Qustodio parental control app review
Our Verdict
Qustodio supports most platforms and is one of the few parental-control apps that can notwithstanding log texts and calls on Android, only its feature set is much more limited on iOS.
For
- Broad platform support
- Extensive feature set at all toll tiers
- Solid UI on web and in apps
- Telephone call/text monitoring
Against
- Relatively expensive
- Unreliable web filtering
- Limited features on iOS
Tom's Guide Verdict
Qustodio supports most platforms and is one of the few parental-command apps that can yet log texts and calls on Android, but its feature set is much more than limited on iOS.
Pros
- +
Wide platform support
- +
All-encompassing characteristic fix at all price tiers
- +
Solid UI on web and in apps
- +
Phone call/text monitoring
Cons
- -
Relatively expensive
- -
Unreliable web filtering
- -
Express features on iOS
Qustodio: Specs
Toll: Gratuitous to $138/year
Number of devices: 1 to 15
Platforms: Android, iOS, Kindle Burn, Mac, Windows, Chrome Os
Web portal for parents: Yeah
Call logging: Android simply
Text logging: Android merely
Call blocking: Android only
Text blocking: No
Geofencing: Yes
Location tracking: Yes
Location history: Yeah
Web monitoring: Yeah
Web filter: Yes
Time limits: Yes
Scheduling: Yes
App management: Android only
App blocker: Yeah (express on iOS)
Qustodio has been in the parental-control game for nearly a decade now, and it continues to build on its robust feature set and broad platform back up.
With support for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Kindle Fire tablets and most recently Chrome Bone, it is matched simply by Net Nanny and is a strong contender when it comes to overall platform coverage.
Qustodio is also ane of the most characteristic-consummate options out at that place, with a couple of notable exceptions for iOS users. Depending on the number of devices you need to cover, Qustodio can exist a bit pricey, just the basic 5-device premium plan for $54.95 a twelvemonth is right in line with most of the competition.
Qustodio's one standout feature is telephone call and text monitoring, which nearly all the other parental-control apps have dropped in recent years. If this feature is crucial to you, the fact that Qustodio however offers it on Android might make it your top choice among the best parental control apps.
Read on for the residuum of our Qustodio review.
Qustodio: Costs and what's covered
Qustodio's pricing has remained pretty static in recent years, with a basic gratuitous tier that covers a single device with web filtering, web and social-media monitoring, time limits and an online monitoring dashboard.
To unlock the total premium features, you tin choose from one of three plans, depending on the number of devices you need to protect. Upward to five devices tin can be covered for $54.95 a year, 10 devices for $96.95, and fifteen devices for $137.95.
Device limits are the just differences between the paid plans. Each plan includes all the premium features and full support across Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and Kindle Burn. Chrome Bone back up is a flake more than limited, consisting of the Android app to manage time and a Chrome extension to limit browsing time and monitor activity.
Qustodio: Installation
My preference is to set these services up through their websites when possible, just if you prefer to stick to your smartphone, the Qustodio apps for Android and iOS make that easy.
The commencement footstep is to create your account. The app volition so prompt you lot to create kid profiles. You only enter a name and and so select a year of birth, a gender and an avatar from a gear up of six options. The avatars are a bit odd, and you can't upload a photo of your child.
The next step is to add a device for the kid. You can either navigate to Qustodio's download page or simply download the "Kids App Qustodio" from the relevant app store.
Like a number of other parental-control services, Qustodio uses separate parent and child apps as kids tend to give their apps terrible ratings. You'll sign into your business relationship on the kid's device, and then the app walks you through the process of granting the necessary permissions including installing a contour that allows for the management of their device(s).
If yous accept simply 1 child with one device, the setup process is first-class as it does a good task of guiding you and making the process quick and like shooting fish in a barrel. As I always set two child accounts, I always find it a bit irritating that I demand to loop back through everything again for the second child rather than setting up all the accounts and and so moving to the download procedure.
This is largely personal preference, just if you accept two or more than children, be enlightened that this is a one-at-a-time setup process.
The more than contempo versions of Android and iOS don't let yous grant permanent location privileges to an app in the popular-up dialogue box. If you want location tracking to work, be certain to go to the settings menu and toggle the location privilege to "always."
