Escritorio visto desde arriba con portatil, folios subrayados, cuadernos y cafe: comparar opciones con los datos delante

Resources · Comparison · 8 min read

Monk vs Foqos: is the free option good enough?

For a lot of people, yes. Foqos is free, open source, well built and it uses the same mechanism we do: block your apps, then make a physical object the only way back in. We sell the paid one, and we are still going to tell you to try Foqos first. It costs nothing to find out whether this approach works for you, and if it does, you have lost a weekend instead of fifty euros. What Monk sells is a finished object, a stricter rule and a company you can email — not a feature Foqos lacks.

Desk seen from above with a laptop, highlighted pages, notebooks and coffee: comparing options with the facts in front of you

This is the comparison we wish we had found the first time someone asked us "what about the free app?". Checked in August 2026 against Foqos's own site and repository. If their site says otherwise now, their site wins.

What is Foqos and who is behind it?

Foqos is a free, open source iPhone app that blocks apps and websites behind an NFC tag, a QR code, a barcode or a timer. It is built and maintained by an independent developer, Ali Waseem, in the open on GitHub.

Let us be direct, because this is the part a competitor usually mumbles: Foqos is good. It was built to solve its author's own compulsive phone use and then released in full. The source is public and anyone can audit it. It asks for no account, shows no ads, tracks nothing, keeps your data on the device, and hides no paid tier behind the free one. It is supported voluntarily by its community. Its own site calls it the free alternative to Brick, Opal and Unpluq, which is exactly what it is.

Foqos is one of the better things to happen to the physical app blocker category. It proves the mechanism works regardless of who packages it. Under the hood, both Foqos and Monk use Apple's Screen Time framework. The block itself is Apple's. What each of us builds is the ritual around it. If Brick is also on your list, we compared that one too in Monk vs Brick.

What does each one really cost?

Foqos costs nothing. The app is free with no subscription, and NFC tags are ordinary hardware you buy separately for very little — standard NTAG213 stickers, sold in packs online. You can also just print a QR code, which costs the paper. Monk is €54.95, everything included.

Foqos: free, permanently, with no premium tier gating the useful features. Add a pack of NFC stickers, or nothing at all if you print a code. Realistically you are looking at somewhere between zero and the price of a coffee.

Monk: €54.95 including VAT, paid once. That covers the device — AirTag-sized, magnetic, no battery — the full app, lifetime updates, human support, and 30-day returns on top of the 14 legal days. Two discs are €89, three are €119. No subscription.

On price there is no argument. Foqos wins, completely. If cost were the only criterion this article would end here, and for a good number of readers it should. The honest framing is not which is better value, but that these are two different amounts of work to solve the same problem.

Try the free one first. Seriously.

Here is advice against our own interest, and we mean it.

The hardest thing about a physical blocker is not the hardware. It is finding out whether you are the kind of person for whom this works at all. Some people put an object across the room and their phone use collapses within a week. Others will happily walk to the fridge fourteen times a day. You cannot know which one you are by reading about it.

Foqos lets you run that experiment for free. Download it, stick a cheap NFC tag somewhere annoying, and live with it for two weeks. Expect the first three days to be genuinely unpleasant — your hand reaches for the phone before your brain arrives — and that is true whichever product you use. If the mechanism takes, you have a real decision to make about paying for a finished object. If it does not, you have saved the money, and we would rather you kept it.

Where the difference actually shows up

Three places, and none of them is "Foqos is missing a feature". It mostly is not.

Assembly. With Foqos: install the app, order tags or print codes, work through its blocking strategies — there are many, combining NFC, QR, barcodes, timers, breaks and manual control — build your profiles, then experiment until something fits. Plenty of people enjoy that, and it is a perfectly good reason to choose it. Monk goes the other way: it arrives finished, in one shape, and you are blocking within three steps. Foqos's flexibility is real. So is the evening it takes to use it.

Strictness. This is the substantive difference, and it is a philosophy rather than a spec. Foqos hands you the dial: manual stops, timed sessions that expire on their own, smart breaks that pause without ending a session. You choose your friction level, and you can lower it whenever you like. Monk does not negotiate. To reopen a blocked app you scan the physical disc. Always. No soft unlock, no stop button, no session that quietly gives up. There are three emergency unlocks in the app, finite, and nothing else. If the disc is at home, the decision is already made. That rigidity is the product: €54.95 does not only buy an object, it buys a system that does not ask you twice.

Which of those is better depends entirely on you, and we will not pretend otherwise. If you respond well to having control, Foqos's dial is a feature and Monk's rigidity will just annoy you. If you know from experience that any exit you are given is an exit you will eventually take, that is the case for the strict one.

Accountability. Foqos is one developer maintaining a free project he owes nobody. That is not a criticism, it is the deal, and a fair one. But if something breaks, your route is a GitHub issue and patience. Monk is a company with a return policy: if it does not work, you send it back. You are partly paying for someone to be answerable to you.

