The 10 Best Parental Control Apps for iPhone Compared for 2023

Ilijia Miljkovac

Ilijia Miljkovac

Technology Writer

Ilija Miljkovac is a Technopedia writer with 7 years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about everything from cybersecurity to ISPs, ensuring businesses…

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Last updated: 7 November, 2023

Subscribing to the best parental control app for iPhone can keep parents updated on their child’s online activities and screen time. From location tracking to monitoring their browser history, these apps can give you unique insights into the interests and habits of your children.

In this article, we’ll review the best apps to monitor kids’ phones and compare them to help you make an informed purchase decision. You’ll also learn how to install these apps, and we’ll go over their pros and cons, pricing, and the best features we found while testing them. Keep reading to discover why mSpy is the best parental control app for iPhone this year and what makes the other phone monitoring apps for parents on our list a great investment.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best iPhone Parental Control Apps Ranked
2. Why You Need to Use iPhone Parental Controls
3. What Do iPhone Monitoring Apps Let Parents See?
4. Comparison of the Best iPhone Apps for Parental Control
5. Reviews of the Top iOS Parental Control Solutions
   1. 1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023
   2. 2. EyeZy — Powerful Screen Recording iPhone App
   3. 3. uMobix — Ideal Parental Control App for GPS Tracking
   4. 4. Cocospy — Installs in Minutes Without Jailbreaking
   5. 5. ClevGuard — Excellent for Monitoring up to Three Devices
   6. 6. Norton Family — Numerous Unique Features from the Leading Antivirus Provider
   7. 7. Qustodio — In-Depth Reports for Parental Monitoring
   8. 8. Famisafe — Affordable App Detects Suspicious Photos and Texts
   9. 9. Spyera — Top Tools, Including Listening to the Target iPhone’s Surroundings
   10. 10. TheOneSpy — Exceptional Tool for Jailbroken iPhones
6. What's the Best Free Parental Control App for iPhone?
7. Factors to Consider When Choosing an iPhone Monitoring App
   1. Compatibility With Your iOS Version
   2. Features and Functionality
   3. Interface Quality
   4. Devices per Subscription
   5. Reviews and Reputation
8. Techopedia's Other Parental Control Resources
9. How to Monitor Your Kid's iPhone — A Step-by-Step Guide
   1. Step 1 — Create Your mSpy Account
   2. Step 2 — Connect the Target iPhone to Your mSpy Account
   3. Step 3 — Verify the Connection
   4. Step 4 — Start Monitoring the Target iPhone
10. Conclusion — What is the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023?
11. iOS Monitoring FAQs
12. References

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. The 10 Best iPhone Parental Control Apps Ranked
2. Why You Need to Use iPhone Parental Controls
3. What Do iPhone Monitoring Apps Let Parents See?
Show Full Guide
4. Comparison of the Best iPhone Apps for Parental Control
5. Reviews of the Top iOS Parental Control Solutions
   1. 1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023
   2. 2. EyeZy — Powerful Screen Recording iPhone App
   3. 3. uMobix — Ideal Parental Control App for GPS Tracking
   4. 4. Cocospy — Installs in Minutes Without Jailbreaking
   5. 5. ClevGuard — Excellent for Monitoring up to Three Devices
   6. 6. Norton Family — Numerous Unique Features from the Leading Antivirus Provider
   7. 7. Qustodio — In-Depth Reports for Parental Monitoring
   8. 8. Famisafe — Affordable App Detects Suspicious Photos and Texts
   9. 9. Spyera — Top Tools, Including Listening to the Target iPhone’s Surroundings
   10. 10. TheOneSpy — Exceptional Tool for Jailbroken iPhones
6. What's the Best Free Parental Control App for iPhone?
7. Factors to Consider When Choosing an iPhone Monitoring App
   1. Compatibility With Your iOS Version
   2. Features and Functionality
   3. Interface Quality
   4. Devices per Subscription
   5. Reviews and Reputation
8. Techopedia's Other Parental Control Resources
9. How to Monitor Your Kid's iPhone — A Step-by-Step Guide
   1. Step 1 — Create Your mSpy Account
   2. Step 2 — Connect the Target iPhone to Your mSpy Account
   3. Step 3 — Verify the Connection
   4. Step 4 — Start Monitoring the Target iPhone
10. Conclusion — What is the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023?
11. iOS Monitoring FAQs
12. References

