seals the cabin - no early exit. Business puts a challenge between you and the door. Economy lets you tap out. Board, take off, block your apps. Land and it logs as a completed flight. Quit early and it goes down as a crash - distance credited for how far you got. Every flight lives in your Flight Wallet. Focus Sessions Block every distracting app for a set window - deep work, exam session, meeting hour. 20+ templates or build your own. Everything else disappears until you're done. Quick Sessions: One tap. Immediate block. Zero setup. Focus right now, not after configuring anything. —— CLOSE EVERY LOOPHOLE Sleep Schedule: Set your bedtime and wake-up time. Every distracting app locks automatically. You choose which essentials stay on - everything else is off until morning, with full tracking of every pickup. Accountability Partner: A real person who sees your screen time and must approve every override. Not an algorithm. A human who will actually push back. GPS Blocking: Set your office, library, or gym. The moment you arrive, Jolt activates. The environment does what willpower can't. Good Apps First: Use your journal, reading app, or workout tracker first. Once you do, the distracting apps unlock. Focus becomes the price of entry. Block 18+ One toggle. Every adult site and app - off. Shield Customisation - New: The screen that blocks you now looks how you want it. Choose a persona or build your own: custom text, colors, and icon. Turn on Randomized Experience, and it changes every time a block fires. —— PRIVACY FIRST: All blocking runs locally via Apple's Screen Time API. No personal data leaves your device. Download free. Block your first app in 30 seconds. Support: hello@thejoltapp.com Terms: thejoltapp.com/terms & https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: thejoltapp.com/privacy
Phone Jail
This app helps you regain control of your time and enhance focus by blocking distracting applications and managing screen time. It offers features like scheduled blocking, custom durations, and detailed usage analytics to support digital wellness and productivity.
- Block distracting apps and categories
- Schedule blocking in advance
- Set custom blocking durations
- Strict Block mode
- Track focus time analytics
- Detailed app usage monitoring
- Pomodoro timer
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Take back your time and focus with Phone Jail – the intelligent app blocker and screen time companion. Designed for productivity and digital wellness, Phone Jail helps you with Premium features (requires subscription): - Block distracting apps & categories with optional Strict Mode - Schedule blocking in advance with flexible planning options - Set custom blocking durations from 2 minutes to 23 hours - Enable “Strict Block” to prevent interruptions even if the app is closed - Track your focus time with rich analytics – Focused, Distracted, and Offline breakdowns by hour - See detailed usage per app – Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and more - Set smart alerts to be notified when screentime limits are reached - Use “Swipe to Block” for fast blocking sessions on demand - Monitor trends with daily focus reports and insights - Pomodoro feature - Daily App Limits feature Whether you're working, studying, or simply need time offline – Phone Jail helps you stay present and in control. Phone Jail is free to download and use with limited features. Unlock all features and premium content via a paid subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Phone Jail at 4.8 against Jolt's 4.3. Phone Jail also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 82%) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks). Jolt's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Jolt sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per 7 days and Phone Jail sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Phone Jail holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 107 and 40 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Jolt's written reviews are positive against 100% of Phone Jail's.
Jolt ships an update every 2 weeks, Phone Jail every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Jolt | Phone Jail |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (107 ratings) | 4.8 (40 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 82.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 107 — better | 40 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 177 MB | 89 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ASAKIRA CONSULTANTS LLP | Yuriy Chernin |
Customer experience
Jolt
Phone Jail
In-app purchases
Jolt
- Pro Plan - Weekly3 Days trial$5.997 Days
- Pro Plan - Weekly3 Days trial$6.997 Days
- Pro Plan - Weekly3 Days trial$7.997 Days
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- Pro Plan - Weekly3 Days trial$8.997 Days
- Pro Plan - Monthly3 Days trial$11.991 Month
- Pro Plan - Monthly$15.001 Month
- Pro Plan - Yearly3 Days trial$45.001 Year
- Pro Plan - Yearly3 Days trial$51.001 Year
- Pro Plan - Yearly$60.001 Year
- Hard Mode Sos$3.00
Phone Jail
- Weekly 9.99$9.997 Days
- Monthly$9.991 Month
- Monthly 13.99$13.991 Month
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Annual 29.99$29.991 Year
- Monthly 29 99$29.991 Month
- Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Annual 69.997 Days trial$69.991 Year
- Lifetime Pro$69.99









