Comparison
An Unpluq alternative for people who would rather not carry a key
Unpluq's strongest barrier is a yellow NFC tag on a keychain, behind an app holding 4.8 stars from 921 App Store ratings in September 2026. Its listing calls the mechanism an "Unpluq Distraction Barrier–a digital key that makes you think twice", and the tag is that key at its most literal. snowscroll has no object, no key and nothing to scan. Which of those two facts matters more to you is the whole question.
Unpluq makes opening an app into a small deliberate act you have to perform. snowscroll leaves opening alone and takes the endless part out of what you open. One raises the cost of entry. The other lowers the reward for staying.
What Unpluq is
Chosen apps are blocked by default, along with their notifications, and getting into one means passing a barrier. The listed options are to shake the phone for a while, tap a random pattern of buttons, scroll through blank space, scan a QR code, let it pick one at random, or use the Tag on your keychain. Each has a difficulty setting. Schedules block different apps at different times, and Premium adds up to fifty apps per schedule, unlimited schedules, every barrier type and contact whitelisting so that "notifications from them always get through".
There is also a level that costs nothing, introduced as "With Unpluq Free, get off your screen, and back into your life." and described as two blocked apps, one schedule and two barriers. That is a real way to test the mechanism before any hardware is involved.
Price, re-checked 14 September 2026 on unpluq.com. Its store listed a Premium Subscription package at $30.00, in 3, 6 or 12 month terms, with or without the Tag. The boxed version includes the Unpluq Tag, a subscription activation code, a quick start guide, a black mini-carabiner hook and a giftable box, under a "30-Day Money-Back Guarantee – if it's not the right fit, return it hassle-free". Compatibility is given as iPhones on iOS 16 or later and Android devices. On the App Store the same day it held 4.8 stars from 921 ratings, last updated 26 June 2026.
When Unpluq is the better choice for you
- You have switched off every piece of software meant to stop you. A tag in a coat pocket cannot be disabled from the sofa, and that is the entire argument for hardware. It is a good argument.
- Notifications are half of what pulls you in. Blocking them with the app is the default here. We do nothing whatsoever about notifications.
- You are on Android. Its site names Android alongside iPhone. We have no Android build and the queue for one carries no date.
- You want to try the idea before paying. Two apps, one schedule and two barriers cost nothing, which is more than we offer, since we have no trial of any kind.
- The apps eating your day are not social. A barrier can sit in front of anything installed. We reach six social services and nothing beyond.
- You want to make it harder over time. Difficulty settings and a random barrier are a dial you can turn. Ours has no dial.
Where a key runs out
Every item below is the direct cost of the thing that makes the approach work, not a defect in it.
An object is always somewhere. Keep it in your pocket and the barrier is a two second gesture, which is barely a barrier. Leave it at home and you are shut out at the moment you had a legitimate reason to be in. No setting resolves that, because the mechanism is the distance between you and the key.
Blocking by app takes the whole app. Whitelisted contacts keep notifications flowing, which genuinely helps, but the blocked app is still shut, and the recommendation surface and the conversation you were mid-way through share one icon.
A gesture repeated often enough joins the habit. Shaking a phone is friction on Monday and choreography by Thursday for some people, which is why the difficulty dial and the random option exist. For plenty of others it keeps working.
The object is bought once, the software is not. The package pairs the Tag with an activation code of 3, 6 or 12 months, so the hardware is the one-time part and the app around it is a continuing arrangement.
The level snowscroll works at instead
Nothing in ours is built to hold a door shut, which is the honest place to start a comparison with a barrier product. It is a browser for the iPhone. Sign in to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook or LinkedIn through it and the surfaces engineered to keep going are never delivered, while messages, search, your profile and the accounts you deliberately follow carry on. No app is removed, so nothing has to be restored, and there is no schedule to configure.
