The 10 Best Free Parental Control Apps Ranked and Compared for 2023

Aleksandar Stevanovic

Aleksandar Stevanovic

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Alex is a Senior Software Content Writer at Techopedia. He focuses on creating reader-oriented comparison pages, reviews, research pieces, and editorials. With nearly a decade…

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Michael Simon

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Michael is a Tech Content Editor at Techopedia, who is passionate about delivering high-quality tech content online and ensuring the accuracy of our content. With…

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Last updated: 9 November, 2023

Getting the best free parental control app can help you monitor your children’s online activities and protect them from cyberbullying and inappropriate content. What’s more, these tools can be particularly useful for managing children’s screen time and even providing information on your kid’s location.

In this guide, we provide a comprehensive review of the best free parental control apps. We’ll closely analyze their features and capabilities to provide you with clear insights into how they can help parents secure their children’s online well-being.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best Free Parental Control Apps Ranked
2. The Pros and Cons of Using Free Parental Control Apps
   1. Pros
   2. Cons
3. Why Built-In Parental Controls Aren’t Enough
4. Reviews of the Best Free Child Tracker Apps
   1. 1. SpyStealth – Overall, the Best Free Parental Control App in 2023
   2. 2. Geofinder.mobi – Great Parental Control App for Tracking Device Location
   3. 3. Flexispy – Monitoring Tool to Track Android Phones From Anywhere
   4. 4. KidsGuard Pro – Look Up iPhone Photos and Videos with Ease
   5. 5. Norton Family – Smart Tools to Block Unsuitable Websites on Any Device
   6. 6. Qustodio – Robust Tool That Enables You to Restrict Mac Device Usage
   7. 7. Famisafe – An Ideal Choice for Tackling Screen Addiction
   8. 8. ESET – Great Tool for Blocking Unsuitable Content
   9. 9. Bark – Helps Parents Manage Screen Time Schedules
   10. 10. NetNanny – Take Advantage of the Best Social Media Protection App
5. The Best Free Child Monitoring Apps Compared
6. Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Free Parental Control App
7. Other Guides We Recommend Reading Next
8. How Can I See Everything On My Child’s Phone Free?
   1. Step 1 – Register
   2. Step 2 – Prepare & Install
   3. Step 3 – Choose an Action
9. Conclusion – What’s the Best Free Parental Control App to Use in 2023?
10. Free Parental Control App FAQs
11. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best Free Parental Control Apps Ranked
2. The Pros and Cons of Using Free Parental Control Apps
   1. Pros
   2. Cons
3. Why Built-In Parental Controls Aren’t Enough
Show Full Guide
4. Reviews of the Best Free Child Tracker Apps
   1. 1. SpyStealth – Overall, the Best Free Parental Control App in 2023
   2. 2. Geofinder.mobi – Great Parental Control App for Tracking Device Location
   3. 3. Flexispy – Monitoring Tool to Track Android Phones From Anywhere
   4. 4. KidsGuard Pro – Look Up iPhone Photos and Videos with Ease
   5. 5. Norton Family – Smart Tools to Block Unsuitable Websites on Any Device
   6. 6. Qustodio – Robust Tool That Enables You to Restrict Mac Device Usage
   7. 7. Famisafe – An Ideal Choice for Tackling Screen Addiction
   8. 8. ESET – Great Tool for Blocking Unsuitable Content
   9. 9. Bark – Helps Parents Manage Screen Time Schedules
   10. 10. NetNanny – Take Advantage of the Best Social Media Protection App
5. The Best Free Child Monitoring Apps Compared
6. Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Free Parental Control App
7. Other Guides We Recommend Reading Next
8. How Can I See Everything On My Child’s Phone Free?
   1. Step 1 – Register
   2. Step 2 – Prepare & Install
   3. Step 3 – Choose an Action
9. Conclusion – What’s the Best Free Parental Control App to Use in 2023?
10. Free Parental Control App FAQs
11. References

The 10 Best Free Parental Control Apps Ranked

Here’s a brief overview of the 10 best free parental control apps for 2023. Read on to learn what makes each tool unique and find the best solution for you and your family.

