Stay Focused is a genuine screen-time toolkit: profiles, phone-wide limits, allowlists, and usage statistics. If you're using a fraction of that and mostly want apps to stay closed, here's what else fits.
Stay Focused isn't a weak product when people go looking elsewhere. Its profiles, phone-wide limits, allowlisting, and usage statistics are exactly why it exists as a broader productivity toolkit, not just a blocker. The search for an alternative usually comes from wanting less of that structure, not a better version of the same thing.
This page compares a field of alternatives by that distinction. For the direct two-product breakdown, read Fella vs Stay Focused. Below, alternatives are grouped by whether the goal is fewer settings, a cheaper price, or a different kind of automation entirely.
| Option | Best reason to consider it | Core approach | Main tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Screen Time | You want a free option with no third-party app | App Limits, Downtime, reports, device controls | No multiple profiles or unlock-pattern statistics |
| ScreenZen | You want a free toolkit with a different configuration style | Delays, limits, schedules, goals, and stricter blocks | Still real setup, just shaped differently than profiles |
| Ochi | You want profile-style filters plus Shortcuts and multi-device sync | Reusable app and website filters across iPhone, iPad, and Mac | More automation to learn than Stay Focused's own profiles |
| Fella | You want almost none of the configuration | Selected apps blocked by default, one controlled exception | No profiles, phone-wide limits, allowlists, or statistics |
The comparison that matters isn't feature count. It's whether Stay Focused's profiles, allowlisting, and unlock-pattern timeline are things you actively use, or settings you configured once and now barely glance at.
Multiple profiles mean multiple places to make an exception. Each profile is a separate configuration you control, work, study, bedtime, personal time, which also means each one is a separate place you could quietly loosen a rule.
Statistics don't always change the next decision. Usage patterns, unlock-pattern reports, and an activity timeline are genuinely useful when the problem is unclear. Once it's already obvious, reviewing the same numbers can become its own overhead.
Strict Mode and Lock Mode still have to be applied per profile. They prevent profile changes and bypassing, but that protection depends on remembering to use the right mode in the right profile, not on a single rule that's the same everywhere.
Fella cuts the decision down to which apps and when. There's no profile to build, no allowlist to maintain, and no phone-wide limit to tune. Selected apps stay blocked all day, with one 5-minute emergency unlock per session.
ScreenZen is a different, still-simpler-than-Stay-Focused middle ground. Its delays, access windows, and daily limits are configurable, but it doesn't ask you to build separate profiles for different parts of your day.
Screen Time can cover a narrow need on its own. A single App Limit or Downtime schedule might be enough without Stay Focused's fuller profile system.
Ochi keeps the idea of separate configurations for separate situations. Its reusable filters can combine apps, websites, and categories the same way Stay Focused's profiles do, but with deeper Apple-device integration: Shortcuts, widgets, and syncing across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
That's a lateral move, not a simplification. If the profile-based structure itself was what worked for you, Ochi extends it further rather than removing it, which Fella deliberately does not do.
Choose Screen Time or ScreenZen when cost comes first. Both offer a real free path. See the wider field in the best free iPhone app blockers guide.
Choose Ochi when profiles and automation are the actual draw. It extends Stay Focused's configurable approach rather than simplifying it.
Choose Fella when the configuration itself is what you want gone. It trades Stay Focused's breadth for one fixed rule and nothing left to set up. For the direct comparison, continue to Fella vs Stay Focused. For the wider market, see the best app blockers for iPhone.
It depends on how much of Stay Focused's toolkit you actually use. Screen Time is the free built-in baseline. ScreenZen offers a similar free toolkit with a different feature mix. Ochi keeps profile-style filters with deeper Apple-device automation. Fella removes the profiles and statistics entirely with one fixed rule.
Apple Screen Time is included with iPhone at no cost. ScreenZen's current listing describes it as free and donation-supported. Stay Focused's own published pricing starts at $3.99 monthly, so compare what a free option would need to replace before assuming you must pay for a toolkit.
Fella asks the fewest ongoing questions: pick the apps, and the block runs with one 5-minute emergency unlock per session. Stay Focused's profiles, phone-wide limits, allowlists, and statistics are more capable but require more configuration to build and maintain.
Stay Focused already blocks websites as well as apps. Ochi supports websites and website categories too, alongside Apple-device syncing. Fella's core product is selected-app blocking on iPhone and does not include website blocking.
It can be, especially when the problem isn't fully clear yet. Once the pattern is already obvious, reviewing a timeline repeatedly can become its own kind of overhead rather than new information.
