Brick vs ScreenBuddy: A Brick App Alternative With Nothing to Carry
Blog / Comparison
Brick vs ScreenBuddy: A Brick App Alternative With Nothing to Carry
The same commitment, without the puck
- Hardware: Brick is a $59 battery-free puck plus a free app. You tap your phone on it to block your chosen apps and tap again to get them back. ScreenBuddy is an app only, $39.99 a year, with nothing to buy, carry, or lose.
- Approach: Brick is all or nothing for the session: your apps stay blocked until you tap the puck. ScreenBuddy runs a 25-second countdown every time you open a limited app, plus one daily limit shared across all of them.
- Away from the puck: Leave Brick at home and your phone stays blocked until you get back or spend one of five emergency unbricks, which you refill by emailing support. ScreenBuddy's countdown and limit work the same wherever you are.
- Price over time: Brick is $59 once. ScreenBuddy is $39.99 a year. Brick costs less after about 18 months, and one puck can serve a whole household.
- Platforms: Brick works on iPhone (iOS 18 or later) and Android 12 or later. ScreenBuddy is iPhone only.
Is ScreenBuddy a good Brick app alternative?
ScreenBuddy is the Brick app alternative for people who like Brick's idea and don't want the object. Brick's commitment comes from a $59 puck: tap to block, tap to get back, and if the puck is on your desk at home, your phone stays blocked until you return or spend one of five emergency unbricks. ScreenBuddy puts the commitment in the app instead. A 25-second countdown runs every time you open a limited app, and one daily limit locks those apps for the rest of the day once it's spent. $39.99 a year, iPhone only, nothing to carry.
At a glance
Brick vs ScreenBuddy
Brick and ScreenBuddy are both built on commitment rather than willpower, and they place that commitment in different spots. Brick puts it in a physical object you have to go and touch. ScreenBuddy puts it in a countdown you have to sit through and a daily limit that runs out. Which one fits depends on whether your phone problem lives at a desk or follows you around.
| Feature | Brick | ScreenBuddy |
|---|---|---|
| Core mechanism | Tap your phone on an NFC puck to block chosen apps, tap again to end the session | 25-second countdown before a limited app opens, plus one daily limit shared across your limited apps |
| Getting back in | The physical puck, or one of five emergency unbricks | Wait out the 25 seconds and choose to go in, until your daily limit is spent |
| Hardware | $59 battery-free puck; $39 case sold separately | None |
| Enforcement | Strict Mode stops you deleting the app or changing settings mid-session | Apps are locked by default; once the daily limit is spent, limited apps stay locked for the rest of the day |
| Modes and schedules | Up to 10 custom modes, with schedules that block automatically | One daily limit shared across all limited apps, 10 minutes to 2 hours, with separate weekday and weekend allowances |
| Platforms | iPhone (iOS 18 or later) and Android 12 or later; one puck works with several phones | iPhone only (iOS 17.6 or later) |
| Price | $59 one time; the app is free | $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year |
| Free option | 30-day money-back guarantee on the device | 3-day free trial on both plans |
Brick pricing is from getbrick.com and ScreenBuddy pricing from the US App Store, both checked October 2026. Brick runs periodic sales (NBC News saw it at $50.15 in August 2026). The headline is the trade: Brick is a one-time purchase that asks you to keep an object nearby. ScreenBuddy is a subscription that asks nothing of your pockets.
How Brick works
How Brick Works, and Why People Look for an Alternative
Brick is a small battery-free puck with an NFC chip inside and a free companion app. In the app you build modes, up to ten of them, that block everything, block a chosen list, or allow only a chosen list. You start a mode by tapping your phone against the puck, and you end it the same way. You can also start a session from the app by holding a button, but only the puck can end it. Strict Mode closes the obvious loopholes by stopping you from deleting the app or changing settings while a session is running, and schedules can start a mode on their own at set times. It works on iPhone and Android, one puck serves several phones, and the company says it has more than 55,000 five-star reviews. Reviewers at NBC News and Cybernews both liked it, and it is easy to see why. Physical separation is a strong commitment device.
The reasons people look for a Brick app alternative tend to be the flip side of that strength. The first is the puck itself. The rule Brick enforces is really "be near the Brick," so if it lives on your desk, getting back in is a two-second walk, and if it comes with you, you are carrying a $59 object you can lose. Leave it at home and you are either locked out all day or spending one of five emergency unbricks, which you refill by emailing support. The second is that Brick is binary. A session is on or off. That is perfect for a three-hour deep-work block or a phone-free evening, and less suited to the forty small reaches for Instagram that happen between breakfast and bed, each of which is its own decision. The third is the up-front cost: $59 for the puck, $39 more if you want the case, and an iPhone running iOS 18 or later.
How ScreenBuddy works
Two Things, Done Firmly
ScreenBuddy keeps the commitment and drops the object. ScreenBuddy is built only for iPhone and it does two things. First, you choose the apps you want to limit and set one daily limit for all of them, anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, with separate allowances for weekdays and weekends. Second, every time you go to open one of those apps, a 25-second countdown runs first. For those 25 seconds the only button on screen says Keep Locked. When the countdown finishes, a button appears and you decide whether you still want to scroll. Nothing opens on its own.
The daily limit is the backstop. The time your limited apps are open counts against it, and once you've spent it they stay locked for the rest of the day. Apps are locked by default, so there's no session to remember to start, and they lock again on their own when you come back to ScreenBuddy. There's no leaderboard, no streak, and no focus score. The countdown handles the individual impulse. The limit handles the pattern of drifting back in ten times a day.