1. SpyStealth – $24.95/m – Overall, the best free parental control app, supporting up to five devices and boasting a Call Monitoring feature that provides details on call history, including incoming and outgoing calls, call duration, and contacts.
2. Geofinder.mobi – $39.99/m – Smartphone-compatible child tracker app with GPS tracking, IP logging, and SMS location features. It offers accurate device locations without requiring app installation on the target device.
3. Flexispy – $29.95/m – Top free Android parental control app with 150+ tracking features, including keylogging and environment recording. Its Surroundings feature uses the device’s microphone to record kids’ environments and provide valuable insights into their activities.
4. KidsGuard Pro – $9.99/m – The best free iOS parental control app with comprehensive monitoring features that allow you to look into the phone’s gallery of videos and photos, including deleted files.
5. Norton Family – $14.99/m – Offers a Web Supervision feature that blocks inappropriate content and offers manual site blocking with over 45 pre-defined restricted categories.
6. Qustodio – $4.58/m – Top choice for web filtering, app blocking, and time limits. Great for preventing excessive screen time and allowing parents to limit their kids’ internet access.
7. Famisafe – $10.99/m – Boasts an Alert Option that can restrict popular services like Roblox, Minecraft, and TikTok, addressing digital addiction.
8. ESET – $2.08/m – Offers a comprehensive reports feature, allowing parents to track the most used apps and frequently visited websites. Premium plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
9. Bark – $29/m – Works extremely well with Amazon products and is ideal for preventing excessive usage of TVs and gaming consoles. Assists parents in scheduling their kids’ screen time and helping them focus on their schoolwork.
10. NetNanny – $39.99/m – Blocks access to 120 different apps and social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter. Ideal for kids between 5 and 12 years of age.

The Pros and Cons of Using Free Parental Control Apps

Ultimately, it all boils down to your personal preferences and what you expect from online safety tools. With that in mind, let’s look at the pros and cons of using free parental control apps.

Free versions are a great way to get to know how these apps work and what they can offer you in terms of online security and monitoring. However, nearly every free parental control app has one individual core strength.

For example, one app is great for content filtering but doesn’t offer geofencing. On the other hand, you’ll find other parental control software that excels in GPS tracking but lacks call monitoring – and so on. You may, hence, find that they’re budget-friendly but not the smoothest ride.

Why Built-In Parental Controls Aren’t Enough

Many devices come with pre-installed parental controls integrated with the operating system. While this saves time and effort in searching for third-party apps, built-in options have limitations compared to external app solutions, such as:

• Limited features
• Lack of real-time monitoring
• Limited customization options
• Restricted time controls
• Inefficient content filtering

Built-in solutions, regardless of whether they come from Android or iOS operating systems, don’t go far enough to protect your children from internet dangers. They typically lack crucial features like advanced monitoring.

Integrated apps also fall short when it comes to location and call tracking, social media monitoring, and screen management. This may result in parents lacking information about their kids’ online behavior.

On the other hand, a dedicated free parental control app offers additional layers of safety and additional flexibility, allowing you to tailor the settings to your specific needs.

Third-party parental control software solutions also offer regular updates, which minimizes the chance of any inappropriate content slipping through safety cracks and reaching your kids’ devices. This makes them a good starting point for anyone who needs enhanced internet and device use control.

Reviews of the Best Free Child Tracker Apps

We reviewed the 10 best free parental control apps in 2023. These software solutions have built a solid reputation for their effectiveness in helping parents secure their children’s online safety. Let’s examine them more closely.

1. SpyStealth – Overall, the Best Free Parental Control App in 2023

SpyStealth is our top pick as the best free parental control app this year. It supports monitoring for up to five devices, including Windows and Mac operating systems.

From the dashboard, it’s evident that this provider focuses on beginners with its user-centric interface. SpyStealth empowers parents to monitor children’s web and smartphone activities. You can access messages, track phone calls, monitor social networks, and look through their browsing history.

However, call monitoring stands out among the many features. This option allows you to check your kids’ call history and find details such as numbers, contact names, incoming and outgoing call details, call duration, and dates and times.

