OpenAppLock vs Verboten
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
OpenAppLock
This app helps you regain control of your screen time by blocking specific applications. You can set schedules, time limits, or open limits for apps, and even create custom rules to prevent unwanted usage.
- Block apps on a schedule
- Set time or open limits
- Preset and custom rules
- Lock rule edits
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Block apps and reclaim your screen time! - Block apps on a schedule, or add a time/open limit - Choose from preset rules, or create your own - Lock rule edits to prevent changes while blocking
Verboten
This app helps you regain control over your digital habits by blocking selected applications. It uses iOS Screen Time functionality to enforce restrictions, allowing you to set specific times for blocking or grant temporary access. The app aims to reduce mindless scrolling without guilt or complex tracking.
- Block selected apps
- Schedule blocking windows
- Temporary app access
- No account or tracking
- Optional AI news bulletin
- Inspirational quotes on block
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Verboten blocks the apps you choose. You pick them once, and they stop opening. Not a timer you can dismiss. Not a nag screen. iOS itself holds the door, through the same Screen Time machinery Apple uses for parental controls, so a blocked app meets a shield instead of a feed, and there is nothing to swipe past. WHAT IT DOES Pick your apps. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, whatever your evenings disappear into. One switch holds all of them. Block only when it matters. Add a window — evenings, work hours, overnight — and blocking applies then and not otherwise. A window can cover every app or a single one. With no window, it is simply always on. Two minutes, not the evening. Need an app right now? Take a couple of minutes. It shuts again by itself, and the setting returns to Never — so a moment of weakness never quietly becomes a permanent exception. Pause on your terms. Everything opens for as long as you chose, then blocking comes back on its own. No decision to remember. Something better to read. An optional bulletin of the day's AI news from real newsrooms — grouped so one story isn't repeated five times, and ten stories long. It ends, which is the whole point. Turn it off and the app fetches nothing at all. A line worth reading. Every block shows one: a fact, a thought, a reason to look away. WHAT IT DOESN'T DO No account. No sign-in. No analytics, no ads, no trackers. Nothing about you leaves your phone. Your blocked list, your schedules and your settings live on the device. On iOS the app cannot even read which apps you picked; Apple hands it opaque tokens, and that is all it ever sees. No guilt. Missing your own rules is not a failure state. There is no streak to break and no score to lose. Verboten is made by the ReadLoft team.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Verboten at every 3 days against OpenAppLock's weekly. Verboten also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). OpenAppLock's advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 1). On price, rating, ads 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 OpenAppLock against 5.0 for Verboten. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OpenAppLock has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
OpenAppLock ships an update weekly, Verboten every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | OpenAppLock | Verboten |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (9 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Brendan Chen | Madhura Basavaraju |
Customer experience
OpenAppLock
Verboten
In-app purchases
OpenAppLock
No in-app purchases
Verboten
No in-app purchases









