The 10 Best Porn Blockers for Mac in 2026

Key takeaways

• For strict blocking, Cold Turkey Blocker. For adult categories at the lowest price, Cisdem AppCrypt.
• ZenView and Canopy detect explicit content on the screen, so they work inside apps and on sites no blocklist has covered.
• Covenant Eyes and Ever Accountable report your activity to another person instead of blocking it.
• The free options are macOS Screen Time, SelfControl and DNS filtering. DNS filtering is the only free option that covers every browser.
• Apple documents the Screen Time web filter as a Safari restriction, so test it in other browsers before relying on it.

Summary table

1. Cold Turkey Blocker

Platforms: macOS and Windows. No minimum macOS version stated.

Price: Free version, 7-day Pro trial, then $45 once, 30-day refund, covering every computer you personally use.

A general website and application blocker rather than a dedicated porn blocker, with the strongest enforcement on this list. Read our Cold Turkey Blocker review for the full breakdown.

• Enforcement options: choose how hard a block is to end early, from a simple timer up to a long delay.
• Application blocking: desktop programs and games as well as websites, on schedules.

Limitations: No phone app, no accountability partner.

Best for: Strict blocking.

2. Cisdem AppCrypt

Platforms: macOS, with a separate Windows version. No minimum macOS version stated.

Price: 3-day free trial, then $19.99 a year or $39.99 once for one Mac, $27.99 a year or $55.99 once for two. 30-day money-back guarantee.

A website blocker that can also password protect applications, and the cheapest paid way here to block adult content on a Mac without building the list yourself.

• Category and keyword blocking: adult, social and gambling categories ready to use, plus URLs containing words you choose.
• Stated browser coverage: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Brave, Arc, Dia and Ecosia, the longest published Mac browser list here.

Limitations: Protection rests on a password you hold, desktop only, no accountability partner, and it is a generalist productivity tool rather than a recovery product.

Best for: Low price.

3. Tech Lockdown

Platforms: macOS, Windows, iOS on supervised devices, Android, home routers.

Price: $9.99 a month billed annually, free trial available.

A filtering service rather than a single app. You set content rules once in a dashboard, then apply them to each device and to your router.

• Rule-based filtering: block, allow or restrict categories and specific sites across every device on the account.
• macOS configuration: restricts browser extensions and enforces the DNS and VPN settings the filter depends on.

Limitations: Subscription only, and setup asks more of you than installing an app.

Best for: All devices.

4. ZenView

Platforms: macOS and Windows. No minimum macOS version stated.

Price: 7-day free trial, then $99.99 a year at the early adopter price against a stated regular price of $119.99. A monthly plan exists but the amount is not published. No lifetime option.

Instead of checking a domain against a blocklist, ZenView detects explicit content on the device as it appears, which lets it act inside apps and on pages no blocklist has categorised. The vendor lists more than 30 platforms including Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, Twitch, VLC and QuickTime, alongside Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

• On-device detection: content is analysed locally, and the vendor states that no screen contents are uploaded.
• Escalating response: the first two detections close the tab or window, a third blocks that application for 15 minutes.

Limitations: Subscription only, no phone app, and the shortest public track record here.

Best for: Content inside apps.

5. Canopy

Platforms: macOS 10.13 and later, Windows 10 and later excluding ARM, iOS 12 and later, Android 9 and later, ChromeOS.

Price: One-week free trial, then $8.33 a month for one device, $9.99 for up to three, or $12.50 for up to ten, billed annually. 30-day money-back guarantee.

An AI content filter built mainly for families. It inspects pages and images as they load, so it can act on a site that has never been added to any list. Read our Canopy app review for the full breakdown.

• Image-level filtering: explicit images are removed from a page rather than the whole page being blocked.
• Alerts and chat: a parent or partner can be informed of activity and of attempts to disable it, and AI chatbot content is covered.

Limitations: Subscription only at every tier, and designed around one person holding the controls for another.

Best for: Families.

6. Covenant Eyes

Platforms: Mac 11 and later, Windows 10 and later, iOS 15.1 and later, Android 11 and later.

Price: $18 a month, $198 a year, or $950 once, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Every plan covers unlimited devices for up to ten people in a family.

The best known accountability product in this category, now sold as Victory. It takes periodic blurred screenshots, scans them for explicit content, and shares what it flags with allies you pick, alongside a domain filter. See the best Covenant Eyes alternatives for similar options.

• Screen Accountability: encrypted, blurred screenshots of activity shared with chosen allies.
• Included material: learning courses and community features come with every plan.

Limitations: Monitoring is the main product and filtering is secondary, Screen Accountability is not available on Chromebooks, Kindle Fires or Smart TVs, and it depends on an ally who keeps reading the reports.

Best for: Screenshot accountability.

7. Ever Accountable

Platforms: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Kindle.

Price: 14-day free trial, then $14.99 a month or $129 a year. 90-day money-back guarantee.

Monitors browsing and app use and sends reports and alerts to partners you choose. Content filtering is offered as an option on phones at no extra charge. See the best Ever Accountable alternatives for similar options.