One intercept exists: setup asks for Screen Time permission and four Family Controls extensions ship with the app, so a habitual tap on one of the six is caught and lands you in our browser with the feed already gone. That is a redirect rather than a refusal, and anyone who decides to can walk around it, which is precisely the gap a physical key closes. Everything happens on the device, with no account. If money is the deciding factor, we keep a page on the tools that ask nothing at all.
What ours costs, checked 14 September 2026: $49.99 for a year, about $4.16 a month, or $9.99 monthly. Everything in the product is at that level, and there is nothing to buy once.
Unpluq and snowscroll, side by side
| Unpluq | snowscroll | |
|---|---|---|
| What actually stops you | A barrier you have to perform, at its strongest a tag you physically own. Unpluq wins this row, and it is the reason the product exists. | Nothing stops you. A tap is caught and rerouted into our browser, where the feed is missing |
| Notifications | Blocked with the app by default, with contacts you can whitelist | Untouched. Installed apps go on notifying you |
| What it reaches | Any app on the phone, in schedules you define | Six social services, and only the endless surfaces inside them |
| Your conversations while a block is on | Inside the blocked app, unavailable until you pass the barrier | Always reachable, because nothing is ever closed |
| Platforms | iPhone on iOS 16 or later and Android | iPhone only, Android on a queue with no date |
| Published price | $30.00 for the Premium Subscription package, in 3, 6 or 12 month terms, with a 30 day money-back guarantee | $49.99 a year, about $4.16 a month, or $9.99 monthly |
Package contents, the $30.00 figure, platform support and rating counts were re-checked on 14 September 2026 against unpluq.com and the Apple iTunes API record for App Store id 1673743726. Hardware prices and shipping vary by country, so confirm at checkout. Our own amounts were checked the same day.
Stay with Unpluq if any of this fits
- Software blocks have a history of being disabled by you, quickly, without much of an argument.
- The apps you lose to are games, news or shopping rather than social feeds.
- You need the block to hold while your phone is in your hand and the tag is not.
- Notifications, not feeds, are what break your concentration.
- An Android phone is the one you actually use.
Any single one of those is enough, and swapping to us would hand back the part that was doing the work. If the barrier is fine but the hardware is what you would rather avoid, the other object-based approach on this site is worth reading before you decide either way.
Common questions
How much is Unpluq?
Its own store listed a Premium Subscription package at $30.00 when we re-checked on 14 September 2026, in 3, 6 or 12 month terms, with or without the Tag. The boxed version holds the Tag, an activation code, a quick start guide, a mini-carabiner and the packaging, under a 30 day money-back guarantee. Amounts and shipping differ by country, so confirm on the day you order.
Does snowscroll come with a physical key?
No. There is no object, nothing to carry and nothing to scan. Our shield catches a habitual tap on one of six services and lands you in our browser with the feed removed, which reroutes you rather than holding a door shut. If a key in another room is the only thing that has ever worked for you, that is a genuine reason to choose hardware over us.
Can I run both at once?
Yes, and the pairing is a sensible one because they work on different layers. A barrier can guard the hours you want properly defended, and ours can take the endless surfaces out of the hours in between. Leave ours off the blocked list if you want it reachable while a schedule is running.
Does either of them stop notifications?
Unpluq does. Its listing says blocking apps and their notifications is the default, with whitelisted contacts still getting through. Ours does nothing about notifications, because it is a browser and the apps on your phone carry on buzzing as before. If the buzzing is what pulls you back, we are not the answer.
Keep going
To sort the field by what you actually need, there is the sorter, if a lock is what you are after. Before spending on ours, read everything about ours that is still unfinished. The money is set out on a page covering what we charge and how to stop paying, the argument against it is on the reasons not to buy snowscroll, and the underlying idea is explained in the short version of how feed removal works.
This comparison was produced independently by us. snowscroll has no relationship with Unplug Technology B.V., nobody there was consulted or shown a draft, and every detail above comes from that company's own store pages and App Store listing on the date stated. Product names and trademarks remain with their owners.