The best website blocker for ADHD is usually one that adds a short, tolerable pause before distracting sites instead of a hard wall, takes minutes to set up, runs on a schedule you choose, and does not shame you for slipping. Hard walls tend to get switched off the first time you truly need a site, while a brief pause gives the urge time to fade. Redirect (Chrome and Chromium browsers only, data stays local, free for one site) sends you to your goals and makes every pause cost a small task you pick, such as a 60 second wait or a breathing pause. one sec is the better pick if your phone is the main problem, LeechBlock NG is the best free option with a delay page, Cold Turkey suits blocks you cannot undo, Freedom covers every device, and StayFocusd suits daily time budgets.
Last updated September 2026.
Before anything else: you are reading this on Redirect's website, and Redirect is the first tool on the list. Weigh the ranking with that in mind. Everything we say about the other five tools comes from their official sites and Chrome Web Store listings as we found them on September 26, 2026, and each entry says plainly who that tool suits better than ours.
What matters in a website blocker for ADHD#
Most blocker reviews rank tools on how hard they are to break. For ADHD that is often the wrong test. The problem is rarely that you decide to waste an hour. It is that your hand opens a new tab before the rest of you has made any decision at all. Research backs up why that moment is so hard. A 2016 meta-analysis by Jackson and MacKillop found that people with ADHD discount delayed rewards more steeply than people without it, so a feed that pays off now beats a task that pays off later more often.
That points to five things worth checking:
- Impulse friction over hard walls. A short pause between the urge and the site gives the impulse room to fade. A wall with no way through tends to get switched off the first time you genuinely need the site.
- Low setup effort. If configuring the blocker takes an afternoon, it becomes another unfinished project. Look for sensible defaults and one-click site lists.
- Gentle but firm pauses. The task should be easy enough to tolerate on a bad day and firm enough that you cannot tap through on autopilot.
- Schedules. Blocking during focus hours and leaving evenings alone keeps the tool from feeling like a punishment.
- No shame. Guilt-trip block pages add to the "why can't I just do it" feeling many people with ADHD already carry. A tool you dread is a tool you uninstall.
The strongest evidence for small pauses comes from a 2023 field study in PNAS by Grüning, Riedel and Lorenz-Spreen on the one sec app. In 36% of attempts, people closed the target app after the pause, and attempts to open those apps fell by 37% over six weeks. The study was about smartphone apps and was not specific to ADHD, but the mechanism is exactly what an impulsive click needs.
Quick comparison#
| Tool | Friction type | Works on | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redirect | Redirect to your goals, then a task you choose (60 second wait, breathing, typing, reason, math) before a timed pause | Chrome and Chromium browsers | Free for one site; Pro and Lifetime plans |
| one sec | A mindful pause (a deep breath) before the site or app opens | Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge; iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac apps | Extension free, with in-app purchases |
| LeechBlock NG | Block page, or a delaying page with a countdown | Firefox, Chrome, Edge, other Chromium browsers | Free, open source |
| Cold Turkey Blocker | Locked blocks; breaks that need random text typed or a delay waited out | Windows and macOS (desktop app plus browser extensions) | Free version; Pro is a one-time purchase |
| Freedom | Blocking sessions, with Locked Mode on Premium | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chromebook | Free plan; Premium $8.99 a month or $3.33 a month yearly; lifetime option |
| StayFocusd | Blocked after your time allowance runs out; a challenge before changing settings | Chrome, with Android and other browsers connectable | Listing shows no in-app purchases |
The ranking#
1. Redirect
Who it suits for ADHD: people who can set up a block just fine, but keep granting themselves "five minutes" that turns into an evening.
Redirect, the Chrome extension this site is about, does not show a blocked wall. When you open a site you added, it sends you to your Focus dashboard, which shows up to three goals you wrote and your stats, or to a URL you pick. That gives the impulse somewhere useful to land.
Strengths: setup is short. Recommended sites (YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, X, TikTok, Facebook, Netflix, Twitch) are one click. You can block only the trap, for example a path rule for youtube.com/shorts, and keep the rest of the site. To get in anyway, you complete a task you chose for that rule. For ADHD, the 60 second wait and the breathing pause are the gentle options: short, no skill needed, and both require the tab to stay open, so you cannot start one and wander off. The typing challenge is there for your single worst site. Pauses last 1 to 60 minutes, a daily pause limit sets a ceiling, and when a pause ends Redirect sends you back even mid scroll, which helps with time blindness. Schedules let rules run only in your focus hours. Everything stays in your browser, with no account.
Limits: Chrome and Chromium browsers only (Arc, Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi). No phone app, no desktop app blocking, no password lock, and it runs in Incognito only if you allow it in Chrome's extension settings.
Price: free for one site; Pro and Lifetime plans for unlimited sites.
2. one sec
Who it suits for ADHD: people whose worst scrolling happens on the phone, or who want the same pause on every device.
one sec asks you to take a deep breath whenever you open a distracting site or app. Its platforms page describes a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and more, alongside apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac.
Strengths: it is the tool from the PNAS study above, so its core idea has peer-reviewed evidence behind it. Interventions are customizable, and the pause is about as gentle as friction gets. The Chrome extension has 40,000 users and a 4.9 rating.
Limits: a breath is easy to get used to. If you find yourself clicking through without noticing, you may need something with more effort for your worst sites.
Price: the extension is free, and the Web Store listing notes in-app purchases.
