SqwarkSelf vs Opal
Opal is a screen-time app built around the phone, with a Mac app alongside. SqwarkSelf is Mac only, and never locks.
Opal is a screen-time app for iPhone, Android and Mac. On the iPhone it uses Apple’s Screen Time to block apps and sites in sessions, on schedules, or once you reach a daily limit, with a score and reports on top. The Mac app is a separate download from Opal’s site, and its own help pages call it “not yet as robust as our iPhone app”.
If your distraction lives on your phone, that settles it: Opal can help there and SqwarkSelf can’t, because it can’t see your phone.
Side by side
| SqwarkSelf | Opal | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Mac only, macOS 14 or later. | iPhone (iOS 18 or later), Android, and Mac (macOS 13 or later, downloaded from its site). |
| 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. | The apps and sites you chose are blocked during a session, on a schedule, or once you’ve used up a time or open limit. |
| 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. | It depends on the difficulty you pick. The hardest, on Opal Pro, can’t be snoozed or ended early; an Emergency Pass works once a week. |
| 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. | The apps and sites you chose; an allow-only mode on the iPhone. |
| 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. | Sessions by day of the week, daily time limits, and limits on how many times you open something. |
| Tracking and history | Logs the app, window title and site. Shows today: where the time went, the top time sinks, focus kept. | On the Mac, today’s screen time while the app is open. On iPhone and iPad, a weekly Focus Report; on Pro, the Opal Score with history. |
| Account | None. | Required: you sign in on the Mac. |
| 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. | Its help says Opal’s data stays on each device, and sessions don’t sync between devices. Opt-in social features keep your daily screen-time total on its servers. |
| Teams | None. | A Teams plan (contact them for pricing), and Opal for Schools. |
| 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. Pro is $99.99 a year (shown as $8.29 a month), $19.99 monthly, or $399 lifetime, and it covers the Mac at no extra cost. |
What Opal does better
- The phone: iPhone and Android, with Screen Time blocking on the iPhone.
- A hard mode that can’t be ended early.
- Limits: schedules, daily time limits, and caps on how often you open something.
- A score with history (Pro), and a weekly Focus Report on iPhone and iPad.
- A free plan, plus team and school versions.
- Older Macs: the Mac app needs macOS 13; SqwarkSelf needs 14.
Where SqwarkSelf is different
- Mac only, and built around the Mac: the window in front, its title, and in a browser the address.
- It blocks kinds of thing rather than a list of apps you pick, and with your own Jev key, sites that can go either way, like YouTube, are checked against what you said you’d do.
- Only the window you drifted into goes dark, for ten seconds. Nothing is locked.
- No account.
- One price, once: US$49. (Opal’s one-time option is its $399 Lifetime plan.)
Choose Opal if…
- your phone is where most of the time goes
- you want a session you can’t end
- you want limits and schedules on your phone as well as your Mac
Choose SqwarkSelf if…
- your distraction is on the Mac, in the middle of work
- 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 Opal’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.
- opalapp.com: Platforms; what Opal is
- opalapp.com/mac: The Mac app; macOS 13 or later; Pro on the Mac
- opalapp.com/pricing: Plans and prices; Teams
- help.opalapp.com/article/how-do-i-use-the-mac-app: Mac sessions, limits, difficulty, sign-in, no sync, today-only screen time
- help.opalapp.com/article/how-to-access-focus-report: Focus Report on iPhone only
- help.opalapp.com/article/what-does-opal-do-with-my-data: Privacy
- opalapp.com/terms: Screen Time API; social data on servers
- apps.apple.com/us/app/opal-screen-time-control/id1497465230: iPhone listing: iOS 18 or later, features
Opal is a trademark of its owner. SqwarkSelf isn’t affiliated with it, and this page uses no logos or screenshots of theirs.
