The best free Opal alternative (Opal, the screen time app)

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

The best free Opal alternative is edgi. Its Focus lock blocks TikTok, Instagram or any app you pick on iPhone, lets each one open only as many times a day as you choose, and asks for a 60-second Lesson to get in. It's free, and every Lesson becomes a card on a Map of what you've learned, so the time you take back from your phone turns into something you can see. ScreenZen, one sec, Jomo and Foqos are the other free options worth knowing.

We make edgi, and we built Focus to be the blocker that gives you something better to do.

What Opal does

Opal blocks apps on schedules and in focus sessions, using Apple's Screen Time. It has a free tier, and Opal Pro is $99.99 a year. It's one of the best-known blockers on the iPhone, and it's built as a wall: the app is closed until the session or schedule says otherwise.

edgi starts from a different idea. Instead of a wall, let people earn their way back in by doing something good with the minute. That's the whole design of edgi's Focus, and it's free. Why pay $99.99 a year for a wall when the door that teaches you something costs nothing?

The free alternatives, compared

Prices and features from each app's own site or listing and independent reviews, checked October 2026.

Why edgi is the one to pick

Every other app on this list is a better or cheaper wall. A wall gets you time back, then leaves you standing in front of it with the same itch. edgi gives the itch somewhere to go.

Set it up once: in edgi, open Settings, then Focus, and pick the apps through the iPhone's Screen Time picker. For each, choose how many times a day it can open (1 to 30), for how long (1 to 60 minutes), on which days, and whether a Lesson is the price of every open or just the first one each day. Loosening a limit only takes effect at midnight, so an 11 p.m. change of heart waits until tomorrow.

Then reach for Instagram and you get "One lesson opens Instagram for 5 minutes." You guess, tap and test your way through one idea, sixty seconds later you know something new, the card is in your collection, and Instagram opens for exactly the time you allowed. Some days you'll keep going in edgi and forget why you picked up the phone.

The research on willpower backs the design. The people best at self-control aren't the ones resisting hardest:

Self-Control Self-control is the ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior when facing immediate temptations and impulses.

60-second Lesson

Self-Control

The people best at self-control fight the fewest battles: they set things up so there is less to resist.

Play it here Read about self-control

The habit behind the lock

The best part of edgi's lock is what piles up behind it. Every Lesson is a card; cards turn foil and then gold as you come back to the idea; they fill Sets with a finish line; and they light up your Map next to the ideas they connect to. One Lesson a day keeps your streak, and a widget on your home screen shows it. A month of reaching for TikTok on reflex becomes a month of ideas you can see.

For the full rundown of learn-to-unlock apps, see an app that makes you learn before opening TikTok. Coming from Duolingo's version? See apps like Duolingo Focus Mode.

FAQ

What is the best free alternative to Opal? edgi. Its Focus lock blocks the apps you pick on iPhone and opens them after a 60-second Lesson, for the number of opens and minutes you choose. It's free.

Is there a free version of Opal? Opal has a free tier, and Opal Pro is $99.99 a year. edgi's Focus is free.

What's the best free app blocker for iPhone? edgi, because the block gives you something back. ScreenZen and one sec are free apps that add a pause before an app opens.

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