How to choose a porn blocker, and what actually matters
On the App Store, porn blockers all look about the same. Same promises, same screenshots, similar prices. The differences that matter do not show up in the listing. They show up at 11pm, in the exact moment you are trying to get around the thing you installed. After enough of those moments, the same three questions sort every blocker in this category. Here they are, and how to check each one before you rely on it.
1. Is it hard to bypass?
This is the one that actually decides whether a blocker works, and it is the one the listing never tells you. A blocker is only as good as its weakest exit, and there are five people reach for. Test them. Open a private or incognito tab, does the block still hold, or does it quietly switch off. In Safari, try the "Reload Without Content Blockers" option, one tap and an ordinary blocker is gone. Open a different browser like Chrome or Brave, is it covered or only Safari. Force-quit the app, does the blocking keep running. And go to Settings, can you flip the extension off in four taps with no friction.
Most blockers fail several of these. The strong ones hold through all of them, and a few go further, adding a cooling-off delay so turning blocking off is not instant, and guiding you to Apple's Screen Time so even the app itself is hard to delete. For the full rundown, see the bypass guide, and for the specific case of every browser, blocking beyond Safari.
2. Is it private?
You are handing a porn blocker the most sensitive data about you. The question is where that data goes. Does the app make you create an account. Does it keep your streak, journal, and blocklist on a server, or on your phone. Does the App Store privacy label say Data Not Collected, or does it list your data next to a company that now holds it. The private answer is no account, nothing on a server, and blocking that happens on the device through Apple's one-way API so the app never sees your browsing. If a company cannot leak what it never collected, that is worth more than any privacy-policy paragraph. See the private porn blocker and how to judge any app's privacy.
3. Is it genuinely free?
The core job, blocking the sites, should not cost anything, and for the honest options it does not. Apple's Screen Time is free and built into every iPhone. Some apps keep a real Safari blocking layer free forever. The trap to avoid is the app that calls itself free but is actually a short trial, where the blocking quietly stops working after a few days unless you subscribe. Free should mean free for the part that matters. See what is actually free on iPhone.
The checklist, in one place
- Holds in private and incognito mode.
- Survives Safari's "Reload Without Content Blockers."
- Covers every browser, not just Safari.
- Keeps running after a force-quit.
- Cannot be switched off in Settings in four taps.
- No account, and nothing about you on a server.
- The core blocking is free forever, not a trial.
Where Escape lands on all three
I will be straight that I make one of these, so check every claim yourself against the list above. Escape's deeper blocking holds through all five bypasses, including the Settings one, because while it is on iOS itself locks the extension toggles. It has no account and keeps your data on your phone. And the Safari blocker is free forever. It is built to be the honest answer to all three questions at once, which is the whole reason it exists. Escape is on the App Store. If another blocker checks all seven boxes above, use that one. The point is the checklist, not the brand.
Start with the complete iPhone guide if you want the full setup, whichever blocker you choose.
Escape is a porn blocker that works in every browser, a 90-second urge ritual, practice games that retrain how you meet an urge, and 27 short courses on identity and the long arc of recovery. No account, no personal tracking.
More on this topic in Blocking porn on iPhone and iPad, or go deeper with the You grew up on this course.