What's the best free app blocker for Mac in 2026?

Focuh is the strongest genuinely free option. It blocks both desktop apps and websites at the macOS system level during a focus session, with no paid tier and no feature gating. Cold Turkey can block apps too, but app blocking and scheduling sit behind its $39 license. SelfControl is free but blocks websites only, not applications. If you want to block apps like Slack, Discord, or a game without paying, Focuh is the clearest match.

Is Focuh's app blocking really free?

Yes. Focuh is completely free on macOS with no premium tier, no trial clock, and no features locked behind a paywall — app blocking included. Cold Turkey gates app blocking behind a $39 one-time license, and its free tier blocks websites only. So if blocking applications specifically is what you need, Focuh gives you that at no cost where most competitors charge for it.

How does an app blocker on Mac actually stop apps from opening?

Focuh uses macOS Accessibility APIs. When a focus session is active and you try to open or switch to a blocked app, Focuh detects it and prevents it from coming to the foreground, nudging you back to your work instead. This works system-wide rather than inside a single program. It does require granting Accessibility permission once in System Settings, which is the trade-off for OS-level control.

Can I bypass Focuh's app blocking during a session?

Technically yes — you can revoke Accessibility permission in System Settings to stop the blocking. That's deliberate friction rather than a lock: most people find that having to dig through System Settings is enough to break the impulse to quit a session early. If you need genuinely unbreakable blocking that even resists uninstalling, Cold Turkey's Frozen Turkey mode is stricter, though it's paid and Windows-first.

Does Focuh block apps on Windows too?

No. Focuh is macOS-only. If you need to block desktop applications on Windows, Cold Turkey and Freedom both support Windows, while Focuh does not. For Mac users, Focuh's advantage is that app blocking, website blocking, a focus timer, and task management all live in one free app rather than across several paid tools.

Will an app blocker slow down my Mac?

No, not in any way you'd notice. App blockers like Focuh check which application is coming to the foreground through the Accessibility API, which is lightweight event-driven work, not constant scanning. There's no kernel extension and no background crawler indexing your disk. The overhead is negligible compared to the apps you're actually running, like your browser or editor.

Should I use an app blocker, a website blocker, or both?

Both, if your distractions span both. If you only scroll in browser tabs, a website blocker is enough. But if you check Slack, lose hours to a desktop game, or open the Discord app on autopilot, you need app blocking too — a website blocker can't touch native apps. Focuh combines both, so one free Mac app covers browser tabs and applications in a single focus session.

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Best Free App Blocker for Mac (2026)

Q: What's the difference between an app blocker and a website blocker on Mac?

A website blocker stops you reaching domains in a browser — youtube.com, reddit.com, and so on. An app blocker stops native macOS applications from running or coming to the foreground — Slack, Discord, Steam games, Messages, or the Reddit desktop app. Many distractions live in apps, not browser tabs, so a website blocker alone leaves a hole. Focuh does both at once, which is why it covers the gap most browser blockers leave open.

May 30, 202610 min readFocuh

Most focus tools block websites and stop there. That's fine until your real problem is the Slack app pinging every four minutes, the Discord window you alt-tab to without thinking, or the game that's one click away in your dock. A website blocker can't touch any of those. This guide covers the best free app blocker for Mac in 2026 — how app blocking on macOS actually works, what's genuinely free, and where a website-only tool leaves a hole.

The short answer

The best free app blocker for Mac is Focuh. It blocks both desktop apps and websites at the system level during a focus session, it's completely free with no paid tier, and it bundles a focus timer and task management in the same app. Cold Turkey can block apps too, but it gates that behind a $39 license; SelfControl is free but blocks websites only. If you specifically need to block applications without paying, Focuh is the cleanest fit.

What's the difference between an app blocker and a website blocker?

This distinction trips people up, so it's worth being precise. A website blocker stops a browser from loading certain domains. A app blocker stops native macOS applications from running or coming to the foreground. They solve different problems:

A website blocker stops you opening twitter.com in a tab.
An app blocker stops you opening the Slack, Discord, Messages, or Steam application.

