Best Parental Control Apps for Android and iPhone in 2024

Although it doesn’t monitor as many social media and instant messaging apps as some others, mSpy is one of the best Tinder spy apps for iPhones. Additionally, it can track your child’s activities on WhatsApp, Snapchat, TikTok, and other apps, including their messages and the media they send or receive, such as images and videos.

While its social media monitoring tools can help you safeguard your kids from the consequences of sexting and cyberbullying, mSpy’s keyword alerts will reveal if your child looks up potentially dangerous or inappropriate information. You can flag words with keyword alerts, and mSpy will alert you if it detects them on the target device.

Additionally, mSpy is undetectable, thanks to its stealth mode, and its GPS location tracking is pinpoint accurate. That means your kids won’t even know you’re tracking them (although informed consent is definitely better), and you’ll always know where they are.

It’s worth noting that you will need to root an Android device or jailbreak an iPhone to use all of mSpy’s features. Some features, like a keylogger and screen recorder, are also exclusively available on Android.

mSpy doesn’t offer a free trial to test its features, but you can scroll through its demo to get a feel for its dashboard.

Like most providers, mSpy offers significant discounts if you subscribe annually. I also found that reaching out to customer service before subscribing will get you an additional discount.

mSpy excels at tracking iPhone activities, and all you need to install it on an iPhone are your child’s iCloud credentials. However, you get access to a lot more features if you can root or jailbreak the device.

During my testing, I found that Eyezy really makes it easy to stay on top of your child’s iPhone activities with its Plans Breaker feature. This lets you monitor your child’s social calendar to find out which events they plan to attend, including their location and time.

I also liked its very accurate keylogger, which can record every keystroke on your child’s device, giving you insight into what they’re typing, even if they delete it before sending it. For a better view of their social media activity, Eyezy offers Social Spotlight, a feature that lets you see who they’re chatting with and what texts or media they exchange.

Additionally, Eyezy lets you remotely block your child’s access to inappropriate websites and apps. Although it doesn’t offer insights into your child’s screen time like FamiSafe, you can access their browsing history and installed apps list and block the ones you don’t want them to visit or use.

As I mentioned, Eyezy offers multiple installation options for iPhones, depending on the level of monitoring you need. For on-device information, like incoming and outgoing calls, text messages, iMessage, location tracking, and gallery access, you only need your kid’s iCloud credentials. For more detailed social media monitoring and web history tracking, you will need to jailbreak the iPhone.

Eyezy offers a demo version of its dashboard to let you look at its features, but there’s no free trial available. It has a single plan that’s more affordable than most if you subscribe for one year.

Eyezy isn’t the cheapest parental control app on this list, but it offers excellent value for money, as you get social media, browsing, and location tracking at a very affordable rate. It also has a Family Kit plan that lets you monitor up to three devices and starts at $29.99/month with an annual subscription.

Eyezy is ideal for parents looking for a feature-rich yet affordable service for iPhone that lets you monitor your children’s activities and restrict their access to inappropriate websites and apps when needed. You won’t find a cheaper solution if you’re after a parental control app with stealth mode.

uMobix delivers unmatched Android monitoring capabilities, as it gives you nearly complete remote control and lets you monitor all the popular social media and messaging apps your children may be using. It’s also one of the only parental control apps to give you an overview of what your child does on Reddit, a platform that hides inappropriate content behind an age check which kids easily bypass.

Its remote controls can help you hide such content from your children by blocking their access to websites and apps they shouldn’t be opening. Additionally, you can lock their phone remotely, and they won’t be able to use it until you unlock it. That can help you set screen time limits when it’s past their bedtime or when they’re studying.

One of my favorite uMobix features is its ability to display deleted messages. If your child has something to hide, they may try to do so by deleting incriminating messages, and uMobix will display them all in a dedicated tab on its dashboard.

However, while uMobix offers basic parental control monitoring for iPhones, it lacks features like the keylogger and location tracking and can’t monitor as many social media apps on iOS as it does on Android. Parents also get a mobile app to monitor their children’s phones on the go, which I found works really well in my testing. It’s also quite rare and something you won’t get with competitors like mSpy and Eyeyzy.

Like Eyezy, uMobix has a single pricing plan and a demo version of its dashboard that lets you explore its interface.

uMobix may not be as cheap as Eyezy, but its additional remote control features justify the price. Like my previous picks, it has a 14-day refund window you can use to get your money back if there’s a technical issue its customer support can’t resolve.

uMobix is the best parental control app for Android devices, offering unmatched remote control capabilities. Additionally, its dedicated Android app that replaces the web-based control panel makes it an excellent choice if Androids are popular in your household.

Cocospy includes all the traditional parental control features, such as call, SMS, and location monitoring. However, it goes further by giving you an insight into what your kids do on more than 16 social media and messaging apps. These include WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and other popular apps, but also heavily encrypted apps such as Telegram and Signal.

