Cold Turkey, built by Cold Turkey Software since 2010 (full-time since 2016 or 2017), is a desktop-only tool for Windows and macOS, plus a Chrome extension, and it's worth being upfront about that from the start: it doesn't have a mobile app, and it isn't trying to build one. Within its own category — desktop focus software — its "Frozen Turkey" mode is one of the most aggressive lockout features researched for this whole comparison set, and it's built by someone who has clearly spent years thinking specifically about how people talk themselves out of a block. That focus on the desktop specifically also means Cold Turkey has had over a decade to refine exactly one job, rather than spreading its engineering effort across phone, tablet and desktop versions the way some larger competitors do.
What Cold Turkey actually does
Cold Turkey blocks scheduled or timed lists of websites and desktop applications on Windows or macOS. Its standout feature is "Frozen Turkey" mode, which locks the entire computer — not just a list of apps — for a set period, reportedly with no built-in snooze or emergency override once it's running, which is a meaningfully stronger claim than most competitors are willing to make about their own hardest setting. The software is also built to resist being killed mid-block: ending the process doesn't stop it, since it restarts itself automatically, and uninstalling during an active block is blocked by the software itself rather than left to the operating system's normal uninstall flow. Cold Turkey also offers a "Frozen Turkey Blackout" variant and website-specific blocking through its Chrome extension, so a lighter, browser-only block is available for anyone not ready to commit to locking their whole machine.
Where Cold Turkey is honestly the better pick
If your actual problem is a desktop computer, not a phone, Cold Turkey is simply the more relevant tool — Mr. Grummel doesn't run on a Mac or PC at all, so it can't help with that use case in any form, however well it might work on the phone in your pocket. Cold Turkey's one-time purchase price, rather than an ongoing subscription, is also a fair point in its favor for anyone tired of recurring charges in this category, and Frozen Turkey mode is a genuinely stronger lockout than anything a quiz question can offer, precisely because it removes the decision from you entirely for the duration you set. It's also worth noting that a one-time $45 purchase, used for years, works out considerably cheaper than most subscription blockers in this comparison set, which matters if you're specifically trying to avoid recurring software costs on principle.
| Feature | Cold Turkey | Mr. Grummel |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Chrome extension — desktop only, no mobile app | iOS & Android (in development) — phone only, no desktop app |
| Core mechanism | Scheduled/timed blocking, with an optional whole-computer “Frozen Turkey” lockout | Answer a quiz question from the app's curriculum to unlock |
| Self-bypassable during an active block? | Deliberately hard — process restarts itself, uninstall is blocked; some technical workarounds (system clock, Safe Mode) are reported | Not yet released — can't be assessed |
| Physical hardware required? | No | No |
| Price | One-time purchase, roughly $45 for the Pro tier; free tier also exists | Not yet announced — join the waiting list |
The one mechanical difference that actually matters
The two aren't really solving the same problem, and it's worth resisting the urge to declare one "stronger" than the other in the abstract. Cold Turkey's Frozen Turkey mode is built around total lockout of a shared, general-purpose machine — your whole computer, not just a few apps on it, including every browser tab and every other program you might reach for instead. Mr. Grummel is built around a single, specific moment: opening one particular app on your phone, a device that's almost always within arm's reach and almost never shared with anyone else. One is a blunt, total instrument for a desktop; the other is a narrow, repeated interruption for a phone, and comparing their strength head-to-head misses that they're aimed at different devices with genuinely different failure modes.
Who should pick which
If your distraction problem lives on a laptop or desktop — browser tabs, desktop apps, a whole workday lost to a screen that isn't your phone — Cold Turkey is built for exactly that, and Mr. Grummel simply doesn't compete there in any meaningful sense. If your problem is specifically the phone in your pocket, and the apps that live on it, that's the device Mr. Grummel is built around, and the two tools could plausibly sit alongside each other rather than in competition, covering different halves of the same underlying habit. It's also entirely plausible to run both tools side by side without any conflict — Cold Turkey handling the desktop half of a workday, and a phone-first tool like Mr. Grummel handling the other half, since neither one claims to cover the device the other is built for.