ScreenBuddy is $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with a 3-day free trial on both plans.
The puck question
Nothing to Carry, Nothing to Lose
This is the honest core of the comparison, so it's worth being direct. Brick's physical separation is powerful exactly when you control the environment: a desk, a bedroom, a kitchen drawer. It is weakest when you don't. On a commute, on a trip, at a friend's place, or on the day you forgot the puck, Brick is either all the way on or all the way off, and the only middle ground is an emergency unbrick you can't easily get back.
ScreenBuddy's commitment doesn't depend on where you are. The countdown runs every time, on the train or at your desk, and the daily limit is the same number in both places. You can't leave it at home because there is nothing to leave. For people whose phone habit is a steady drip of small opens rather than a few long sessions, that is the difference that matters. Brick asks you to decide in advance to block a stretch of time. ScreenBuddy makes each open a small decision and ends the day when the limit runs out.
Price
Where Brick Wins on Price
Brick is $59 once, and the app is free forever. ScreenBuddy is $39.99 a year. Run that forward and Brick costs less after about eighteen months, and the gap keeps widening every year you keep using it. One puck can also serve several phones, so a household gets more out of the same $59. If you know you'll use it for years and you like the ritual of tapping the puck, Brick is the cheaper buy, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
ScreenBuddy's price argument is the first year and the first week. You can find out whether friction suits you with a 3-day free trial before paying anything, there is no object to ship, and if it turns out your habit needs a hard physical off switch instead, you've spent nothing. Brick offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on the device, which is generous, though it does mean mailing a puck back.
How to choose
Who Should Switch, and Who Should Keep Brick
Switch to ScreenBuddy if you've left the Brick at home one too many times, if your problem is dozens of small reaches through the day rather than a few long sessions, or if you're on iPhone and simply don't want to buy and carry anything. It gives you a pause you can't tap past and a daily limit that follows you, for less than the price of the puck in year one.
Keep Brick if what you want is a hard, physical off switch for defined blocks of time: work sessions, bedtime, family dinner. Keep it if you're on Android or want one device shared across a household, since ScreenBuddy is iPhone only. And keep it if the "puck in another room" setup is already working for you. Brick does that one job very well, and ScreenBuddy is not trying to replace it.
Still weighing it? Our roundup of iPhone app blockers that actually work lines several tools up side by side, and Screen Time vs third-party app blockers explains why the built-in option is so easy to tap past.
Other options
Other Brick App Alternatives Worth a Look
ScreenBuddy is not the only Brick app alternative. A few others, depending on what you want to keep from Brick.
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Opal
Blocks on schedules and limits with no hardware, and its paid Deep Focus mode locks a session so you can't end it early, which is the closest software equivalent to Brick's commitment. Runs on iOS and Android. Our Opal review covers it in depth.
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Foqos
Free and open source, and it works with any NFC tag, QR code, or barcode rather than a proprietary puck. iPhone only, and without Brick's Strict Mode or emergency unbricks.
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one sec
Adds a short breathing pause before apps open and runs on iOS, Android, and desktop. See our one sec vs ScreenBuddy comparison for how the friction approach stacks up.
Bottom Line
Which One Wins?
Brick is the better product for people who want a physical off switch and control the room it lives in. Tap, block, walk away. If your phone problem has a time and a place, Brick solves it for $59 once, and it will cost you less than ScreenBuddy within two years.
For everyone whose phone problem follows them around, ScreenBuddy is the better Brick app alternative. A 25-second countdown every time you open a limited app, one daily limit that locks those apps for the rest of the day, nothing to carry and nothing to lose, for $39.99 a year on iPhone. If that is what you want, ScreenBuddy is on the App Store with a 3-day free trial.
Frequently Asked
FAQ
What is the best Brick app alternative without a device?
For iPhone, ScreenBuddy is the closest alternative that keeps a real commitment without hardware: a 25-second countdown before limited apps open and one daily limit that locks them for the rest of the day, for $39.99 a year. Opal is the pick if you want scheduled session locking on iOS and Android, and Foqos is a free option if you still like the NFC idea but want to use any tag.
Is Brick worth $59?
If you want a physical off switch for defined blocks of time and you'll keep the puck somewhere that makes getting back in a deliberate act, yes. It is a one-time purchase with a free app, and after about eighteen months it costs less than ScreenBuddy. It is a worse buy if you'd end up leaving the puck on your desk, where it becomes a toggle, or at home, where you're locked out or burning emergency unbricks.
What happens if I lose my Brick?
Each Brick comes with five emergency unbricks in the app that release all your apps without the puck. Once those are used, getting more means emailing Brick's support team, and a replacement puck is another $59. ScreenBuddy has no object to lose; the countdown and daily limit live in the app.
Does ScreenBuddy work on Android?
No. ScreenBuddy is iPhone only. Brick works on both iPhone (iOS 18 or later) and Android 12 or later, and one puck can be paired with several phones, so if you need Android or a shared household device, Brick is the better fit.
Is ScreenBuddy as hard to bypass as Brick?
They enforce differently. Brick's Strict Mode stops you from deleting the app or changing settings while a session runs, which is about as hard a software lock as iOS allows. ScreenBuddy runs on Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) framework, keeps your limited apps locked by default, runs the countdown every time, and keeps them locked for the rest of the day once the limit is spent. The difference is that ScreenBuddy never needs you to be near anything for that to work.
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