The 10 Best iPhone Parental Control Apps Ranked

Whether you’re looking for the best parental control app for iPhone texting, keylogging, location tracking, or social media monitoring, you’ll find a perfect fit on our list. Here’s how we ranked the top parental apps for iPhone this year:

1. mSpy — Overall, the best parental control app for iPhone in 2023, with exceptional customer support and keylogging capabilities.
2. EyeZy — Powerful screen recording features to monitor your child in real-time, and the app supports older iOS versions.
3. uMobix — Ideal for GPS tracking with its detailed map and chronologically displayed location history.
4. Cocospy — Installs in minutes without jailbreaking or an app download, as you just need the target device’s iCloud credentials.
5. ClevGuard — Excellent for monitoring up to three devices on a single plan, with significant discounts available.
6. Norton Family — Numerous unique features and a lengthy free trial make this app ideal for first-time users.
7. Qustodio — In-depth reports to help you detect changes in screen time and similar statistics, allowing you to react quickly.
8. Famisafe — Detects suspicious photos and texts and automatically issues a warning to the parent’s account.
9. Spyera — Listen to the target iPhone’s surroundings by remotely activating its microphone with this powerful app.
10. TheOneSpy — Exceptional tool for jailbroken iPhones that provides features for concerned parents and business owners.

Why You Need to Use iPhone Parental Controls

With recent technological advancements, parental control apps today offer more comprehensive solutions than ever. They’re invaluable for concerned parents looking to maintain a vigilant eye on their child’s well-being and online behavior. That includes monitoring their location, app activity, browsing habits, and more.

Whether you’re concerned about your child’s exposure to malicious content on websites or applications, parental controls can be pivotal in blocking access to harmful content. Besides preventing minors from accessing adult content, parental apps can help you control your child’s screen time.

Since screen time can have a significant impact on development, these apps allow you to limit how much time your children can spend watching videos or using their phones overall.

While Apple’s Screen Time feature is a step in the right direction, we found third-party parental apps a much better bet during our hands-on time with them.

They offer more comprehensive options for managing app downloads and purchases, allow you to schedule device usage, and provide features that go beyond screen time and app monitoring. In addition, many offer cross-platform solutions, ensuring you can stay in control if your child uses an Android or a PC.

What Do iPhone Monitoring Apps Let Parents See?

The best parental control app for iPhone ensures you get insights into most of your child’s physical and online activities. In addition, most parental control apps will send you alerts if they detect suspicious behavior, meaning you won’t need to monitor them at all times.

Subscribing to a parental control app for iPhone will give you access to dozens of features. Here’s what you’ll be able to see:

• Call and Text Activity — Stay informed about who your child contacts and how frequently, and monitor their text messages for inappropriate behavior.
• App Usage — Review which apps your children use and get a notification if they download a potentially harmful app.
• Web History — Go through their browser history at any time to ensure they aren’t visiting malicious or harmful websites.
• Geofencing — Establish safe zones and get a notification every time your child enters or leaves these areas, giving you peace of mind.
• Location — Track your child’s location to ensure they aren’t skipping classes, leaving home after dark, or going outside safe zones.
• Screen Time — The best parental control app for iPhone will let you see, limit, and schedule screen time, ensuring safe and responsible online behavior for your children.

Comparison of the Best iPhone Apps for Parental Control

Here, we’ll provide a master table to help you compare the best parental control apps.

Reviews of the Top iOS Parental Control Solutions

Here, we’ll break down each parental control app on our list and review its features, capabilities, pricing, and more. After testing dozens of iPhone monitoring apps, we’ve only included the ones we found easy to use and with plenty of features to help narrow the choices down for you.

1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023

mSpy is the best parental control app for iPhone devices, with a broad range of capabilities and an easy-to-use platform. It offers several installation methods besides jailbreaking, and we found mSpy easier to install than most of its competitors.