In one case y'all have the kid app installed and working, yous can return to the Qustodio web portal or your parental app to customize the settings. I was thrilled to discover that Qustodio has massively overhauled its spider web portal, which now features a modern, intuitive design that matches the mobile apps.
Qustodio prefills some of an individual child's settings, for case with web filtering, just it leaves most of the settings disabled by default. You'll need to brand sure the settings align with your preferences for your child.
Uninstalling Qustodio from a child'south device wasn't hard, simply on Android, it requires the parental password. On iOS, it requires the device passcode. Naturally, the parent app notifies you immediately that tampering has been detected. It would be a brusque-lived reprieve from the app even if a kid managed to go past those security measures.
Qustodio: App management
As I had tested Qustodio previously, I was gear up for its less-than-platonic app-direction system. It doesn't give you a full listing of all the apps on a child'southward device correct abroad. Instead, it adds an app simply when the kid launches it.
You lot volition need to either brand determinations on apps every bit y'all see them individually pop up in the list (there is an option to be alerted each fourth dimension a new app is used), or you'll need to sit down down and manually launch every app on the child's device.
Once an app has been added to the list, the feature works exactly as advertised and changes are reflected quickly. Y'all tin can choose to gear up a specific daily fourth dimension limit for an app, block the app entirely, block information technology temporarily or reset the time limit for the twenty-four hour period.
App management is one feature that is improve on the Android side than the iOS one. It works on any Android app, and when a kid tries to launch a blocked or time-expired app, it will show a custom screen explaining what's going on.
For iOS users, this is more limited, although meliorate than it was. There are approximately vi,000 iOS apps that work with the app-management features, co-ordinate to Qustodio.
For u.s., the characteristic caused a network error when the kid tries to use a blocked or time-expired app, rather than offering whatsoever caption. But Qustodio'south recent switch to an on-device proxy service rather than a remote VPN to monitor child traffic may have improved that situation.
Qustodio: Filtering
Like the residue of the items on the Qustodio web portal, this feature is dramatically improved by the updated design. By default, ten of the 29 total website categories are being blocked, simply apparently y'all can change these to fit your preferences.
For each category, you can choose three different options: allow, cake or warning. Block and allow are pretty cocky-explanatory, while alert will flag the site visit in the action timeline with a "Browsing warning" for the parent.
Y'all tin can't add together new categories, but y'all tin can create exceptions for specific websites using any of the 3 aforementioned options. There'southward a 4th option to simply ignore visits to flagged categories, although the visits will notwithstanding appear in the activity timeline.
The settings tab for filtering is a catch-all for different features. You lot tin can choose to block all unsupported browsers, which naturally is Android-only. Information technology worked well and I would recommend using it. You can block access to all websites that can't be categorized, enforce Condom Search and toggle on notifications for when your child tries to visit a blocked website.
Overall, I was unimpressed by Qustodio's web filtering. Across multiple categories, it failed to identify sites that clearly should accept been flagged, even when the sites were identified as being in blocked category in the activity timeline.
The app does capture and record the sites your child visits, so if your goal is to keep tabs on them rather than to preemptively restrict visits, this will work fine, just I tin't recommend Qustodio for its web filtering. The gilded standard in filtering is Net Nanny, so if that function is of import to y'all, take a look at our Internet Nanny review.
Qustodio: Time management
Daily Time Limits and Restricted Times are two separate sections regarding time management, ignoring the same app-specific time management.
Daily Time Limits presents yous with the days of the week and a clock interface that lets you set a time limit for each day, in increments of 15 minutes all the fashion upward to 24 hours. You too can cake the solar day completely or reset the fourth dimension for the day.
It would be dainty to be able to select and set multiple days at in one case, weekdays versus weekends for example, but every bit y'all shouldn't exist irresolute this constantly. information technology's but a mild frustration.
Restricted Times displays the full week on a single screen with colored blocks representing each hour-long window. You click or tap on a block to switch between red for "blocked" or a blue-to-dark-green colour fade for "allowed."
Questionable design decisions regarding the colour shift bated, this works very well and let you quickly set up the calendar week's schedule. On both platforms, parents can easily grant children actress screen time when warranted.
Apple's iOS doesn't hold up well in this category. When I blocked out time on my iPhone 12, the Qustodio app popped up a "Lost iPhone" alarm bulletin to tell me that my time was up, with merely the emergency-call option and the flashlight displayed as available.
