Freedom DNS vs CST Pulse
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Freedom DNS
This app helps you regain focus by blocking distracting apps and websites. It offers customizable focus sessions, daily time limits, and ad/tracker blocking through DNS filtering. Enhance your productivity and online safety with its robust features.
- Block distracting apps and categories
- Customizable focus sessions
- Daily time limits for apps
- Block inappropriate websites and categories
- Filter ads, trackers, and malware via DNS
- Encrypted private DNS
- PIN lock for security
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A CLEANER INTERNET, AND YOUR ATTENTION BACK. Freedom blocks the apps that pull you in, the sites you don't want on your phone, and the ads, trackers and threats hiding inside every app. Set it up in a few steps, then run all of it from one control on your home screen. BLOCK DISTRACTING APPS Pick the apps and categories that eat your day. Freedom uses Apple's Screen Time to hold them closed: open one and you see a shield screen instead. Your choices stay on your phone. FOCUS SESSIONS One swipe starts a focus session, and everything you picked goes dark for a set time: deep work, a study sprint, or the whole night. Locked mode keeps a session running to the end. DAILY TIME LIMITS Give your picks one shared daily allowance. When it runs out, they stay closed until tomorrow. BLOCK SITES AND WHOLE CATEGORIES Block inappropriate content, gambling, social media, games, dating, streaming and more in every app and browser on your phone, or add sites of your own. Schedules add extra restrictions at the times you choose, like working hours or bedtime. STOP ADS, TRACKERS AND THREATS Freedom filters DNS lookups to stop ads, trackers, malware and phishing domains before they load. Family mode also blocks inappropriate content and the proxies used to get around filters. PRIVATE DNS Your DNS lookups are encrypted, so the network you're on can't read which sites you look up. Only DNS lookups go through Freedom; the rest of your traffic goes straight to the internet as usual. PIN LOCK Set a PIN so that switching protection off or loosening your filters takes a deliberate step. App blocking, focus sessions and daily limits use Apple's Screen Time and need iOS 16 or later. FREEDOM PRO All features need a Freedom Pro subscription, weekly or yearly, or a one-time lifetime purchase where available. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage subscriptions and turn off auto-renewal in your Account Settings after purchase. If a free trial is offered, any unused part of it is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Privacy Policy: https://piiko.app/privacy Terms of Use: https://piiko.app/terms
CST Pulse
Monitor the health and connectivity of your Cato network environment in real-time. Get instant visibility into sites, WAN links, and users to quickly identify and resolve issues before they impact your users. Offers detailed network analysis and event tracking.
- Real-time site and WAN link status
- Remote user connectivity monitoring
- Network throughput graphs
- Searchable connectivity event timeline
- SDP user details and search
- Customizable alerts and notifications
- Multi-tenant monitoring
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Know when a site goes down before your users call. CST Pulse gives Cato administrators, IT teams, and MSPs real-time visibility into sites, WAN links, remote users, licenses, and connectivity health directly from their iPhone. Whether you're supporting a single environment or dozens of customer tenants, Pulse helps answer the most important question in seconds: "Is it down?" MONITOR YOUR ENTIRE CATO ENVIRONMENT • Live status of every site, WAN link, and connected remote user • Problems automatically rise to the top • View degraded, disconnected, and healthy resources at a glance • Monitor multiple tenants from a single mobile dashboard SITES & WAN LINKS • View site health, socket versions, HA readiness, and license information • Monitor WAN tunnel uptime, PoP connectivity, bandwidth, and remote IP information • Investigate problems without opening a laptop • Quickly identify outages and degraded services NETWORK ANALYSIS • View upstream and downstream throughput graphs • 24-hour, 7-day, and 30-day performance views • Spot trends, saturation, and unusual activity • Understand what happened before users report an issue CONNECTIVITY EVENTS • Searchable timeline of connectivity changes • Track WAN failures, routing changes, socket events, and recoveries • Quickly understand what changed and when SDP USERS • View every connected remote user • Search users instantly • ISP, internal IP, public IP, location, device, operating system, and client version details • Determine whether an issue is user, ISP, or network related ALERTS INCLUDED FREE • Notifications when sites or WAN links go down, degrade, or recover • Per-site and per-link watchlists • Smart alert suppression reduces notification noise • Customizable monitoring across tenants PULSE PRO Perfect for MSPs, consultants, and multi-tenant administrators. • Unlimited Cato tenants • All-tenants overview • Fast tenant switching • Cross-tenant monitoring • Centralized alert management PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your API keys are stored securely in the iOS Keychain and communicate directly with the Cato API. • No analytics • No tracking • No third-party monitoring servers • Your data stays under your control PERFECT FOR • Network Administrators • NOC Engineers • MSP Teams • IT Operations • Managed Service Providers • Cato Partners • Enterprise IT Teams Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: CST Pulse at none against Freedom DNS's shown. CST Pulse also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Freedom DNS's advantage is ratings volume (28 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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. Freedom DNS sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and CST Pulse sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
CST Pulse holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Freedom DNS has 28 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Freedom DNS ships an update every 3 weeks, CST Pulse daily. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Freedom DNS | CST Pulse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (28 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | 28 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Piiko Apps OU | Christopher Simons |
Customer experience
Freedom DNS
CST Pulse
In-app purchases
Freedom DNS
- Freedom: Weekly$2.997 Days
- Freedom: Yearly3 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Freedom: Lifetime$49.99
CST Pulse
- ProMonthly$9.991 Month
- Pulse Pro Annual$79.991 Year