It’s also one of the best choices if you’re looking to read your child’s messages, including those on iMessage, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other popular social media platforms.

As one of the best keylogger software providers overall, mSpy didn’t disappoint us when we tested its performance on an iPhone. Thanks to its excellent keylogging feature, you’ll see every keystroke your child makes while browsing or messaging others.

That means you won’t miss anything if they delete a message or their browsing history, as mSpy won’t miss a keystroke.

In addition, you can set up keywords in your mSpy control panel, which means the app will automatically notify you if your child uses those words on their iPhone. This makes inappropriate online activities near-impossible to miss, giving you complete peace of mind.

Similarly, you can use mSpy to set up safe and unsafe zones on the map. mSpy will automatically notify you if your child crosses into a zone you marked as unsafe, and you’ll have a detailed history of their movements.

Although we found its interface flawless, and there’s no shortage of powerful features, mSpy is one of the most expensive options. You can also monitor only one device per subscription – but its ease of use and comprehensive features justify the price.

Pricing

mSpy offers a single feature-rich pricing plan that’s much cheaper if you pay annually. The plan covers all iOS and Android devices, meaning you can switch to monitoring an Android device if your child changes their preferences.

Although it has no free plan or free trial period, you can take a look at its features and interface using the in-depth demo mSpy provides on its website, and you can also check out our in-depth mSpy review.

2. EyeZy — Powerful Screen Recording iPhone App

EyeZy is the best parental control app for iPhone texting, as it takes frequent snapshots of your child’s screen, making it impossible for them to hide their messages. This feature is invaluable if your child uses apps with disappearing messages, such as Snapchat or other apps with a “vanishing mode.”

Besides messages, EyeZy will keep logs of incoming and outgoing calls, including a timestamp, call duration, and the number of the person your child is talking to. That means you’ll always know if your child is talking to someone they shouldn’t be contacting, allowing you to react quickly.

What we liked the most about EyeZy is that it supports even older iOS versions, starting with iOS 7. That means you won’t have an issue monitoring your child’s online and physical activities if they have an older model.

EyeZy lets you access their messages on most social media apps, but we haven’t seen a TikTok monitoring feature like the one mSpy offers. However, with access to Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other apps, you can have peace of mind knowing who your children are communicating with.

In addition, with Web Magnifier, you’ll have access to their browsing history. That means you’ll have a better insight into their online habits and activities, allowing you to react if you notice anything unusual.

EyeZy lets you remotely block malicious and inappropriate websites, and thanks to its invisible mode, you’ll remain undetected.

Pricing

EyeZy has a similar pricing structure to mSpy, but its prices are more affordable. There are no downsides in opting for an annual subscription, as EyeZy is an excellent long-term solution. Like mSpy, EyeZy doesn’t offer a free plan or free trial, but you can test its interface and features using the demo version on its website.

3. uMobix — Ideal Parental Control App for GPS Tracking

uMobix is a versatile mobile monitoring solution that offers a user-friendly platform and excellent GPS tracking capabilities. One standout feature we noticed while testing its capabilities was its files and camera section.

The app helps you quickly search for pictures, videos, and files on the target phone, meaning you’ll always know what your child is downloading or viewing.

In addition, we were impressed with the browser history and bookmark tracking, as it allows you to keep track of what your child is most interested in online. In addition to showing you the websites they visit, uMobix provides a link and timestamp, meaning you can quickly check out unknown websites.

During our hands-on testing of the parental control apps on our list, we had the best GPS tracking experience with uMobix. It has a well-designed map that accurately updates the target phone’s location and lets you set it as a Google Maps destination.

That means you can quickly find the best route to your child’s location with one click, which can be invaluable if you feel your child is in danger.

In addition, it impressed us with its full access to Facebook and Instagram accounts active on the target phone. uMobix lets you navigate these accounts as your own, giving you complete freedom.

While uMobix is an excellent pick for iPhone monitoring, we wish it had more of its Android features, which make it one of the best spy apps for Android.

However, this issue is present with most iPhone parental control apps, as iOS devices are much harder to track than their Android counterparts. For more details, check out our comprehensive uMobix review.