• Unlimited devices and partners: one subscription covers every device of one reporting user, with no cap on partners.
• Uninstall alerts: partners are told if the app is removed.

Limitations: Monitoring first with no blocking on a Mac, and one reporting user per subscription.

Best for: Accountability partners.

8. SelfControl

Platforms: macOS only. Version 4.0.2 requires Mac OS X 10.10 or newer.

Price: Free and open source, released under the GNU GPL.

The longest-standing free blocker on the Mac, and it does one thing. You put sites on a blocklist, set a timer and start it.

• Holds while running: the vendor states the block stays in place for the length of the timer even if you restart the computer or delete the application.
• No account: nothing is uploaded and there is nothing to subscribe to.

Limitations: You build the blocklist yourself with no adult category supplied, macOS only, one timer at a time, no schedules, no reporting to anyone.

Best for: Free timed blocking.

9. macOS Screen Time

Platforms: macOS, plus iOS and iPadOS devices on the same Apple account.

Price: Free, built into macOS.

The option every Mac already has. Content and Privacy restrictions live in System Settings and include a web content filter, application limits and Downtime schedules.

• Web content settings: Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only, with editable Allowed and Restricted lists.
• Wider restrictions: application limits, Downtime, and restrictions on built-in features and store purchases.

Limitations: Apple documents the web filter as a Safari restriction and does not state whether it covers other browsers, and the design assumes one person managing another's device.

Best for: Built-in protection.

10. DNS filtering

Platforms: Any Mac, and every other device on the connection if you set it at the router.

Price: Free tiers from CleanBrowsing, OpenDNS and Cloudflare. CleanBrowsing's free tier is throttled with no support, and its paid prices are not published on the filters page.

The fastest free option here, set in System Settings under Network or once at your router. It applies to every browser and application on the connection rather than to Safari alone.

• CleanBrowsing: 185.228.168.168 and 185.228.169.168 for the Family Filter, which also covers proxy and VPN domains and mixed-content sites such as Reddit, or 185.228.168.10 and 185.228.169.11 for adult content only.
• Others: OpenDNS FamilyShield on 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123, Cloudflare for Families on 1.1.1.3 for malware and adult content.

Limitations: It applies to the connection you set it on, it is changed back in the same settings pane you set it in, and it filters by domain so it knows nothing about what is inside a page.

Best for: Every browser.

What macOS itself can and cannot do

Every Mac ships with Screen Time, so it is worth being precise about its limits before you pay for anything. The settings live in System Settings under Screen Time, then Content and Privacy, then App Store, Media, Web and Games. Limit Adult Websites is the middle web content option and filters automatically. Allowed Websites Only permits nothing except the list you build.

Two things Apple does not give you. Its documentation presents these as Safari web content restrictions and says nothing about whether the filter reaches Chrome, Firefox, Brave or Arc, so if you use another browser, test it before relying on it. Apple also designed the feature for one person supervising another through Family Sharing, so it behaves one way on a child's Mac and another way on the Mac you administer yourself. Focus modes are a separate feature and not a content filter: they silence notifications and do nothing about what a browser loads.

Pairing Screen Time with DNS filtering covers the other browsers for free, because DNS applies to every browser. Both can be turned off in the same settings where you turned them on.

Also worth knowing about

BlockerX has a Mac application requiring macOS 13.5 or later. Its Mac App Store listing publishes no prices and had too few ratings to show a score on 22 September 2026, so there is nothing verifiable to rank it on yet.

Freedom costs $8.99 a month, $3.33 a month billed yearly, or $99.50 once, and covers macOS, Windows, iOS, Android and Chromebook. It is a focus and session blocker rather than an adult content product.

Truple lists macOS at $16 a month or $160 a year. It captures random screenshots for a family accountability report and does not block.

Choosing between them

If you want to block the sources of pornography, choose Cold Turkey Blocker or Cisdem AppCrypt. Both block adult websites on a Mac and can be bought with a one-time payment. Cold Turkey has stronger enforcement. AppCrypt costs less.

If you want to block explicit content, choose ZenView or Canopy. Both check what is shown on the screen for explicit images instead of checking a list of websites, so they also work on sites no list has covered.

If you want to be held accountable by another person, choose Covenant Eyes or Ever Accountable. Both send reports of your activity to people you choose. Covenant Eyes includes screenshots in its reports.

If you want a free option, use DNS filtering and turn on Limit Adult Websites in Screen Time. Both take a few minutes to set up, and both can be turned off by anyone with access to the settings.

About Ascension

Ascension is a hard-to-bypass blocker that blocks harmful and distracting content on the web. It is intended for people who struggle with addiction, and it tracks your digital usage automatically to give insights on how one can improve.

It is Windows-only, with a Mac version in development.

If you want to be notified when the Mac version is ready, you can join the Mac waitlist.

Sources

Pricing, platform support and feature claims were taken from each vendor's own website or App Store listing on 22 September 2026, and from Apple's macOS user guide for Screen Time. These change often, so verify current details directly. If anything here is out of date, tell us at support@ascensionapp.ai and we will correct it.

Frequently asked questions