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App blocker without a subscription: what paying once gets you
Most focus tools bill you every month. An app blocker without a subscription doesn't: Monk is €54.95 once, and that's the end of it. Over three years the gap gets silly. But money isn't the whole argument. A barrier you own, sitting outside the phone, holds differently from software you rent that lives inside the problem. Here's the honest version, including where the free options beat us.
The three-year arithmetic
Run the numbers on whatever yours charges. At €5 to €10 a month, this is what you pay purely to keep the limit switched on:
| Over... | A €5–€10/month subscription |
|---|---|
| 1 year | €60 to €120 |
| 2 years | €120 to €240 |
| 3 years | €180 to €360 |
Monk is €54.95, once. It pays for itself inside the first year and the line stays flat after that. Swap in your own monthly figure — the shape doesn't change.
Stop paying a subscription and the barrier goes with it. Pay once and the thing you bought is still on the table.
The free option is real, and we should say so
Foqos is free, open source, and does the NFC thing: tap a cheap tag and your chosen apps lock. No fee, no account. If you're mainly tired of paying rent on your own attention, start there. It costs you a tag and an afternoon.
The choice is smaller than it looks. Foqos means a build maintained by one person, tags you source yourself, and support that means opening a GitHub issue. Monk means one object built for the job, an app we're answerable for, and someone to email. Both put the unlock outside the phone, which is the part that matters. No subscription doesn't mean better. It means the price stops.
Where the barrier lives matters more than the price
Say the costs were identical. One difference still outweighs the money: where the block sits. Subscription software runs on the same phone that's got you, so you turn it off in two taps and call it a special case. An object is on the desk, or in the hallway, and getting into a blocked app means walking over to scan it. No willpower involved, and nothing expires.
What you rent
Software inside the phone, billed monthly, switched off by you. The month you stop paying, you're back where you started.
What you own
An object outside the phone, paid for once, still yours. To open a blocked app you scan it. No shortcut, no invoice.
What the one payment covers
The disc, the app that decides what gets blocked, updates, and support. No premium tier behind a paywall, no feature we release later for a fee.
Common questions
Why pay €54.95 when free blockers exist?
Sometimes you shouldn't. If a free app works for you, keep it. Most people reading this have tried two or three and watched themselves disable each one. What Monk sells is an object built so there's nothing to disable from the sofa.
Any hidden fees?
No. €54.95 once. No subscription, no paid tier, no charge that turns up in month four.
What about app updates?
Included. The app gets maintained and improved without you paying again.
Can I get around it if I really need to?
Yes, with effort. There's no soft unlock inside the app — no ignore-for-today button, no code — only three finite emergency unlocks, and iOS gives nobody an unbreakable block, so we won't claim one. What goes away is the easy route back in, and that's enough to turn a reflex into a decision.
A physical barrier with no monthly fee
€54.95 gets you the object, the app and support. Nothing to renew. Tap it, your apps lock, and scanning it is the way back in.
Monk works on iPhone, iOS 16.2 and up, and ships within Spain today. Elsewhere in the EU or the UK, join the list.
