Sworn blocks porn, gambling, social media, shopping, and gaming system-wide on iOS/Android. It works via encrypted DNS (not a VPN), so it won't break your banking or Map apps. Invite an optional accountability partner who only sees a count of blocked attempts—never your history, URLs, or screenshots. Includes free malware/tracker blocking. Premium features cost $7/mo after a 7-day trial. Available in US/Canada. No per-query logging. It’s a filter + accountability, not therapy.
No reviews yetBe the first to leave a review for Sworn
Maker
📌
I built Sworn because every accountability app I tried solved the problem by watching me — constant screenshots of my screen, my full browsing history piped to a "partner." And the tools that just blocked things did it with an always-on VPN that kept dropping my wifi and breaking my banking app. Both approaches felt wrong: one is surveillance, the other breaks your phone.
So I built the version I actually wanted:
- It blocks at the DNS level (one encrypted-DNS setting, no VPN), so it works across every app and breaks nothing.
- It takes zero screenshots and keeps no log of the sites you visit — only counts of blocked attempts.
- If you want a person in the loop, you invite them, they confirm by email, and from then on they only ever see a count — plus a heads-up if you switch the filter off. That "alert on the filter, not on your activity" choice is deliberate: it's what stops these tools from firing false "you looked at X" alerts that wreck the exact relationship they were meant to help.
I'll be upfront about what it *doesn't* do: US/Canada only right now, iOS + Android only, and it can't catch encrypted DNS set inside a browser like Brave or Firefox. It's a filter and an accountability tool — not therapy, and not a jail.
Malware + ad blocking are free forever; the category filtering and partner alerts are a 7-day trial then $7/month, cancel in two taps.
I'll be here all day — genuinely want your hard questions, especially on the privacy model and the no-VPN tradeoff. What would you have built differently?
Report
How does the accountability partner actually get notified—do they get pinged only if I break a streak, or is the blocked-count shared automatically every day?
Great question — and it's actually neither of those two.
There are no streaks in Sworn (that's deliberate — no gamification, nothing to "keep up"). And we don't auto-blast a count every day for the sake of it. Your partner is emailed on real events:
A blocked attempt — the first time you hit a blocked site in a quiet stretch, they get one email right away. If there are more that day, those roll up into a single next-day digest ("3 blocked attempts in the last 24h") instead of pinging them each time.
You turn protection off / pause it, or the filter goes silent — if your phone stops sending queries for a while (DNS switched off, app removed, etc.), they get a heads-up, and a firmer note with a 7-day activity chart if it stays quiet for 24h.
You loosen settings — e.g. remove a blocked category, or take a site/app off your list.
A quiet day with nothing blocked = no email. And it's capped, so even a heavy day is at most a couple of messages — never a flood.
One privacy note people appreciate: for blocked sites and apps, your partner only ever sees a count, never which site or app. The goal is accountability, not surveillance.
Report
Love that the accountability partner only sees a count, not the actual sites. That kind of restraint is rare and makes it feel safe instead of surveillance-y. Solid execution.
Report
Maker
@elmas550846 Thank you — that's exactly the line we were trying to walk. The whole thing falls apart the moment it feels like surveillance, because then you just stop using it (or start routing around it). The count is enough to start a conversation with your partner; the actual sites are between you and them, not something a server needs to know. Appreciate you noticing the restraint — it was one of the deliberate calls.
How does the accountability partner actually get notified—do they get pinged only if I break a streak, or is the blocked-count shared automatically every day?
@ekin1365035
Great question — and it's actually neither of those two.
There are no streaks in Sworn (that's deliberate — no gamification, nothing to "keep up"). And we don't auto-blast a count every day for the sake of it. Your partner is emailed on real events:
A blocked attempt — the first time you hit a blocked site in a quiet stretch, they get one email right away. If there are more that day, those roll up into a single next-day digest ("3 blocked attempts in the last 24h") instead of pinging them each time.
You turn protection off / pause it, or the filter goes silent — if your phone stops sending queries for a while (DNS switched off, app removed, etc.), they get a heads-up, and a firmer note with a 7-day activity chart if it stays quiet for 24h.
You loosen settings — e.g. remove a blocked category, or take a site/app off your list.
A quiet day with nothing blocked = no email. And it's capped, so even a heavy day is at most a couple of messages — never a flood.
One privacy note people appreciate: for blocked sites and apps, your partner only ever sees a count, never which site or app. The goal is accountability, not surveillance.
Love that the accountability partner only sees a count, not the actual sites. That kind of restraint is rare and makes it feel safe instead of surveillance-y. Solid execution.
@elmas550846
Thank you — that's exactly the line we were trying to walk. The whole thing falls apart the moment it feels like surveillance, because then you just stop using it (or start routing around it). The count is enough to start a conversation with your partner; the actual sites are between you and them, not something a server needs to know. Appreciate you noticing the restraint — it was one of the deliberate calls.