Comparisons
How Sworn
compares.
Most accountability apps are really monitoring apps: screenshots of your screen, an always-on VPN that can slow the phone, a yearly bill. Sworn takes the opposite approach: what you swore off simply doesn't load, and the person you trust gets a count and a category, never a transcript. Accountability, not surveillance.
Side by side
Sworn vs the alternatives.
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Sworn vs Ever Accountable
Ever Accountable monitors and reports your activity with screenshots, Safari-only on iPhone, behind a management profile. Sworn goes the other way. Nothing to screenshot, system-wide, and you can use it solo.
“I get flagged for hot sauce… sending all sorts of mislabeled things to an accountability partner.” App Store review
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Sworn vs Covenant Eyes
Covenant Eyes takes periodic screenshots of your screen and runs an always-on VPN, for about $200/year. Sworn needs neither — and costs less than half the price.
“The VPN kicks off… won’t stay connected.” App Store review
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Sworn vs Accountable2You
Accountable2You reports the title of every page you visit to a partner — it monitors, it doesn't prevent. Sworn prevents instead, with no VPN, and your partner sees a count and a category rather than your history.
“It constantly resets the VPN… and it slows down often.” App Store review
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Sworn vs Canopy
Canopy is a parental suite with AI image filtering, location and sexting alerts, behind an always-on VPN. Sworn is a simpler, no-VPN filter for yourself or your kid, with no photo scanning or tracking.
“Easy to find work arounds… slows down phone a bunch.” App Store review
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Sworn vs BlockerX
BlockerX blocks behind a VPN and pushes a one-time “lifetime” plan. Sworn blocks instead, billed through the App Store or Play Store. Cancel in two taps. No VPN, no lifetime upsell.
“All I have to do is turn off the VPN settings… The panic button doesn’t work. This app is almost useless.” App Store review
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Sworn vs Opal
Opal is a beloved focus app where you run timed sessions that block distractions. Sworn isn’t a focus timer. It keeps a category off for good, with an optional partner who’s told if you switch it off.
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Sworn vs Freedom
Freedom blocks sites and apps on a schedule across your laptop and phone. Sworn runs on the phone and the computer too, and adds an accountability partner who’s notified if the filter comes off. Freedom doesn’t have that.
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Sworn vs BlockSite
BlockSite is a flexible blocker protected by a PIN you set and hold yourself. Sworn adds an accountability partner and an honest, ad-free free tier.
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Sworn vs NextDNS
NextDNS is a powerful DNS service you configure and monitor yourself. Sworn is the finished version of that idea. Curated categories, no log of your browsing, and a partner who’s told if you turn it off.
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Sworn vs Bark
Bark monitors your child’s messages and social apps and alerts you. Sworn takes the other path. It blocks the categories without ever reading their messages, so you get a count and never their texts.
Quotes are verbatim from recent App Store reviews, trimmed only for length (…); like any app, each of these has its fans too.
What's different about Sworn
Accountability, not surveillance.
- Accountability without a watcher. Sworn never sees or captures your screen. Your partner gets a count of blocked attempts and the category they fell under — enough to start a conversation, never a picture of what you were doing or a list of where you went. And when the two of you want the specifics, they're on your phone. The app keeps a 7-day view of what was blocked that you can open together, by choice.
- The same promise on your computer. Sworn runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebook as well as iPhone and Android. A computer pairs with a code from the phone and joins the same account. Same categories, same partner, one stream of emails instead of one per device. Tools that cover a laptop by watching the screen have to watch it on every device you add; Sworn covers the laptop the way it covers the phone, by not loading the thing in the first place.
- No VPN. Sworn just changes a DNS setting, so it doesn't take over your connection — your banking, Maps, and everything else keep working normally.
- Works system-wide, not just Safari. What you swore off stops loading across every app on the device, not only in one browser.
- One simple price, cancel in two taps. $7/month — and you cancel right in the App Store or Play Store, with no salesperson to get past.
Guides
Honest guides to staying honest.
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Block porn on iPhone
The free Screen Time filter, a system-wide DNS filter, an accountability app. Three honest options, with the real trade-offs of each.
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Block porn on Android
Android has no single built-in adult filter. Here are the real options — Private DNS, Family Link — and where each one falls short.
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A blocker you can’t turn off?
The honest truth about “unremovable” blockers on a phone you own, and why accountability works where a lock doesn’t.
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Best porn blocker apps (2026)
An honest buyer's guide to what actually matters (system-wide vs Safari-only, VPN or not, screenshots, accountability, price) and how the main options compare.
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Accountability for couples
Accountability without spying. Why screenshot apps backfire for couples, and what mutual, minimal accountability looks like instead.
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Block gambling apps & sites
The honest trade-offs of the native options, a system-wide no-VPN filter, and the accountability piece that makes it stick.
Keep the promise
you made to yourself.
Free to start. Three minutes to set up. One person you trust.
On a computer too? Set up the phone first, then add Windows, Mac, Linux or Chromebook to the same account.