Best Phone Spy Apps in 2023 | Top 10 Reviewed + Compared

The best phone spy apps are an excellent way to keep your loved ones safe and stay informed on their activities in and out of the house. Many parents use these apps to ensure their children’s online and physical safety, while others use them to spy on their spouses to help recover rocky marriages.

We’ve analyzed and reviewed the best phone spy apps in 2023, looking at their pros, cons, and features to help you pick the best one for you. Read on to learn how providers like mSpy, EyeZy, and uMobix can help you spy on calls, internet activity, social media activity, and more.

The Best Cell Phone Spy Apps | Top 10 Ranked

The world of phone spy apps is filled with an abundance of unreliable tools, and some of them are outright scams. Our testing shows mSpy is the best phone spy app, with several apps close behind. Here’s a quick breakdown of the market’s best phone spy apps:

1. mSpy — Best Phone Spy App Overall | Put it to the Test Now With its 30-Day Guarantee
2. EyeZy — Best Cheap Phone Spy App | Take Advantage of the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
3. uMobix — Feature-Packed Spyware for iPhone and Android| Try it Risk-Free Using its 2-Week Long Guarantee
4. Cocospy — Best Spyware for Android and iOS for Ease-of-Use | Use its 14-Day Guarantee
5. Spyic — Top Phone Spy App for Holistic Monitoring | Has a Massive 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
6. Hoverwatch — Innovative Screenshot-Based Phone Spy App
7. XNSpy — Perfect Spy App for Remote Control Features
8. KidsGuard — First-Class Spy App for Android and iOS for Worried Parents
9. iKeyMonitor — Best Free Phone Spy App
10. TheOneSpy — Incredibly Advanced Phone Monitoring App

The Best Phone Spy Apps for Peace of Mind | Top 10 Reviewed

The best hidden spy apps all have some similarities. However, there are vast differences in their pros, cons, and features. To find the perfect one for you, take a look at our in-depth analysis of each one below.

1. mSpy — Best Phone Spy App Overall

mSpy is a parental control tool with the perfect mixture of ease of use, power, and versatility. The app is supreme for ensuring your child’s safety on and off the internet — hence why it’s trusted by over 1.5 million users.

If phone spy apps seem daunting to use, fear not, for mSpy takes just a couple of minutes to fully set up. Afterward, the tool will inform you of your loved one’s activities every 5 minutes, ensuring you don’t miss a beat.

mSpy easily monitors everything from the browser history to social media and SMS messages with ease. You can even look at deleted messages due to the app’s powerful screen recording and keylogging capabilities.

On top of this, the tool excels at giving you in-depth control over your monitoring experience. You can even access remote control features to record your loved one’s surroundings or phone calls.

This can help protect your child from real-world threats like bullying or help you find a cheating spouse. To top it off, mSpy does all of this in secret, staying completely undetectable on the target device.

Naturally, as the best hidden spy app, mSpy has much more to offer — a whopping 36 features, to be exact.

Pricing

Much like most cell phone spy apps, mSpy lets you pick between multiple pricing options:

1. Monthly — $48.99/month
2. Quarterly — $27.99/month
3. Yearly — $11.66/month

Not only is $11.66/month a low price to access mSpy’s powerful spying features but there’s even a 10-day money-back guarantee letting you put the app to the test risk-free.

Pros:

• You can block harmful sites
• Allows you to view multimedia files
• Completely hidden on target device
• Powerful remote control features
• Well-calibrated geo-fencing and GPS tracker

Cons:

• No free trial

2. EyeZy — Best Cheap Phone Spy App

EyeZy is perfect for you if you’re looking for a budget spy app to start you off on your phone spying journey. The tool will help ensure your loved ones are well-guarded against online threats and even give you some interesting analytics to keep you informed.

This is the perfect tool for parents worried about their child’s social media activity or concerned spouses trying to help their partner overcome social media addiction.

