Ochi: Block Websites & Apps 4+

When this review was first written this app was the best on the market. Now the market has caught up and charging $70 for this is outrageous. It’s a good app and does the job well, but there are others that do the same, are easier to use, and much cheaper.

Hey! Appreciate the kind review 🙏

I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed using Ochi, but also sorry to hear that Ochi Pro might not be your cup of tea. That’s OK, I’ve intentionally designed the app to be a great distraction blocking utility without any compulsory upgrades, and to also help steer you away from bad habits. 🙂

Unfortunately those limitations you mentioned are a result of restrictions in iOS, where there’s generally a backdoor to most things (in terms of user configuration). Fortunately the Mac app allows you to lock-down your environment, forcing you to adhere to the restrictions you impose.

Personally speaking, and given those iOS limitations, I’m glad I can at least kick the late-night Twitter/Reddit doom scrolling habit to the curb with the scheduling feature. My will power is as its lowest then, so it’s served as a great reminder that I shouldn’t be opening those apps.

This being said, it is indeed possible to block more apps that the default list offered. You can create “custom apps/groups” that can be assigned to filters, and will appear in the list of apps for Ochi’s “App Open Check” shortcut action. I use this to block 15 games under a single automation, without the need to create 15 individual custom apps.

I agree there’s plenty of room for the app to grow, and I have some great ideas planned to make it even better. Thanks again, and I hope you end up continuing to use Ochi, even if it’s just on the free tier. 🙃

I have been looking for a blocker for both apps and websites while I am at work. After quite some research, I settled on Ochi, which is really easy to set up and works on both macOS and iOS. Ochi has all the modern perks of a native Apple app, supporting Shortcuts and iCloud syncing among other things. The developer is very responsive to support questions. The free version is beyond generous, offering a single filter that can be configured to block an unlimited number of apps and websites together.

The only major limitation on macOS so far is that website blocking does not work on Firefox (for which I use LeechBlock, an open-source extension). Web blocking works very well on Safari and Chrome-based browsers. On iOS there are more system limitations, but Ochi has managed to accomplish a lot within these limits. It is particularly clever to use the Focus mode for macOS control of Ochi filters across Apple devices.

This is a fantastic review for Ochi... thank you so much - I really appreciate it! 🙏🏻

I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying its level of integration with the Apple ecosystem, sharing & applying filters across your devices is very important for maintaining focus! Shortcuts & iCloud were a no-brainer.

Thanks for the feedback on Firefox, I'll try to work this out in a future update 🙂 It will be great to cover even more web browsers.

I’ve tried out a few other apps for content blocking/self control and this one’s the best I’ve found. Integration with the shortcuts app allows you to automate your settings (I linked the ‘suspend’ option with an NFC device). The only changes I’d request are to be able to block all apps instead of a predetermined list (the most common and distracting ones are on there but there are still a few I’d like to block, like the apple news app), and the ability to block websites on other browsers like chrome (I had to switch to using safari when I downloaded the app). But it keeps me off of distracting apps/sites like youtube/instagram, which is exactly what I wanted from it! Thank you

Thank you for the super kind review! Awesome to hear you're loving the shortcuts support, really cool to see somebody linking it with an NFC action too. Will keep a note of your suggestion to improve the blocking and cover all apps and more browsers - thanks for sharing. Cheers!