Brick alternatives for iPhone: what you get without the puck

Most pages on this search compare prices and feature lists. This one compares what each option actually stops, and what happens at the moment you genuinely want to break the block. That moment is the only one that matters, and it's the one a feature list tells you least about.

What Brick is, and why it works

Brick is a small battery-free NFC puck and a companion app. You choose the apps to block, tap your phone on the puck to block them, and tap again to unblock. It costs $59 once, no subscription. If you're away from the puck and need out, the app keeps five emergency unbricks.

It's good. The puck works because it's an object with a location, and that location isn't your pocket. Leave it on the kitchen shelf and opening Instagram at your desk means standing up, walking to the kitchen and tapping, and by the second step most urges have gone. It's the same idea as a QR code taped inside a cupboard, in a nicer form. And because you pay once, over a few years it works out cheaper than most subscriptions, ours included. The numbers are below.

Where the model runs out

The puck's power is that it isn't with you. Carry it, or spend the day at home where it lives, and the friction is one tap away, which is to say gone. That's not a criticism of Brick. It's true of every physical key: a QR code, an NFC tag, and the QR and NFC unlocks in Indistractable, all the same. An object stops impulse, because impulse doesn't survive a walk. It doesn't stop a decision, because a decision will happily take the walk.

Underneath that is the ceiling every iOS blocker shares. Apple's Screen Time API lets an app shield other apps and lift the shield, and that's all. It can't stop you deleting the app or switching off its permission in Settings. Brick's app, Foqos, Indistractable and everything else on this page are advisory in the end. So the useful question isn't which one is unbreakable. It's how you break them, and which mechanism gets in the way of that.

The alternatives, by what they stop

Same tap model, free, no hardware: Foqos

Foqos does what Brick's app does, with a blank NFC tag or a printed QR code instead of the puck. It's free and open source, with no account, ads or tracking, and one optional $1.99 tip to the developer. It needs iOS 17.6 or later. Blank NFC tags cost next to nothing, so the whole setup is close to free. Foqos publishes its own comparison with Brick, which is worth a read. What you give up is the object. A sticker on the fridge isn't as satisfying as a puck on the shelf, and for some people the object is part of what makes it stick. What you get is $59 back and the source code.

Analytics and coaching: Opal

If what you want from a blocker is to see where the time goes, Opal is better at that than Brick or anything else here, with a screen-time score, reports and coaching alongside the blocking. There's no physical key and no partner approval. The free tier is limited to one rule. Pro is $19.99 a month, $99.99 a year or $399 for life, with a Teams tier priced on request. It's also the most expensive option on this page.

A physical key that someone else holds: Impulse's Disc

You can hand a Brick puck to another person, which quietly turns a physical key into a human one. Impulse makes both explicit. Each blocking profile has one of four strictness levels: type a phrase, wait out a countdown, enter a partner code that an accountability buddy holds, or tap its physical Disc or an NFC tag. You pick one level per profile, so for any given profile it's a person or an object, not both. The core app is free. Pro pricing isn't shown on the page we checked, so see their site.

For parents and children specifically, Unpluq sells a family version built around its NFC tag. We haven't tested it, so check their site for what it does and what it costs.

The key as a person: Indistractable

Indistractable has the same physical unlocks as Foqos and Brick, a QR code or an NFC tag, and adds a person. You nominate someone, and when you want to end a session early they get an email and approve it from their own phone, or don't. They don't need the app. In Strict mode any one unlock will do. In Hardcore mode you need the person's yes first and then a physical unlock as well, so a session can't end without both. Two emergency unlocks a month skip everything, so there's always a way out that doesn't depend on anyone else. It's $4.99 a month or $19.99 a year after a 7-day free trial, and it needs iOS 18.

The honest pitch against Brick is narrow. If the puck works for you, keep it. If you've found yourself walking to the puck, the missing piece isn't a better object.

The moment you want out

Since this page is about mechanism, here's what each option asks of you at the moment you genuinely want to break the block, using only what each vendor documents. With Brick, you walk to the puck and tap, or spend one of five emergency unbricks. With Foqos, you walk to the tag or the code. Nothing else is documented as standing in the way. With Impulse, it depends on the level you set for that profile: type the phrase, wait out the countdown, ask your buddy for the code, or walk to the Disc or tag. With Indistractable in Strict mode, you scan the code, tap the tag, email your person, or spend one of two emergency unlocks. In Hardcore mode you email your person, wait for their yes, and then still walk to the code or tag. Only an emergency unlock skips that. Pick the one whose worst moment looks most like yours.

What two years costs

Over two years Brick is cheaper than every subscription here except Indistractable's yearly plan, and from year three it's cheaper than that too. A one-off purchase keeps paying off for as long as you keep the puck, and there's nothing to cancel. If cost per year is what decides it and you don't want the free option, buy the puck.

The full field of nine blockers is on iPhone app blockers compared, and Indistractable vs Foqos covers the free option in more depth.

More comparisons

• iPhone app blockers comparedNine blockers side by side: physical unlock, partner approval, both at once, and price.
• Indistractable vs FoqosFree, open source, and just as good at QR and NFC. When to use which.
• App blockers where someone else holds the keyImpulse, LockPact, AppBlock and Indistractable, each on its own terms.