Not only do the social media monitoring features allow you to look at all messages — even if they’re deleted — but you can restrict your loved one’s time on social media remotely.

Besides this, EyeZy will immediately alert you if your loved one installs a dating app like Tinder, which is perfect for parents worried their child is going to jump into the dating game too early.

On top of this, you can set up a list of phrases for EyeZy to notify you if they’re sent or received on the target device.

To top it all off, if you’re looking to monitor your loved one’s internet activity, there’s no better tool than EyeZy.

It’ll give you detailed analytics on your loved one’s browsing habits, what they’re saying in chats, the Wi-Fi networks they connect to, and the time they spend on certain sites.

Pricing

Much like mSpy, you can purchase EyeZy with one of three billing options:

1. 1 Month — $47.99/month
2. 3 Months — $9.33/month
3. Yearly — $9.99/month

At just $9.99/month with the yearly plan, EyeZy is one of the best bargains you can get, given its vast set of powerful features.

If you’re unsure, you can use EyeZy’s 14-day money-back guarantee to test the tool without risking a dime.

Pros:

• Packed with features
• Phenomenal keylogger
• Excellent option for budget-conscious customers
• Detailed internet activity analytics
• App usage alerts

Cons:

• The monthly plan is quite expensive

3. uMobix — Feature-Packed Spyware for iPhone and Android

uMobix provides top-of-the-line real-time monitoring capabilities for Android and iOS devices. If you’re looking for a comprehensive, feature-rich hidden phone spy app to monitor your loved ones, uMobix might be a perfect choice.

One of the app’s biggest benefits is its host of remote control features. Most apps won’t allow you to take control of the target device and access their microphone and camera to look or listen in on their surroundings in real-time as uMobix does.

Alongside this functionality, uMobix allows you to record all calls to and from the target device- perfect for catching misbehaving teens.

If you’re concerned about what they’re doing when you’re not monitoring them, uMobix will show you all messages, even if they’ve been deleted.

Finally, uMobix lets you restrict or block access to certain apps or sites. This can stop your children from going on dating apps or visiting inappropriate sites. Alternatively, you can use it to ensure your child isn’t spending too much time on social media.

Pricing

Much like the 2 entries before it, uMobix has three pricing plans:

1. 1 Month — $49.99/month
2. 3 Months — $27.99/month
3. Yearly — $11.66/month

The yearly plan is a great deal given the value of uMobix’s features, however, as with most, its subscription covers just 1 device.

No matter what option you select, you’ll gain access to a plethora of advanced features. If you’d like to try it for free, you can do this with its 14-day refund policy.

Pros

• Extremely consistent and reliable
• Remote control capabilities
• Rock-solid pricing, given its power
• Allows you to view deleted messages and files
• Excellent geo-tracking

Cons

• Gets expensive for multiple devices

4. Cocospy — Best Spyware for Android and iOS for Ease-of-Use

Cocospy is one of the best spy apps for phones due to it being incredibly easy to use. The app can be set up in just 1-3 minutes, and its user interface is second to none.

However, that’s not to say that Cocospy is weak; in fact, the app provides comprehensive surveillance and can help you look at all internet activity on the target device.

With its social media monitoring, you can look at all posts and messages on the target phone, even deleted ones.

What we love most is that Cocospy also allows parents to view and mark any suspicious contacts and receive a notification whenever they’re contacted.

Furthermore, you can set up alerts so that if a specific phrase appears in your child’s texts, social media messages, or internet searches, you’re immediately alerted.

Pricing

Cocospy provides 3 different plans, each of which will provide you with the tool’s full power:

1. Monthly — $49.99/month
2. 3 Months — $29.99/month
3. Annual — $12.49/month

If you’d like to try Cocospy for free before committing to a purchase, you can do so with their 14-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• Swift installation speed
• Rock-solid social media & dating app monitoring
• Phrase-based alert capabilities

Cons

• Lacks the advanced features of top competitors
• Relatively expensive

5. Spyic — Top Phone Spy App for Holistic Monitoring

Spyic is one of the best cell phone spy apps for parents looking for a tool to give them holistic monitoring of their child’s phone.

