Comparison

Phoneless Garden vs Neutral Scroll

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Phoneless Garden

This app helps you achieve your daily screen time goals through mindful pauses, not forceful blocking. It visualizes your progress with a growing plant and offers insights into your phone usage patterns. Designed with privacy as a priority, your data stays on your device.

Highlights
  • Set daily screen time goals
  • Grow a plant to visualize progress
  • Track mood and phone use correlation
  • Journal daily reflections
  • Receive weekly usage insights
  • Customizable pauses and notifications
  • Dark mode support
Read full description

Twenty minutes in, you find out it has been twenty minutes. Phoneless Garden does not block anything. It comes back when your time is up, with the day's total and one question. Close the app, or keep going. Both are real answers. HOW IT WORKS • Pick the apps you want to be more mindful with. Social, video, news, whatever pulls at you. • Every time you open one, the pause comes first. It shows your time on these apps today, and asks nothing else. Close, or continue. • Continue and you choose how long. When that time is up, the pause comes back, and this time it asks what you want from the next few minutes. WHY NO BLOCKING Blockers punish you, and punishment is easy to switch off. Phoneless Garden takes the opposite approach. It puts one moment of noticing between the reach and the scroll, and leaves the decision with you. Nothing to unlock, no passes to spend, no lockout to wait out. Not all screen time is wasted time. A long call with a friend is not the same as twenty minutes you cannot account for. This app does not pretend to know the difference. It just makes sure you are the one deciding. WHAT YOU GET • A pause with one question, every time you open the apps you choose • Your own words on the pause: write what you would rather do, and the pause shows it every other time • Gentler questions on days you log your mood as Low or Hard • A pause length you can set for each app, from five to ninety seconds (Premium) • A daily screen time goal that flexes. The app asks what kind of day it is, so work days and weekends can differ • A plant that reflects your day. Under your goal it grows, over your goal it rests. It never wilts • Mood check-ins, so you can see how screen time and mood move together • A few seconds of journaling when you want it • Insights into how often you open these apps, when your pauses happen and the timers you pick • Your month as a garden (Premium) • Dark mode PRIVACY Your pauses, moods and notes stay on your phone. No accounts, no email, no tracking. Purchases go through Apple and RevenueCat. Terms of Use: https://www.phonelessgarden.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.phonelessgarden.com/privacy

About

Neutral Scroll

This app offers a sensory pause from habitual phone use. It provides a calming, content-free experience with haptic feedback and visual gradients to help you disengage from endless scrolling. It also acts as a gentle reminder when you attempt to open other apps.

Highlights
  • Content-free scrolling experience
  • Haptic feedback for engagement
  • Visual gradients and color shifts
  • Time-boxed usage periods
  • Optional app opening reminder
  • Privacy-focused, no tracking
Read full description

A sensory pause for the moment your hand reaches for the feed. The urge to scroll isn't really about content. It's about regulation - a fidget, a friction, something to hold. Neutral Scroll gives you that, without the algorithm underneath. You open it. You stay for a time boxed period of time. The screen quietly winds itself down, and you put your phone away. — TWO MODES — Scroll A paged gradient of muted hues. Each swipe snaps cleanly to the next color, with one soft haptic pulse per page. No content. No counter. Just rhythm. Find A target somewhere on the screen, invisible. The closer your finger gets, the faster and heavier the haptic feedback. Land it, and the colour collapses to your fingertip and washes in a new hue. — A SOFTER DOOR — Pick the apps you reach for out of habit. When you open them, Neutral Scroll catches you at the door with a gentle reminder, and points you here instead. Built on Apple's Screen Time framework. Always opt-in. Always your choice. — WHAT IT DOESN'T DO — No likes, no streaks, no scores. No notifications, ever. No tracking, no analytics, no account. No social features, no sharing, no leaderboards. No reason to come back besides the experience itself. — PRIVACY — Neutral Scroll collects nothing. No analytics, no telemetry, no account. The optional shield runs entirely on-device through Apple's Family Controls. Nothing leaves your phone. — REQUIREMENTS — iPhone running iOS 17 or later. Uses the Taptic Engine, so iPhone only — no iPad, no Mac. One-time purchase. No subscription. No in-app purchases. No ads. neutralscroll.com

Screenshots

Phoneless Garden4 screens
Neutral Scroll4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Neutral Scroll at none against Phoneless Garden's 2. Phoneless Garden's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Phoneless Garden sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Neutral Scroll asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Phoneless Garden ships an update fortnightly, Neutral Scroll every 5 months. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Phoneless Garden versus Neutral Scroll: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhoneless GardenNeutral Scroll
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB34 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHanna PosioProfoundLabs Ltd

Customer experience

Phoneless Garden

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Neutral Scroll

Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Phoneless Garden

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly premium14 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
None

Neutral Scroll

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Phoneless Garden free?
Phoneless Garden is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Neutral Scroll free?
Neutral Scroll is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Phoneless Garden or Neutral Scroll have ads?
Neither Phoneless Garden nor Neutral Scroll shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Phoneless Garden or Neutral Scroll?
Phoneless Garden ships an update fortnightly, and Neutral Scroll every 5 months. Most recently, Phoneless Garden was updated on November 5, 2026 and Neutral Scroll on November 5, 2026.

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