HoldON vs Screen Time Control for Focus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HoldON
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Your thumb opens the app before you've decided to. HoldOn catches that automatic reach and creates a moment to choose before the scroll starts. BREAK THE AUTOPILOT Choose the apps and websites that pull you in most. The next time you try to open one, HoldOn interrupts the automatic pattern and asks you to make the decision consciously. No hard lock. No guilt. Just a moment between impulse and action. HOLD TO WAKE HoldOn's signature intervention makes continuing an active choice. Press and hold for 8 seconds while HoldOn brings your attention back to the decision. Change your mind? Just let go. If you still want the app, finish the hold and continue intentionally. CHOOSE HOW MUCH TIME YOU ACTUALLY NEED If you decide to continue, choose a session from 1 to 10 minutes. When that time ends, HoldOn protects the app again. Need more time? You can choose again. The goal isn't to stop you from using your phone. It's to stop 10 intentional minutes from becoming 45 unconscious ones. OTHER WAYS TO PAUSE Different moments call for different interventions: • Hold to Wake — actively hold before continuing • Breathing — slow down with a guided breathing pause • Reflection — notice the urge before reacting • Intention Check — reconnect with why you're opening the app Choose the experience that works best for you. SEE YOUR PROGRESS HoldOn helps you see what happens when you interrupt autopilot: • Conscious decisions • Attempts interrupted • Time reclaimed • Current and longest streaks • Weekly progress Over time, the goal is simple: less automatic scrolling, more intentional use. YOU'RE ALWAYS IN CONTROL HoldOn creates friction without taking away your freedom. You always have a way to stop protection, change your settings, or consciously continue. Your attention is your life. Take it back. HoldOn is free to try. Premium unlocks the full intervention library and Insights. Privacy Policy: https://www.getholdon.com/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screen Time Control for Focus
This app helps you reclaim your time by blocking distracting applications. It provides insights into your actual screen time and offers customizable blocking schedules and resistance levels to prevent unwanted usage. Reclaim your focus and achieve your goals with a system designed to support your intentions.
- Accurate screen time tracking
- Customizable app blocking schedules
- Adjustable exit resistance levels
- Session pause functionality
- Daily, weekly, and monthly usage views
- Goal-oriented planning
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You finally get a moment to yourself. ScrollDam helps keep it yours, blocking the apps that turn a little scrolling into an evening you never meant to spend on your phone. A few pages. An early night. A little time to feel like yourself again. You've done enough today. Let ScrollDam hold the line. Because you know how it starts. You pick up your phone to check one message. Forty minutes disappear, and you surface without a memory of what you saw. That's not weakness - it's apps built, on purpose, to keep you from letting go. You've tried Screen Time settings, maybe another blocker. Still, here you are - tired, but not giving up. ScrollDam won't talk down to you about willpower or pile on to whatever you're already feeling. You've carried enough of that on your own. What it will do is tell you the truth, gently - your real screen time, not the softer number you'd guess. Then hand you something stronger than willpower: a system that holds the line on the nights you're too tired to fight. FIND OUT WHERE YOU REALLY STAND Before anything else, ScrollDam asks you to guess your daily screen time, then shows you the real number next to it. That gap can be the moment it clicks: you can't change a habit you haven't had a chance to see clearly. TELL US WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR Better focus. Better sleep. Being present with the people in front of you. A calmer mind. Whatever pulled you here, ScrollDam builds your plan around that one thing. BLOCK YOUR WAY Start a block right now, set it to run on a schedule, or give yourself a daily time budget. Name your sessions whatever means something to you: "Sunday Reset," "Work Hours," "No Phone Before Bed." A gentle reminder before a scheduled block starts gives you a moment to wrap up. Small details, but it's yours. CHOOSE HOW HARD IT SHOULD BE TO QUIT Some days, a five-second breath before you open apps is enough to stop you. Other days it isn't. Set the resistance yourself: a short pause, a phrase you have to type to prove you mean it, or a completely locked session - no early exit, no bargaining with yourself at 1am. A REAL PAUSE, NOT A LOOPHOLE Something urgent comes up mid-block - it happens. When your chosen mode allows it, take a short pause instead of ending the session. Blocking resumes automatically when your pause is over. SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE Day, week, and month views of your screen time, your pickups, and exactly which apps are quietly eating your hours. No shame attached. Just the truth. WHO THIS IS REALLY FOR The person who sits down to work and the phone gets there first. The parent who realizes the walk to school, the bedtime story, almost slipped by unnoticed. The one whose mornings used to mean something quieter - a book, a prayer, silence - before a feed took that time. Anyone who misses sitting with a task or a conversation without a phone demanding attention. You didn't need another app to remind you that you have a problem with your phone. You needed one built to actually hold the dam. PRIVACY, HONESTLY We monitor and block the apps you choose - and that's the extent of it. We don't see what you're doing on your phone. Nothing about your activity ever leaves your device. Feel like yourself again. Your mornings, your evenings, every quiet hour in between - they never stopped being yours. ScrollDam just helps you keep them. Subscription Info: Prices depend on your country and are billed to your Apple ID once you confirm the purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before your current period ends. You can manage or cancel it anytime from your iTunes account settings. EULA: https://scrolldam.store/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://scrolldam.store/privacy-policy/
Screenshots
Verdict
HoldON and Screen Time Control for Focus are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. HoldON sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Screen Time Control for Focus sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $49.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
| Parameter | HoldON | Screen Time Control for Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 3.5 (6 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 128 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ronald Radhames Santana Franco | Focus Control Studio |
In-app purchases
HoldON
- HoldON Premium$9.991 Month
- Premium Annual — Win-Back$29.991 Year
- HoldON Premium7 Days trial$59.991 Year
Screen Time Control for Focus
- ScrollDam - Premium Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
- ScrollDam - Pro Annual1 Month trial$49.991 Year
Questions
Is HoldON free?
Is Screen Time Control for Focus free?
Do HoldON or Screen Time Control for Focus have ads?
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