A short manifesto
We built a tool that helps you buy less and charge ourselves money for it. Both of those things should be true. Here's why.
“Every other product in your browser is trying to make you click faster. Halt is trying to make you click slower. That is the entire point. That is the entire company.”
Money is just hours you already traded. When we convert a $1,299 purchase into 47 hours of work, we're not doing a trick — we're showing you the receipt you've been ignoring. Every price tag is a number of evenings, weekends, and birthdays you'll spend earning it back.
For thirty years the industry has been removing every speed-bump between you and your wallet. One-click. Saved cards. Tap-to-pay. The result is not freedom — it's a checkout you didn't decide to walk through. We put a speed-bump back.That's not a feature. That's the product.
We charge $2.99/month, or $24.99/year if you want to save a bit. No ads. No affiliate links. No data sold to anyone, ever. The math has to work for you, not us — and it does. Most users save more in their first halted purchase than a year of Halt costs. If we ever start making money from your spending, fire us.
The cart at 11pm is louder than the cart at 11am. The launch banner is louder than the thing you wanted last Tuesday. Loudness is not signal.Halt's job is to turn down the volume long enough for you to hear yourself again — 24 hours, usually. Sometimes that's all it takes.
“Just don't buy it” is advice, not a product. Telling tired people to be stronger is how the wellness industry sells $80 candles. We don't believe in willpower. We believe in waiting. Anyone can wait 24 hours. The math does the rest.
We are not minimalists. We are not telling you to throw out your stuff, live in a beige room, or feel bad about wanting things. Wanting is fine. Buying at midnight on a tired Tuesday is the problem. Halt is for people who want their wants to survive a night's sleep before they become receipts.
An open tab is not a decision. A pre-filled checkout is not consent. We will keep treating these as two different things even when no one else does. The watchlist exists so wants can be wants, and carts can be carts, and the line between them is yours to draw.
If we ever stop meaning all of this, we owe you a refund and an apology. In that order.
— further reading —