- Starting price
- Free (suggested $2/mo from developed countries)
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Windows · macOS · Linux · Android
- Developer
- Plucky
- Launched
- 2015
- Updated
- Jul 26, 2026
The verdict
Rather than guessing which sites are bad, Plucky blocks all images and video everywhere, and every exception - including uninstalling the software - must wait out a delay you chose while calm. It is free, it runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, and the vendor openly warns the learning curve is steep. There is no iOS version, so iPhone households should stop reading here.
Try Plucky Filter ↗Opens pluckyfilter.com
Nearly every content filter works the same way. Someone maintains a list of bad sites or categories, your device checks against that list, and the arms race between the list and the internet continues indefinitely. Plucky Filter does not play that game. In its own words, "In default mode, Plucky blocks all images and videos on all sites". Text still loads. Everything visual does not. The blocklist problem disappears because there is no blocklist - there is a blanket, and you cut holes in it deliberately.
The holes are where the interesting part lives. You build allowlists to re-enable images on specific sites, and the vendor's crucial sentence is this: "The first time you allow any site, there is a delay you chose ahead of time (for example, 5 minutes or 5 hours)". You set that number in advance, when you are thinking clearly. Later, in the moment you want an exception, the exception does not take effect immediately - it takes effect after the wait. The same delay guards the exit: "Plucky can't be uninstalled until after the delay".
It is free. No published tiers, no plan names, no trial length, because there is nothing to buy. The homepage sets an expectation rather than a price: "We expect at least $2/month from people in developed countries, which allows Plucky to be free in developing countries." That is the whole commercial model - someone in London or Sydney is asked, not required, to contribute two dollars a month, and that contribution is what keeps the software free for people who cannot pay.
The project comes from Jon Wilkes, who founded it in 2015 and works near Tacoma, Washington. His biography on the About page is disarming: he "worked in the software industry for several years, but after awhile he quit his job to look for an occupation that had a better retirement plan". That tone carries into the product, which the vendor calls a "do-it-yourself filter" and about which it is unusually honest: "While the learning curve is steep, there is a growing community that can help you get started."
✓ The good
- Free, with a contribution model instead of a price - the vendor asks at least $2/month from users in developed countries, which funds free access in developing countries. No tiers, no upsells, no card
- Inverts the blocklist problem entirely - blocking all images and video on all sites by default means no list to keep current and no category taxonomy to argue with
- The pre-committed delay is the smartest mechanism in this category - you choose the waiting period while calm, and every new exception must sit out that wait
- Uninstall protection uses the same delay - Plucky cannot be removed until the wait has elapsed, so the escape hatch is disciplined on the same terms as the exceptions
- Text remains fully accessible - reading, working, searching and text-based services carry on normally, which makes the default mode survivable rather than merely punitive
- Genuinely cross-platform on desktop - Windows, macOS and Linux, plus Android, which is more desktop coverage than most filters here manage
- Fully customisable by design - the vendor calls it a "do-it-yourself filter", so the configuration is yours rather than a vendor-chosen preset
✗ Watch out
- The vendor itself calls the learning curve steep - "While the learning curve is steep, there is a growing community that can help you get started" is an open admission of significant configuration effort
- No iOS version - no iPhone or iPad support appears among the supported platforms, which rules Plucky out for a large share of households outright
- It filters images and video only - text-based content is untouched by the default mode, so written explicit material, chat and text-based services pass straight through
- No published tiers, prices or trial terms - "we expect at least $2/month" is an expectation rather than a plan, with no formal structure to compare against paid competitors
- Support is community-based rather than a staffed helpdesk - "a growing community that can help you get started" is not the same as someone answering a ticket
- A blanket image block has real collateral cost - maps, product photos, work dashboards, video calls and children's schoolwork all disappear until you allow the site and wait out the delay
Best for
- Adults committing hard against visual material
- Windows, macOS or Linux desktop users
- People who want no subscription at all
- Technically confident users willing to configure
Avoid if
- Your household is iPhone or iPad based
- You need text-based content filtered too
- You want setup done for you out of the box
- Your work depends on images or video
What Plucky Filter is
Plucky Filter is a desktop and Android content filter that blocks visual media rather than websites. In default mode it blocks all images and videos on all sites, leaving text intact, so the internet still functions as something you read. You then build allowlists to re-enable images on the specific sites where you actually need them - your bank, your maps, your work tools. There is no vendor-maintained blocklist and no category picker, because the default is already the most restrictive setting available.
