glocker
Freedom is one of the best-known distraction blockers. You set up a blocklist once and it applies across your Mac, Windows PC, iPhone and Android phone. On desktop it blocks through a local proxy and browser plugins, and its privacy policy says it doesn’t track your app or website use. Its best-known feature is Locked Mode: once a session starts, you can’t remove blocklist items or quit the app. There’s a free tier with short sessions, and paid plans add scheduling and Locked Mode.
Where it falls short on Linux
Freedom’s downloads page offers Linux only a browser extension, and its Linux guide describes that extension running on its own in Chrome, without the controls in the Mac and Windows apps. It stops at that browser, and the guide covers neither app blocking nor Locked Mode, though I haven’t tested how they behave there. It’s also closed source, so you can’t check what it does.
How glocker helps
I built glocker for my own Linux machines. It runs as a system service rather than inside a browser.
- Sites are blocked at the system level. Blocked domains go into
/etc/hosts, and force-installed extensions for Firefox and Chrome add blocking by keyword in addresses and page text. - Programs are stopped on a schedule. Steam, Discord or a game client gets killed during its window.
sudogoes away during the hours you choose. The service, the hosts file and the uninstaller are out of reach on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Omarchy and their close derivatives. This does the job of Locked Mode on Linux, where the person trying to get around the block usually has root.- You can see your usage. The glockpeek dashboard shows when and where your time went, from the focused window on X11, GNOME, KDE Plasma and Hyprland.
- You can read the code. All of it is open source under the AGPL.
Side by side
| Freedom on Linux | glocker | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs as | Browser extension | System service |
| Blocks websites | In the browser it’s installed in | System hosts file, plus browser extensions |
| Blocks applications | Not described for Linux | Yes, on a schedule |
| Resists being turned off | Not documented for Linux | sudo window, slow uninstall |
| Usage tracking | Not documented for Linux | Focused window, with a dashboard |
| Platforms | Linux extension; apps for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android | Built for Linux |
| Source code | Closed | AGPL |
| Price | Free tier; paid from $8.99 a month | Free; hosted dashboard $10 a month or $99 a year |
Prices are from each product’s site in November 2026, and Freedom’s change with promotions.
Recommendation
If you only need a few sites blocked in Chrome, Freedom’s extension will do it. If you want blocking that reaches beyond one browser and holds when you try to undo it, use glocker on Linux, and keep Freedom on your phone and other computers if you like it there. Blocking websites on Linux covers the wider set of options.