LeechBlock Review: Is It Worth It in 2026?

LeechBlock has been around since the mid-2000s, back when “website blocker” mostly meant editing your hosts file by hand. It survived by staying narrow: it’s a free browser extension that blocks sites according to rules you define, and it doesn’t try to be anything more than that. In 2026, with paid apps promising AI-assisted focus scores and cross-device sync, that narrowness is either LeechBlock’s biggest strength or its clearest limitation, depending on what you’re trying to block.

This review looks at what LeechBlock actually does well, where its extension-based design shows its age, and how it stacks up against both free alternatives and paid tools like Cold Turkey or Browwwser. If you’ve searched “leechblock” wondering whether it still holds up, or whether to just pay for something newer, this should settle it.

In short — LeechBlock is a free, capable browser extension for scheduling and limiting access to specific websites in Chrome or Firefox, but because it lives inside the browser as an extension, it can be disabled, removed, or routed around, which makes it a better fit for light self-discipline than for serious distraction problems.

• Use LeechBlock if your distractions are a handful of websites and you want free, granular scheduling without installing a separate app.
• Skip it if you’ve caught yourself disabling blockers before, since LeechBlock has no protection against that beyond an optional password.
• Skip it if you need to block native apps, not just browser tabs — LeechBlock only sees what happens inside the browser it’s installed in.
• Consider it as a first step before paying for something stricter, since it costs nothing to try.
• Look elsewhere if you need the block to survive a browser reinstall, a new profile, or switching to a browser without the extension.

What LeechBlock actually does

LeechBlock’s model is the “block set”: a named list of domains paired with a schedule. You can create several block sets — one for social media during work hours, another for news sites in the evening, another for shopping sites on weekdays — each with its own rules. Inside a block set you can configure:

• Time periods — specific days and hour ranges when the block is active (e.g., weekdays 9am–6pm).
• Time limits — a maximum number of minutes per day the sites can be visited, after which they’re blocked for the rest of the day.
• Delay before blocking — a countdown that starts once you visit a blocked site, useful for tapering rather than hard-cutting.
• Lockdown mode — temporarily prevents you from editing the block set’s own settings, so you can’t just turn it off mid-session.
• Password protection — requires a password to change settings, which raises friction without removing the option entirely.

This is more configurable than most free blockers, and it’s the reason LeechBlock still shows up in recommendations more than fifteen years after it launched. You’re not choosing between “on” and “off” — you can taper access, cap it, or restrict it to certain hours, all inside one tool.

LeechBlock vs LeechBlock NG

The original LeechBlock was written for an older Firefox extension architecture and has not seen meaningful updates in years. LeechBlock NG (Next Generation) is the actively maintained rewrite, built for Manifest V3 and available for both Chrome and modern Firefox. It adds import/export of block sets, better scheduling options, and ongoing compatibility fixes as browsers change their extension APIs. If you’re installing LeechBlock today, you’re almost certainly installing NG — the naming distinction mostly matters for anyone who bookmarked an old guide.

Where the extension model shows its limits

The thing that makes LeechBlock easy to install — it’s just a browser extension — is also what makes it easy to get around. None of the following require any technical skill:

• Opening chrome://extensions or about:addons and toggling it off.
• Uninstalling the extension entirely, then reinstalling it later once the urge has passed.
• Opening a different browser that doesn’t have LeechBlock installed.
• Using a browser profile or guest window where the extension isn’t active.

LeechBlock’s lockdown and password features address the first case — you can’t casually disable it without entering a password — but they don’t address the second, third, or fourth. A determined procrastinating brain is good at finding the one door left unlocked, and with an extension, there’s almost always one.

This isn’t a flaw specific to LeechBlock; it’s true of every extension-based blocker, including BlockSite and most Chrome Web Store options. It’s the reason tools like Cold Turkey and SelfControl block at the operating system level instead — a blocked site stays blocked even if you close and reopen the browser, switch browsers, or reboot. Browwwser takes a related but different approach: instead of running as an extension you can disable from a menu, its blocking is built into the browser’s own engine, so there’s no separate extension to turn off in the first place.

None of that makes LeechBlock bad. It makes it a tool for people who mostly follow their own rules and want a nudge, not people who need the decision taken out of their hands entirely.

LeechBlock compared to other website blockers

Tool	Platform	Blocks apps (not just browser)	Bypass difficulty	Price
LeechBlock (NG)	Chrome, Firefox, Edge — Win/Mac/Linux	No	Low (disable/uninstall extension)	Free
Browwwser	macOS only (Chromium browser)	N/A — blocking is in the browser engine, no extension to disable	Higher (no extension to toggle off)	$99/year or $199 lifetime, 7-day trial
Cold Turkey	Windows, Mac	Yes	High (system-level, optional frozen turkey lock)	Free tier + paid Pro
Freedom	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, browser extension	Yes	Medium (cross-device sync, but can be uninstalled)	Subscription, free trial
SelfControl	Mac only	No, but blocks at network/hosts level	Medium-high (can’t be stopped early once started)	Free, open source

Read this table by what you’re actually trying to block, not by which row looks strongest overall. If it’s a few websites and you’re on a laptop where you’re the only user, LeechBlock’s free and detailed scheduling is genuinely enough. If the problem extends to apps, or you’ve already proven to yourself that you’ll disable a blocker mid-session, the “bypass difficulty” column is the one that matters, and LeechBlock scores low on it by design — it was built to be flexible, not to be unstoppable.