You can also find out whether they accepted or rejected calls and what calls they missed. This is helpful for finding out whether something out of the ordinary has happened and to detect whether they receive calls from unknown numbers.

While testing the app, we found it was missing some important options, such as screen monitoring. Despite this minor drawback, the app has many positive aspects, which make it a compelling choice for tracking activity across Instagram, Facebook, Viber, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Snapchat.

You can also use SpyStealth to monitor your kids’ photos and videos to stay informed about their digital interactions, which will allow you to provide them with proper guidance if necessary.

2. Geofinder.mobi – Great Parental Control App for Tracking Device Location

Geofinder.mobi is compatible with all smartphones and, rather than being a general-purpose monitoring tool like SpyStealth, it allows parents to track their children’s whereabouts discreetly. This child tracker app stands out in several areas, with features such as a:

• GPS Tracker
• IP Logger
• WiFi Tracker
• Cell Phone Carrier Lookup
• SMS Location Finder
• VPN Tracker

The GPS tracker is its most notable feature. It helps concerned parents to determine the location of any phone, no matter where it may be. What’s more, you don’t have to install an app on the device you wish to locate.

The simplest ways you can find your child’s location is via SMS or by sending an image URL.

The SMS option requires you to upload an image and enter the phone number of the person you wish to track. Once you do that, Geofinder will send you a photo with a URL and pre-written text.

The user you wish to locate must click on the picture for Geofinder to record its coordinates. Given this, you need to send a picture you’re positive your kid will click on, and when they do, the app will record its coordinates and send you the information to your account.

Alternatively, you can create a picture with an inserted tracking link – you send the URL to the person you want to track via social media or an instant messaging app. Once the device user clicks on the URL, you’ll be notified of their location immediately.

Geofinder allows you to send unlimited requests. However, from our research, we found you can send one such request every three hours, which can be a bit limiting.

3. Flexispy – Monitoring Tool to Track Android Phones From Anywhere

Flexispy is the best free parental control app for Android, which offers over 150 different tracking features. It can run in hidden or invisible mode and allows you to track GPS locations, smartphone galleries, and web history with a comprehensive package that’s comparable to SpyStealth.

In addition to its tracking capabilities, Flexispy stands out as one of the best keyloggers available for parents. This feature can provide you with valuable insights into your child’s online activities and allows you to monitor keystrokes, passwords, and messages.

While the keylogger feature tool offers crucial visibility into your kids’ online interactions, what truly sets this free parental control app is its Surroundings feature. Using this option, you can remotely activate your child’s Android smartphone microphone, enabling you to listen in on their environment.

This can provide insights into their current situation, helping you stay informed about what’s happening in their vicinity. This is valuable for catching bullying at school and confirming they are where they say they are.

While researching its capabilities, we found Flexispy to be highly effective in tracking the target device. One limitation, though, is that you need to physically install it on the phone, as it doesn’t work remotely. On a more positive side, Flexispy is quick to install, so parents can get by discreetly while setting it up.

4. KidsGuard Pro – Look Up iPhone Photos and Videos with Ease

KidsGuard Pro is the best free parental control app for iPhone, supporting both desktop and mobile versions. It provides comprehensive monitoring for smartphone media and social apps, along with tracking features for location and calls.

The dashboard boasts a straightforward design with a similar color and layout to SpyStealth. However, unlike its counterpart, KidsGuard Pro lacks several features like monitoring Hangouts, Skype, and Telegram. On the other hand, it makes up for these omissions by offering functionality for tracking QQ and WeChat media platforms.

iOS users can benefit the most from its photos and video monitoring features. This option allows parents to monitor the media content their children view remotely.

You can access the device’s gallery and the camera roll. As a result, you can get an immediate insight into what your kids are recording and sharing with their friends or devices outside their contact list.

The best part about this feature is that you can view the media files deleted by iOS users. Moreover, you can select specific videos and photos and export them to a dedicated document if needed.

