Comparison

Takeback vs Quiet

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

Head to head
About

Takeback

This app uses an AI coach to help you quit doomscrolling and regain control of your phone usage. It offers various modes to restrict access to social apps, requiring valid reasons for entry and learning your scrolling habits to adjust your plan.

Highlights
  • AI-powered screen time coaching
  • Customizable app access modes
  • Reason-based app entry
  • Adaptive daily limits
  • Earn extra time through activities
  • Focus blocks and proof of activity
Features
Read full description

Takeback is Sarge, an AI coach who lets you into your social apps when you have a real reason and cuts off the doomscrolling. Not another app blocker. Other blockers lock everything, so you delete them by Friday. Or they're easy to skip. Sarge is tougher, but fair. A REAL REASON GETS YOU IN DMing a friend? Work? You get in. Doomscrolling? He cuts you off. He knows how long you've already scrolled today. 5 MODES. FIND YOURS. Some days your apps stay open, and the second you start doomscrolling, they lock. Some days every open costs a short wait while he tries to talk you out of it. On Blackout days, only a strong reason or a real emergency gets you in. Sarge picks your first modes, then you choose the one that works. HARDCORE WHEN YOU NEED IT On Hardcore days you say it out loud. Hold to talk, tell him why you need your apps, and he talks back. HE LEARNS YOU How you scroll. When you slip up. Then he adjusts your plan, and your daily limit steps down to your goal. YOUR ANTI-ALGORITHM Thousands of engineers. Billions of dollars. One job: keep you scrolling. Willpower can't beat that. It was never your fault. Sarge is an AI on your side against a billion-dollar feed. WANT MORE TIME? EARN IT. Go for a walk, work out, touch real grass, or hold a focus block. He checks the proof: your steps, a fresh photo, or 45 minutes with no unlocks. Pictures of pictures don't work on him. WHAT CHANGES Evenings that end in sleep, not a 2am feed. An attention span you can feel coming back. Hours that used to vanish with nothing to show for them. A phone you finally trust yourself with. WHO'S BEHIND IT Takeback is run by Stan Tatarnykov. He built games played by 80M+ people, so he knows how apps keep you hooked. Now he's on your side. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://trytakeback.com/privacy

About

Quiet

Features
Read full description

Quiet shows Instagram's mobile site with the endless surfaces taken out. Your feed, your stories, your messages and your profile load the way you know them. Reels and Explore are not there. The posts Instagram suggests between your friends are — and one switch takes them out, which also gives the feed an end to reach. You sign in on Instagram's own page, so your password never touches Quiet. Then there is a limit. You choose how many minutes a day you want. While you are reading, that time runs down — only while the app is in front of you, only while the page is actually on screen. Two quiet notices, at five minutes and at one. When the time is gone, the app closes for the day and says so. You can lower your limit whenever you like, and it takes effect at once. You can raise it once a week, and the new number starts the next day — never in the moment you want five more minutes. That asymmetry is the whole app. The decision you make calmly is allowed to bind the decision you make at eleven at night. WHAT QUIET DOES NOT DO • No account, no server of ours, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking. If you switch on carrying between devices, your limit and today's total go into your own iCloud — where only your devices can read them. • No streaks, no weekly report, nothing to check. One notification exists and it is off until you ask for it: a single daily reminder, at an hour you pick, which stays quiet on any day you have already been. • No countdown on the screen. A timer you can watch is a timer you do watch; what is left is in the panel, for the moments you actually want to know. • Quiet asks you for nothing of its own. The one prompt it can raise is for the daily reminder, and only after you turn it on. Instagram's own pages can still ask for the camera, the microphone or your photos when you attach something to a post or a message — that is iOS asking on Instagram's behalf, and Quiet uses none of the three itself. Eight things are kept, on your phone, in the keychain: your limit and any change you have queued for a later day, today's total, the furthest point in time the app has seen, the day you set it up, the day you have asked it to forget everything, what your other devices have spent if you are carrying the limit between them, the day you said you started from, and how long each day since has been. They survive deleting the app, on purpose. A limit you can lift by reinstalling is not a limit. Which is why there is a way out that is not the App Store. "Make Quiet forget everything", at the foot of the panel, throws all eight away and the copy in iCloud with them — after the same wait that stands between you and a bigger number. An app with no way out at all would be a trap; one you can leave in the moment you want five more minutes would not be a limit. The day turns at four in the morning rather than at midnight, so a late evening belongs to the evening it feels like. Quiet is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta. It is a limiter for a site you already use, not a replacement for it, and it is not made by, connected to, or supported by them.

Screenshots

Takeback4 screens
Quiet4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Quiet at none against Takeback's 11. Quiet also leads on ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Takeback sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Quiet asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Takeback ships an update every 9 days, Quiet every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Takeback versus Quiet: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTakebackQuiet
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 5 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB2 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperGatarn Games Ltd.Connexa GmbH (CH)

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Takeback

Subscriptions11
  • Takeback Weekly Plan$4.997 Days
  • Takeback Monthly Plan$8.991 Month
  • Takeback Monthly Plan$9.991 Month
Show 8 more
  • Takeback Pro Weekly$9.997 Days
  • Takeback Yearly Plan$19.991 Year
  • Takeback Monthly$19.991 Month
  • Takeback Annual3 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Takeback Yearly$39.991 Year
  • Takeback Annual$44.991 Year
  • Takeback Annual3 Days trial$44.991 Year
  • Takeback Pro Annual$69.991 Year
None

Quiet

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Takeback free?
Takeback is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Quiet free?
Quiet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Takeback or Quiet have ads?
Takeback shows ads; Quiet does not.
Which is updated more often, Takeback or Quiet?
Takeback ships an update every 9 days, and Quiet every 5 days. Most recently, Takeback was updated on October 31, 2026 and Quiet on October 29, 2026.

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