Gamban alternatives
Short answer: Gamban is £4.99/month or £29.99/year with a 7-day free trial, covering iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. If you want free, BetBlocker (charity-run) does the core job on more platforms than Gamban. If you want the strongest removal resistance on Windows or Android, look at GamBlock. If you want a quit program rather than just a wall, Silex — which we make — is iPhone-only and costs more. And if you only gamble on an iPhone, iOS's own DNS and Screen Time settings plus a free filtering resolver cost nothing at all.
Disclosure: we make Silex, one of the options below. So this page verifies every price against the vendor's own site rather than repeating other comparisons, and it says where Gamban beats us. Prices checked .
What you're actually replacing
Gamban's pricing page lists £4.99 billed monthly or £29.99 billed annually (advertised as saving 49%), with a 7-day free trial and no payment required up front. One subscription covers iOS, Android, Windows and Mac, and the plans include blocking, progress monitoring, layered self-exclusion and on-demand technical support.
People usually look for an alternative for one of four reasons: they want it free, they only need one platform, they want something harder to remove, or blocking alone hasn't been enough.
The alternatives
| Option | Price | Platforms | Better than Gamban at |
|---|---|---|---|
| BetBlocker | Free, no ads | iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Fire OS | Cost, platform breadth, lockable periods up to 5 years |
| GamBlock | Paid, not published on homepage | Windows, Apple, Android | Removal resistance on Windows and Android |
| Silex (ours) | $4.99/wk or $49.99/yr, 3-day trial | iPhone only | A 90-day program, urge tools, money-kept tracking |
| NextDNS or Control D | Free tiers; paid from a few $/month | Anything that can set DNS | Whole-network coverage, granular control |
| iOS Screen Time + a filtering resolver | Free | iPhone, iPad | Costing nothing, if iPhone is your only risk |
BetBlocker — the free one that isn't a downgrade
A charity project (founded by ThePOGG in 2017, independent charity from 2019, registered in Scotland SC049565). Free "absolutely nothing. Ever.", ad-free, and it states coverage of 356,000+ websites and 1,900+ apps with 105,000+ active users. Its standout feature is a restriction period you set from one day to five years and cannot shorten once running.
Where Gamban wins: polish, support, and heuristic detection of sites that aren't on a list yet. BetBlocker's setup is more manual. betblocker.org
GamBlock — for a Windows problem
Uses heuristics rather than lists — "GamBlock uses heuristics to ban gambling sites rather than the simple lists imitators use that are never up to date" — and on Windows and Android claims removal "cannot happen", including blocking attempts to reset the machine.
Where Gamban wins: published pricing and a much easier purchase decision. We haven't independently tested GamBlock's removal-resistance claims, so treat them as the vendor's until you've tried them in a refund window. gamblock.com
NextDNS or Control D — the technical route
Not blocker apps but filtering DNS services with gambling categories you switch on. Set one as the DNS on your iPhone and it covers every app and browser on cellular and Wi-Fi; set it on your router and it covers the house. Free tiers are enough for one person, and this is what most blocker apps are doing under the hood anyway.
Where Gamban wins: you have to be comfortable with profiles and DNS settings, and nothing stops you switching the profile off — there's no commitment mechanism at all.
Silex — different product, not a cheaper Gamban
iPhone only, $4.99/week or $49.99/year with a 3-day trial. It installs an encrypted-DNS shield covering every app and browser, ships a Safari content blocker, and guides setup of the layers software can't provide — self-exclusion, bank blocks, killing promo emails.
The reason to choose it is the other half: a 90-day program written from clinical CBT material, an urge button that is never paywalled, and a running total of the money you kept.
Where Gamban wins, clearly: platforms. Gamban covers your laptop; Silex does not exist on anything but an iPhone. Gamban is also cheaper annually, and has years of operating history where we have weeks. If what you need is a blocker, Gamban or BetBlocker is the better buy and we'd rather say so than sell you the wrong thing.
When you should just keep Gamban
- You gamble on more than one kind of device.
- You want one subscription, one support contact, and no assembly.
- It's already installed and working — swapping tools is a common form of procrastination that feels like progress.
The change that matters more than which app you pick
Every option on this page is the same layer, and it's the weakest of the three. Before spending another hour comparing blockers, spend twenty minutes on the two free things no app can do for you:
- Self-exclude — GAMSTOP in the UK, your state programme and each operator in the US. Free, and you can't reverse it in a craving.
- Bank gambling block — free, and typically 48 to 72 hours to lift.
Then pick whichever blocker you'll actually keep installed. Full comparison of all of them →
Quit for good. Keep the money.
Silex blocks gambling across your iPhone and walks you through 90 days, one at a time.
Silex is in App Store review. This link goes live at launch.
Common questions
How much does Gamban cost?
£4.99 billed monthly, or £29.99 billed annually, with a 7-day free trial and no payment up front. Checked against gamban.com/pricing on 10 August 2026. Older roundups still quoting £24.99 a year are out of date.
Is there a free alternative to Gamban?
Yes — BetBlocker, run by a charity registered in Scotland (SC049565). It is free with no ads, states it blocks 356,000+ gambling sites and 1,900+ apps, and supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Fire OS. It also lets you lock a restriction period of up to five years.
Can I cancel Gamban if it stops working for me?
It's an ordinary subscription, cancelled through wherever you bought it. Worth knowing: cancelling a blocker is by design easy, which is why it should never be your only layer — self-exclusion and a bank block are the ones that hold.
Is Gamban better than GAMSTOP?
They do different jobs and you want both. GAMSTOP stops UK-licensed operators from serving you; Gamban blocks access to gambling sites generally, including the unlicensed offshore ones GAMSTOP has no authority over.
Does Gamban work on iPhone?
Yes, and like every iOS blocker it can be removed from Settings — Apple's sandbox does not permit an app to make itself undeletable. That is a platform limit, not a Gamban flaw.