Scrollbye vs ScreenTimeGuard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Scrollbye
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Stop losing hours to βjust 5 minutes.β ScrollBye blocks your most addictive apps β exactly when you need it. No guilt. No hacks. Just control. Break the scroll loop Social media is designed to keep you stuck. ScrollBye helps you step out on your terms. Block distracting apps, schedule focus time, and finally feel in control of your phone. What makes ScrollBye different? Most apps rely on willpower. ScrollBye removes the decision entirely. Set it once β it works automatically. Smart App Blocking Block any app that steals your time β social media, games, anything. Scheduled Focus Time Create daily βno-scrollβ periods that run automatically. No impulse unblocking Add friction between you and distractions β so you donβt relapse in 2 taps. Lightweight & fast No clutter. No complicated setup. Just works. Built for real life Working? Stay focused Studying? Remove distractions Sleeping? Stop late-night scrolling Living? Be present again Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
ScreenTimeGuard
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ScreenTimeGuard is a calm, minimal screen-time app for people who want fewer impulse opens. It is built around three ideas most blockers get wrong. You earn a budget of real app time. Most blockers start a countdown the moment you unlock, and the timer keeps running while your phone sits in your pocket. ScreenTimeGuard grants a usage budget instead: 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes of actual app time, counted only while a blocked app is open. Reply to the message, put the phone down, come back later. One allowance can be spread across several openings until it is spent. Access is earned, not waited out. The signature unlock is a zip puzzle: draw one continuous line through every cell of a grid, passing numbered checkpoints in order. It asks for a moment of real attention β enough to interrupt autopilot, never enough to punish a genuine need. If you prefer arithmetic, switch to a math challenge instead. Both come in three difficulty levels. Your data stays yours. No account. No sign-up. No backend. No analytics or tracking SDKs. Your app groups, schedules, unlock history, and insights are stored on your device, never on a server of ours. Your groups, schedules, and preferences are also backed up to your own iCloud account so a reinstall or a new iPhone does not cost you your setup β we cannot read that copy, and your unlock history and insights are left out of it entirely. The app makes exactly one kind of network request: fetching the attributed daily quote on the dashboard, once a day. Without a connection, everything still works. Around those three ideas, an explicit rule system: - Recurring schedules block selected app groups during work, study, sleep, or any routine that matters to you. - During scheduled hours, each group is either fully blocked or set to solve-to-open. - Outside the schedule, leave apps free, or require a challenge and a time budget for every visit. - Block Now starts an immediate block, for a fixed duration or until you end it. - Emergency unlock stays available during a full block, with deliberate friction: an optional reason, a cooldown between uses, and an optional daily limit. Every use is recorded in your history. - Insights stay on the device: unlock attempts, emergency unlocks, and protected time. ScreenTimeGuard is built on Apple's Screen Time technology, using only Apple frameworks. Free for up to 3 apps. ScreenTimeGuard Premium is an auto-renewable subscription billed yearly, unlocking unlimited apps, whole app categories, and website blocking. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://joepbruin-hue.github.io/screentimeguard-privacy/ Friction here is intentional, never punitive. Pause the impulse, then choose.
Screenshots
Verdict
Scrollbye and ScreenTimeGuard are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters β price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them β neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Scrollbye sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and ScreenTimeGuard sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $8.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Scrollbye ships an update every 2 weeks, ScreenTimeGuard every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Scrollbye | ScreenTimeGuard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks β better | Every 4 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad β better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | KAREL ZAHRADNICEK | Joep Bruin |
In-app purchases
Scrollbye
- Monthly subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Annual Subscription$19.991 Year
ScreenTimeGuard
- ScreenTimeGuard Premium$8.991 Year