KidGuard Pro’s free plan offers a good range of features. Still, for even greater value, we advise you to consider their paid subscription plans, which provide enhanced functionality and capabilities, like the Anti-Spyware tool. This feature scans and removes malware, thus protecting your kids’ devices while they’re browsing.

Another good news is that every subscription plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you enough time to test the product and find out why KidsGuard Pro is one of the best parental control apps.

5. Norton Family – Smart Tools to Block Unsuitable Websites on Any Device

Norton Family comes from the leading security company known for one of the best malware protection solutions around. It comes as a standalone service or as part of Norton’s 360 Deluxe and 360 Premium all-in-one subscription plans.

As with Flexispy, you need to physically install the app on the tracking device. However, unlike its counterpart, Norton Family is slightly more complex to set up. You need to download and install the app on the child’s device, verify the activation code, register the device, and then assign it to the selected child.

While the initial setup process may require a bit more effort with Norton Family compared to its competitor apps like Flexispy, it’s vital to note that this additional step ensures a more secure and customizable experience.

It allows you to tailor the monitoring to your child’s specific needs and provides a comprehensive range of features for more effective parental control.

Speaking of features, Web Supervision truly stands out as an ultimate guardian against inappropriate content. This option allows you to block unsuitable websites and control what your kids can access.

You can manually choose which sites to block. But keep in mind that Norton also offers over 45 pre-defined restricted categories, including crime, alcohol, mature content, suicide, and violence, among others.

While testing the product, we tried to blacklist five websites from different categories, and it took about 12 minutes to administer our command. So, do keep in mind the time frame when blocking sites.

Finally, Norton Family doesn’t operate as a fully free service, but it offers a seven-day free trial and a 60-day refund. It ensures you can try the service risk-free, and if it doesn’t meet your needs, you can request a refund within that period.

6. Qustodio – Robust Tool That Enables You to Restrict Mac Device Usage

Qustodio is the best free parental control app for Mac devices, allowing you to filter websites, block apps, set time limits, and request usage reports.

Nowadays, kids spend around 7.5 hours in front of a screen each day – and that doesn’t include hours spent on school or home computers for educational purposes.

Excessive screen time can have various negative consequences on a child’s mental and physical health, and setting time limits is an effective way to prevent any of that from happening.

Qustodio helps parents balance their kids’ online activities and prevent screen addiction, thanks to the Set Time Limits feature. It allows you to limit children’s access to their devices and schedule downtime.

In addition, parents have the option to pause the internet with a single click remotely. You can choose the pause time and limit the internet for a few minutes or hours if needed.

Another benefit of getting this service is that it allows you to monitor unlimited devices, regardless of type. Besides monitoring Mac computers, Qustodio is also one of the best parental control apps for Android. This is great if a child has multiple devices, and this option gives you the benefit of controlling all of them.

Like Norton Family, this provider supports daily, weekly, and monthly reports. But, from our research, we found that Qustodio delivers reports from all tracked devices.

So, if you have more than one kid, or your child has multiple devices, tracking which device the suspicious activity originated from could be challenging.

The Set up Time Limits option is available for free at Qustodio. However, if you wish to enhance parental control options to games and app blocking, web activity alerts, and YouTube Monitoring, we advise you to go for the Basic subscription plan and enjoy enhanced functionality.

7. Famisafe – An Ideal Choice for Tackling Screen Addiction

Famisafe is used by over 9 million concerned parents in over 190 countries. Relying on AI assistance and advanced tracking algorithms, Famisafe offers the best parental control YouTube app to make your kids safe from inappropriate content.

In addition to being one of the largest free media-sharing websites, Famisafe does an incredible job of restricting popular services like Roblox, Minecraft, and TikTok.

This is all possible thanks to its App Blocker solution, which prevents your kids from overusing entertainment channels and helps children stay away from digital addiction.

Setting up the parental control options for YouTube and other media channels is a breeze. You can find out what your kids have been watching recently under the History section.

The Alert option monitors your children’s behavior and watched, posted, and commented videos on your child’s account. It will detect any suspicious text in the description, title, or previously published comments.

Finally, the Settings section allows you to customize the app and control what type of content you wish to enable on your kids’ devices and what websites or contents are permanently blocked.