First off, Spyic allows you to monitor all of your child’s social media and browser activity. Even if a message is deleted, you’ll still be able to see it on Spyic — even for SMS messages. This way, you’ll know if your child is doing anything inappropriate.

Spyic has a full suite of GPS monitoring capabilities. Not only will you be able to track your child’s device no matter where they go, but you can even set up special settings.

The most useful of these is geo-fencing, allowing you to be instantly alerted if your child goes out of a predetermined area.

Spyic is also perfect for restricting your child’s online activities. Not only can you block specific apps, but you can also restrict their time on social media as you like.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to block certain apps and even be alerted if your child uses a specific word.

Pricing

There are different plans the spyware for Android and iOS, each of which is the cheapest with a 12-month license.

Android:

1. Basic — $8.33/month — Essential features
2. Premium — $9.99/month — Social media added
3. Family — $16.66/month — Full feature set, up to 3 devices

iOS:

1. Premium — $10.83/month — Full suite for individual monitoring
2. Family — $33.33 — Full feature set, up to 5 devices
3. Business — $83.33 — Full Feature set, up to 25 devices

In the off chance that Spyic isn’t able to impress you, you can take advantage of its 60-day money-back guarantee to try it for free.

Pros

• Huge 60-day money-back guarantee
• Budget-friendly family plan
• Superb geo-tracking
• Blacklist words, apps, and more

Cons

• Social media monitoring is exclusive to the more expensive plans
• Gets expensive for 5+ devices

6. Hoverwatch — Innovative Screenshot-Based Phone Spy App

Hoverwatch takes an innovative approach to monitor mobile devices, relying mainly on screenshots of the target device’s screen to give you an idea of their activities.

On top of this, Hoverwatch also lets you cover up to 25 devices, making it an excellent choice for both families and businesses.

It’s also one of the best free spy apps with its fully free edition. Plus, another key benefit of this phone spy app is that it works in stealth mode on all popular operating systems.

This means that Android devices, as well as Windows, Mac, and iOS, can all be monitored without the target user knowing.

Hoverwatch also packs some remote control features, such as front-camera snapshots every time the device is unlocked.

This can help you identify who’s using the device if it’s stolen, or it’ll give you peace of mind if you feel that your spouse is being unfaithful.

Pricing

Hoverwatch has 3 plans on top of its free plan, which makes it one of the best free hidden spy apps. The paid plans are as follows:

1. Personal — $8.33/month — 1 device
2. Professional — $3.33/device/month — Up to 5 devices
3. Business — $1.67/device/month — Up to 25 devices

The business plan is perfect for small business’ worried about theft or just lack of productivity, as it allows you to track 25 devices at just $41.75/month.

Hoverwatch also provides a 3-day free trial, so you can try it risk-free on up to 5 devices, but there’s no refund policy or money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Supports all popular operating systems
• Innovative, screenshot-based approach
• Front camera photos on unlock
• Excellent for small businesses

Cons

• Short free trial
• Lacks a money-back guarantee or refund policy

7. XNSpy — Perfect Spy App For Remote Control Features

XNSpy is a feature-packed option perfect for parents and employers alike with a plethora of features, including some of the most effective remote control features on the market today.

These remote control features can be incredibly useful when restricting your child or employee’s time on their phone.

Remotely, you’ll be able to lock or wipe the target device. Furthermore, if you’re worried about their surroundings, you can use the phone’s camera and microphone to record them at a moment’s notice.

If you’re more worried about your employees discussing business secrets, or your children calling suspicious people, XNSpy has a solution for that as well.

The call monitoring feature allows you to spy on their phone calls and never be in the dark again. Finally, XNSpy lets you monitor everything from WhatsApp to Facebook, emails, or even website visits and multimedia files.

With all of this combined, you’ll have a complete picture of your child’s or employee’s phone use.

