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How Oath Light stacks up.

Most blockers are commercial products: you pay a subscription, and in return they watch your activity and report it to someone. Oath Light is the opposite trade — free, open, and private. Here's an honest look at the differences.

Attributes chosen because they are publicly documented and structurally stable. Vendor pricing and features change — verify independently before relying on them.
Attribute	Oath Light this project	Covenant Eyesaccountability	BlockerXfreemium	Cold Turkeyfocus	Net Nannyparental
License	✓GPLv3, open source	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary
Cost	Free forever	Subscription	Freemium	Freemium	Subscription
Open codebase for audit	✓	✕	✕	✕	✕
Local-only processing, no reporting	✓	✕	~optional	✓	✕
No account required	✓	✕	✕	✓	✕
Per-item filtering on mixed platforms	✓35 platforms	✕	✕	✕	✕
Multilingual native-script keyword engine	✓41 languages	~limited	~limited	~user lists	~cloud analysis
On-device AI screen protection	✓optional, in-memory	✕	✕	✕	✕
Tamper resistance / delayed uninstall	✓24h + passphrase	✓	✓	~Pro only	✓
Built-in recovery layer	✓panic flow, CBT/ACT	~human partner	~	✕	✕

✓ yes ~ partial / varies by plan ✕ no Publicly documented product models as of 2026.

Why the difference matters

The business model shapes the tool.

Paid means incentivised to watch

A subscription monitoring service needs data to justify the fee. Oath Light has no fee and therefore no reason to record anything — the incentive to collect simply isn't there.

Closed means "just trust us"

If you can't read the code, you can't verify the privacy promises. Every claim on this site is checkable against the repository, including the ones that are unflattering.

Cloud means a copy off your device

Anything sent to a server can be breached, subpoenaed, or sold. Oath Light keeps everything local, so there is no copy anywhere to lose.

In fairness

When another tool might suit you better.

If you specifically want a human accountability partner who receives reports, a commercial service built around that is a reasonable choice — and it's a genuinely different model, not a worse one. If you need managed parental controls across many family devices with a central dashboard, a paid parental suite fits better today.

Oath Light is for the person who wants strong, private, self-directed protection they fully control, and who values that it's free and auditable. Pick the tool that matches your situation. We'd rather you be protected than loyal.