Screen Star vs alive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Screen Star
This app helps you reclaim lost time by blocking distracting applications. It uses a unique mascot and visual progress tracker to motivate you to stay on track with your goals, offering a more emotional approach to screen time management.
- Smart app blocking
- Custom daily goals
- Year-by-year progress tracker
- Home screen widget with live mascot
- Mascot tones for mood reflection
- Streak tracking
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You're not weak. Your attention is being stolen. The average person loses 20.3 years of their life to their phone. Not metaphorically. Actual years, summed across actual hours, gone to feeds engineered by teams of engineers to keep you scrolling past the part of your day you wanted to live. Screen Star is the screen-time app that stops pretending this is a willpower problem. — WHAT IT DOES • Block the apps stealing your day. Set a goal once. Star handles the rest. No daily babysitting, no "are you sure?" pop-ups asking you to negotiate with yourself at 11pm. • See your years coming back. A 90-box life grid shows you the years you've already lost and the years you can still reclaim. The math is unsentimental. The recovery is real. • Pick how Star talks to you. Four moods: cheerful, sassy, sad, glowing. Star reflects how the day is going. Stay on track and Star glows. Slip, and Star slumps. You'll feel it before you read the number. • Glowing on your home screen. The Screen Star widget puts the mascot on your home screen so you see how you're doing every time you unlock. A face you don't want to disappoint is a better blocker than any timer. • A streak you'll actually keep. No 50-flame guilt loops. Just a quiet counter: how many days in a row you stayed under your goal. Cruising days add up. Star notices. — WHY IT WORKS Most screen-time apps make you feel ashamed and then give you a "Just 1 More Minute" button. Screen Star doesn't. The blocker is the blocker. The mascot does the emotional work. You set it up once, then you live your life. This isn't about deleting Instagram. It's about getting your evenings back. Your mornings. Your weekends. The hours you keep promising yourself you'll spend on the thing you actually care about. — WHAT'S INSIDE • Smart blocking powered by Apple Screen Time (Family Controls) • Custom daily goals per app, per category, or all-at-once • Year-by-year progress: lost, saved, reclaimed • Lock screen + home screen widget with live mascot state • Four mascot tones to match how you talk to yourself • Streak tracking, weekly + monthly progress views — PRIVACY Screen Star uses Apple's Family Controls and DeviceActivity frameworks. App usage data stays on your device. We never see which apps you use or how long you use them. Your screen time is yours. Read the full policy at getscreenstar.com/privacy. — SUBSCRIPTION & FREE TRIAL All of the features above are available during the free trial and with an active subscription. Screen Star is a subscription app. When you download Screen Star, you can start a 3-day free trial. After the trial, an active subscription is required to continue using the app and its features. Subscription prices and plan lengths (for example, weekly or yearly) are shown clearly on the purchase screen in the app. Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in your Apple ID account settings. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. Terms: getscreenstar.com/terms Privacy: getscreenstar.com/privacy Support: getscreenstar@gmail.com Terms of use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ — You're not weak. You're outgunned. Star evens the odds.
alive
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Meet the screen-time app you'll actually keep. alive gives you a tiny pet that lives on one thing: the time you don't spend on your phone. Set real limits on the apps that eat your day, stay under them, and your pet grows happy and bright. Blow past them and it droops, fades… and can slip away into the graveyard. Stay off. Keep it alive. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Unlike a reminder you'll swipe away, alive actually locks the apps — powered by Apple's Screen Time. When you hit your limit, the app is shielded until tomorrow. No willpower required. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Group your apps (Social, Games, Work — whatever) and give each its own rules • Set a daily budget — "1 hour of Social," and it locks when you're spent • Set blocked hours — "no games 9PM–6AM," every night, automatically • Watch a real shield appear the moment you go over KEEP YOUR PET ALIVE • Every day under your limits feeds a streak and earns seeds • Spend seeds in the shop on new species, colours and décor • Go over — or force past a block — and your pet takes the hit • Miss too many days and it's gone. Hatch a new one and try again. PRIVATE BY DESIGN alive only ever knows how long your apps are used — never what you do in them. Everything stays on your device. No account, no tracking, no data leaving your phone. alive Plus (optional) Unlock every species, colour and extra with a subscription. A free tier keeps one pet and the core limits forever. Stop doomscrolling to keep something small alive. Download alive.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Screen Star at every 2 weeks against alive's every 5 weeks. 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
Both are free to download. Screen Star sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and alive sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Screen Star ships an update every 2 weeks, alive every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Screen Star | alive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (11 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Khanh Nam Bui | Galeworks, LLC |
In-app purchases
Screen Star
- Screen Star Pro$3.997 Days
- Screen Star Pro3 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Screen Star Pro7 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Screen Star Lifetime$134.99
alive
- alive Plus (monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- alive Plus (annual)7 Days trial$29.991 Year









