A free Freedom app alternative for iPhone

By the edgi team Updated October 23, 2026 Facts checked October 23, 2026

The best free alternative to Freedom on iPhone is edgi. Freedom blocks apps and websites in sessions across your devices, with a paid Premium plan; edgi's Focus lock is free and works app by app: you set how many times a day TikTok or Instagram can open and for how long, and a 60-second Lesson opens it. Every Lesson becomes a card on a Map of what you've learned, so the minutes you take back turn into something.

We make edgi, and we built Focus for the phone, the screen you reach for without deciding to.

What Freedom does well

Freedom is good at what it was built for: blocking apps, websites or the whole internet across Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android at once, in sessions you start or schedule. Locked Mode stops you from ending a session early. If your distraction is the browser on your laptop as much as your phone, Freedom covers both. Freedom Premium is a subscription after a 7-day free trial, with yearly plans from $39.99 on its App Store listing (freedom.to and the listing, October 2026).

It also has published research behind it. In a 2025 study in PNAS Nexus, people used Freedom to block all mobile internet for two weeks, and the block improved well-being and sustained attention. The same study found the catch: only about a quarter of the 467 people who committed to it kept the block on for at least 10 of the 14 days.

Why edgi works differently on your phone

A session is a block of time with nothing in it. That's powerful at a desk, and hard to live with on a phone you also use for maps, messages and paying for coffee. So edgi doesn't block your phone in sessions. It gives each distracting app its own rule:

I'll open Instagram no more than 3 times a day, for 5 min each time.

You choose 1 to 30 opens, 1 to 60 minutes, and the days. Everything else on your phone stays open. When you reach for Instagram, the screen says "One lesson opens Instagram for 5 minutes." Do the Lesson, and Instagram opens for exactly that long, with a notice 30 seconds before it closes.

edgi's answer to Locked Mode is the clock: a stricter rule starts the moment you save it, and a looser one waits until midnight. You can always change your mind. You just can't loosen tonight.

Freedom details from freedom.to and its App Store listing; study from PNAS Nexus, February 2025.

Time you take back has to go somewhere

A block frees up time, and freed time has a way of disappearing:

Parkinson's law Parkinson's law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

60-second Lesson

Parkinson's law

Work expands to fill the time you give it, and the slower pace follows you to the next job.

Play it here Read about parkinson's law

The same law works on your evenings. edgi fills the gap on purpose. The Lesson at the door is one idea you guess at, tap through and test in a minute, ending in a question, from why a GPS satellite's clock runs fast to how a slot machine picks your result before the reels move. Some days that minute replaces the scroll entirely.

Setting it up

1. In edgi, open Settings, then Focus.
2. Choose apps in the iPhone's own Screen Time picker; edgi never learns which.
3. Write each app's intention: opens, minutes, days.
4. Choose whether a Lesson opens it once a day or every open.

Every Lesson you do becomes a card. Cards upgrade to foil and then gold as you revisit an idea, and each one lights up on your Map. Your streak sits on the block screen, kept alive by one Lesson a day.

For why total blocks are hard to keep, see do app blockers work. The other free blockers are in the best free app blocker for iPhone.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Freedom for iPhone? Yes. edgi's Focus lock is free: it limits the apps you pick by opens and minutes, and opens them after a 60-second Lesson.

Does Freedom work on iPhone? Yes. Freedom blocks apps and websites on iPhone as well as Mac, Windows and Android. Freedom Premium is a subscription after a 7-day free trial, from $39.99 a year as of October 2026. edgi's Focus lock does the phone part free.

What's the difference between edgi and Freedom? Freedom blocks in sessions across devices. edgi sets a rule per app on your iPhone, opens the app after a Lesson you keep as a card, and is free.

Is edgi free? Yes. edgi is free on iPhone, Focus included.