Distraction blockers all do the same core thing — stop you opening the sites and apps that eat your day — but the pricing philosophies are completely different, and one of them is genuinely expensive.
| Model | Price | Platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cold Turkey | one-time purchase | $39 lifetime (all your personal computers) | Windows, macOS |
| Freedom | subscription or lifetime | $3.33/mo annual ($8.99 monthly); ~$99–199 lifetime | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome |
| Opal | subscription | $19.99/mo or ~$99.99/yr | iOS-first (Mac app exists) |
Cold Turkey is the best value for desktop users, full stop. Pay $39 once, own it forever, block sites and apps with schedules and a "frozen turkey" mode you genuinely can't wriggle out of. No mobile apps, no subscription, no upsell. If your distraction problem is on your computer, this is the answer.
Freedom is the cross-device pick — it syncs block sessions across your Mac, PC, phone and tablet at once, so you can't just pick up your phone when the laptop is locked down. That's its real value. It's a subscription at $3.33/month billed annually, or you can buy it outright for around $99–199. Worth it if you need the phone covered too.
Opal is polished, iOS-focused, and $19.99/month — which is a lot for an app blocker, and a common reason people leave it. It has nice time-tracking analytics and a slick interface, and its "deep focus" modes are hard to bypass. But you're paying roughly 6x Cold Turkey's lifetime price every year.
Desktop only: Cold Turkey, $39 once. Need your phone blocked in sync with your computer: Freedom. Want polished iOS analytics and don't mind the price: Opal — but check whether Freedom's cheaper mobile blocking is enough first.