Pricing

XNSpy’s pricing model has 3 different subscriptions options:

1. Monthly — $44.99/month
2. Quarterly — $24.99/month
3. Annually — $9.99/month

At $9.99/month on its cheapest subscription, XNSpy is quite reasonably priced. However, if the tool doesn’t meet your needs in the first 10 days, you can refund it with ease.

Pros

• A huge number of features
• Excellent for parents and managers alike
• Well-priced yearly plan
• Remote control features
• Monitor deleted messages

Cons

• Some features require a rooting/jailbreaking
• Relatively high renewal costs

8. KidsGuard — First-Class Spy App for Android and iOS for Worried Parents

KidsGuard is one of the most popular hidden spy apps for parental control. It’s optimized for parents and gives you access to a vast array of features in an easy-to-use interface and with competitive pricing.

The tool packs advanced remote control features. You can record your child’s screen with the press of a button and see what they’re up to. If you’re concerned about their physical well-being, you can record using their camera or microphone with ease.

Besides this, KidsGuard packs one of the best dating app monitoring software, so if your child or spouse is acting suspiciously, you can check if they’re using them. On top of this, you can record all the calls your loved one makes with their phone.

Finally, no spy app is complete without GPS tracking and social media monitoring. KidsGuard allows you to see your child’s location, be alerted if they cross a threshold, and you can spy on all their social media activity.

Together, all these features combine to give you complete peace of mind.

Pricing

Monthly — $29.95/month
Quarterly — $16.65/month
Annual — $8.32/month

Notably, while KidsGuard offers some rather impressive features at these prices, they’re liable to change when it’s time to renew your subscription.

You can put KidsGuard Pro to the test risk-free using its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Excellent pricing for the first year
• First-rate remote control features
• Allows you to restrict app usage
• One of the best dating app monitoring apps

Cons

• Underwhelming iOS performance
• Only email customer support is available

9. iKeyMonitor — Best Free Phone Spy App

iKeyMonitor is by far one of the best free phone spy apps, packing useful features and an all-in-one surveillance approach to keep your children safe online.

While you should be wary of any company that tries to give you a spy app for free, iKeyMonitor has been in the market long enough, and the quality of the premium version is enough for us to recommend it.

As the best free spy app, it’ll give you all the essential spying features, such as SMS and call log monitoring, for free. However, if you’re looking to get more bang for your buck, you’ll need to get paid addons or other plans.

The free plan allows for GPS mobile phone tracking, letting you always know where your children are. On top of this, with the paid plan, you’ll gain access to high-quality geo-fencing that’ll alert you if they cross a boundary.

With the paid version, you get many more features, including social media monitoring, internet activity alerts, real-time screenshots, and screen time limits.

Put together, these features make for the perfect all-in-one package.

Pricing

iKeyMonitor has a fully free plan allowing you to look at calls, SMS logs, GPS locations, and more.

However, if you want to get more features, you can do so for $9.99 for the first 3 days and $16.66/month thereafter. You can try the premium plan for free by taking advantage of the 30-day guarantee.

The company also has a business plan, but that requires you to contact their support team for a quote.

Pros

• Excellent UI
• Completely free plan available
• Multiple languages supported
• Feature-packed premium plan

Cons

• The free plan only saves up to 20 entries
• The premium version is rather expensive

10. TheOneSpy — Incredibly Advanced Phone Monitoring App

TheOneSpy is among the best spyware for iPhone and Android if you’re looking for a vast breadth of monitoring activities to engage in.

The app is capable of taking remote screenshots of the target device’s screen, letting you always know what they’re up to. This is especially useful for tracking media like Snapchat snaps or Instagram stories.

The app will further allow you to record all calls on the device, even those made on VoIP apps like WhatsApp.

If you’d like to exercise more control, you can take advantage of the web filters to control and monitor your children’s internet activities.

On top of all this, TheOneSpy can monitor social media, deleted messages, multimedia files, GPS location history, and more.

