glocker
DigitalZen is one of the few commercial blockers that takes Linux seriously. It ships as an AppImage with a GUI and tray icon, and it’s tested across the Debian, Red Hat and Arch families. A desktop agent blocks applications, and a browser extension for more than 30 browsers blocks websites. Its locks are the interesting part: codes, cooldowns, a friend’s approval, schedules and even a money fine. It also runs on Windows, Mac and Android, and it has written more useful material about blocking on Linux than almost anyone.
Where it falls short on Linux
DigitalZen runs as a normal user, which makes it easy to try but leaves sudo out of its reach, and its own bypass article says it’s hard to get around rather than impossible, and that a skilled admin can find a way. Its FAQ says website blocking needs the extension. It’s also closed source, and its privacy policy doesn’t describe end-to-end encryption. I haven’t used it day to day, so this comes from its documentation.
How glocker helps
I built glocker for my own machines, and it makes nearly the opposite choices.
- It deals with
sudodirectly. During the hours you choose,sudois cut down to a short list of harmless commands, so the service, the hosts file and the uninstaller are out of reach. This covers Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Omarchy and their close derivatives, andsudoworks as normal the rest of the time. - Blocking starts below the browser. Blocked domains go into
/etc/hosts, which doesn’t depend on an extension. Force-installed extensions for Firefox and Chrome add keywords in addresses and page text, so a keyword can target one section of a site. - You can see your patterns. glockpeek shows a calendar of clean days, an hour-by-day map of when you slip, and time per application with your own tags.
- Someone is told if it stops. Your partner gets an email if the machine stops reporting, and the server sends it, so killing glocker doesn’t prevent it.
- You can read the code. The agent, the dashboard and the encryption are all open source under the AGPL, and you can run the dashboard yourself for free.
Side by side
| DigitalZen on Linux | glocker | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs as | Normal user | Root system service |
| Interface | GUI and tray | Guided installer, config editor with a schedule grid |
| Blocks websites | Browser extension | System hosts file, plus extensions |
| Blocks applications | Yes, on supported distros | Yes, on a schedule |
| Rules | Allowances, Pomodoro, rotation, whitelist focus, wildcards | Schedules, address and page keywords, logged temporary unblocks, one-hour program extensions |
| Locks | Code, cooldown, friend, schedule, money fine | sudo window, slow uninstall |
| Usage dashboard | Not its focus | Yes, with tags and insights |
| Partner | Friend holds an unlock code | Summary emails, alert if the machine goes quiet |
| Platforms | Linux, Windows, Mac, Android | Built for Linux |
| Source code | Closed | AGPL |
| Price | Linux app from $3 a month billed yearly | Free; hosted dashboard $10 a month or $99 a year |
Prices are from each product’s site in November 2026. Partner emails are part of glocker’s hosted plan.
Recommendation
If you want a tray app with one account across your Linux, Windows and Mac machines, use DigitalZen. If you’ve ever got around a blocker with sudo, or you want to read the code of something watching your machine, use glocker. Blocking websites on Linux covers the wider set of options.