Looking for an AppBlock alternative?

AppBlock is a widely used app-and-website blocker with block templates for different parts of the day, usage statistics and browser extensions for PC and Mac. Paused is a different shape of app, so this is a comparison rather than a pitch — the table starts with what AppBlock does better.

AppBlock vs Paused, side by side

	AppBlock	Paused
Known for	AppBlock is a widely used app-and-website blocker with block templates for different parts of the day, usage statistics and browser extensions for PC and Mac.	Block Schedules that switch your chosen apps off at set times and back on afterwards, one-tap Focus sessions for right now, and a streak that counts the days you kept the block.
Genuinely better at	Templates and reach. AppBlock lets you keep several named block profiles (work, study, sleep), applies them to apps and websites, and extends to your computer through browser extensions.	Paused keeps it to a Block Schedule per situation and a Focus session for right now — fewer settings, one place to look.
Day to day it feels like	You pick apps and rules — times, sessions, sometimes a daily allowance — and the app shields them. The differences are in how strict the rules can be made and how hard they are to undo.	A small, boring wall. You pick the apps, pick the hours, and they stop opening — no coins, no plants, no hardware, no reasons to type. A calm Paused screen where the app used to be.

Stay with AppBlock if…

…you rely on website blocking or on the desktop extensions. Paused is an iPhone app that blocks apps.

We would rather you kept an app that fits than switched and quietly turned it off after a fortnight. A blocker you have disabled is not a blocker.

What Paused does not do

Said up front, because this is the part comparison pages usually leave out.

iPhone and iPad only — no Android, Mac or browser extension.
No daily usage allowance right now: Paused blocks by schedule or by session, not by “30 minutes a day” (Daily Limits are on hold because of an iOS 18 Screen Time bug that affects every app in this list).
Nothing to earn, grow or scan — if that mechanic is what keeps you honest, several apps above do it better.
Self-control for your own phone, not a tool for managing someone else’s.

What you get if you do switch

Block Schedules. Pick the apps, pick the days and hours — 10pm–7am, 9–5, dinner — and they switch off and back on by themselves. Set once.
Focus sessions. One tap blocks your chosen apps for 25 minutes, two hours, or until dinner is over.
A streak. Every day the block holds, the count goes up. That is the whole reward system.
A calm block screen. Open a blocked app and you get a quiet Paused screen, not the feed.
Privacy by construction. Paused blocks through Apple's Screen Time framework, which enforces the block without the app reading your messages, browsing or anything inside the apps. Usage stays on your phone.