Comparison

ScreenPact vs SFirewall

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

Head to head
About

ScreenPact

This app helps users stay focused by allowing a trusted partner to control access to distracting applications. It's designed for students, friends, parents, and couples to enforce app limits and achieve shared goals together.

Highlights
  • Partner-controlled app locking
  • Mutual pacts for shared goals
  • Scheduled app locks
  • Unlock requests with partner approval
  • Focus streaks and statistics
Features
Read full description

ScreenPact locks the apps that steal your time, and hands the key to someone you trust. Whether that’s a friend keeping you focused or a parent managing their kid’s screen time, Pact turns app limits into something that actually holds. Screen time tools fail for one reason: the person setting the limit is the person breaking it. You snooze your own restrictions. Your kid finds the workaround in a day. Pact fixes this by putting the lock in someone else’s hands. No 3am override, no “just five more minutes” - access comes back when your partner says it does. MADE FOR • STUDENTS — Lock social media during finals. Your study partner decides when you’ve earned a break. • FRIENDS — Keep each other off scrolling and on track. Mutual pacts mean you’re both in it together. • PARENTS — Manage your kids’ app access remotely, without the nightly negotiation over the iPad. • COUPLES — Stage the social media intervention your partner clearly needs. With love. FEATURES • Lock and unlock your partner’s selected apps, any time, from anywhere • Mutual pacts: lock each other’s apps for shared goals • Scheduled locks for study sessions, work hours, or bedtime • Unlock requests: plead your case, let your partner decide • Streaks and stats to see how far you’ve come Your time is the most valuable thing you own. Stop giving it away one scroll at a time. Make a Pact.

About

SFirewall

Features
Read full description

SFirewall helps you step away from the apps and websites that pull you in, and keeps you there. It uses Apple's Screen Time to block apps and sites on your iPhone, and only your accountability partner can loosen what you set. HOW IT WORKS Pick what pulls you in: social, video, news, games, shopping, work social, gambling and adult sites. Choose the exact apps with Apple's own picker. Then hand your iPhone to someone you trust and they choose a 4 digit partner code. Adding a block is always instant. Turning a block off, removing an app or a site, or loosening a limit takes the partner code. If the code is ever forgotten, a 7 day reset lets you set a new one, blocks stay in place meanwhile, and your partner is told. ALWAYS ON, FOCUS AND POWER Always on: blocked all the time, like gambling and adult sites. Focus: the categories you choose, during the hours you schedule. Power: a stricter set for when you need a hard stop. Set weekly blocks on the Schedule tab, or start Focus or Power right away with Lock now. A running block keeps its end time, even with the code. ALLOWED SITES ONLY Block every website except a short list you allow. When you land on a blocked site, tap Ask to allow this site, and your partner approves it with the code. TIME LIMITS Give an app or a website a daily allowance, like 30 minutes of a social app. When the time is up it stays blocked until midnight. Up to five limits. SAFARI PAGE WATCHING The SFirewall Safari extension checks pages as they load and blocks any page with your page words, then closes the tab. Page text never leaves your iPhone. If the extension is switched off, your partner is told. FILTER EVERY APP A small VPN that runs on your iPhone and only handles DNS checks every site name apps look up against SFirewall's adult list, adult brand names, your keywords and your running blocks, then Cloudflare's family filter. It covers apps and in app browsers that use the phone's DNS. No other traffic goes through it. Another VPN, or an app with its own encrypted DNS, can bypass it; if it is switched off or another VPN takes its place, your partner is told. It also forces SafeSearch, so Google, YouTube, Bing and DuckDuckGo show safe results in every app. A lighter mode uses Cloudflare's family filter alone. APPS AND THE APP STORE Block apps by name, even before they are installed, set an App Store age limit, and keep apps from being deleted while Always on runs. With Partner lock, your partner also sets the Screen Time passcode, so removing SFirewall needs them too. HISTORY AND YOUR PARTNER History lists every change and every use of the partner code, the Safari pages you visited in the last 7 days, and the apps you used, drawn by Screen Time. Invite your partner to the free SFirewall app on their own iPhone. They get an alert when the code is used or blocking is turned off, see whether blocking is on, and see the Safari pages you visit, with their addresses, for 7 days. SFirewall shows you exactly what is shared before you invite, and your partner has to accept. MAC COMPANION, OPTIONAL SFirewall for Mac is a separate free download from the SFirewall website. Link it and one partner code guards both, and your iPhone can see and change your Mac's blocks. The iPhone app works fully on its own. PRIVACY No accounts. No servers. No ads, analytics or tracking. Your settings live on your iPhone and in your own iCloud. The only things that leave your devices are what you choose to share with your partner, through Apple's iCloud sharing, and, with Filter every app on, the site names your iPhone looks up, which Cloudflare's family filter answers. The developer never receives any of it. Requires Screen Time. Partner alerts need iCloud on both iPhones.

Screenshots

ScreenPact4 screens
SFirewall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: ScreenPact at 16.0 against SFirewall's 26.4. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
ScreenPact versus SFirewall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScreenPactSFirewall
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.4
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB41 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperYesake Abreham TeshaleMark Schwab

In-app purchases

None

ScreenPact

No in-app purchases

None

SFirewall

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ScreenPact free?
ScreenPact is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SFirewall free?
SFirewall is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do ScreenPact or SFirewall have ads?
Neither ScreenPact nor SFirewall shows ads.

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