Pricing 

uMobix has a similar pricing structure to our two previous picks. It also lets you track one device per subscription, but you won’t face any limits with linking and unlinking devices. That means you can track one iPhone for a few months and switch to another without paying for another subscription.

4. Cocospy — Installs in Minutes Without Jailbreaking

Cocospy is the best iPhone app for parental control if you’re looking for a solution that’s easy to install and use. The installation process is fully remote, meaning you won’t need to bother with app downloading and configuration as long as you have the iCloud credentials of the target device.

Cocospy is ideal for parents who are concerned with the apps their children download and use. It allows you to view, manage, and block any app on the target device, which can reduce your child’s screen time and stop them from viewing inappropriate content.

Jailbreaking your iPad or iPhone can have several negative consequences, and Cocospy helps you avoid them by allowing you to monitor these devices without compromising their security.

As one of the best no-jailbreak iPhone spy apps, Cocospy requires no technical knowledge to install, making it one of the most straightforward solutions on our list.

While it can’t track more social media apps than our top pick, mSpy, Cocospy is excellent if your child spends a lot of time on Instagram. It lets you access their chats and browsing history, giving you peace of mind knowing you’re fully aware of how your children spend their time on this platform.

We ranked Cocospy lower than uMobix because it has a slightly less accurate location tracking feature, which it will likely improve in one of its future updates. It already has a feature-rich Android app, and its frequent updates make it an excellent long-term investment.

Pricing 

Cocospy has an identical pricing structure to uMobix. Similar to other parental control app providers, the price drastically drops if you opt for an annual subscription, but it has no free trial or free plan on offer.

5. ClevGuard — Excellent for Monitoring up to Three Devices

ClevGuard offers numerous unique features and is our top choice for busy parents who need a product that will allow them to review their kids’ activities during the weekend. It has an excellent data export feature to download up to 1,000 calls, messages, website visits, and similar information you can review.

In addition, if you’re at work or away from home and want to do a quick checkup on your kids’ activities, you can take a target phone screenshot remotely, showing you what your children are up to at any moment.

One of our favorite ClevGuard features, which we haven’t seen with other products, is the Wi-Fi Logger. This feature shows you which public and private Wi-Fi connections the target phone connected to previously, including timestamps and the connection duration.

For example, seeing that your child is connecting to “Asper’s Home Wi-Fi” during school hours is a giveaway they are skipping classes.

We were impressed by this feature because it makes ClevGuard an ideal pick for parents who can’t spend all day monitoring their children, as it gives you a chronologically accurate history of their connections.

ClevGuard also offers a family plan, which is very expensive but lets you monitor 20 or more devices, making it an unmatched pick for large families. However, it hides its WhatsApp monitoring features behind a separate subscription, and that’s the only issue we had with this app.

Pricing 

ClevGuard lets you pick between a plan that covers up to three devices and a family plan that lets you monitor 20 or more iPhone and Android smartphones.

Selecting more than one device provides a significant discount, especially if you opt for an annual plan. While this makes ClevGuard unusual, like most of its competitors, it has no free trial or free plan on offer.

6. Norton Family — Numerous Unique Features from the Leading Antivirus Provider

Norton Family is a comprehensive solution for parents looking to automate most of their parental controls. You can configure Norton Family to notify you of your child’s location automatically at specific times and dates, and it will send you weekly or monthly reports of your child’s online activities.

The feature we liked the most is Instant Lock, which lets you lock the target device until you manually unlock it. It requires a PIN to unlock, meaning your child won’t find a workaround, and this feature is ideal if you’re worried about how media use can affect your child long-term.

Norton is the best parental monitoring app for iPhone if you prefer open communication to monitoring your children without their knowledge. It has several unique features that set it apart from the competition, including Access Request.

Access Request allows your child to send you a message explaining why you shouldn’t block an app or website after you restrict them, promoting mutual understanding and allowing you to explain why some content is inappropriate.

It also allows you to schedule specific times of the day or week when children can use their devices uninterruptedly for a set time. However, it will still track the websites your children visit and the apps they download and use, giving you peace of mind knowing what they are up to.