For each social media app, Cocospy provides a dedicated tab on its dashboard. Here, you can access the messages your child sends and receives, complete with timestamps, contact details, and even deleted messages. Additionally, Cocospy will tell you if your child is online, allowing you to tap into their conversations in real-time.

Like the other parental control apps on this list, Cocospy offers Android and iPhone monitoring, meaning you’ll have to turn to FamiSafe or Qustodio to monitor macOS and Windows devices. Additionally, most of its features work only on jailbroken iPhones, making mSpy a better choice for non-jailbroken devices. Conversely, all its features work on Androids, even without rooting them.

Cocospy has a single pricing plan that gets a significant discount if you subscribe for one year. It also has a demo version of its dashboard to help you familiarize yourself with its layout before subscribing.

Cocospy provides all its child monitoring features with each subscription tier, meaning you won’t miss anything even if you subscribe for a month. Although it has no free trial, you can refund its product within the first two weeks if there are technical issues its customer support can’t resolve.

Cocospy is ideal for parents concerned about their child’s exposure to inappropriate content on social media, dating, and messaging apps, including encrypted ones. With its dedicated tabs for 16 apps and the ability to track messages your children delete, Cocospy ensures you won’t miss any details.

Qustodio’s parental control features for Android and iPhone devices can help you manage your children’s screen time and monitor their calls, SMS, and location. It lets you prevent technology addiction by setting time limits on apps, including games, to help your kids focus on studying or improving their sleep patterns.

Additionally, you can set daily time limits and restrict certain apps at specific times if your children have a strict study schedule or simply remotely pause and unpause their internet with a single click. Although Qustodio offers the same features on Windows and macOS devices, it can’t track the location of your children’s laptops.

However, while apps like uMobix, Cocospy, and mSpy offer a detailed overview of your child’s social media activities, Qustodio doesn’t. The only app it can monitor is YouTube, but you’ll have access to their calls and SMS history on Android and iOS.

That said, its parental control features for YouTube are quite robust. Qustodio can monitor and block inappropriate YouTube content in real time, set screen time limits, and give you detailed activity reports.

Qustodio offers unmatched customer support quality, especially if you opt for its Care Plus add-on, which comes free with its Complete plan and grants you access to phone support.

With Qustodio, you don’t have to worry about complicated installation processes, jailbreaking, or rooting iPhones and Android devices. Parents can download the monitoring app on their phones from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, where you’ll also find the complementary app for your children’s phones. Qustodio also has apps for Windows computers, Macs, Chromebooks, and Amazon Fire tablets.

Qustodio has two premium plans you can subscribe to annually and one free plan that lets you explore some of its features before subscribing.

• Qustodio Free: Qustodio’s free plan lets you set time limits, pause the internet, and monitor your child’s web activities on a single device.
• Qustodio Basic: This plan adds location tracking, app blocking, device blocking, and premium email support to the features of Qustodio’s free plan and monitors up to five devices.
• Qustodio Complete: Qustodio’s top-tier plan unlocks all its features, including app download alerts, YouTube monitoring, calls and messages monitoring, web activity alerts, and more. It also monitors unlimited devices.

Although Qustodio’s free plan doesn’t offer many features, its Basic plan is one of the most affordable solutions on the market. Adding Care Plus to your Basic plan raises its price to $5.66/month and grants you access to phone support. Care Plus is included with the Complete plan.

Qustodio is ideal for first-time parental control app users, especially if you aren’t tech-savvy, as its customer support can resolve any issue you encounter in minutes. Additionally, it excels at helping you manage your children’s screen time limits and lets you monitor unlimited devices with its top-tier plan.

Tracking your child’s GPS location with Phonsee lets you know their exact location and history of movement with timestamps. The app also displays additional information, such as their favorite locations, frequently visited places and route history. Paired with its web history and calendar viewer features, Phonsee ensures you always know what your kids are up to and why they are visiting new locations.

Besides real-time tracking, Phonsee offers geofencing, a feature that lets you set up borders on your map. When your child crosses one of these borders, Phonsee will immediately notify you via notification. For example, if you label their school a “Safe Zone,” Phonsee will notify you when they enter and leave it, giving you peace of mind.

Although it has some remote controls, such as app and website blocking, Phonsee does not offer remote camera and microphone activation, while providers like uMobix do. You can also track 10 social media and messaging apps, which isn’t as many as what’s available with some competitors like Cocospy.

Phonsee doesn’t offer an interactive demo like mSpy and Eyezy, but you can scroll through images of its dashboard to get an idea of how it works before subscribing.

Phonsee is slightly cheaper than mSpy, but it’s more difficult to install and doesn’t offer a dashboard that’s as intuitive as mSpy’s. However, finding a more affordable solution with accurate GPS location tracking and geofencing is nearly impossible.

