App Blocker vs Vowlock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
App Blocker
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App Blocker: Lockscreen helps you stop opening distracting apps on autopilot. Pick the apps or websites you want to block, choose a small task, and start a lock. Your task gate keeps the selected distractions blocked until the timer is finished and you mark the task complete. Use it for work, study, bedtime, morning routines, or any moment when one tap turns into twenty minutes. Main features: - Block selected apps and websites with Apple's Screen Time permission - Choose common unlock tasks like clear desk, drink water, write one sentence, breathe, or open homework - Add custom tasks and custom timers - Pick gentle, timed, or stricter lock styles - Use quick lock templates for work, study, sleep, and emergency moments - Track private stats like completed locks, tasks, and protected minutes - Restore purchases and manage subscription status from Settings The app is ADHD-aware but not medical treatment. It does not diagnose, treat, or cure ADHD or any health condition. It is a practical productivity tool for creating friction before distracting apps. Privacy: the app is designed to keep lock rules, task choices, and stats on device. It does not read messages, passwords, or content inside the apps you block. Terms of use: https://smartaitomation.github.io/appblockerlockscreen/terms.html
Vowlock
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Vowlock is a strict app blocker for people who are done negotiating with themselves. Block apps behind Apple's Screen Time shields, seal the block with a vow, and make breaking it cost something real. Less brain rot, more evenings that are actually yours. Most app blockers are a toggle you flip off the moment an urge hits. No iOS blocker is unbreakable, so Vowlock is built on a harder truth: breaking one should cost something. With Vowlock you do not just block distracting apps. You seal a vow. SEAL A VOW, BLOCK APPS FOR AS LONG AS IT RUNS Choose the apps that eat your evenings: the feeds, the games, the one you open without deciding to. Choose how long the vow runs, from fifteen minutes to a full day. Then seal it with a short ritual: one line that is true for you, one spoken plea recorded on camera, and a heartbeat pulsing through the phone as you commit. From that second, your chosen apps go dark behind Apple's Screen Time shields. Think of it as a focus mode you cannot swipe away. AN APP LIMIT THAT ACTUALLY HOLDS Vowlock is an app limiter without a daily allowance to renegotiate. The app limit holds for the whole window you chose, not until you tap Ignore. That is the difference between a screen time app that asks you to stop scrolling and a screen time blocker that keeps its word. BREAKING COSTS SOMETHING An app blocker you can switch off in two taps is only a suggestion. Want out early? Vowlock will not shame you, but it will not make it easy. You sit through the break ritual, feel that same heartbeat again, and watch the recording of yourself asking you not to. Most urges do not survive that mirror. Willpower is easier to find when the version of you who made the promise is looking back. STOP DOOM SCROLLING, STAY FOCUSED Use Vowlock as a distraction blocker to stop doomscrolling at night, to stay focused through a work block, or as a social media blocker for the whole weekend. Doom scrolling ends when the feed is simply not there. Self control is a muscle. Every kept vow is one more rep, and every rep teaches your thumb that the feed can wait. THE PROMISE WALL Every vow becomes a glass pane on your wall. Kept vows shine. A broken pane does not shame you; it reforges after seven kept days. Over weeks, the wall becomes a quiet record of who you are becoming: discipline you can look at, rather than a streak you dread losing. DOPAMINE DETOX ON YOUR OWN TERMS Run a phone detox for one evening, a dopamine detox for a weekend, or a longer digital detox to reduce screen time for good. Vowlock is a digital detox app for phone addiction that does not pretend the cure is a chart of your usage. Recurring schedules seal the same vow on the days and hours you choose, a home screen widget keeps your progress in sight, a Lock Screen countdown keeps the running vow in view, and weekly patterns show when your urges cluster so the next vow covers that hour. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR IPHONE Vowlock is a self control app, not a surveillance app. Your pleas and your app list stay on this device. No account. No upload. Apple's Screen Time technology means Vowlock cannot even see the names of the apps you block. Vowlock is the app blocker for people who are done negotiating with themselves. Seal the vow. Keep it. Watch the wall fill. Requires iOS 17 or later and Screen Time permission. Free to download; some features are available through an optional subscription, with details shown in the app before any purchase. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://vowlock-app.web.app/privacy Support: https://vowlock-app.web.app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: App Blocker at none against Vowlock's shown. Vowlock's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. App Blocker sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Vowlock sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
App Blocker ships an update every 2 months, Vowlock every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | App Blocker | Vowlock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days β better |
| Ads | No β better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smart Automation SRL | Eren Demirkesen |
In-app purchases
App Blocker
- Weekly$3.997 Days
- Yearly$24.991 Year
Vowlock
- Plus Monthly$6.991 Month
- Plus Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Plus Lifetime$99.99