Although Norton Family has a more complicated setup process than most of our other picks, the difference is in just a few minutes. After the installation, you’ll quickly notice that it’s a user-friendly app with numerous guides and on-screen instructions.

Pricing 

Norton Family has a single annual subscription-based plan that lets you monitor up to 15 devices, making it the best parental control app for iPhone users in a family.

In addition, it lets you start using its services risk-free, thanks to its 30-day free trial period. That means you won’t have to pay anything until you’ve fully tested its features.

7. Qustodio — In-Depth Reports for Parental Monitoring

Qustodio has a unique approach to monitoring your child’s iPhone, which has positive and negative consequences. It uses VPN servers to send your child’s network traffic through its servers to monitor their activity.

Although this approach improves the security of your child’s iPhone and online activities, it can slow down their internet connection, which may raise suspicions or revolt. However, trading internet connection speed for additional security is what even the best VPN services do, meaning Qustodio is an excellent two-in-one pick.

Thanks to its VPN-based parental control features, Qustodio offers various unique capabilities. The ones we liked the most were associated with internet pausing, setting up time limits for games, and limiting daily screen time.

For example, you can set the timer to one hour, press “Pause,” and the child’s iPhone won’t have an internet connection until the timer runs out.

Qustodio lets you view all web activity via the family portal part of the app, including browsing history and most frequently visited websites. If there are any websites you dislike, you can block access to them using its Web Filtering feature.

Although Qustodio can monitor more than 9,000 apps, including popular iPhone games and similar pastime products, it isn’t the best Instagram spy app as it doesn’t track activities on social media platforms.

Pricing 

Qustodio splits its pricing plans into two tiers and offers an optional add-on for personalized help and enhanced customer support.

The cheaper plan doesn’t include all its advanced features, but the more expensive plan includes the Care Plus add-on and all of its benefits. In addition, the more expensive plan lets you monitor unlimited devices while paying for a single subscription.

8. Famisafe — Affordable App Detects Suspicious Photos and Texts

Famisafe is the best parental control app for iPhone texting and multimedia sharing because of its built-in warnings when it detects malicious or inappropriate content on a target phone. This feature is more relevant now than ever before, as the dangers of sexting for children are on the rise.

Whether you’re looking to protect your child from cyberbullying, regulate their screen time, or simply have a way to find out their location at any time, Famisafe may be the best option for you. To help you combat these modern issues children face, Famisafe uses AI-powered algorithms to detect cyberbullying, alerting you immediately.

We saw plenty of unique features while exploring Famisafe, including Driving Report, a feature that gives you accurate reports of how fast your teens are driving. From top speeds to average speeds and total driving distance, Famisafe will include every detail to give you peace of mind or a cause for reaction.

Famisafe will also help you monitor their social media, including YouTube, and inform you if it detects that your child is looking for or watching inappropriate content for their age. Its impressive list of features will help you monitor kids, young adults, and teens to prevent numerous common issues for each age group.

We also tested its Geonection feature, which lets you share your location with trusted contacts, such as friends and family.

Although iOS devices already have this feature, using Famisafe helps bridge the gap between Android and iOS phones, allowing you to cross-share information. However, Famisafe has no message monitoring features, which most of our other picks offer.

Pricing 

Famisafe is one of the cheapest parental control apps available today, which makes it an attractive offer if you’re on a budget. Adding Geonection costs $1/month, and the only difference between opting for a monthly plan over an annual or quarterly one is that you can only protect five devices.

With the other two options, you get to use Famisafe on up to ten devices, allowing you to protect your whole family.

9. Spyera — Top Tools, Including Listening to the Target iPhone’s Surroundings

Spyera is an excellent pick for parents who are worried about their child’s choice of friends and surroundings, as it offers exceptional GPS location tracking, lets you listen and record their phone calls, and even allows you to listen to their surroundings in real-time.

While most of its competition offers these features for Android tracking, Spyera is the only one we tested that extended these capabilities to iPhones. Recording calls works both ways, as Spyera lets you record outgoing and incoming calls, which you can later download from its web portal and review.

Besides listening to regular phone calls, Spyera will also let you listen to calls made via social media and chat apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and more. You can also set it up to send you a notification every time the target device makes or receives a call or a message.

