Zarko vs Strict App Blocker

You can't trust yourself to put the phone down. So don't rely on willpower alone — rely on a real challenge. Zarko is a screen-time blocker with a twist: once you lock in a focus session, the way out is to prove it — not to quit. HOW IT WORKS • Choose the apps, categories, or websites you want blocked — powered by Apple's official Screen Time (FamilyControls) framework. • Start a focus session and get to work. Your chosen apps and sites stay locked for the full duration. • Tempted to check your phone early? Complete a quick physical or mental challenge — shake, walk, type, solve, remember — to break the block before time's up. No luck involved: finish the challenge and you're unlocked. • Want zero exits? Turn on Strict Mode in Settings and the give-up option stays locked until you're halfway through the session — the challenge becomes the only way out. BUILD A STREAK, NOT JUST A HABIT Every completed session adds to your daily streak. Miss a day and it resets — but your history stays. Track your weekly focus time, session count, and streak in one clean stats screen, and share your progress as a ready-to-post card. UNLOCK THEME COLORS Every successful challenge earns you a random color theme for the app — pure cosmetic, earned only by beating challenges, never sold. Collect all 12. WHY IT WORKS Traditional blockers fail because quitting is always one tap away. Zarko puts real effort between you and that tap, so staying focused becomes the easy choice — and if you want the door closed for real, Strict Mode removes the easy exit entirely. PRIVACY FIRST Zarko blocks apps and websites entirely on your device using Apple's Screen Time APIs. We never see which apps you use, what you type, or your browsing history — that data never leaves your phone. UNLOCK EVERYTHING (OPTIONAL ONE-TIME PURCHASE) Blocking, focus sessions, unlock challenges, streaks, and theme collecting are free — no ads, no subscriptions. If you want more, a single one-time purchase adds: • Your equipped theme color across the whole app and the block screen • Custom session lengths, from 5 minutes to 3 hours • Detailed stats: week-over-week trends and your top blocked apps by Screen Time Pay once, keep it forever. And no purchase ever lets you skip the challenge — the only way out early is still to earn it.

Set a daily time limit on the apps that eat your day, or shut them off completely between the hours you choose. When the time is gone, it's gone. Free. No account, no subscription, no trial that runs out. DAILY BUDGET Pick your worst apps and give them a limit. The timer counts down while you use them and resets each morning. Open a blocked app and you see how long is left, not a wall with no explanation. HARD MODE Schedule a window and the apps simply don't open. 9 to 5. 11pm to 7am. Whatever you need. No countdown, no bargaining. GREYSCALE Turn the screen black and white the moment you open something you're trying to cut down on. It sounds like a gimmick. It works better than it should. STRICT TRAINING Ten days to get used to it, then you can lock the settings so the version of you at 1am can't undo what you decided at 10am. WHY IT'S FREE Every other blocker wants forty dollars a year to help you use your phone less. This one doesn't. There's a tip jar in Settings if you want to, and that's the whole business model. No account means there's nothing to leak, and your data never leaves your phone. Dark mode, a sixty day history of the days you left your rules alone, and Otto, who tells you where you're at without nagging.