Plenty of the things that wreck a focus block aren't websites at all. Slack and Discord have native apps. So do most games. So does the menu-bar Twitter client you forgot you installed. If your blocker only watches browser tabs, every one of those is a free pass. The difference between system-level and browser blocking covers the browser side of this; app blocking is the layer above even that.

How app blocking works on macOS

App blockers on Mac generally lean on the macOS Accessibility API. When you grant a tool Accessibility permission, it can see which application is coming to the foreground and act on it. Focuh uses this to detect when you try to open or switch to a blocked app during a session and gently push you back to your work instead.

The trade-off is that one-time permission grant. The first time you set it up, you'll go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and switch Focuh on. That's the same friction that makes OS-level blocking effective: because it operates above any single browser or app, it can cover everything at once. There's no kernel extension involved and no constant disk scanning, so the performance cost is effectively nothing.

Free Mac app blockers compared

Tool	Blocks apps	Blocks sites	Free for app blocking	Platform	Focus timer
Focuh	Yes	Yes	Yes	macOS	Yes
Cold Turkey	Yes	Yes	No ($39)	Win + Mac	No
SelfControl	No	Yes	—	macOS	No
Freedom	Yes	Yes	No (paid)	Win + Mac + mobile	No
Focus	Yes	Yes	No (paid)	macOS	Yes

The column that matters is the third one. Several tools can block apps; far fewer let you do it for free. SelfControl is free and open-source but blocks websites only — it edits the hosts file, which apps ignore. Cold Turkey, Freedom, and Focus all block apps but charge for it. Focuh is the one that does app blocking at no cost.

Why Focuh is the best free app blocker for Mac

Focuh blocks both apps and websites in a single free focus session. Start a session, and your blocked applications won't come to the foreground and your blocked sites won't load — across every browser on the machine. When the session ends, everything's available again.

App and site blocking together. You don't run a website blocker and an app blocker side by side. One session covers youtube.com in Safari and the Slack app in your dock at the same time.

A timer in your menu bar. Focuh shows a live countdown in the macOS menu bar so you can see how much of your session remains without switching windows. Most blockers don't include a timer at all.

Task management built in. Focuh has a kanban board where you plan work by day and tie a focus session to a specific task, so a block isn't just "apps are off" — it's "I'm working on this for the next 45 minutes."

Genuinely free. No premium tier, no trial countdown, no feature held back. App blocking, the part competitors charge for, is included. For the website-blocking side specifically, the best website blockers for Mac guide and the best free focus apps for Mac roundup go deeper.

Where Focuh isn't the right tool

Honesty matters more than a sales pitch. Focuh has real limits:

It's macOS-only. Need to block apps on Windows? Cold Turkey or Freedom, not Focuh.
It's not unbreakable. You can revoke Accessibility permission in System Settings to stop a session. For most people that friction is enough, but if you want blocking that even resists uninstalling, Cold Turkey's Frozen Turkey mode is stricter — though it's paid and Windows-first. See Focuh vs Cold Turkey for the full trade-off.
It needs that one permission grant. OS-level blocking can't work without Accessibility access, so if you're unwilling to grant it, a browser extension is your ceiling.

How to block an app on Mac with Focuh

Download the free Focuh app and open it.
Grant Accessibility permission when prompted (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility).
Add the apps you want blocked — Slack, Discord, a game, whatever pulls you off task — to your blocklist, alongside any distracting websites.
Start a focus session and pick its length.

During the session, blocked apps won't come forward and blocked sites won't load. When it ends, they're back. If you find yourself opening an app on autopilot, that's exactly the reflex the block is there to interrupt.

Which free app blocker should you choose?

You're on a Mac and want app blocking for free — Focuh. It's the clearest match, and you get a timer and tasks with it.
You need unbreakable blocking and don't mind paying — Cold Turkey, weighing the Focuh vs Cold Turkey comparison first.
You only need to block websites, not apps — SelfControl is free, or a Chrome extension if you live in one browser.
You need Windows support — Cold Turkey or Freedom; Focuh is Mac-only.

If the apps in your dock are the thing pulling you off task, a website blocker was never going to fix it. Download Focuh free and block the apps and sites in one session — no license, no trial clock.