All in all, it’s one of the best apps if you’re looking for a truly all-in-one solution.

Pricing

TheOneSpy has a multitude of plans available, with there being a Lite and Premium version of the service. The Lite version offers most of the functions outlined above and is priced as:

1. Monthly — $25/month
2. Quarterly — $15/month
3. Annual — $6.25/month

As for the Premium version that has everything listed above and more, with the annual subscription, you can get it for just $10/month.

If you’d like to try TheOneSpy for free, you can do so using its 14-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Extremely flexible pricing
• Powerful remote control features
• Excellent social media monitoring
• Parental control suite

Cons

• Some features are buggy
• The Lite version brings little to the table

Top 10 Cell Phone Tracking Apps | Compared

We’ve compiled the handy table below to help you compare the best phone spy apps:

Why Do I Need a Spy Phone App?

There are many reasons why someone would want to use a spy phone app. These include:

Keeping Your Child Safe

The internet is a dangerous place. Not only can children run into inappropriate content and bullies, but they can even run into child predators. With online risks to children increasing, it’s more important than ever to make sure your kids are staying safe online.

A spy phone app ensures you’re always up to date with your child’s internet activities. You can also monitor their outgoing calls to make sure they aren’t communicating with strangers.

The best cell phone spy apps can even help you manage the time your child spends online. With teenagers addicted to social media, it’s important for parents to have the means to limit their time spent on it and ensure nothing inappropriate is going on.

Protecting Your Employees And Onsite Devices

Your employees will have access to confidential data such as login details, what technologies you use, etc.

If hackers or your competitors can get ahold of these, you could be out a lot of money. Worse yet, if your user’s data is compromised, you could be on the hook for some rather hefty fines.

Phone spy apps ensure you can keep tabs on the time your employees are spending online. You can check if they’re spending it productively and how they’re handling confidential data, in addition to acting as a safeguard against theft.

Monitoring Your Spouse

Albeit unethical, many people use the best phone spy apps to monitor their spouses. Notably, in many countries, this is illegal to do without consent.

A phone monitoring app can help you track your spouse’s messages, inbound calls, outbound calls, social media content, and more.

This will allow you to always know their whereabouts, as well as who they’re talking to, helping put your mind at ease.

How Do Phone Spy Apps Work?

A phone spy app, when installed on the target phone, will collect data while running in the background. From there, it’ll send you real-time activity logs without you needing any passwords or needing to touch the device itself again.

Do I Need Physical Access to the Target Phone?

Unfortunately, for most phone spy apps to function, you’ll need to gain access to the target’s phone at least once. However, with the best phone spy apps for iPhone and Android, this process generally lasts only a couple of minutes.

With iOS monitoring, you have the option of remotely accessing the device’s data if you have the user’s iCloud credentials. However, even with this method, you’ll need to do the 2-Factor Authentication.

Are Spy Apps Legal?

Whether a spy app is legal or not depends on when you’re based, the app you’re using, and what you’re using it for. Laws in places like the US, the UK, and Canada, are often stricter when it comes to using spy apps to monitor spouses and other adults than using them to help keep your children safe online.

The spy apps we’ve reviewed are all legit and safe, but we advise reading up on the laws in your specific country and/or state, such as the US spyware legislation, in order to be safe when it comes to using spy software.

Free Spy Apps Vs. Premium Tools

Free spy apps present a tempting yet dangerous offer. Most free spy apps on the market either don’t work at all or are outright scams.

Some of these apps will sell your data, while others might mine cryptocurrency in the background. Remember, if it’s free, you’re the product.

With that said, freemium versions with premium offerings are reliable, and these are the best free phone spy apps to opt for. However, these apps tend to use the free version to encourage you to sign up for a paid plan.

The issue with these apps, such as iKeyMonitor and Hoverwatch, is that the free versions are lacking in comparison to premium tools.

You’ll get fewer features, and they’ll likely be far less reliable. This is especially apparent when compared to the best phone spy apps overall, like mSpy.