Famisafe also offers ten pre-defined blocking categories that include topics like bullying, drugs, alcohol, violence, and gambling, among others.

If you need more, there’s a Custom Category option where you can insert keywords and make sure the app blocks all content containing forbidden words or actions.

Famisafe protects up to ten devices on its top subscription plan, which is fairly limiting, at least compared to Qustodio, which allows unlimited devices. However, we won’t take it as a major downside, considering the Famisafe is significantly cheaper than its counterpart.

8. ESET – Great Tool for Blocking Unsuitable Content

ESET offers robust protection against inappropriate online content and delivers precise app and web usage reports. It boasts 30 years of experience in cyber protection and a staggering 1 billion users across the continents.

The parental control feature is available both as a standalone option and as an integral part of the ESET Antivirus protection suite. In terms of independent products, you have the choice between free and premium versions, each with distinct advantages for curbing excessive screen time and addressing inappropriate online content.

The child monitoring free account offers several critical features to help parents protect their kids from harmful internet content:

• Application Guard
• Instant App Block
• Screen Time Limits for Apps
• App and Web Usage Reports

Parents benefit the most from its comprehensive Reports feature. This option allows you to track the most-used apps and frequently visited websites. This way, you know which sites your kids spend the most time on.

Furthermore, ESET provides a usage heatmap that offers detailed reports about when your children are using apps and the internet. This empowers you to make informed parental decisions based on their usage patterns.

However, the freemium option delivers only basic reports. If you wish to get more detailed information about your kids’ internet and app usage, you should consider upgrading your account to premium.

Another reason subscribing to the premium is the best option is that the free version lacks its key features like Geofencing, Child Locator, and Safe Search.

While researching ESET, we did notice a lack of social media tracking options. Hence, if you’re looking to monitor your kids’ Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok activities, Famisafe might be a better fit.

9. Bark – Helps Parents Manage Screen Time Schedules

Bark allows you to monitor unlimited devices, including smartphones, TVs, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices.

While it’s primarily built for monitoring Android and iOS smartphones, Bark also does a pretty good job in restricting usage of Amazon-based products like Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Amazon Fire, Kindle, and Luna, among others.

Like its other mobile competitors such as KidsGuard Pro and Flexispy, Bark tracks your children’s location, filters websites, and monitors email, YouTube, and over 30 different media apps.

However, it is best used for scheduling the time your kids spend in front of their TVs. You can limit their screen time from your phone and specify when and for how long your children will be able to watch entertainment shows, play console games, or use TV internet browsers.

During our research, we noticed Bark lacks uninstall protection. Hence, more skillful kids can easily delete the app and remove the parental control options. From our experience, adding a protection code or a pattern could prevent children from removing this app from their devices entirely.

Finally, it is critical to stress that Bark does not offer a free account per se. Instead, you can test unlimited features with its 7-day free trial, which could be slightly extended, in all honesty. Still, it leaves you with enough space to test all its capabilities and determine whether it suits your needs.

10. NetNanny – Take Advantage of the Best Social Media Protection App

NetNanny is the best parental control app for monitoring and blocking social media platforms. It works well with Windows, Mac, and iOS devices.

The Social Media Protection feature allows you to monitor and block unwanted internet platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and many others.

Setting up this option is straightforward. All you need to do is select the Social Media Protection feature from the navigation menu and choose actions for specific platforms. You can choose to protect, block, or allow.

Blocking the social media app will entirely restrict your kids’ access to the selected platform. However, you choose the Protect option if you wish to detect and block specific categories from the selected media. Naturally, the Allow button will grant access to all contents of the chosen social media platform.

While testing its capabilities, we noticed NetNanny only blocks 120 apps and social media services. This is far less than Qustodio which lists over 9,000 apps and services so NetNanny isn’t be the best choice for monitoring teenagers’ activities if they use a large number of apps.

Instead, you should use this service for restricting and blocking content for younger kids aged between 5 and 12.

Finally, it’s worth noting you won’t find a typical free-forever plan here. Instead, NetNanny empowers users to take advantage of their three-day free trial, with all features unlocked.

