DerotThe important distinction
Unrot and Derot both talk about doomscrolling, habits, and taking your phone back. The similarity in language is exactly why this comparison needs to be precise.
Unrot (the iPhone app at unrot.com, listed on the App Store as “Unrot: Earn your Screen Time”) is built on a trade. You do a healthy task, you earn points or coins, and you spend those points to unblock apps. If you do not have enough, the apps stay locked. Unrot’s own homepage puts it in one line: do healthy tasks, earn brain points, use them to buy screen time.
Derot is built the other way around. You set a proactive block based on usage time, the number of app opens, or a fixed schedule. You can add habits as extra structure. Official store copy states that completing habits is not a requirement for unlocking apps or gaining more screen time. Habits are a supplementary way to spend less time scrolling — not a currency.
If you have used “earn your time” apps and felt you were doing chores in order to scroll, that is the fork in the road. Derot is for people who want the block to stand on its own.
Note: a different site, unrotapp.com, also uses the Unrot name for a friction-and-delay product. This page compares Derot with Unrot by Unrot OÜ, the “earn your screen time” app at unrot.com.
How Unrot works
Unrot’s website describes a simple loop:
- Do a healthy activity — examples given include a short walk, reading, homework, or meditating. The site says you can choose from a database of 25+ tasks or create your own.
- Earn brain points for those tasks.
- Spend the points to unblock the apps you have locked (TikTok, Instagram, and other apps you choose).
The App Store listing describes the same idea with coins: start a timer or take a photo when you finish, earn coins, and use coins to open apps. It also mentions focus sessions, streaks, and a “buddy” character that grows when you do tasks and loses energy when you scroll too much. The listing states that an active Unrot subscription is required to access the features described.
Public constraints to keep in mind: the App Store listing presents Unrot as iPhone only and says it requires iOS 18 or later. The developer is listed as Unrot OÜ. The official site does not publish a single public price list. The US App Store shows several “Full Access” in-app purchases at different amounts; those should be read in the store at the time you subscribe, not treated as one official worldwide price on this page.
Unrot also has a parents-facing page that explains the same credits-for-screentime model for young people. That is a different buying context from Derot’s self-directed adult listing.
How Derot works
Derot (“Stop Doomscrolling - Derot”) is listed for iPhone and Android. You pick the apps to shield, then you attach a rule:
- Stop an app after a usage-time budget.
- Stop an app after a set number of opens.
- Stop an app during hours you schedule.
A 7-day digital detox, streaks, and a motivational (not clinical) Brain Health Score sit around those rules. Habits can be logged as support. They do not buy additional time. No account is required; the listing says much of your data is stored locally.
Derot does not ask you to complete a walk or a reading session before Instagram will open. If your time, opens, or schedule still allow the app, it opens. If the rule says it is blocked, it stays blocked — habit or no habit.
Why the model matters
“Earn your scroll” can be motivating when you want a visible swap: a walk, then a short session. It can also backfire if the points become a reason to justify another session, or if you skip the walk and then disable the app. Derot’s position is that the boundary should not depend on a completed habit. Use habits because they are useful, not because they are a key.
If you like photo or timer check-ins as a journal of real life, Derot can still be a place to track them. They just are not the unlock mechanism.
Side-by-side
| Topic | Derot | Unrot (unrot.com) |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Block by usage time, opens, or schedule | Earn points/coins from tasks, spend them to unblock apps |
| Role of habits | Supplementary only; not required to unlock time | Central — tasks are how you buy screen time |
| Platforms listed | iOS and Android | iPhone; iOS 18 or later |
| Account | Store listing: no account required | Subscription required for the features described on the App Store page |
| Public price list | US App Store IAPs listed below | No single price on the official homepage; see the App Store paywall |
Pricing (public, may vary)
Derot (US App Store, 11 November 2026): Weekly $4.99, Monthly $9.99, Annual $59.99, Lifetime $99.99. Google Play: free download with in-app purchases; regional prices differ.
Unrot: Confirm the current subscription price in the App Store. This draft does not invent a monthly or yearly rate from mixed in-app purchase labels.
Who should pick which
Choose Unrot if you want a deliberate trade — I do the task, then I am allowed to scroll — and you are on iPhone with iOS 18 or later.
Choose Derot if you want the apps blocked when a limit or schedule hits, on iPhone or Android, and you do not want to earn the right to open them.