That rigidity is the product: €54.95 does not only buy an object, it buys a system that does not ask you twice.

Two more practical notes. Foqos requires a fairly recent iOS — check the minimum on its App Store listing before you plan around it — while Monk runs from iOS 16.2 on an iPhone XS or newer, so some older phones are covered by us and not by it. Both are iPhone-only: if you need Android, neither of us can help you. And Foqos is designed as a tool for one person, while Monk includes remote scanning for families — you block apps on your child's iPhone from yours, and they only come back when the disc you are holding gets scanned.

Monk vs Foqos: the table

Checked August 2026 on foqos.app, the project's GitHub repository and monktag.com.

Criterion Foqos Monk
Price Free · no subscription · community supported €54.95 incl. VAT, one payment
What you need separately NFC stickers or a printed QR, plus your own setup time Nothing: it arrives ready
Open source Yes, public on GitHub and auditable No, closed source
Privacy No account, no ads, no tracking, data on device Account-based app
Trigger options NFC, QR, barcode, timer, manual, breaks The Monk disc, plus scheduled sessions
To reopen an app Depends on the mode: tag, code, timer or manual stop Scan the physical disc. Always
Philosophy Flexibility: you set the friction Strictness: no soft unlock · 3 finite emergency unlocks
Platform iPhone only, recent iOS required iPhone only, iOS 16.2+ from iPhone XS
Family use Built as an individual tool Remote scanning: the parent keeps the disc
Support GitHub community, one developer Human support, company behind it
Guarantee Not applicable, it is free 30-day returns + 14 legal days
Availability App Store, anywhere Ships within Spain today · EU and UK list open

Choose Foqos if...

  • You want to test whether this mechanism works for you before spending anything.
  • You enjoy configuring things: ordering tags, printing codes, trying strategies until one fits.
  • Open source matters to you and you want to audit what you install.
  • You would rather set your own friction level, with timers and manual stops as a safety net.
  • Your budget today is zero, and that is not up for discussion.
  • You are outside Spain, where we cannot ship yet and the App Store can.

Recognise yourself in two or more? Download Foqos and do not look back. It is a genuinely good app and its author deserves the donation.

Choose Monk if...

  • You have already tried the free route and want a finished object instead of a sticker on the fridge.
  • You want to start today, not on the weekend when you finally sit down to configure it.
  • You know that if an exit button exists, you will eventually use it. With Monk there is none: to get back in, you scan.
  • You are setting it up for the family, with remote scanning for a child's phone.
  • Your iPhone is too old for Foqos's minimum, or you simply want a product with a warranty and someone to email.

If you go with Monk, it works in three steps

You decide when. But you decide it properly: with a physical gesture, not a tap on a screen.

  1. Pick the apps that take your day.
  2. Scan the Monk, or let a scheduled session start on its own, and they close.
  3. To get back in, scan the Monk again. You decide when, but you decide it properly.

Frequently asked questions

Is Foqos actually any good, or is it good "for a free app"?

Actually good. It is open source with the code public on GitHub, asks for no account, tracks nothing, keeps data on the device and hides no paid tier. It uses Apple's own Screen Time framework to do the blocking, which is the same foundation the paid products use. For a large share of people it is genuinely all they need, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise.

Should I try Foqos before buying anything?

Yes, and we sell the paid one. Two weeks with a free app and a cheap NFC tag will tell you whether a physical barrier suits you, which is the question that actually decides this. If it works, you can then decide whether a finished object, a stricter rule and a warranty are worth paying for. If it does not, you have saved the money.

Can I use any NFC tag with Foqos? And with Monk?

With Foqos, yes: standard NFC stickers bought online, a printed QR code, even barcodes. That flexibility is part of the appeal. Monk works with its own device, one disc, magnetic, no battery, meant to live in a fixed spot in your home. Fewer options to configure, and no decisions to make.

Can both be bypassed?

Both sit on Apple's blocking framework, and on iOS no block is completely impossible to work around. The difference is the exits each one leaves you. With Foqos, depending on the mode you chose, you can stop with a tap or wait out a timer. With Monk there is no soft unlock: you scan the device to get back in, or you spend one of the three finite emergency unlocks in the app. What kills the automatic gesture is precisely not having an easy way out — which is also exactly what some people will hate about it.

Sources

Comparison data checked in August 2026.

monk.

Foqos proves the physical barrier works

Monk turns it into something you do not have to build yourself: €54.95 once, no subscription, the app and lifetime updates included, and 30 days to send it back if it is not for you. Monk currently ships within Spain — join the list for the EU and UK. If you are somewhere we cannot reach, or you are not sure this mechanism suits you yet, install Foqos today. That is the better first move either way.

See Monk

One-time €54.95 · No subscription · Ships within Spain today · 30-day returns

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