Phoneless Garden vs Neutral Scroll
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
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
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.
Phoneless Garden ships an update fortnightly, Neutral Scroll every 5 months. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.
| Parameter | Phoneless Garden | Neutral Scroll |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 34 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hanna Posio | ProfoundLabs Ltd |
Customer experience
Phoneless Garden
Neutral Scroll
In-app purchases
Phoneless Garden
- Monthly premium14 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Yearly Premium$29.991 Year
Neutral Scroll
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Phoneless Garden free?
Is Neutral Scroll free?
Do Phoneless Garden or Neutral Scroll have ads?
Which is updated more often, Phoneless Garden or Neutral Scroll?
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