Phone addiction apps have one job that Screen Time's ignore button gave up on: holding the line when you'd rather not. If you've set limits and watched yourself dismiss them the same evening, you already know the problem isn't information. It's the gap between what you decided and what your thumb does at 11pm. We've covered what that pattern looks like separately; this list is the tools.
Disclosure up front: one of these five phone addiction apps is ours, enough., and we'll be straight about where the others serve you better.
Ratings and prices come from the US App Store, checked this week.
1. Opal
App Store rating 4.7 from 83,913 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + $99.99/yr Pro (source)
Platforms: iPhone, Android, Mac
Opal's difficulty levels are its answer to the ignore button: at the harder settings, a running session simply has no unblock to find. Schedule the sessions on a good day and the bad days inherit them. It's the most polished app in the category and priced like it, $99.99 a year for Pro, with a free tier covering a single schedule or limit. If the checking habit owns whole stretches of your day, this is the strongest fence.
Best for: compulsive checking that fills every unstructured hour.
2. Refocus
App Store rating 4.8 from 10,489 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + Pro from $49.99/yr (source)
Platforms: iPhone, Mac companion
Refocus assumes you'll try to talk your way past your own settings, because with a real checking habit, you will. Strict Mode reopens only with a passcode you can give to someone you trust, an NFC tag you can leave in the car, a wait timer, or a long typed challenge. Handing the key to your partner is a genuinely different mechanic from anything else on this list. Schedules, time limits, and analytics fill out the package, with Pro from $49.99 a year.
Best for: the 11pm negotiation with yourself, ended by giving someone else the key.
3. enough.
Our app. Newer than the others here, with far fewer App Store ratings, so judge it on fit rather than review count.
Price: Free 7-day program + $49.99/yr Complete (source)
Platforms: iPhone
Ours. The checking habit isn't uniform: it spikes at particular places and hours, and enough. is organized around exactly that. Your chosen apps are already blocked at the locations and schedules you set, opening one anyway takes a deliberate press-and-hold from a small daily allowance, and Insights shows whether the checking is actually falling. The free 7-day program is a structured first week, no card needed. Honest limits: iPhone only, and far fewer reviews than anything else here.
Best for: checking that clusters, at work, on the couch, in bed, rather than spreading evenly.
4. BePresent
App Store rating 4.8 from 58,545 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + $79/yr (source)
Platforms: iPhone
BePresent treats the habit as something you beat with other people watching. Daily goals and streaks give each day a scoreboard, leaderboards and challenges bring in friends and family, and Beast Mode locks things down when motivation dips. Its 4.8 across 58,000+ ratings makes it the crowd favorite on this list. The model needs the crowd, though: solo, with nobody on your leaderboard, it loses most of its pull.
Best for: people whose follow-through improves the moment someone else can see the score.
5. one sec
App Store rating 4.8 from 23,198 ratings on the US App Store, as of 20 July 2026.
Price: Free tier + $19.99/yr Pro ($99.99 lifetime) (source)
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android
one sec is the lightest touch here, and for the checking habit specifically, that's often right. A breathing pause before each chosen app opens turns the automatic check into a decision, and a published study measured about 57 percent fewer opens on average. It blocks nothing outright, so it pairs naturally with any of the heavier apps above. Pro is $19.99 a year, the cheapest subscription on the list.
Best for: making each check a choice again, or softening the edges of a stricter setup.
Choosing a phone addiction app
Be honest about how the habit shows up, then match the tool. Endless unstructured checking: Opal. Losing the argument with your own settings: Refocus. Checking that lives at certain places and hours: that's the shape enough. was built for. Needing witnesses: BePresent. Wanting a nudge rather than a wall: one sec.
If you're still working out whether it's a habit or something heavier, start with can't stop checking your phone before you spend anything.
Ratings and prices checked on the US App Store, 20 July 2026.
