The best one sec alternative depends on why you’re leaving. If it’s the price of adding more apps, try ScreenZen, which is free on the App Store. If it’s that you breathe through the pause and open Instagram anyway, you need something you can’t undo on your own: Opal’s Deep Focus, a Brick, or a limit someone else controls.
Below is what one sec genuinely does well, the two reasons people move on, and five alternatives with who each one suits. Prices are from each app’s App Store listing or official site as of October 2026.
What one sec does well
Let’s start with credit where it’s due. one sec puts a short intervention, like a breathing exercise, between you and the apps you pick. It has a 4.8 rating from about 24,000 reviews on the App Store, and it has a peer-reviewed study behind it.
That study, published in PNAS in 2023, followed 280 one sec users for six weeks. Here’s what it found:
- About 36% of the time people tried to open a target app, they closed it again after the pause.
- By week six, people tried to open those apps 37% less than in their first week.
- Put together, actual opens of the target apps fell by 57%.
The same paper also tested which part of the pause does the work, in a separate online experiment with 500 people. The strongest piece was simply the option to back out. The waiting time helped too. The message on screen, on its own, didn’t.
one sec has also grown beyond the pause. Its listing now describes manual and scheduled blocks, a bedtime schedule, strict blocks with uninstall protection, and “re-intervention,” which kicks you out after a set time so you have to do the exercise again.
So if one sec is working for you, honestly, keep it.
Why people look for something else
Two reasons come up most.
1. More than one app costs money. one sec is free for one app. For more, the listing shows one sec pro at $19.99 a year, $6.99 a month or $99.99 lifetime. That’s fair for what it does, but if you just want to slow down three apps, a free option might be enough.
2. The pause leaves the decision with you. Look at that 36% figure again from the other side. About two times out of three, people still went ahead after the pause. That’s not a flaw in the study. It’s what a pause is: a moment to choose. When you’re on autopilot, that moment catches you. When you’re tired, bored and fully aware that you want to scroll, you breathe, you tap through, and you’re in.
If that second one sounds like you, a longer pause probably won’t fix it. You need a different kind of friction.
The alternatives at a glance
| App | How it stops you | When you want to cheat | Price (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Screen Time | Daily Time Allowances by category | You hold the settings, unless someone else has the passcode | Free, built in |
| ScreenZen | A wait that can grow, open limits, schedules, locked settings | Wait it out | Free, optional tips |
| Opal | Scheduled blocks and Deep Focus sessions | Deep Focus can’t be cancelled; other blocks can be unblocked after a wait | Yearly plan $99.99 |
| Brick | A physical device you tap to lock and unlock | Find the Brick, or use one of five emergency unbricks | $59 for the device |
| PeerPause | Daily limits that lock the app | Ask your Time Buddy. They decide. | Free to be a buddy; Pro to limit your own apps |
1. Apple Screen Time: free and already there
Before paying for anything, try what’s built in. On iOS 27, Apple’s iPhone User Guide describes Time Allowances: you go to Settings, tap Screen Time, then Time Allowances, and set how long you can use categories like Social Media or Entertainment each day. You can also build a Screen Time Schedule with time windows for things like work and evenings.
The weak spot has always been that the person who sets the limit can also change it. The usual fix is to have a friend set a Screen Time passcode you don’t know, which works better than you’d expect but has its own catches. We go through them in how to make Screen Time limits you can’t ignore.
Pick it if: you want a free first step and don’t mind some setup.
2. ScreenZen: the closest free one sec alternative
ScreenZen is free, with optional tips from $5 to $40, and it has a 4.9 rating from about 52,000 reviews.
It feels a lot like one sec, with more knobs. There’s a wait timer before an app opens that can grow with each open, breathing exercises during the wait, reflection prompts before an app opens, per-app daily limits, schedules that change by app and by day, and strict blocking after a number of opens. You can lock your settings so you can’t loosen them mid-urge, and its latest version lets you add an optional accountability partner to that lock.
The catch is the same as one sec’s: most of the friction is time. It just costs nothing.
Pick it if: price is your main reason for leaving one sec.
3. Opal: blocks you can’t cancel
Opal is the opposite of a pause. You set rules and focus sessions, and the apps are blocked rather than delayed. It has a 4.7 rating from about 90,000 reviews.
Its strongest feature is Deep Focus, which the listing calls “the maximum level of protection — you can’t bypass or cancel.” For a planned work block or an exam week, that’s exactly what a one sec user who keeps tapping through might want.
The trade-offs: it’s the most expensive subscription here, with a yearly plan listed at $99.99. Outside Deep Focus, you can still unblock after a waiting room. And it’s built around sessions, so it’s better for planned focus time than for a daily allowance. We cover Opal in more detail in our Opal alternatives post.
Pick it if: your problem is specific hours, like work or study, and you’ll use Deep Focus every week.
4. Brick: a lock that lives across the room
Brick is a small device, $59 on its site. You choose which apps to block, tap your phone on the Brick to start, and tap it again to get them back. If the Brick stays at home, your apps stay blocked while you’re out.
Physical distance is a real upgrade from a breathing exercise. Walking to another room is harder to do on autopilot and harder to talk yourself into. But the app also gives you five emergency unbricks, and a Brick on your desk is only a few steps away.
Pick it if: you like a ritual and can actually keep the device out of reach.
5. PeerPause: someone else makes the call
PeerPause works on the second problem from above. It doesn’t make the pause longer. It takes the final decision away from you.
You pick apps or categories and set a daily limit. At the limit the app locks, and there’s no “Ignore Limit” button. To get more time, you send a request, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour with an optional note, to your Time Buddy, a friend you choose. They tap accept or deny from wherever they are. Changing or removing a limit needs their OK too, so you can’t quietly delete it at 1am. Streaks count the days you didn’t ask at all.
On privacy: your buddy sees only the app name, the time you asked for and your note. Never your messages, photos or what you do inside apps, and your Screen Time data stays on your phone.
The trade-offs are real. A friend has to respond, so pick someone who’ll actually reply, and who’ll say “lol no, go to bed” when that’s the right answer. And while being someone’s Time Buddy costs nothing, limiting your own apps needs a PeerPause Pro subscription. If you’re wondering why a second person works when willpower doesn’t, read what is a screen time buddy.
Pick it if: you know exactly what you’re doing when you skip the pause, and you’d like someone else to be the one who says no.
How to choose
Be honest about what happens when one sec’s pause shows up:
- “It works, I just don’t want to pay for more apps.” ScreenZen, or Screen Time’s Time Allowances.
- “It works, but only for a few apps that matter at certain hours.” Opal’s Deep Focus.
- “I breathe, I tap through, every single time.” You need friction that isn’t time: a Brick in another room, or a friend who decides.
You don’t have to pick only one. A pause app is great at catching the mindless opens. A buddy-held limit is for the rest, the times you mean it. Using one sec for autopilot and a person for the deliberate stuff is a perfectly good setup.
Want to see these side by side with PeerPause? Our comparison of Opal, one sec, ScreenZen and Brick goes through each one.