However, I was able to swipe this away without a problem. Your child'south activeness will still show upward in the timeline, and then you'll be able to see that they aren't really following their fourth dimension limits.
On Android y'all can nonetheless use the phone during blocked times but opening any apps other than the phone and messaging will prompt you with the "Fourth dimension'southward upward" screen from Qustodio.
Qustodio: Call and texting direction
This is an Android-just feature, and Google now prevents Qustodio from including this characteristic in the Qustodio app in Google Play Shop. If you wish to monitor your child's calls and texts, you will need to sideload a separate version of the app downloaded directly from Qustodio'due south website.
One time you lot have installed this version of the app on the child's phone, y'all'll need to restart the telephone for the new features to take effect. And so you'll see the options for this section in the parental dashboard.
Telephone call and texting management works like the spider web filtering section — you tin can allow or cake incoming or outgoing calls entirely or tin can block specific phone numbers. Text letters cannot be blocked; in that location is a separate toggle to view the content of any SMS text messages, merely this will miss any MMS (photos/video) text messages.
This feature worked exactly as advertised in one case it was enabled. Qustodio is the merely app we tested recently that however lets you lot block calls and read texts, so if this is a critical feature to yous then Qustodio needs to be high upwardly on your list.
Qustodio: Location tracking
Qustodio's location tracking allows yous to view your child'southward nowadays location and location history. On both Android and iOS, this happens automatically once the feature is enabled, although the frequency of location checks is somewhat lower on iOS, pinging approximately every v minutes.
Qustodio now has a geofencing characteristic that allows you to designate an address and then create a circle centered on that betoken that is anywhere from 350 to 650 anxiety in diameter. You tin can then be notified whenever one of your children enters or exits that circumvolve.
Location tracking tin can definitely provide peace of mind as it can automatically verify that your kid made it home or arrived at school for the 24-hour interval.
I'd love to see a couple of changes to Qustodio'southward geofencing, all the same. Get-go, I'd similar to be able to motility the circle on the map, which would exist dainty for centering the circle on a park, for example.
2nd, I'd like to input something other than a specific accost — it would be great to take a search function to pull upwardly, for case, the child's school or daycare eye without needing to expect up the actual address.
These are minor complaints. Overall Qustodio has done a nice task of fleshing out its location tracking and it'south now among the more feature-complete parental-control apps in this area.
Panic Button
Sorry iOS users— this 1 is Android but. The Panic Button needs to be enabled in the parental portal or app and then can exist accessed via an SOS button at the bottom of the child'southward app.
The child needs to hitting that SOS push button, and and then a circular SOS push button on the next screen, to trigger it. This will send out an emergency bulletin with the kid'south current location to all the trusted contacts that yous've set up within the app. This message can go out via text and email.
This does not contact emergency services, merely those trusted contacts. Qustodio is clear about this in the app, only it bears repeating.
Social Monitoring
Social monitoring is only for Facebook activity. It must be activated on a Mac or PC that is being monitored by Qustodio's desktop software, which adds a tracking plug-in. Once this footstep is taken, future Facebook activity will appear in Qustodio regardless of which device your child is accessing Facebook from.
This is not a feature that you'll observe on many of Qustodio's competitors. Only Kaspersky offers something similar, while Net Nanny delivers content filtering for Facebook but not monitoring.
YouTube Monitoring
This is a new characteristic and a welcome addition every bit kids can certainly notice plenty of objectionable material on YouTube. You tin block access to YouTube on the web and y'all tin view a child'due south action in the YouTube app, including what they search for and which videos they view.
While the monitoring worked well on both Android and iOS, I had no luck with blocking YouTube.com on the web on iOS. Visits to YouTube.com on iOS did still bear witness up on the activity timeline with list of any videos that were watched, so this works if monitoring alone is plenty for you lot.
Qustodio review: Bottom line
Qustodio has a very extensive feature ready and broad platform support, but its spider web filtering doesn't live upwardly to expectations and it has too many limitations in iOS. Considering of this Qustodio doesn't manage to compete with the superlative options on the market.
If you are covering five or fewer Android devices, want call/text management and are looking more for monitoring than blocking, and then Qustodio might be right for you. But that'south a lot of caveats, and most parents would be amend served by Net Nanny, or if you are looking for something more than affordable, Kaspersky Safe Kids.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/qustodio
Posted by: bodkinshoutter.blogspot.com
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