Phonsee is best for parents seeking a parental control app with precise GPS location tracking on Android and iPhone devices. Although it lacks features like call recording, Phonsee can track your child’s activities in 10+ social media and messaging apps and log their calls and SMS.

As one of the only parental control apps for Android and iPhone devices that lets you record calls, ClevGuard can be invaluable if your children spend hours talking on the phone. ClevGuard can record up to 20 minutes per call, and it lists all the calls your kids make with timestamps and contact information.

Besides smartphones, you can see what your kids do on their Windows computers with its screen recording feature. You can set this feature up to take periodic or on-demand screenshots to have it capture everything on their screen.

Although it can’t monitor as many social media apps as Cocospy, ClevGuard’s KidsGuard Pro lets you read through their messages on TikTok, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other popular applications. Unlike most competitors, ClevGuard also monitors Discord, an app that’s popular among kids but, unfortunately, also used by online predators.

ClevGuard has three plans tailored to different needs. There’s also a demo version that lets you explore its dashboard and features.

• KidsGuard Plan — ClevGuard’s cheapest plan lets you monitor your children’s location, prevent them from visiting inappropriate websites, track their app usage, and even block apps. It works on one device only.
• KidsGuard Pro — You can monitor up to three devices with this plan, and it lets you listen to your child’s phone environment, record their phone screen, set up keyword alerts, record phone calls, and more.
• MoniVisor — This plan works on Windows computers only and lets you monitor your child’s screen in real-time, track file changes on their computer, and see every word they type with its keylogger.

While providers like Eyezy and uMobix let you monitor just one device, ClevGuard also includes a family plan that lets you monitor up to 20 devices. Its cheapest solution is a plan for three to five devices that costs $189/year.

ClevGuard lets you listen to your kid’s calls and gives you frequent updates on their smartphone and PC activities via screenshots. That makes it ideal for parents looking to constantly keep up with their child’s activities, especially if they often make late-night calls or spend too much time on their devices.

Norton Family doesn’t offer as many social media-tracking features as mSpy or uMobix, but it can help parents check their child’s location, set screen time limits, and supervise their web use.

Tracking your child’s location works in several ways with Norton Family. You can open its dashboard to check their location in real-time or set a specific time of the day and have the app send you their location automatically. Additionally, your children can use their Norton Family app to send you their location with a single click.

It also offers School Time, a unique feature that lets you compile a list of websites related to your child’s education and restrict access to all other websites. That means your child can study distraction-free, as Norton Family will even block ads leading to other websites as they browse the sites you allow.

Norton Family offers a single pricing plan that can be subscribed to annually, priced at $4.17/month. It also has a lengthy 60-day money-back guarantee, which allows you to try its features risk-free.

Unlike Phonsee, Cocospy, and most parental control apps, Norton Family offers a 30-day free trial period to monitor your children. The trial period includes all the features you get as a subscriber and automatically renews at $49.99/year after it expires.

Norton Family is an exceptional choice for parents on a budget, especially if you want to monitor multiple devices, as its affordable plan lets you track activities across unlimited devices. While it doesn’t let you remotely activate the target device’s camera and microphone like uMobix, you get all the traditional parental controls.

FamiSafe is an excellent app for passive parental monitoring. You can set it up to send periodic screenshots of your child’s device, block certain apps during specific times of the day, and even alert you if it detects inappropriate photos on your child’s device.

It also has a unique parental controls feature called Driving Report, which is invaluable if you have a teenager with a driving license. This feature automatically alerts you if your child is speeding, shows you their driving routine, and delivers a report after each trip they take. These reports will show you their average driving speed, history of hard braking, and similar data.

Although it doesn’t let you monitor as many apps as Cocospy, FamiSafe is great for monitoring YouTube and TikTok, two of the most addictive apps among youth. From setting a daily screen time limit to blocking them entirely, FamiSafe gives you control over the content your kids consume on these apps and for how long.

Like Qustodio, there are no complicated installations to worry about here. Parents will find the app they need on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store to monitor everything from their own phones. You can then download the apps for your kid’s devices from these app stores, while the Famisafe website has download links for Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, and Amazon Kindle tablets.

FamiSafe offers a 3-day free trial period during which you can test its features and use its monitoring services on a single device.

Subscribing to FamiSafe for any duration unlocks all its features, but there’s a difference in how many devices you can monitor. With the one-month subscription, you can monitor up to five devices, while the quarterly subscription lets you monitor ten. Subscribing for a year lets you monitor unlimited devices, just like with Norton Family, giving it the best value for money.

FamiSafe is the best option for busy parents, as most of its features come with automatic reports. That means you won’t have to constantly check up on your child’s activities by accessing its dashboard, as it will notify you if they are speeding, accessing inappropriate websites, or sending suspicious messages.