SqwarkSelf vs Freedom
Freedom blocks distractions on all your devices at once, and can lock you in. SqwarkSelf nudges on one Mac, and never locks.
Freedom is a blocker with an account. You make blocklists (apps, websites, or the whole internet), start a session now or on a schedule, and it runs on your Mac, your phone and your other computers at the same time. With Locked Mode on, you can end a session early only in its first minute or once a week, and you can remove the weekly exit for good.
SqwarkSelf works the other way round. It doesn’t hold a list of things to block for a set time. You say what you’re doing and start a watch; when a window you ruled out comes to the front, it asks, with your own words, for ten seconds.
Side by side
| SqwarkSelf | Freedom | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Mac only, macOS 14 or later. | Mac (macOS 11 or later), Windows, iPhone and iPad, Android; Chromebook and Linux through a browser extension. |
| When you drift | Only the off-task window goes dark, with your own words on it and a ten-second ring. Then the app is hidden, or the browser goes back to a tab you were working in. | Blocked sites don’t load. On the Mac a blocked app is hidden, or force-quit if you turn on “Kill Blocked Apps”. |
| Can you get past it? | Always. On a watch, “This is work” lets it through for the rest of the watch, and your call is logged; under a house rule, “Pause for 10 min”. There is no lock. | Without Locked Mode, you can end the session. With it (Premium), only once every seven days or in the first minute, and that weekly exit can be removed for good. |
| What counts as a distraction | The kinds of thing you ruled out: social, chat, video, news, shopping. Built-in rules and your own entries settle the obvious cases (ad managers count as work). With your own Jev key, unknown sites and either-way ones like YouTube are checked against what you said you’d do. | Your blocklists: sites, apps, or the whole internet, with an allow-only mode on Mac and Windows. |
| Schedules and all-day rules | House rules: any of those five can be blocked all day, with a 10, 30 or 60-minute pause. No schedules. | Recurring and planned-ahead sessions, and always-on sessions (Premium). |
| Tracking and history | Logs the app, window title and site. Shows today: where the time went, the top time sinks, focus kept. | A session history (when, which lists, which devices) and the time saved over the past week. No per-app time tracking in the app; a separate Insight browser extension tracks time on websites, stored locally. |
| Account | None. | Required. |
| Where your data lives | In local files on your Mac. Nothing it records is sent to us. With your own Jev key, the cases the rules can’t settle go to TypeSafe. | Blocklists and schedules sync through your account. Its privacy policy says it doesn’t track, store, retain or transmit your app or website use. |
| Teams | None. | Yes: Freedom for Teams. Admins can’t see what members block. |
| Price | US$49 once, for up to 3 Macs (not on sale yet). 14 days free; after that, logging and the Today view stay free. | A free plan (sessions you start now, up to two hours). Premium is $8.99 a month, or $3.33 a month on the yearly plan. “Forever” was shown at $99.50, marked 50% off $199. |
What Freedom does better
- Every device at once: Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. One session covers all of them.
- A lock that’s hard to get round: Locked Mode, protection against uninstalling on the Mac, and support staff who can’t end a session for you.
- Schedules: recurring sessions, sessions planned ahead, always-on blocks.
- The whole internet, or everything except a short list.
- A free plan, and team plans.
- Older Macs: it runs on macOS 11 and later.
Where SqwarkSelf is different
- It asks rather than blocks, and with your own Jev key, sites that can go either way, like YouTube, are checked against what you said you’d do, so work that happens on a “bad” site can get through. Without a key, “This is work” does it in one click.
- Only the window you drifted into goes dark, with your own words on it.
- When it’s wrong, “This is work” costs one click. There’s no lock to wait out.
- No account; the log stays on your Mac.
- One price, once. (Freedom’s Forever plan is one payment too: $99.50 on its September offer, $199 otherwise.)
Choose Freedom if…
- your phone is where the time goes
- you want a block you can set so you can’t undo it
- you want the whole internet off, on a schedule
- you use Windows, or several devices
Choose SqwarkSelf if…
- blocks keep catching your real work: a client’s YouTube link, the ads pages of a social site
- you’d rather be asked than locked out
- you don’t want an account
What SqwarkSelf doesn’t do
- Mac only: no iPhone, no Android, no Windows.
- No hard lock. On a watch you can always say “this is work”; a house rule can always be paused.
- No schedules, and no reports beyond today.
- No team features.
- It’s new: a first version, from a very small company.
What we checked
Everything in Freedom’s column comes from these pages, read on 21 September 2026. If something has changed since, their page is right and this one is out of date.
- freedom.to: What Freedom is; platforms; privacy line
- freedom.to/premium: Plans and prices
- freedom.to/features: Sync, allow-only mode, always-on sessions
- freedom.to/downloads: Supported systems
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/13764747-what-s-included-in-free-and-premium-plans: Free plan limits
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/1802927-locked-mode: Locked Mode
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/1776713-ending-a-block-session: Ending a session early
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/4385700-how-to-block-apps-on-mac: Blocked Mac apps are hidden; Kill Blocked Apps
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/2273960-freedom-session-history: Session history
- support.freedom.to/en/articles/3149108-how-to-use-insight: The Insight extension
- freedom.to/privacy: Privacy policy
- freedom.to/teams: Freedom for Teams
Freedom is a trademark of its owner. SqwarkSelf isn’t affiliated with it, and this page uses no logos or screenshots of theirs.