3. LeechBlock NG
Who it suits for ADHD: people who want a free tool and are happy to spend one focused session configuring it, or who have someone to help.
Strengths: LeechBlock NG is free and open source and runs on Firefox, Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers. Instead of a hard block, a block set can use a delaying page that shows a countdown before the site opens, which is a good fit for impulsive clicks. You can block by time period, such as 9am to 5pm, or after a time limit, such as 10 minutes in every hour.
Limits: the options page is dense. For some people with ADHD, that is the exact kind of setup task that never gets finished. There are no phone apps.
Price: free.
4. Cold Turkey Blocker
Who it suits for ADHD: people who know they will undo any soft block, and who need a stretch that genuinely cannot be skipped, like exam season.
Strengths: Cold Turkey is a desktop app for Windows and macOS that blocks websites and apps, with browser extensions working alongside it. Blocks can be locked. Its break options include one that requires typing out randomized characters, words or custom text, and another that makes you wait for a countdown before a break. The random text break is real effort, which is the point.
Limits: it is the opposite of gentle. A locked block with no way in can feel punishing on a bad day, so it works best for short, high-stakes periods. No Linux, ChromeOS, Android or iOS, per its pricing page.
Price: Blocker Free covers basic blocking and includes a 7 day trial of Pro. Pro is a one-time purchase covering the computers you personally use.
5. Freedom
Who it suits for ADHD: people whose attention jumps between laptop, phone and tablet, and who want one session to block all of them at once.
Strengths: Freedom blocks sites, apps or the whole internet across macOS, Windows, iOS, Android and Chromebook, and syncs sessions across devices. Premium adds scheduling, recurring sessions and Locked Mode.
Limits: scheduling, which matters a lot for ADHD routines, is a Premium feature. On Mac and Windows the Chrome extension only works paired with the desktop app, per its listing.
Price: a free plan; Premium at $8.99 a month or $3.33 a month billed yearly, plus a lifetime option, per its pricing page today.
6. StayFocusd
Who it suits for ADHD: people who do not want a site gone, just want a daily budget for it.
Strengths: StayFocusd, now published by Sensor Tower, restricts how much time you can spend on distracting sites and shows your usage history. It can block whole sites, paths or in-page content like YouTube Shorts and recommendations. A Require Challenge option makes you complete a task before changing settings, and the Nuclear Option blocks sites for a set number of hours with no way to cancel. It has 700,000 users and a 4.4 rating.
Limits: a budget still means watching a clock, and time blindness makes that hard. Its listing discloses that it handles web history, user activity and website content, while saying it does not collect personal data from pages.
Price: the Web Store listing does not flag in-app purchases.
How to choose#
- Your phone is the bigger problem: one sec, or Freedom if you want hard blocks on every device.
- You want free and do not mind settings: LeechBlock NG with the delaying page.
- You need a block you cannot undo for a few weeks: Cold Turkey.
- You want a daily allowance rather than a block: StayFocusd.
- You keep taking breaks that never end, on a computer, in Chrome: Redirect, with short pauses and a daily pause limit.
Whatever you pick, start with one or two sites, not twenty, and choose the gentlest friction that still works. Our step by step ADHD blocker setup guide walks through it. If you want more effort for your single worst site, read about the typing challenge. For a broader, non-ADHD comparison, see the best website blockers for Chrome, and if every blocker you have tried ended up disabled, why website blockers don't work explains what usually goes wrong.
Sources
- Jackson and MacKillop (2016), ADHD and Monetary Delay Discounting: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies, Biological Psychiatry: CNNI (checked September 2026)
- Grüning, Riedel and Lorenz-Spreen (2023), Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec, PNAS (checked September 2026)
- one sec platforms (checked September 2026)
- one sec, Chrome Web Store (checked September 2026)
- LeechBlock official site (checked September 2026)
- LeechBlock documentation (delaying page) (checked September 2026)
- Cold Turkey features (breaks) (checked September 2026)
- Cold Turkey pricing (checked September 2026)
- Freedom pricing (checked September 2026)
- Freedom, Chrome Web Store (checked September 2026)
- StayFocusd, Chrome Web Store (checked September 2026)
Close the tab. Open your goals.
Redirect sends distracting sites to the goals you wrote down, and makes every pause a choice.
Questions, answered
What is the best website blocker for ADHD?
It depends on where you get stuck. For impulsive clicks in Chrome, a tool with a short pause and a useful landing page, like Redirect, tends to last longer than a hard wall. one sec suits phone scrolling, LeechBlock NG is the best free option, and Cold Turkey suits blocks you must not undo.
Is a hard block or a pause better for ADHD?
For everyday use, a short pause usually holds up better, because you can still get in when you truly need a site and the impulse often fades during the wait. Hard blocks work well for short, high-stakes stretches like an exam week.
Is there a free ADHD Chrome extension?
Yes. LeechBlock NG is free and open source and has a delaying page with a countdown. The one sec browser extension is free with in-app purchases, and Redirect is free for one site.
Which ADHD blocker works on both phone and computer?
one sec and Freedom both have phone and desktop apps. Redirect, LeechBlock NG and StayFocusd are browser tools, and Cold Turkey is for Windows and macOS computers only.
Is this ranking biased toward Redirect?
It is published on Redirect's own site, so read it with that in mind. We only state competitor facts from their official sites and Chrome Web Store listings as of September 26, 2026, and each entry says who that tool suits better.