Freedom vs Cold Turkey

Last updated September 2026.

Who is writing this: the makers of Redirect, a different tool that is neither Freedom nor Cold Turkey and only appears in a short section at the end. Both products' official sites and Chrome Web Store listings were checked on September 26, 2026, and everything below comes from those pages.

The short version#

Freedom is built for breadth. Cold Turkey is built for depth.

Freedom's selling point is that one session blocks distractions on your phone, tablet and computers at the same time. Cold Turkey's is that once you lock a block, it is very hard to stop, even by uninstalling the app. Which one is better depends on where you get distracted and how determined your weaker self is.

TL;DR table#

Pricing#

Freedom has a free plan and Premium. On its pricing page today, Premium is $8.99 a month, or $3.33 a month billed yearly (its home page puts the yearly price at $39.99). There is also a lifetime "Forever" plan listed at $99.50, shown as 50% off $199. Premium comes with a 7 day free trial.

Cold Turkey has Blocker Free and Blocker Pro. Pro is a one-time purchase with free lifetime updates, and one purchase covers all computers you personally use, Windows and macOS. It offers a 30 day refund and a 20% student discount. Its site did not show the price in the page text we checked, so check the pricing page for the current amount.

Verdict: if you dislike subscriptions, Cold Turkey is simpler. Freedom's lifetime plan is an option too, but it covers far more devices, so you are paying for a different thing.

Platforms#

This is the biggest difference.

• Freedom lists Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Chromebook on its pricing page. Its downloads page adds Linux through the browser extension, which blocks websites there. App blocking is on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, and website exceptions (block all except) are Mac and Windows only.
• Cold Turkey supports Windows 7 SP1 through Windows 11 and macOS 10.14 through macOS 26. Its system requirements say Android, iOS and ChromeOS are not supported and there is no Linux version. It needs admin rights to install.

Verdict: if your phone is part of the problem, Freedom wins outright.

Lock strength#

Cold Turkey is the stricter tool. A locked block can be tied to a timer, a time range, typing random or custom text (up to 5,000 characters), a delay from 1 minute to 40 days, a schedule, a restart, or a password. A locked block prevents you from disabling the browser extension or uninstalling the app, and its strictness settings can also block task managers and time and date settings. Its Chrome listing warns that the browser may be blocked if the extension is disabled or removed during a locked block.

Freedom has Locked Mode on Premium, which it describes as preventing you from quitting a session early. We did not find Freedom documenting the same depth of anti-bypass controls on the pages we checked.

Verdict: Cold Turkey, clearly. Its home page calls itself "tough to bypass", and the features page backs that up.

Scheduling and breaks#

Both put scheduling behind the paid tier.

• Freedom Premium adds scheduling, recurring sessions, advance sessions (focus for later today), and sessions longer than two hours, including always-on 24 hour sessions.
• Cold Turkey Pro adds weekly scheduled blocks drawn on a grid, plus breaks: Pomodoro, allowances, rewards, typing text, a delay, or a number of sessions. Blocks can also start automatically at a time, on sign in, or at the next scheduled block.

Verdict: Cold Turkey offers more ways to allow controlled breaks. Freedom's scheduling is simpler and applies across devices.

Sync and privacy#

Freedom syncs sessions across devices; it calls this core, and it is in the free plan. You create an account to use it. Its pricing FAQ says it does not track your browsing, app usage or personal activity.

Cold Turkey stores settings and statistics locally on your computer and says selling data is not part of its business model. We did not see cross-device sync listed. You can export statistics to a JSON file.

Verdict: Freedom for multiple devices; Cold Turkey if you want everything to stay on one machine.

Who should pick which#

Pick Freedom if:

• You get distracted on your phone as much as your laptop.
• You use a Chromebook or Linux machine for work.
• You want to start one session and have it cover everything.
• A subscription or one lifetime payment for many devices suits you.

Pick Cold Turkey if:

• You are on Windows or macOS and need a block you truly cannot talk yourself out of.
• You have uninstalled blockers before.
• You want to pay once, with settings and statistics kept locally.
• You want structured breaks like allowances or Pomodoro.

Some people use both: Freedom for the phone, Cold Turkey for the computer. That works, as long as you do not set both to block the same site on the same machine, which can make it harder to tell which tool is doing what.

If you want to compare more options, our Cold Turkey alternatives list and best website blockers for Chrome roundup cover both tools alongside others.

A third option if you only need Chrome#

If your distractions all live in the browser and you are not trying to lock down the whole computer, a browser extension may be enough. Redirect is one, and it is ours, so weigh that.

Redirect is a Chrome extension that works in Chrome and Chromium browsers (Arc, Brave, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi). When you open a site you have a rule for, it sends you to your Focus dashboard, with up to three goals and your stats, or to a custom URL. To get in anyway you complete a task you chose for that rule, such as a typing challenge, a reason prompt, a math challenge, a breathing pause or a 60 second wait, and then get a pause of 1 to 60 minutes. A daily pause limit caps how often, and when the pause ends it redirects you right away, even mid scroll. It keeps data locally with no account.

What it does not do, honestly: no app blocking, no phone app, no sync, no password lock and no uninstall prevention. If you need those, choose Freedom or Cold Turkey. Redirect fits people whose blocks hold fine but whose breaks keep stretching, which we explain in why website blockers don't work. It is free for one site, with Pro and Lifetime plans for unlimited sites, and you can see how to block YouTube to try it on the site that costs you most.

Close the tab. Open your goals.

Redirect sends distracting sites to the goals you wrote down, and makes every pause a choice.

Add to Chrome, free to start