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Pawl

Block any app. Unlock it only with a physical key.

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Every other blocker has an off switch, and at 1am you find it. Pawl has no unlock button: blocking any app or site is instant, but opening it needs a physical security key (any FIDO2 key) in hand, plus a 15-minute wait. Keep the key in a drawer, or give it to someone you trust. No account, no server, no tracking, open source. Free, with optional Pro for schedules and reports. Built by an indie dev who blocks his own Polymarket with it.

PH · launched Oct 22, 2026 · 1 upvote (top 67%) · 0 views

Niche: distraction and screen time blockers · 259 launches, 32 in the last 7 days ▲ +14% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Hardware & robotics
  • B2C
  • Not AI
  • Commercial product
  • iOS
  • Open Source
  • Privacy
  • GitHub

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 259 launches in distraction and screen time blockers →

Could you build this?

Partial The UI and key-pairing logic using WebAuthn are buildable, but truly unbreakable app blocking requires OS-level access (Screen Time on iOS, device admin or accessibility APIs on Android). Those are platform-specific and fragile, and the approach needs native platform expertise.

What it would actually take: Build native iOS (FamilyControls/ManagedSettings) and Android (Device Admin or AccessibilityService with a usage-stats watcher) apps, with a WebAuthn/FIDO2 challenge flow for the unlock. The hard parts are preventing bypasses such as uninstalling, changing the time, or using alternate browsers, plus App Store approval for system-level controls. That requires mobile platform engineers and security testing.

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 257 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #152 of 258 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 292 days after the earliest competitor.

Related data

The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.