Like calls, you can record the target device’s surroundings and listen to the recording live or download it from the control panel.

In addition, you can remotely activate the device’s camera to take secret photos or even record a video remotely. That means Spyera will let you hear and see everything that’s going on around your child.

However, these powerful features come at a high cost, as Spyera is by far the most expensive app we’ve tested.

Although pricey, there’s no better option for parents who’d like to track their child’s activities without them knowing. That’s because Spyera can be remotely updated, reinstalled, or removed, meaning you won’t need physical access to the iPhone.

Pricing 

Spyera offers plans for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices. That means it’s an excellent provider to pick if your family uses a diverse set of equipment, but you’ll need a separate subscription for each device. Spyera offers no free plans or free trials, but there is a 10-day money-back guarantee.

10. TheOneSpy — Exceptional Tool for Jailbroken iPhones

TheOneSpy can help you safeguard sensitive information stored on iPhones to protect your child or business from online predators and hackers.

Whether you’re a business owner afraid that an employee might steal your intellectual property stored on their work phone or a parent who wants to prevent their children from communicating with suspicious strangers, TheOneSpy provides robust features to help.

TheOneSpy is an excellent choice for parents looking to safeguard their children from various threats they may encounter online. From shady dating apps to scammers and sexual predators, monitoring your child’s activities can help you stop them from getting in touch with strangers.

TheOneSpy lets you monitor their Safari browsing history, access their multimedia, track their GPS location, and more.

In addition, you’ll have access to their notes and calendar, which can also be helpful to business owners suspecting an employee might sell their intellectual property. You can also track their working hours or prevent them from installing harmful apps.

Pricing 

TheOneSpy has a similar pricing structure to its competitors and offers plans that get cheaper if you pay for a longer period. Although it offers no free plans or trials, you can test its features with a demo on its website. In addition, TheOneSpy has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

What’s the Best Free Parental Control App for iPhone?

Opting for a premium Qustodio plan or subscribing to another provider gives you access to advanced features, such as location tracking, application blocking, web history, and more.

Besides their superior feature sets, paid solutions won’t betray your trust as a user, which may not be the case with free products from disreputable providers.

Some free parental control apps for iPhone devices will collect your information and sell it to third parties – which is how these providers make their money. While Qustodio is the best free parental control app for iPhone devices we’ve tested – and it’s safe to use – it’s limited compared to paid solutions.

Factors to Consider When Choosing an iPhone Monitoring App

Choosing the right iPhone parental control app is a crucial first step toward ensuring your child is safe online. That means you’ll need a robust solution with the right features for your needs and requirements.

Here are some features we consider crucial and that you should look for when making your decision, whether you’re looking for apps to limit screen time, parent controls for iPhone, or apps to monitor kids’ phones.

Compatibility With Your iOS Version

Apple periodically releases updates for its operating system, meaning you should ensure your future parental control app receives frequent updates. In addition, while some parental control apps effortlessly work on older iPhone models and operating system versions, newer solutions will only work on new models.

During our hands-on testing of these products, we used older and newer models and included the minimum operating system version they require to function. When selecting an app, ensure it suits your child’s iPhone to avoid dysfunctional features and inconsistencies.

If you’re concerned about compatibility in your region, you can also check out our other guides, such as our piece on the best parental controls apps in Australia.

Features and Functionality

There are several features crucial for concerned parents who want to stay in the know about their child’s activities. Location tracking is the most valuable feature if you’re worried about your child’s whereabouts, especially if they head out late at night or don’t come straight home from school.

If your concerns lie with screen time and potentially dangerous contacts, monitoring web and app activity is crucial. If you’re looking for a solution that enables you to restrict phone time by pausing internet connections or locking the phone, look for apps with robust remote control features.

Our list contains picks that suit each of these categories, including advanced solutions like mSpy, which can do it all. Consider parental control apps that suit your needs and requirements to avoid overpaying for features you won’t use.

Interface Quality

The best parental control app for iPhone should also be simple, as overly complicated apps can only be counter-productive. That means you should look for an app that’s intuitive and easy to use, even if you have no technical expertise or prior experience with parental controls.

