Health, home and travel decision
Ochi
A technical user can build a useful macOS-only blocker (or combine SelfControl and hosts files) fairly quickly, but reproducing Ochi's cross-device polish, iCloud-first sync, Shortcuts and widget integrations is substantial work and not recommended to fully reimplement.
Visit website↗Not priced
No pricing page we fetched carried a figure, so there is nothing to compare against. The build side is still real.
$100one-off32 h to build
$0/mo3 h/mo upkeep
No published price to break even against.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Ochi alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Create filters (allow/block), schedule them, run/suspend filters, and record simple blocking stats locally.
What it still won’t have
- Cross-device native iOS/iPadOS support and deep platform integrations (Siri Shortcuts, widgets)
- Polish features like biometric locking of filter details and Home Screen widgets
- Official iCloud-first on-device sync experience and tested reliability across Apple OS versions
- Platform-specific automations (Shortcuts integration) and macOS-only filter automations
What remains hard
- Execution quality
Ochi was built for people that want to quickly block distracting apps & websites, at the press of a button.
- Brand trust
Made by Michael Tigas in Melbourne, Australia. 🇦🇺 🦘
- Proprietary data
iCloud Syncing All filters and filtering statistics are synced between iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Execution quality
Take advantage of Ochi’s deep integration with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
- Execution quality
Privacy Focused All user data is securely stored and managed via iCloud, with filters exclusively run on-device.
First-year cost
No published price
Ochi does not publish a price we could read, so there is nothing to compare against. What building costs is below.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a macOS menu-bar app in Swift that provides local website-and-app blocking, scheduling, and simple stats, using the following stack: Swift + SwiftUI, launchd or local scheduler, modify /etc/hosts or use Network Extension content-filter for blocking, Core Data or SQLite for local storage, CloudKit for optional iCloud sync. Core features in scope: create/edit allow/block filters (domains and bundle IDs), schedule timed filters, start/stop/suspend filters with limits, record counts of blocked attempts and show a small dashboard, menu-bar quick actions. Out of scope: iOS/iPadOS apps, widgets, Siri Shortcuts, biometric lock UI, and App Store submission. Include robust error handling around permissions (hosts edits or network extension), unit tests for scheduling and persistence, and integration tests that verify blocking toggles change network/host rules.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 3 cited sources+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score61
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 3
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productOchi — official product page
- open sourceSelfControl (prior art)
- open sourceStevenBlack hosts (prior art)
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