Layered over that is a self-imposed waiting period. You pick a delay in advance - the vendor's examples are five minutes or five hours - and the first time you allow any site, that allowance only takes effect once the delay has run. The same delay applies to removing the software. The vendor calls the result a "do-it-yourself filter": fully customisable, and per its own claim, hard to get around. Jon Wilkes has developed it since 2015 near Tacoma, Washington, with setup help from a user community rather than a support desk.
Why self-directed users choose Plucky Filter
Every other filter here bets that the vendor can identify harmful content better than you can, and that bet has to be re-won daily against a web that changes constantly. Plucky refuses the bet. By blocking all images and video everywhere, the question shifts from "is this site bad?" - which nobody can answer at scale - to "do I need pictures here?", which you can answer instantly about your own life. The set of sites where you genuinely need images is small, knowable and stable. The set of sites that might host something harmful is neither.
The second half of the design is more interesting still, because it is aimed at the person rather than the network. The framing is a handover of authority from the impulsive self to the disciplined self: you decide, in advance and in good order, how long any future exception must wait, and your later self cannot shorten it. That is why the uninstall is gated by the same delay. A filter you can remove in thirty seconds stops working exactly when it is most needed.
The time delay: how the mechanism actually works
The mechanics are simpler than they sound, and the sequencing is the whole point. During setup you choose a delay - the vendor's own examples are five minutes or five hours - and you choose it while calm and deliberate rather than mid-craving. From then on, the first time you allow any site the allowance does not take effect at once; the delay runs first, and only then do images appear. The same clock governs removal: "Plucky can't be uninstalled until after the delay". Both escape routes are therefore routed through a wait set by an earlier version of you, which the current version cannot shorten.
The reasoning is stated plainly: "a waiting period helps people resist addictive substances and behaviors by making them temporarily unavailable." That is the trick. Compulsive behaviour runs on a short fuse, and most of it does not survive an enforced gap between deciding and acting. Note what the delay does not do - it does not refuse you. Plucky will let you allow any site you like; it simply insists you still want it in five minutes, or five hours. Choosing that number is the most consequential decision in the setup: too short and the gap closes before the impulse does, too long and you will be locked out of a site you need for work.
Default-block-everything: what it costs you day to day
It is worth sitting with what "blocks all images and videos on all sites" means in practice, because the phrase is easy to nod along to and harder to live with. Maps lose their tiles. Online shopping loses product photos. Recipe sites, news sites and documentation with annotated screenshots all become text. Browser video calls, streamed lectures, a child's school portal, the diagram in a Wikipedia article, the photo your sister sent - all of it goes, until you allowlist the site and wait out the delay.
Two things make that tolerable rather than absurd. Text survives intact, so the internet remains usable for reading, searching, banking, email and work in a way it would not be under a blanket site block. And the damage is front-loaded: the sites you genuinely need images on are a short list, and once each has been allowed and its delay expired, it stays allowed. After a couple of weeks the filter mostly recedes, leaving a web where new visual content is the thing requiring a decision. That is the intended effect - but budget for the fortnight, and be honest about whether your work survives it. A graphic designer, photographer or video editor should not install this on a working machine.
The DIY model, the community, and the steep curve
Plucky is described by its own vendor as a "do-it-yourself filter", which is a fair description of both the freedom and the burden. There are no presets, no parental-control templates, no wizard asking whether you are protecting a child or yourself. You configure the delay, you configure the allowlists, and the resulting policy is genuinely yours. The vendor's claim is that the result is fully customisable and yet hard to get around - an unusual combination, since most highly configurable tools are easy to reconfigure your way out of. Plucky's answer is the delay gating every change.
The cost is stated openly: "While the learning curve is steep, there is a growing community that can help you get started." Take both halves seriously. The steep curve is real and vendor-acknowledged, so plan an evening for setup rather than ten minutes, and expect to keep adjusting for a week afterwards. The community is the support model - not a staffed helpdesk with response-time commitments, but other users who have been through the same configuration. For a technically confident person that is often enough. For someone who wants a filter that simply works out of the installer, this is the wrong product, and the vendor has said so.
Pricing
Plucky (all platforms)
Free
There is no paid edition. The full product runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android with no plan structure published, no feature gating and no trial period - because there is nothing to convert to.
Suggested contribution
At least $2/month
The vendor's stated expectation, not a charge: "We expect at least $2/month from people in developed countries, which allows Plucky to be free in developing countries." No formal tiers are published.
Developing countries
Free
The other half of the same sentence. Contributions from users in developed countries are explicitly what allows Plucky to remain free for users in developing countries.
There is no pricing to describe, which is rather the point. Plucky has no formal tiers, no plan names, no feature gating and no published trial length, because there is no paid edition to trial your way into. The homepage states an expectation rather than a price: "We expect at least $2/month from people in developed countries, which allows Plucky to be free in developing countries." That single sentence is the entire commercial model.
