Opal alternative
An Opal alternative for focus sessions, not all-day rules
Quiet Orbit blocks the apps you pick while a focus session runs, for free, and turns every minute into a journey through the solar system. Premium is $19.99 a year or $39.99 once.
Opal and Quiet Orbit, side by side
| Quiet Orbit | Opal | |
|---|---|---|
| Price to start | Free | Free |
| What paying costs (US) | $3.99 a month, $19.99 a year, or $39.99 once | Plans listed from $4.99 a week to $99.99 a year; $49.99 a year on its student page |
| Blocks the apps you pick | Yes, free, through Apple's Screen Time | Yes, on a schedule, with app limits and a mode you can't cancel |
| If you stop early | You keep every minute you focused | Depends on the difficulty you set |
| Focus with friends | Up to four phones start together, free | Leaderboards against other members |
| Runs on | iPhone | iPhone and iPad |
Two different tools
Opal manages your screen time all day: schedules, app limits, a focus score and reports. Quiet Orbit does one thing: it protects the stretch of time you sit down to work or study, and gives that time somewhere to go. If what you need is help starting and finishing a session, you don't need a screen-time plan, and you don't need to pay $99.99 a year.
Blocking in Quiet Orbit is free. Premium adds nine more worlds, more background sounds and trends, for $19.99 a year or $39.99 once.
What Quiet Orbit does
- Focus sessions from 15 to 90 minutes, with breaks if you want them.
- The apps you pick stay closed until the session ends, breaks included. Everything else stays open.
- Every minute you focus flies your ship closer to the next world, Earth out to Pluto. Each session you finish turns up a finding from the place you reached.
- Stop early and you keep every minute. Nothing dies, withers or resets.
- Up to four friends can start the same session at the same second, with a link. Hosting and joining are free.
- A weekly log, a live timer on the Lock Screen, widgets, reminders, and a streak with a rest day built in.
- No account. Which apps you block never leaves your iPhone.
Where Opal is the better pick
- You want apps blocked automatically at set hours, every day, or daily limits per app.
- You want a mode you can't cancel. Quiet Orbit always lets you stop.
- You want screen-time numbers and a score. Quiet Orbit counts focus time, not screen time.
Switching takes a minute
- Install Quiet Orbit from the App Store. It's free, for iPhone on iOS 18 or later.
- Allow Screen Time access when it asks, and pick the apps that stay closed.
- Choose a length, press and hold to start, and put the phone down.
Your history in the other app stays there; Quiet Orbit starts you in Earth orbit. More on how the block works and the study timer, or see every app side by side.
Prices and features of other apps are from their US App Store listings, checked on 16 October 2026, and can change; Forest's pricing history is from Wikipedia. Prices differ by country. Every app named here is a trademark of its owner; Quiet Orbit isn't affiliated with any of them.