What Cold Turkey is
Cold Turkey, per its own site, is a website and application blocker for Windows and Mac. You schedule or start a block, and during the block the app makes itself hard to stop: the design goal is that once you've committed, you can't talk yourself out of it. It's the blocker people recommend for a work computer, and it earns the recommendation.
It has no iPhone or iPad version. That's not an oversight.
Why a Cold Turkey for iPhone can't exist as an app
On a desktop, an app can run as a background service, watch other programs, edit system files and refuse to quit. iOS allows none of that to a third-party app. An iPhone app can't watch what other apps do, can't stop you deleting it from the home screen, and can't prevent you installing another browser. The tools Apple does give app makers are:
- Screen Time APIs, which let an app schedule blocks through Apple's own restrictions, protected by a Screen Time passcode you hold (and can reset with your Apple ID).
- A DNS or VPN-style filter, which covers every app but is removed like any profile or app.
So every "Cold Turkey for iPhone" candidate ends up being one of two things: a Screen Time front end, or a filter you can delete. Both are undone in under a minute by the person who set them up. The full list of levels: what makes a blocker immovable.
The one mechanism on iOS that does hold
The exception isn't an app. It's a mode of the device. Supervision is what Apple built for organisations that hand out iPhones; a supervised iPhone can carry a configuration profile that cannot be removed from the device, that sets a filtering DNS resolver for every app, and that forbids adding a VPN. Nothing on the phone can undo it, and there's no passcode to recover because there is none. That's the iPhone equivalent of "you committed, you can't talk yourself out of it". Supervised iPhone explained.
That is how SELFCNTRL works on iPhone and iPad. Setting it up needs a Mac or a Windows PC once, for about ten minutes, and can involve a backup and restore; after that the phone is a phone, with one door shut. Loosening goes through your account and waits twenty-four hours; tightening is immediate; the floor never drops.
Where the two overlap: your computer
Cold Turkey and SELFCNTRL both run on Windows and Mac, and they do different things. Cold Turkey blocks sites and apps you list, on a schedule, on that machine. SELFCNTRL filters pornography by category at DNS level on that machine, enforces safe search, adds night curfews, and ties every loosening to a twenty-four-hour delay in an account shared with your phone. If your problem is focus, Cold Turkey is the better tool. If your problem is porn, the phone is where 2am happens, and a desktop blocker doesn't reach it.
Side by side
| Cold Turkey | Screen Time apps on iPhone | SELFCNTRL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Windows, Mac | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows |
| Blocks by | Your list of sites and apps | Apple's restrictions | Category at DNS level + your list |
| Undone on iPhone by | — | Passcode / Apple ID reset | Only a request from the account, after 24 h |
| VPN workaround on iPhone | — | Open | Closed (supervision) |
| Built for | Focus, work | Screen time | Quitting porn |
We describe Cold Turkey only by what its own site says it is: a desktop blocker for Windows and macOS. Check their site for current features and pricing.
Questions
Is there a Cold Turkey app for iPhone or iPad?
No. Cold Turkey is a desktop blocker for Windows and macOS. iOS doesn't let a third-party app do what Cold Turkey does on a computer, so any iPhone "equivalent" is either a Screen Time front end or a removable filter.
What's the closest thing to Cold Turkey on iPhone?
For focus, the Screen Time-based apps. For a block you genuinely can't undo on impulse, a supervised profile: it can't be removed from the device and forbids VPNs. That's how SELFCNTRL locks iPhone and iPad.
Can I use Cold Turkey and SELFCNTRL together?
Yes, they don't conflict. Cold Turkey handles apps and focus schedules on your computer; SELFCNTRL filters adult content by category on every device, including the phone.