Most of the apps from our list have a centralized, at-a-glance interface style that lets you see important information on the home page.

However, these apps should also have separate menus for each feature, allowing you to delve into each component in detail. For example, mSpy has dedicated menus for photos, videos, calls, messages, social media, and other features.

Devices per Subscription

If you’re looking to monitor the activities of a single child, you’ll find most solutions on our list more than enough. However, we’ve also listed the best parental control apps for iPhone that allow you to monitor unlimited devices.

That means you should carefully consider what suits your needs the best. For example, mSpy can get very expensive if you buy multiple subscriptions to monitor more than one iPhone, while solutions like Norton Family let you do that with one subscription.

Reviews and Reputation

Although we have a lot of experience in testing all things tech, we still draw on third-party user reviews from websites like Trustpilot and G2, as they offer unique insights into how long-term users perceive these products and provide valuable insights into the quality of their features and customer support.

After testing dozens of parental control apps to write this review, we noticed that our testing results largely match what regular users of these apps think of them.

That’s why you’ll find reputable and reliable products on our list, as we’ve already combed through user reviews to see if our testing results and verdicts apply to them long-term.

In addition, our expertise with these and similar products, such as the best antivirus software, allows us to make valuable comparisons between the apps to help you make an informed decision.

Techopedia’s Other Parental Control Resources

Here’s a list of our other parental control software guides if you’re looking for a solution that excels at monitoring a specific app or need a best-in-class tool for a specific feature:

• The Best Instagram Spy Apps
• The Best Phone Spy Apps
• How to Spy on Devices Connected to My Wi-Fi
• The Best WhatsApp Spy Apps
• The Best Spy Apps for Android
• The Best Android Keyloggers

How to Monitor Your Kid’s iPhone — A Step-by-Step Guide

Setting up a parental control app usually takes just a few minutes, which is the case with mSpy, our top pick this year. Here, we’ll provide a quick step-by-step guide to how to monitor a kid’s iPhone, setting up mSpy using iCloud Sync to monitor an iPhone device.

Step 1 — Create Your mSpy Account

Visit the mSpy and click “Try Now” in the upper right corner of the homepage. Once you create an account, pick the iPhone as the target device and choose a subscription that suits your budget.

Step 2 — Connect the Target iPhone to Your mSpy Account

Log into your mSpy account and choose the iCloud Sync connecting method in the “Wizard” section of the menu. There, you’ll need to provide the iCloud account name and password to proceed.

Step 3 — Verify the Connection

Once you provide the iCloud account credentials, mSpy will send two notifications to help you verify the connection.

One notification will reach the target iCloud’s email address, and the other will appear on the target phone, containing a six-digit code you need to use for confirmation. Enter the code from the target device to your mSpy account to complete the process.

Step 4 — Start Monitoring the Target iPhone

It can take up to 15 minutes to synchronize the data from the target device to your mSpy account. After that, you’ll have full access to the contacts, calendar, photos, files, and more. With the installation process complete, you can log into your mSpy account and check for new activity on the target phone.

Conclusion — What is the Best Parental Control App for iPhone in 2023?

After thorough research and in-depth testing of the features of a wide range of parental control apps for iPhone, we’re confident mSpy is the best tool to use this year. It’s easy to install and use, offers robust features, and is near-impossible to detect.

mSpy lets you track the target phone’s location, accurately logs keystrokes, and has one of the most user-friendly interfaces we’ve seen while testing these apps. In addition, you can test its features and interface with a free demo.

Although mSpy isn’t the cheapest option, it offers unmatched monitoring capabilities and a 14-day money-back guarantee if you face any issues customer support can’t resolve.

iOS Monitoring FAQs

Ilijia Miljkovac

Ilijia Miljkovac

Ilija Miljkovac is a Technopedia writer with 7 years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about everything from cybersecurity to ISPs, ensuring businesses and customers are educated about the latest products and services. He's written for publications such as Business2Community, TheTechReport, Comparitech, and more. When he's not maniacally hacking away at his keyboard, Ilija spends his time either hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.

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