Free screen time apps for iPhone: what holds and what you tap past

Start with the free one you already have

Open Settings, then Screen Time. App Limits lets you cap a category or an app per day; Downtime blocks everything except the apps you allow between two times; Always Allowed is the whitelist. Set a Screen Time passcode and have someone else hold it if you want the limits to bite. It costs nothing and it is where most people should begin.

Its limits are well known. When a limit is reached, a screen offers Ignore Limit for fifteen minutes or the rest of the day, and by the end of week one you know where that button is. Downtime is all-or-nothing. And the whole thing is a timer, so it asks you to resist rather than to do something else.

What paid blockers add

Third-party focus apps sell the removal of the escape hatch: harder locks, schedules, friction such as delays or typing a sentence before an app opens, and reports. They work for many people and nearly all of them are subscriptions, because they run servers and sync across devices. If your problem is the whole day, one of them may be worth the price; check the App Store listing for the current cost and what the free tier really allows.

A free lock whose key is a verse

The Doorpost is built for one problem: the first minutes of the day. You pick the apps that pull at you. Each morning they stay closed until you open your own Bible and write out a verse into the app; it checks the words, accepts the ESV, NIV, NKJV, CSB and NASB, rejects half a verse, and then opens the apps for the day. There is no timer to wait out and no ignore button, because the unlock is something you would choose to do anyway.

It is free to download and free to use for the verse unlock. The full version, with unlimited apps, whole categories, websites and a custom daily reset time, is $2.99 a month with a 7-day trial, $19.99 a year, or $19.99 once, so a subscription is never required. No account, no ads, no analytics, no network requests.

Which to use

Use the built-in Screen Time limits for the afternoon and evening; they are free and adequate once the reflex is broken. Use The Doorpost for the morning gate on the two or three apps that eat the first hour. The two coexist because both use Apple's Screen Time permission. Keep the lists short; the point is fewer decisions.