Screen Limiter
It burns before the day starts
A single budget doesn't care when you spend it. The hours you actually wanted to protect — the evening, the ones with people in them — get nothing left.
For iPhone · Coming to the App Store
Five minutes an hour.
Then it stops.
Screen Limiter gives the apps you choose a small allowance — every 30, 60 or 120 minutes, per group. When the minutes are gone, the app is shielded. When the next window opens, the block lifts on its own.
Free while in preview · no account · no ads
One daily limit is a trap.
Give yourself thirty minutes and it's gone by 9:40 in the morning. Now the choice is to lose the rest of the day, or to press the button that ignores the limit — and once you've pressed it, the limit was only ever a suggestion.
The way out is on the screen
A one-tap bypass printed on the block is exactly what an impulsive moment goes looking for. It takes less effort to ignore the limit than it took to set it.
Then comes the guilt
Break it twice and you stop believing the number. So you stop setting limits at all — or you set ones you already know you'll be crossing.
How Screen Limiter works
Set it once. It repeats all day, whether or not Screen Limiter is open.
Pick the apps
Apps, categories or websites. Split them into groups that match the way your day actually falls apart.
Set the allowance
5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes — per group, not once for everything. Social and video don't have to share a budget.
Choose the window
A fresh allowance every 30 minutes, every hour, or every two hours. Same choice on weekends, or a stricter one.
Forget about it
Minutes gone, apps shielded. At the next window the block lifts by itself — no app to open, nothing to remember.
Three levels of no.
Strictness is set per group, because a messaging app and a video app don't deserve the same rules.
A pause, not a wall
The block is there, and you can wave it away from the shield itself. No counter, no asking.
- Best for apps you need in a hurry
- Still enough friction to interrupt autopilot
- Unlimited returns per day
Five stops a day
Blocked. Getting more time means opening Screen Limiter and holding — five times a day, then the shield stays up.
- 3-second hold to confirm
- Five extra rounds of five minutes
- A real budget for people who need one
One stop a day
One stop. After that, nothing until the window resets — the app you keep losing an hour to.
- 8-second hold to confirm
- A single extra round for the whole day
- Built for the worst offender
What it looks like
Six screens, captured on an iPhone. The app also ships a light appearance and six accent themes.
The rest of it
Everything here is on. There is no Plus tier waiting to unlock a better version of the app.
Passcode
Put a code in front of the settings. Stored as a salted hash in the keychain, never as the code itself.
Parent Mode
Hand the passcode to someone else. Screen Limiter locks itself and every change needs their code — a security question is the way back in.
Insights that admit the misses
Seven days of outcomes, kept on the phone: how many windows you stayed under, and how each group is doing.
Light, dark and six accents
Violet, ocean, forest, sunset, rose or graphite. Themes only move the accent colour, so nothing you read ever loses contrast.
Four languages
English, Spanish, French and German — the whole app, including the block screen, not just the menus. Or follow the system.
Quiet by design
No streaks, no badges, no notifications nagging you to come back. The reward for using Screen Limiter less is that you don't see it.
How it compares
Every app here does something useful, and several do things Screen Limiter doesn't. The column that matters is how the time is meted out, and what it costs you to get more.
Swipe the table sideways for the other columns →
| App | Allowance | Resets | Getting more | Account & data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen Limiter | 5–30 min per group | Every 30, 60 or 120 min, per group | Easy: wave it away · Normal: 5 stops a day · Hard: 1 stop | None. No server, no analytics |
| Precursor | 5–15 min per hour (30 with Plus) | Top of every hour; 30-min windows on Plus | Easy, Normal (5 stops) or Hard (1 stop); passcode, Parent Mode | No account; limits on-device, purchase check |
| Apple Screen Time | One daily budget per app or category | Daily | Bypass from the shield, unless a Screen Time passcode is set | Stays on device |
| Opal | Daily time limits, schedules, sessions | Daily | Waiting room, reflection, Hard Mode | Account required; usage stays on device |
| one sec | None — a pause before every open | Not applicable | Breathe, then decide; re-intervention after a set time | No account by default |
| ScreenZen | Daily goals, open limits, timed blocks | Daily | Waits, prompts, strict blocks, settings lock | Optional account |
| Jomo | Daily time budget or opens per day | Daily | Long friction list, Strict Mode | Optional account |
| Freedom | Timed sessions, across devices | When the session ends | Session breaks; Locked Mode | Account required |
Read the detailed comparisons →
Summarised from each app's public App Store listing and documentation in November 2026. Free tiers and features change often — the apps are Precursor, Opal, one sec, ScreenZen, Jomo and Freedom. Screen Limiter is not affiliated with any of them; their names belong to their owners.
Honestly
We didn't invent the hourly allowance.
Precursor got there first and does it well. If an hourly app blocker is what you want, it's a fair choice. Screen Limiter exists because we wanted three things it didn't quite do.
Pick the window, not just the hour
30 minutes, an hour, or two hours — chosen per group. A 30-minute window is a paid extra in most apps; a two-hour one usually isn't offered at all.
Strictness per group
The messaging app you need at work can sit on Easy while the video app sits on Hard. One strictness level for the whole phone always ends up set to the loosest one.
Nothing measured, nothing sent
No account, no server, no analytics — not even an opt-in switch. The app has no networking to switch on.
Privacy
Only this phone knows which apps you pick.
Screen Limiter is built on Apple's Screen Time framework, which hands an app an opaque token instead of an app name. That token can be turned back into a name on this phone — it's how Screen Limiter offers to name a group after the app you picked — but it means nothing anywhere else, and nothing leaves. Your groups, your limits and your week of history are written to this device, which is the only place they exist.
No account
There is nothing to sign up for, nothing to sign into, and no email address to hand over.
No server
Screen Limiter has no backend. There is no API for your data to travel to, and nothing to breach.
No analytics
No third-party SDKs, no crash pings, no usage counters. Deleting the app removes every trace of your limits.
Read the privacy policy One page, written to be read once.
Questions
What happens when my minutes run out?
The apps in that group get a system shield — the same kind Apple's own App Limits use. Tapping through it asks Screen Limiter for more time, and how hard that is depends on the group's strictness.
Does it still reset if Screen Limiter isn't open?
Yes. The next window is scheduled with iOS ahead of time, so the block lifts at the boundary whether Screen Limiter is open, in the background, or force-quit.
Can I get around it?
Yes, in a few ways: pause all limits, switch a group off, or delete the app — which removes every limit with it. Screen Limiter is friction for the moment you'd rather not have. It isn't a lock on your own phone, and it isn't sold as one.
Do you see which apps I choose?
Not in any way that leaves your phone. iOS gives Screen Limiter an opaque token, and the phone can resolve it into a name locally — that is how a new group gets suggested a name. Nothing is uploaded, so the only place your choices exist is on this device, and Insights count windows and outcomes rather than app identities.
Is there a subscription?
No. Payments are switched off entirely in this build: no paywall, no trial clock, no upgrade nag. Every feature described on this page is available.
Does it have a widget?
Yes — a Home Screen widget for every group's reset time, and Lock Screen widgets in all three sizes. While a group is blocked it shows "back at 9:00 PM", and a Live Activity counts the minutes down on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island without opening anything.
Can I pause it with Siri or from Control Center?
Siri and Shortcuts can pause, start, or tell you when the next window opens — "Pause my limits in Screen Limiter". Control Center gets a button that opens Screen Limiter on the pause sheet, because pausing is the one thing here that should still cost you a moment.
What do I need to run it?
An iPhone or iPad on iOS 17 or later, and permission to use Screen Time when Screen Limiter asks for it.