Added Time vs Opal

Where the two agree

More than you'd think. Both apps are free to download with a paid tier. Both use Apple's Screen Time framework, so blocking is enforced by iOS itself, on the device. And both make the on-device point about your data — Opal's own listing says personal data never leaves your phone, and that deserves saying plainly rather than being spun into a difference. If someone tells you one of these apps "spies on you," they're wrong about both.

What Opal does that we don't

Opal is one of the best-known apps in this category, and it isn't famous by accident. Three honest reasons to pick it over us:

• A harder lock. Opal offers uninstall protection — blocking that persists even if you delete the app. Added Time deliberately doesn't fight you that way: our whole design is a commitment you can always walk out of, doors with handles. If you know yourself and you want the door welded, Opal takes that job more seriously than we ever will.
• More game in it. Scores, milestones, streak mechanics — a bigger, busier system that genuinely motivates some people. Added Time is quieter on purpose: tallies in ink, counts of what you kept, and no theater when you stop.
• More ways to pay. Opal sells weekly ($4.99), monthly ($19.99), and yearly ($99.99) plans. We sell fewer, cheaper ones.

The numbers, side by side

Opal's figures are its US App Store in-app purchase list as of July 27, 2026; prices change, so check their listing for today's numbers — and tell us if this table has gone stale, and we'll fix it.

What Added Time does differently, on purpose

• The pause is priced, never punished. Our clock is a match clock: hit the whistle and the minutes are added on — +7′ means the match ran seven minutes longer, and that's all it means. We haven't found another focus app that adds the interruption back rather than letting it quietly eat the session; if you know one, tell us and we'll name it here.
• Counts are of what you kept. There is no tally of times you were stopped, no "you tried to open Instagram 47 times." Your record states what held and what you did — it never keeps score against you.
• The record is free, forever. Subjects, goals, habits, history, streaks — uncapped, permanently, plus the focus shield and one standing window. What costs money is the doorman: enforcement that runs on days you never open the app.
• Stop for a month and nothing breaks. We can only speak for ourselves here: if your subscription lapses, nothing is deleted. Extra windows and limits rest in place, visibly, and resubscribing re-arms them exactly as they were. Leaving is safe by design, which is precisely what makes staying an honest choice.
• No account, structurally. Not "sign-in optional" — there is nothing to sign in to. Purchases live with your Apple ID; your data lives on your phone; we run no servers at all.

Which should you pick?

Pick Opal if you want the hardest available lock, you're motivated by scores and streaks, and the price reads as fair for that. It's a capable, well-made app, and plenty of people should choose it.

Pick Added Time if you have hours you owe yourself — an exam, a degree, a craft — and you want them recorded as much as protected. If you'd rather count what you kept than be kept score against, don't want an account, and would like the yearly price to cost less than a textbook — or a lifetime option to exist at all — that's who this was built for. Screen time going down is a side effect; the hours going somewhere is the product.

Opal is a trademark of its owner. Added Time is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Opal in any way. This page exists because people comparison-shop, and we'd rather the comparison be accurate than flattering.