Read it carefully, because the two halves depend on each other. Contributions from users in wealthier countries are what make the software free for users who cannot pay - the vendor is explicit that this is the mechanism, not a pleasant side effect. So $2/month is not a suggested donation in the vague sense; it is the stated expectation placed on users in developed countries. Whether you honour it is between you and your conscience, but the ask is modest by any standard in this category.
Against the rest of the market that is a striking number. Competitors in filtering and accountability typically carry monthly subscriptions, annual commitments and per-device limits. Plucky asks two dollars, does not enforce it, does not cap your devices, and does not withhold features from non-contributors. If the mechanism suits you, it is the cheapest serious tool in the category by a wide margin.
One honest caveat about the research behind this section. Plucky publishes a pricing page and an FAQ that we could not retrieve at the time of writing, so there may be further detail there - contribution methods, device policies, refunds - that this review does not capture. Everything above comes from the homepage and About page, which the vendor publishes openly. Check the pricing page yourself before assuming these are the final terms.
Where Plucky Filter falls behind
No iOS support, and this is disqualifying for many households. The vendor lists Windows, macOS, Linux and Android; no iPhone, iPad or iPadOS version appears among the supported platforms anywhere we could read. Since a large share of people looking for a filter are trying to protect a phone, and a large share of those phones are iPhones, Plucky cannot be their answer. It is a desktop-first tool with an Android companion, not a mobile solution.
Text-based content is not filtered. Plucky blocks images and video only; the default mode does nothing about written material, leaving written explicit content, chat, forums and messaging untouched. For a user whose difficulty is primarily visual, that is an acceptable scope. For a user whose difficulty involves written material or conversation, Plucky is addressing the wrong channel, and no amount of configuration changes that.
The learning curve is steep, by the vendor's own admission. "While the learning curve is steep, there is a growing community that can help you get started" is candid, and also a warning that this product asks more of you than its competitors do. Commercial filters spend real money on onboarding precisely because most people abandon tools they cannot configure in one sitting. Plucky's answer is a community forum, which helps the determined and loses the rest.
No support desk, no service commitments, no formal terms. Free and community-supported has genuine virtues - no upsell, no lock-in, no subscription creep - but nobody is obliged to help when the filter misbehaves on a work laptop the morning of a deadline. Buyers used to a helpdesk should factor that in rather than discovering it later.
Nothing to check the vendor's claims against. Plucky is not on the Apple App Store, so there is no aggregate rating, no ratings count and no public review corpus to consult. The claim that it is "hard to get around" is the vendor's own, and we have no independent data to confirm or challenge it. The rating here is our editorial judgement of the design, the honesty of the documentation and the scope limits - not a measurement of how it performs in the wild.
Plucky Filter vs. Safe Surfer vs. Covenant Eyes
Three different theories of the problem. Plucky says the issue is visual media and impulse timing, so it removes all images and video and puts a self-imposed delay in front of every exception. Safe Surfer says the issue is which domains a device can reach, so it filters at the DNS layer across 50-plus categories and reports to whoever holds the admin PIN. Covenant Eyes says the issue is secrecy, so it summarises activity to a chosen ally and relies on the relationship rather than the block. Plucky is the only one whose mechanism targets the gap between wanting and acting.
That makes the audiences quite distinct. Plucky suits a self-directed adult with a desktop and a willingness to configure things, who wants no subscription and no third party involved. Safe Surfer suits a parent supervising children across mixed devices - and importantly it covers iOS, which Plucky does not, alongside Android, Windows, macOS, router-level and ISP-level deployment. Covenant Eyes suits an adult who has agreed with a friend or spouse to be visible to them. If your household runs on iPhones, the comparison ends immediately in Safe Surfer's favour.
On cost and confidence they trade places. Plucky is free with a $2/month expectation and no device caps; Safe Surfer has a free base tier and a paid Pro Surfer at $4.49/mo or $48.99/yr for five devices; Covenant Eyes publishes its own pricing, which was not part of the verified research here, so check it directly. Public confidence runs the other way: Covenant Eyes carries 4.3 stars from 58,421 App Store ratings, Safe Surfer 4.0 from just 46, and Plucky has no store presence and no aggregate rating at all. The cheapest and most novel option is also the least externally validated.
The bottom line
Plucky Filter has the most original mechanism in this category, and it costs nothing. Blocking all images and video by default sidesteps the blocklist arms race entirely, and gating every exception - and the uninstall - behind a delay you chose in advance is a better answer to compulsive behaviour than any category picker. If you are a self-directed adult on Windows, macOS or Linux, your difficulty is with visual material, and you will spend an evening configuring it, install it and send the two dollars. Do not install it if your household runs on iPhones, because there is no iOS version; if your difficulty involves written material, because the default mode does not filter text; or if you want something that configures itself, because the vendor says the learning curve is steep and means it.
