Brick vs Opal (2026): $59 Once or $99 Every Year?

Short answer: buy the Brick if you have already defeated two or three software blockers, because physical distance is the only friction you cannot argue with. Pay for Opal if you want to understand your phone habits in detail and will actually read the reports.

Here is the full comparison, including the cost difference almost nobody does the maths on.

What each one actually is

Brick is a physical puck. You tap your phone against it to start a block and tap again to end it. Leave the Brick in another room, and you cannot unblock. It costs $59 once, with no subscription, and the companion app is free on iPhone and Android.

Opal is a software app blocker built on Apple’s Screen Time framework. It offers scheduled sessions, focus modes, detailed usage analytics, and an Opal Score. It costs $19.99 a month, $99.99 a year, or $399 for lifetime access.

They are solving the same problem in completely different ways.

The cost nobody compounds

Every comparison lists these prices side by side. Almost none of them run the numbers forward.

Brick is a one-time purchase. Opal is a subscription that keeps charging as long as you keep using it. Over three years, Opal costs roughly five times as much.

Opal does offer $399 lifetime access, which breaks even against the annual plan at about four years. That is a large upfront number for a category most people are still testing.

Cost is not the only axis, but it is the one that gets glossed over most.

How each one blocks

Brick blocks through distance. The app uses Apple’s Screen Time framework like everything else on iOS, but the unlock requires the physical object. That is the entire design. If the puck is in a drawer upstairs, the decision to unblock costs you a walk.

Opal blocks through software settings. Scheduled sessions, focus modes, and Deep Focus, which cannot be ended early once committed. Opal also offers app uninstall protection, which stops you deleting Opal itself during a session.

How each one gets bypassed

This is where the honest comparison lives.

Opal’s standard sessions can be ended. Outside Deep Focus, stopping a session is straightforward. Opal also runs on Apple’s Screen Time framework, which means it shares the ceiling every iOS blocker has: the owner of the phone always keeps ultimate control.

Brick’s bypass is physical, which makes it slower. You have to go and get the puck. But Brick includes five Emergency Unbricks in the app, which unblock everything without the device, intended for when you lose it. Additional ones are available by contacting their support.

So neither is unbypassable. Brick simply makes the bypass cost a trip up the stairs rather than a tap.

Where Brick wins

Physical separation. No software equivalent exists. If you have beaten every app you have tried, this is the reason to buy hardware.

No subscription. Pay once, own it.

Android support. Brick works on iPhone and Android. Opal is iPhone-focused.

More options: Brick alternatives for iPhone.

Where Opal wins

Analytics. Opal Score, trends over time, and personalised insight. Nothing in this category comes close, and for people who want to understand their habits before changing them, it is genuinely the product.

Nothing to carry or lose. Brick only works when it is nearby. Opal works anywhere, including when you are out, travelling, or at someone else’s house.

Polish and maturity. Years of refinement and a large user base behind it.

More options: Opal alternatives for iPhone.

The free third option

Worth knowing before you spend anything: you can get strict software blocking without paying.

Pause is free with no account, offers five blocking methods plus Strict Mode and Friction Lock, and has no in-app pause button. Disclosure: we make it. It does not have Opal’s analytics, and it obviously cannot put an object in another room, so it is not a replacement for either if those are what you actually want.

If your problem is simply that you keep tapping past every override you set, try the free option before spending $59 or $99.

Which one should you buy?

Buy the Brick if you have already tried two or three software blockers and found a way past each one. More software will not fix that. $59 once is cheap against the hours it buys back.

Buy Opal if you want detailed usage insight, you travel or move around a lot, or you know you will not carry a puck.

Buy neither yet if you have not tried a free strict blocker. Most people never need the hardware, and most people do not read the analytics they paid for.

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