Sieve · content filter & site blocker · 1.6Most of the web gets through.
Sieve stops scam, phishing and gambling sites before they load. On the pages that do open it takes the tricks off, and it keeps the time you give a feed. Free, open source, no account.
Illustration: the sky is full of web addresses pouring down onto a row of holes. Nearly all of them pass through and fall away as drops; now and then a scam, betting or phishing site stops on the line in brass. In front, one address at a time is typed and Sieve says what happened to it: let through, blocked, or, for YouTube once today’s time is used, paused.
On the page
Shops that want you to hurry use the same few tricks: a stock number that never moves, a countdown that starts again when you come back, a box already ticked.
Sieve knows them by sight, and it remembers what a shop told you last time, so a “last 2” that never sells out gets caught. Each one it touches gets a sentence saying what it was and what Sieve did, and Undo puts it back.
- A stock number that never movesDimmed
“It has said 2 left on each of your 4 visits since Sunday. The number hasn’t moved, so there is no rush.” When the number really has gone down, Sieve says so too.
- A countdown that restartsHidden
If it ends at 6:00 today and at 9:40 when you come back, Sieve tells you it restarted. One that kept its time is called genuine.
- Free-trial small printExplained
The real price and the date of the first payment, in one sentence, with a reminder you can set for before it is due.
- A box ticked for youLabelled
- A guilt-trip buttonReworded
“No, I don’t like saving money” becomes “No thanks”.
- Fake “just bought” pop-upsHidden
- A lopsided cookie bannerLevelled
Reject made the same size as Accept. Rejecting non-essential cookies for you is a separate switch, off until you turn it on.
- Comments written to hurtFolded
On YouTube, Reddit, X and Disqus. “Hidden by Sieve · insult”, with Show anyway beside it.
- SwearingMasked
A box ticked for you
“Email me offers from partners” was already ticked. Untick it if you don’t want it.
A stock number that never moves
It has said 2 left on each of your 4 visits since Sunday. The number hasn’t moved, so there is no rush.
A free trial that becomes a payment
After 30 days, this becomes $9.99 a month. Start today and the first payment is due Thu, Dec 10. Cancel before then to pay nothing.
Before it opens
Some sites exist to take something from whoever lands on them. Switch a kind on, and those sites stop before the page opens.
Nineteen switches. Gambling is on from the start; the rest wait for you. Scam, phishing and malware lists are fetched fresh every day.
Money
- Gambling & bettingOn
- Prediction markets38 sites
- Crypto scamsdaily list
- Trading & exchanges17 sites
- MLM schemes209 sites
- Fraud & fake shopsdaily list
Safety
- Malware & phishingdaily list
- Cryptojackingdaily list
- Piracydaily list
- AI content farmsdaily list
- Gore & shock98 sites
Your own limits
- Dating65 sites
- Game portals35 sites
- Game stores27 sites
- Game platforms20 sites
- Game streaming15 sites
- AI chatbots31 sites
- AI writing tools32 sites
- AI companions29 sites
Scam site blocked
This site is a known crypto scam or phishing site — blocked by Sieve.
- https://claim-airdrop-bonus.example/wallet/connect
Scam lists can occasionally be wrong. If you’re sure this site is safe, add it to the Allowlist in Sieve’s settings.
Every block says which list caught the site and lets you allow it. If you have set a PIN, allowing a site asks for it first.
Your own lists
Block or allow any site by its address, a whole domain ending, or a pattern.
Short links, opened first
Before you follow a short link, Sieve looks up where it really leads, so a blocked site can’t hide behind one. On from the start.
Your time
When the time you gave a feed runs out, a calm page steps in front of it. Getting past it takes the PIN you set.
- YouTube30 min a day
- Reddit20 min a day
- Instagram15 min a day
- Switching it offNeeds your PIN
Limits for X, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube and any site you add. The numbers above are an example; you choose your own.
Time for a breath
You’ve been scrolling YouTube for about 32 min. You’ve reached today’s limit. Enter your PIN to unlock more time.
Three ways to keep a promise to yourself, all free.
They live in the browser, so they are there to outlast an impulse, not to stop someone set on getting round them.
Guardian Lock
A PIN over Sieve’s settings, with an optional typed access code. The person most likely to switch a blocker off is the one who installed it, ten minutes later.
Cool-off
A change you ask for waits, from an hour to seven days, before it happens.
Seal
Locked until a date you pick. The only way out early is a code from someone you trust, or an emergency key you put away.
Screen time
Off until you want it: time per site and per hour, kept on this device.
Search and feeds
Smaller things, each its own switch, all off until you want them.
Search results, sorted before you click
Colour the sources you trust and hide the ones you don’t, on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yahoo and Swisscows. Hidden results are counted, never dropped silently, and any result can tell you why.
YouTube and Google, cleaned up
Twenty-five switches for YouTube and ten for Google Search: take away the parts of the page you never asked for.
Ads
Ad networks, ads on YouTube and Facebook, “turn off your ad blocker” walls, and the empty boxes ads leave behind. A beta.
Pop-ups and hijacked clicks
A click that opens a tab you didn’t ask for is stopped, and a video that follows you down the page goes back where it was.
In motion
Supporter
Every protection on this page is free, and stays free. Supporter is for someone using Sieve to change a habit.
It pays for Sieve, and adds the parts that help on a hard evening: what to do when the urge comes, and proof that it passes.
Free
- Everything above: the tricks, the nineteen switches, short links, search and feeds
- The Doomscroll Stopper, Guardian Lock, Cool-off and the Seal
- No account. Open source, MIT licence
Supporter
- The urge screen: a breathing ring, an ensō or a river, with your own reason, a photo or a voice message, and someone to call
- Streaks, with the money kept and a savings goal
- Your progress: your hardest hours, proof that it passes, and a letter each month and each year
- Plans for hard moments, and a heads-up before one
- Your popup: choose what Sieve shows first
Open Settings › Supporter in the extension. Payment is through Polar, which emails you a key. It unlocks Supporter with no account, on up to three browsers, and is checked about once a week.
What it doesn’t claim
What Sieve can’t do deserves the same space as what it can.
It doesn’t block trackers.
That stopped in 1.5.1. Run uBlock Origin Lite alongside it for that.
Ads are a beta, and an arms race.
Ads a site serves from its own address stay. On YouTube, Sieve may fall back to playing an ad at 16× with the sound off. A wall decided on the site’s server stays up.
Comments are read on four sites.
YouTube, Reddit, X and Disqus. The optional model that reads them, about 55 MB, runs on your device, and isn’t available in Firefox.
A lock in a browser is a lock in a browser.
The PIN, Cool-off and Seal outlast an impulse. For a lock the browser can’t remove, there is Warden, on Windows.
Lists are sometimes wrong.
Every block says why, and lets you allow the site. A trick Sieve isn’t sure of is labelled, not removed.
What leaves your browser.
No account, no analytics. Sieve downloads its lists and the comment model. It sends one thing: a Supporter key, to Polar, to check it. To see where a short link leads, it opens the link itself.
Install
Free in every store, with no account.
- 1.6.0
- Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera · Firefox 128+
- 19
- none
- free · Supporter $34.99 once
- MIT (Supporter is not)