Promise vs OpenAd
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Promise
This app helps you reduce screen time and digital distractions with playful app blocking and focus routines. It features a cute companion that keeps you accountable, offering gentle warnings before blocking access to distracting applications.
- Block distracting apps
- Reduce screen time
- Set app limits
- Focus routines
- Soft warnings before blocks
- Track screen time and usage
- Build healthier phone habits
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Social media apps are designed to keep you scrolling. Promise helps you reduce screen time with playful app blocking, focus routines, and a cute companion who keeps you accountable. Set limits for distracting apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, games, or any app you want to use less. When you try to open a blocked app, Promise gives you a gentle pause before you continue. You can take a short break — or break your promise and watch your companion’s happiness drop. Promise is more than a screen time tracker or app blocker. It makes screen time control feel personal, visual, and motivating. Features: • Block distracting apps • Reduce screen time and doomscrolling • Set app limits and focus routines • Get soft warnings before hard blocks • Break the heart to unlock apps intentionally • Track screen time, phone pickups, and app usage • Build streaks and healthier phone habits • Choose cute companions like Whiskers, Mochi, or Capy Perfect for: • Reducing phone addiction • Spending less time on social media • Staying focused while studying or working • Building better digital wellbeing habits • Turning app blocking into something you actually care about Make a promise. Protect your companion. Take back your screen time.
OpenAd
This app helps you limit screen time by making distractions inconvenient. Gate specific apps or categories, and watch a short ad to unlock them temporarily. It's designed to create friction, encouraging deliberate choices and helping you regain focus.
- Gate apps, categories, or websites
- Watch ads to unlock apps
- Temporary unlocks (5 or 15 minutes)
- Automatic re-locking
- Tracks user resistance
- Private by design, no account needed
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Before you scroll, pay the toll. OpenAd is a free app blocker and screen time tool. Pick the apps that eat your day, and every time you open one, you watch an ad first. It's annoying. That's the point. 100% FREE. NO SUBSCRIPTION. EVER. The ads pay for OpenAd, so you never do. No paywall, no premium tier. HOW IT WORKS • Block any app, category or website • Open a blocked app and you hit OpenAd's block screen • Watch 1 ad for 5 minutes. You also get 2 free passes a day • When time's up, the block comes back on its own • Change your mind? Tap "Not now", and it counts as a win STOP DOOMSCROLLING, AND SEE THE PROOF • Your screen time receipt: tolls paid, ads watched and urges resisted, for this week or all time. Share it in one tap • A Lock Screen countdown while your apps are unlocked • A Sunday recap of your week • A Home Screen widget with today's resisted urges MADE FOR • Cutting back on social media and doomscrolling • Staying focused while you study or work • A digital detox that doesn't depend on willpower GOOD TO KNOW • If an ad can't load, OpenAd offers a short timed wait instead. • You never have to tap an ad, install anything or buy anything. • Screen Time permission is required to block apps. Notifications and tracking are optional. • You can report an inappropriate ad in Settings. YOUR PRIVACY • The apps you block and your Screen Time activity stay on your iPhone. They're never sent to us or to advertisers. • Ads come from third-party ad partners. "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" is in Settings and on by default. • OpenAd collects basic usage analytics to improve the app. See the Privacy Policy for details. The world's most annoying app blocker. You're welcome.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Promise at none against OpenAd's shown. Promise also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Promise against 5.0 for OpenAd. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 4 respectively.
Promise ships an update every 3 days, OpenAd weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Promise | OpenAd |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | JAKUB ELIAS | Seven Agent Studios LLC |
Customer experience
Promise
OpenAd
In-app purchases
Promise
No in-app purchases
OpenAd
No in-app purchases