Alternatives to Plucky Filter
Safe SurferThe iOS-capable alternative - a New Zealand not-for-profit DNS filter with a free base tier and Pro Surfer at $4.49/mo for five devices. Covers routers and ISPs too.
Covenant EyesAccountability rather than blocking - activity is summarised to a chosen ally. The best-validated product in the category at 4.3 stars from 58,421 App Store ratings.
Ever AccountablePartner-facing accountability reporting with a substantial ratings base - 4.1 from 1,015 reviews. Worth a look if the missing ingredient is another person rather than another block.
The Freedom FightProgramme-led rather than filter-led, and the highest-rated app in this set at 4.8 from 692 ratings. Pairs sensibly with a filter rather than replacing one.Frequently asked questions
Is Plucky Filter free?
Yes. There are no paid tiers, no feature gating and no trial period. The vendor states an expectation rather than a price: "We expect at least $2/month from people in developed countries, which allows Plucky to be free in developing countries." Contributions from wealthier users are explicitly what fund free access elsewhere, but nothing is withheld from users who do not contribute.
Does Plucky Filter work on iPhone?
No. The vendor lists Windows, macOS, Linux and Android as its supported platforms, and no iOS or iPadOS version appears among them. If you need to filter an iPhone or iPad, Plucky cannot help - Safe Surfer covers iOS 16 and later, alongside Android, Windows and macOS.
How does the time delay work?
You choose the length of the delay in advance - the vendor's examples are five minutes or five hours. After that, the first time you allow any site the allowance only takes effect once the delay has elapsed, and the software cannot be uninstalled until the same delay has run. The stated rationale is that "a waiting period helps people resist addictive substances and behaviors by making them temporarily unavailable". It never refuses you outright; it just makes you still want it later.
Does Plucky block written explicit content?
No. Plucky blocks images and video only - text-based content is not filtered by the default mode, so written material, chat, forums and messaging pass through untouched. If your difficulty is primarily with written content rather than visual, Plucky is addressing the wrong channel and a category-based filter will serve you better.
How hard is Plucky Filter to set up?
Harder than its competitors, and the vendor says so: "While the learning curve is steep, there is a growing community that can help you get started." There are no presets or wizards - it is a "do-it-yourself filter", so you configure the delay and the allowlists yourself. Budget an evening for initial setup and expect to keep adjusting allowlists for a week or two as you hit sites that need images.
Can I just uninstall it when I want to?
Not immediately, and that is deliberate. Uninstallation is gated by the same delay you set at setup, so removing Plucky takes as long as the waiting period you chose. This is the mechanism working as designed: an escape hatch you can open in thirty seconds is not much protection at the moment you most want to open it.
Who makes Plucky Filter?
Jon Wilkes, working near Tacoma, Washington, who has been developing it since 2015. His own description on the About page is characteristically dry: he "worked in the software industry for several years, but after awhile he quit his job to look for an occupation that had a better retirement plan". No separate legal entity is published, and support comes from the user community rather than a staffed helpdesk.
Sources & further reading
- Plucky Filter - homepage (contribution model, supported platforms, delay mechanism, learning-curve caveat) ↗
- Plucky Filter - about (founder Jon Wilkes, founded 2015, based near Tacoma, Washington) ↗
- Plucky Filter - pricing page (could not be retrieved at the time of writing) ↗
- Plucky Filter - FAQ (could not be retrieved at the time of writing) ↗
More Accountability & Filtering Apps
RelayA therapist-designed group programme rather than a filter or a monitor - private same-gender accountability groups, interactive video lessons and live Zoom calls, with nothing anywhere in it that blocks a website.The Freedom FightNot a filter and not a monitor, but a staged discipleship curriculum that treats compulsive porn use as a formation problem rather than a network problem - and asks for seven months to prove it.
LeadMeNotA cross-platform blocker whose distinguishing idea is that switching it off needs somebody else to say yes - priced sensibly, well reviewed by a small number of people, and documented far too thinly.Covenant EyesThe oldest name in accountability software, rebuilt around screenshots of what is actually on your screen rather than a list of URLs - with one platform caveat on iOS that decides whether it is right for you.
Tech LockdownA web dashboard that combines DNS filtering, device-level configuration profiles and VPN blocking into one locked policy - built for the person who already knows how to defeat an ordinary filter.Ever AccountableAn accountability-first app that reports what you look at to someone who knows you, rather than trying to lock the internet down - which is either exactly what you want or exactly the wrong tool.