The Best Free Child Monitoring Apps Compared

Here’s a detailed comparison of the best free parental control apps. Read on and find out how our top pick stacks up against its competition for pricing, feature availability, and refund policies.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Free Parental Control App

Let’s look at the most relevant factors parents should consider when choosing child phone monitoring free apps:

• Compatibility – Make sure to choose an app that supports the devices and platforms your child uses, whether Windows, Mac, Android, or iOS.
• Features – Consider your specific needs before picking a parental control app. It’s better to pay for a basic plan and have the protection options you need rather than getting a free account and missing crucial functionality.
• Remote Control Access – Select apps that allow you to monitor your kids’ devices even if you’re not at home.
• Reporting – Check if the selected parental control software solution provides comprehensive reporting on your child’s device and internet usage to get a better picture of their online behavior.
• Customization – Look for apps that allow you to tailor settings to your child’s age and individual needs.
• Scalability – Find a solution that covers multiple devices and numerous apps. Your child may be using Facebook and Instagram now, but what if they open a TikTok or X account or switch from iOS to Android? Select a free parental control app for iPhone and Android, just in case.

Along with those factors, it’s a good idea to seek out apps that are user-friendly and easy to pick up. Kids can be surprisingly resourceful and quick at finding loopholes.

Other Guides We Recommend Reading Next

Now you know how to get the best parental control app for free, let’s explore some of our top online monitoring and protection guides:

• The Best Parental Control Apps Overall
• The Best Parental Control Apps for Android
• The Best Parental Control Apps in Australia Reviewed
• The Best Parental Control Apps for YouTube
• The Best Snapchat Spy Apps for Complete Peace of Mind
• The Best Hidden Screen Recorder Apps Reviewed

How Can I See Everything On My Child’s Phone Free?

If you’re interested in how the best free parental control app works, here’s a quick guide on how to use child protection software on any device. For the purpose of this example, we picked SpyStealth, our number one child protection provider.

Step 1 – Register

Once you pick the best solution for you, visit the provider’s official website and register.

You can either create your account from scratch or connect your Google or Facebook account directly with the app.

Step 2 – Prepare & Install

Pick the device you wish to track.

Download the app by scanning the QR code from the tracked device. Follow a detailed instruction manual to complete the installation process.

Step 3 – Choose an Action

Once the installation is complete, you can start tracking your kids’ devices.

Choose an action from the side menu and wait for the result to appear in the central screen area.

Conclusion – What’s the Best Free Parental Control App to Use in 2023?

The best free parental control app can help you protect your kids from online dangers, control screen time, locate devices, and monitor online behavior from your smartphone or computer.

Child protection apps are incredibly useful for keeping your children away from online predators, protecting sensitive data, like personal details, pictures, and videos, and preventing peer abuse.

After thoroughly reviewing over a dozen solutions, our experts have picked SpyStealth as the best free parental control app in 2023. It stands out with a massive library of features, including monitoring options for calls, social media, location, and web browser history.

Call Monitoring is SpyStealth’s highlight feature and the biggest reason to get the app. This option allows you to track incoming and outgoing calls, monitor your children’s contact list, and follow who they call, who’s calling them, and how long these calls lasted.

SpyStealth is incredibly useful for detecting suspicious calls and numbers, allowing you to monitor your kids’ behavior and protect them from potentially harmful and inappropriate contacts.

Waste no time – get the best free parental control app now.

Free Parental Control App FAQs

Aleksandar Stevanovic

• 

Aleksandar Stevanovic

Alex is a Senior Software Content Writer at Techopedia. He focuses on creating reader-oriented comparison pages, reviews, research pieces, and editorials. With nearly a decade of experience, he’s written for numerous leading brands across various niches, such as The Tech Report, Bitcoincasinos.com, CEX.IO, Forbes, Business2Community, and many more. His expertise in cybersecurity has made him a popular authority on privacy tools such as VPNs, password managers, blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and antivirus software. You'll find Alex working on cars, playing guitar, and cooking fantastic food in his spare time. You can reach Alex on Twitter: @stevanovic_alex

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