For a broader shortlist beyond this comparison, see Best Website Blockers in 2026 or, if you’re specifically on Windows, Best Website Blockers for Windows.

Setting up LeechBlock

Installation is the same as any browser extension: add it from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons page, then open its options page to configure block sets. A typical first setup looks like this:

1. Create a block set and name it something specific (e.g., “Social — work hours”) rather than “Blocked sites,” so you remember why it exists later.
2. Add domains one per line, including variants like m. or old. subdomains sites use to dodge simple blocks.
3. Set the time period — for most people, this means weekday work hours rather than a 24/7 block, since an all-day block is easier to abandon after a few days.
4. Turn on lockdown for a fixed window if you want to prevent yourself from editing the rules mid-task.
5. Optionally set a password, which won’t stop determined bypassing but will stop the two-second “just disable it real quick” impulse.

If you’re specifically trying to add a handful of sites to a Chrome blocklist without LeechBlock’s full scheduling system, How to Blacklist a Website on Chrome covers the more minimal built-in and extension options. And if you’re troubleshooting Chrome blocking in general rather than deciding between tools, How to Block Websites on Chrome walks through the base setup step by step.

Is LeechBlock worth it in 2026?

For a specific kind of user, yes, and there’s little reason not to try it since it costs nothing. If your distractions are concentrated in a short list of websites, you work on one browser on one machine, and you don’t have a history of disabling blockers the moment they get inconvenient, LeechBlock’s scheduling and time-limit features do the job as well as most paid alternatives, without a subscription.

The calculation changes if any of that isn’t true. If you’ve tried extension blockers before and found yourself in chrome://extensions five minutes later, the issue isn’t the rules LeechBlock lets you set — it’s that nothing stops you from turning them off. In that case, the honest move is to spend money not on more features but on removing the exit: a tool where blocking isn’t a togglable extension, whether that’s an OS-level option like Cold Turkey or SelfControl on Mac, or a browser where blocking is part of the browser itself, like Browwwser (macOS, Chromium-based, no extension to disable).

If you’re on Mac and specifically want that no-extension guarantee, Best Focus Apps for Mac and the direct comparison at Browwwser vs SelfControl lay out the tradeoffs. If you’re just trying to block sites on Mac without committing to anything yet, start with How to Block Websites on Mac, which covers free built-in options including LeechBlock, before deciding whether you need something firmer.

FAQ

What is LeechBlock and how does it work?

LeechBlock is a free browser extension for Firefox and Chrome that blocks access to specific websites according to rules you set: fixed schedules, time limits per day, or a maximum number of visits. You create one or more “block sets,” add domains to each, and choose when the rules apply. It runs entirely inside the browser, with no separate app or account.

Is LeechBlock free?

Yes. LeechBlock and its actively maintained fork, LeechBlock NG, are free and open source, with no premium tier, subscription, or paywalled features. This makes it one of the few genuinely free website blockers with scheduling and time-limit options, rather than a stripped-down trial of a paid product.

Can LeechBlock be bypassed?

Yes, more easily than app-level or system-level blockers. Because it is a browser extension, it can be disabled from the extensions menu, removed entirely, or skipped by opening a different browser that doesn’t have it installed. LeechBlock’s lockdown and password options raise the friction, but they don’t remove these exits the way OS-level blocking does.

Does LeechBlock work on Chrome, and is there a mobile version?

LeechBlock NG works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and other Chromium-based browsers on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is no official mobile app for iOS or Android, so it only blocks sites in the desktop browser it’s installed on, not on your phone or across other browsers on the same machine.

Is LeechBlock better than Cold Turkey or Freedom?

It depends on what you need blocked. LeechBlock is free and detailed for browser-only blocking, but Cold Turkey and Freedom block outside the browser too, including desktop apps, and sync settings across devices. If your distractions live entirely in browser tabs, LeechBlock covers that well without a subscription; if they include apps or other devices, it doesn’t reach far enough.

What’s the difference between LeechBlock and LeechBlock NG?

The original LeechBlock was built for older Firefox extension APIs and is no longer actively developed. LeechBlock NG (Next Generation) is a rewrite that supports Chrome and modern Firefox, adds features like block-set import/export, and receives ongoing updates. Almost everyone installing LeechBlock today is installing the NG version.