Focus on autopilot

Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, Arc and Brave.

If you need support for a different browser, please let us know!

When you try to visit a blocked website, it looks like the internet is down just for that website.

Once in a while, the app will also show a notification to let you know that the visit was blocked and a positive reminder of your progress today so far.

The app opens normally, but it will be blocked from accessing the internet.

Some apps show an error message, while others just show a blank screen or a loading spinner.

There are also apps that show no indication that they are offline (e.g. WhatsApp) since they still show your previous messages and you can still write new ones. However, messages will not be sent (the tick will indicate pending) and you won't receive incoming messages.

Yes. There are several ways to bypass the block:

1. If you need a break, hit the "Pause" button and pick a time (e.g. 1 minute, 15 minutes, etc).
2. Switch off blocking just for a specific category (e.g. "Social Media").
3. Switch off blocking entirely from the menu bar.
4. Open the app and toggle blocking off just for the specific website/app you want. The rest of the category stays blocked.

Bad days are okay: we all have bad days when we can't focus for whatever reason, and that's okay. If you switch it off today, tomorrow the app will start blocking again at 9am. No need to feel guilty, just try again tomorrow and appreciate any progress that you make, no matter how small.

Mental health: it's healthy to take breaks from screens and from work. We highly encourage you to use the Pause button to take breaks.

Habit forming: most people cannot stick to strict blocking and end up giving up entirely. We designed a softer approach that works best over time.

Mindful browsing: having to click a few times to unblock is just enough added friction to make you think twice about your choice. Research shows that this works.

Small progress every day: making progress every day – no matter how small – is more likely to help you build a habit. It's okay to start small (e.g. 2h a day without distractions) and slowly build up from there.

Binge-watching and doomscrolling are the real enemy: the real enemy is not the occasional break, but consuming content in excess. Social media, streaming video and other websites are designed to keep you hooked. Watch a video and the next one autoplays. Scroll down a feed and the next post is already there. Our approach is to help you prevent, or at least delay you from watching that first video, or clicking on that first link. We try to prevent the snowball effect.

Actual need: sometimes you really need to open a certain link for work or school and that's totally okay.

You should see the app in the menu bar while it's running.

When blocking is active, the app icon will have a small lock icon on it.

Open Focus Firewall, select a category that fits your website (e.g. "News") and click on the "+" button on the bottom left of the list.

You'll be asked to enter a friendly name (e.g. "The New York Times") and the domain of the website you want to block (e.g. "nytimes.com").

Make sure to remove the "https://" and any anything after the domain. E.g. "https://www.nytimes.com/section/business" should be simply "nytimes.com" or "www.nytimes.com", both should work.

The website will be added to the list of blocked websites, and you will not be able to access it while blocking is active and that category is blocked.

Open Focus Firewall, select a category that fits your app (e.g. "Messaging"), click on the "Apps" tab on the top right and click on the "+" button on the bottom left of the list.

You'll be asked to enter a friendly name (e.g. "WhatsApp") and App System Name (e.g. "WhatsApp.app").

To find the app system name, open the "Applications" folder in Finder, right-click on the app, and select "Get Info". The app system name is the name of the app with the ".app" extension. E.g. "WhatsApp.app".

The app will be added to the list of blocked apps, and you will not be able to access it while blocking is active and that category is blocked.

No. Focus Firewall is currently only available for macOS.

We are considering making it available for iPhone and iPad. If you are interested, please let us know!

It's a paid app and the subscription costs $1.99/month or $17.99/year. Price may vary depending on your country.

We offer a 7-day free trial so you can try it out and see if it fits your needs.

We will be adding a one-time purchase option in the near future.

Apart from being a web blocker for distractions, Focus Firewall also helps build better browsing habits. The more you use the app, in theory, the less you should need it.

With a subscription, you can cancel anytime if you no longer need it.

You can also subscribe for short periods of time, like during exams or when you need to focus on a project, and cancel when you no longer need it.

We also made the subscription affordable so that you can use it without a big upfront cost.

All that said, we heard from customers that some prefer OTPs and we've decided to add it in the next release. We'll keep the subscription model as well.

Our business is about selling great software, not selling your data.

We do not collect any personal information about you, your browsing habits, or the websites you visit.

We do not track you, we do not profile you and we do not share nor sell your data with third parties.

When the app blocks a distracting website for you, all of your browsing data is processed locally on your device, and we do not have access to it.

We kindly ask you to send us anonymous usage analytics to help us improve the app, and that is completely optional. You can say no during the installation process, or disable it later in the app settings at any time. This data is only used to improve the app. For example, are folks using the new feature we shipped? how many hours in average do people save every day with our app? How many hours in total did all of our users save? This data is completely anonymous, we have no idea who you are.

For more information, please read our Privacy Policy.

Focus Firewall is made by Terran, a self-funded independent software company. We are not backed by venture capital or external investors.

Terran is on a mission to build software for humans in the various aspects of their lives (time, place, mind, body, work, creativity, play, communication, learning, etc). We protect your time and attention. We push to augment your capabilities, not to replace you. We automate boring tasks, not you. We remove things from your plate, not add more. We don't track you, we don't sell your data, and we don't do ads. We make fast and light apps and systems. We keep apps alive as long as possible.

Terran is led by Andre Dieb Martins (ex-Spotify). If you want to say hi or have any feedback or questions feel free to reach out at andre@terran.software or via LinkedIn.