Because of this, the best way to get a free Android or iOS spy app is by taking advantage of paid tools’ free trials or guarantees. This way, you get all the functionality of paid apps while not having to risk a dime if they don’t work out for you.

Alternatively, if you’re simply budget-conscious, you can opt for an annual plan and get phenomenal value for your money.

How to Use a Spy App | Step-by-Step Guide

The process of setting up the best hidden phone spy app — mSpy, is fairly simple. Let’s get to it:

Step 1: Create An mSpy Account

Go to the mSpy website using the button below, where you’ll need to select a billing option. Once your mSpy.com account is set up, you’ll need to go through these steps:

1. Choose Android or iOS when asked for the operating system of the target phone
2. Pick a subscription level and process the payment
3. Open up your email and save all of the info inside

Here are the additional steps for installing the Android version. For iOS, please see mSpy’s detailed guide here.

Step 2: Disable Play Protect

For mSpy to work properly, you’ll need to disable Play Protect, which usually stops spyware like mSpy. To do this, go to the Google Play Store settings on the target phone and make sure the option shown below is turned off.

Step 3: Open Google Chrome Browser and Download mSpy

1. Open a web browser on the target phone
2. Insert the link from the mSpy email into their address bar
3. Finish the captcha and press “Download”
4. Press “OK”

Step 4: Open mSpy and Begin Spying

1. If a prompt opens up, press “Open” then “Settings”
2. Finally, click “Allow from this source”
3. From here, press “Next” and “Open”
4. Agree to the mSpy License Agreement
5. In case a prompt opens, press “Accept all permissions”
6. Put in your Registration Code
7. Click “Complete Installation”

Spy App FAQs

Are spy apps legal?

This largely depends on your jurisdiction. Generally speaking, spy apps themselves are perfectly legal; however, not all of their uses are. Usually, using them on minors, your own devices, or adults in your care is legal, as is using them with consent. However, it’s always worth checking your local jurisdiction.

Are phone spy apps safe?

Not all phone spy apps are safe. Some of them are data sellers, outright don’t work, or will infect your device with a virus. Because of this, it’s crucial to use only trustworthy mobile phone trackers, such as the best hidden spy apps on this list.

What’s the best phone spy app in 2023?

The best phone spy app in 2023 in our testing is mSpy. It combines the vast power of remote control with highly precise GPS and social media monitoring to ensure you’ve always got access to any information you might want. It does all of this from an easy-to-use interface, and given its features, the app is quite cheap.

How do I find hidden spy apps on Android?

Finding hidden Android spy apps is an incredibly difficult task. Generally, you’ll have the most success by rooting your phone and looking over tasks that are currently running. Cross-reference with Google for each running task until you find one that’s either recognized as a spy app or isn’t usually there. From there on, end the task, and delete the app it originates from.

What’s the best spy app for iPhone?

The best spy app for iPhone in our testing is mSpy. However, the competition is a lot tighter on that end, as mSpy’s iOS offering is slightly weaker. Even with that, mSpy’s combination of ease of use, robust features, and extremely powerful remote control features ensures it keeps its number 1 spot.

Which is better, mSpy or uMobix?

While uMobix has an impressive array of features and slightly edges out on mSpy in terms of ease of use, we have to go with mSpy. This is mainly due to mSpy’s sheer power when it comes to its remote control features.

How can I track someone’s phone without their knowledge?

The easiest way to do this is to install one of the best phone spy apps on the market on their phone. This way, you’ll be constantly updated about all of their activities.

Conclusion | What’s the Best Phone Spy App in 2023?

It took a lot of testing to find the best spy app for 2023. Still, after comparing all the most popular tools on the market, mSpy is undoubtedly the top choice.

It’s proven itself to be a reliable tool with a plethora of features to satisfy spouses, parents, and even businesses at an unbeatable price.

Put mSpy to the test now using the link below and try it risk-free using the 10-day money-back guarantee.