Work today can feel a bit strange. On the one hand, we have many tools available to boost our productivity and make every hour we spend working as efficient as possible. On the other hand, those tools come with plenty of distractions. Imagine this situation - it might sound familiar: You open your laptop, log into your workspace and start a project. But then, after a few minutes, the notifications start coming in. First, your social media page fires up from that photo you uploaded last evening. Then, you get a popup telling you about a deal from Amazon. You click a link that leads to another site, then bounce off that one to get to a third page. Half an hour later, you have 15 tabs open, each with a distracting website. You don’t know how, but you ended up browsing The Freedom Trail guided tours through the Boston Commons, though you don’t even live on the East Coast. You know a lot about the Bunker Hill monument, Old North Church, Faneuil Hall and the Paul Revere House. The only issue is that it’s close to midnight and you haven’t done any work yet. Of course, there’s nothing bad in learning about the American Revolution or important historical sites. However, work hours aren’t the right time for such activities, even though the internet keeps tempting us with abundant content. This is precisely why apps like Freedom.to exist. This article will serve as your beginner’s guide to Freedom.to, explain how the app works, and give you a detailed breakdown of its pros and cons.
What is the Freedom.to app?
Freedom.to can block websites that would otherwise draw too much of your attention. You can continue working on your computer online but keep the distractions offline. Besides websites, Freedom.to can also block other apps, which might be particularly useful on mobile devices. The issue with similar apps is that you can simply turn their blocking functionality off. However, Freedom.to has a special Locked Mode that keeps the blocks on for each recurring session. The app is quite versatile in terms of operating system support. It works on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad, Android devices, Microsoft Windows, and Apple macOS computers. In other words, you can download and install Freedom.to from the official website, Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. Then, all that’s left is to choose your pricing plan and to start adding sites and apps to your block list. Think of it like a virtual walking tour to each point of interest that tends to siphon off your attention.
Freedom.to pricing plans
Freedom.to is a premium app that doesn’t function on a free model with subsequent in-app purchases. Instead, the app requires a paid subscription. You can, though, grab a free seven-day trial. After that period, you’ll need to decide on a plan. Freedom.to comes with three premium plans: Monthly, Yearly and Forever. Each plan provides the same functionality; the main difference is its duration. As the names suggest, the Monthly plan lasts for a month, the Yearly for a year, and the Forever plan is a one-time purchase that makes Freedom.to entirely your own. The pricing is as follows:
- The Monthly plan: $9 per month
- The Yearly plan: $3.30 per month
- The Forever plan: $160 one-time purchase
Regardless of the plan you choose, certain functions will be limited by the operating system. For instance, you’ll be able to block the entire internet connection and particular websites on all platforms - Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Chrome OS. However, the option to block apps won’t be available on Chrome OS. Finally, you can add exceptions to the blocking rule only on Windows and Mac computers. Additional perks include unlimited devices and sessions, scheduled sessions, the aforementioned Locked Mode, ambient sounds and focus music, history and annotations, and special discounts. You can also use browser-exclusive perks such as pausing your browsing session, limiting your daily website visits and viewing how much time you spend on individual sites.
Pros and cons - is Freedom.to good for you?
If you need more help deciding whether Freedom.to is a good choice, here’s a short list of the app’s pros and cons.
Pros:
- Immediate website blocking
- Inexpensive pricing plans
- Flexible scheduling
- All-round OS support
- Quality customer support
Cons:
- The dashboard could be more up to date
- Certain features aren’t available on all platforms
- Requires a lot of permissions
Speechify - another great app for productivity
Blocking online distractions comes with plenty of perks. But that’s not all you can do to boost your productivity. Say hello to Speechify, a text to speech app that allows you to listen to any text, including text on websites you visit as part of your work, emails and more. Speechify uses advanced AI algorithms to provide seamless, natural-sounding reading. You can upload text documents, scanned pages and even images. The app will read them in a narrator’s voice of your choosing. Even better, you can adjust the reading speed up to nine times faster to cover as much text as possible. The result is better productivity that helps you wade through your email list and other texts quicker. You can try Speechify for free right now at www.speechify.com.
FAQ
What type of people are likely to use the Freedom.to service?
Anyone who values their time and work will find Freedom.to beneficial. If you want to become more organized and efficient while taking your work at your own pace, you’ll likely be the type of person to find Freedom.to extremely useful.
What are the steps to get started with Freedom.to?
It’s relatively easy to get started with Freedom.to. You only need to sign up for the free trial and download and install the app. After seven days, you’ll be asked to choose a pricing plan. You can start using the app to block websites and other apps as soon as you install it.
What are the benefits of using Freedom.to?
Freedom.to allows you to block sessions from distracting websites. This means more focus and productivity, as well as more efficient time spent working. Besides that, you can also use Freedom.to as a tool for parental control.
