We know that the online world is a dangerous place. As a concerned parent, you have every right to be worried about what your kid does online. Qustodio can help you create healthy online habits for children and a safe environment on the internet. With it, you’ll know what your child watches and what messages they exchange with friends.
If you are on the lookout for powerful parental control software, keep on reading our Qustodio review to learn more. We covered the essential features of this software to help you decide whether it’s the right fit for your family.
What Makes Qustodio Stand Out
Being one of the best parental control software, Qustodio keeps your children safe by filtering inappropriate content on the internet. It also helps you limit screen time and check your kid’s online activity at any time. It’s designed to solve your primary concerns regarding the web and your child.
Pros
- A well-designed interface
- Time restrictions
- App blocking
- Multi-platform support
- A mobile app
Cons
- Limited social media tracking
- A VPN could be better
About Qustodio
Eduardo Cruz, Josep Gaspar, and Josh Gabel founded Qustodio in 2012. These three friends decided to make their cybersecurity expertise useful and created Qustodio parental control. Today, the team includes over 75 industry experts located in Barcelona. These guys work hard to make Qustodio one of the best digital safety and wellbeing apps.
The software is available in six languages and can operate on various operating systems, including Kindle and Chromebook. As a result, it’s one of the easiest ways to monitor your kids’ online activity. In addition, Qustodio has powerful filtering technology to block unwanted content.
Qustodio Pricing Plans
The basic Qustodio software and Qustodio app are free. However, if you’re looking for more features, you can get a Qustodio small plan for $54.95 per year or just $4.58 per month. This is the lowest pricing tier that’s good for small families. In addition, it protects up to five devices.
The company’s medium plan has the best value of $96.95 yearly or $8.08 monthly, and it’s suitable for medium families. In addition, this plan will help you monitor up to 10 devices.
Finally, there’s an extensive plan that’s $137.95 per year or $11.50 per month, and it’s an excellent solution for bigger families since it covers up to 15 devices at a time. Many claim Qustodio’s cost is too much to pay. However, we believe that family safety is priceless.
All premium plans come with the features we’ll mention below. On the other hand, the free version of Qustodio can protect only one device and includes essential protection features.
If you choose one of the premium plans but realize you’re not satisfied, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. Of course, you can always switch to a bigger premium plan.
Qustodio Services
Now, let’s take a look at the features and see if Qustodio parental controls can satisfy your needs.
Extended Reporting
With Qustodio, you’ll receive an extensive, 30-day breakdown of your child’s activity. You can opt in to receive reports in your inbox every day or every week. This will help you know what your child does on the internet and whether you must intervene.
Know that children are regularly exposed to cyberbullying. With this report, you’ll notice changes in your kid’s behavior and react in time.
Cross-Platform Solution
Our Qustodio review includes the latest 2022 software updates, such as cross-platform solutions. This means you can install it on multiple devices and let it collect the info, regardless of the operating system. Currently, it’s available for:
- Android phones with 5.0 and up
- iOS devices — iPad, iPods, and iPhones running iOS 11 and up
- Windows laptops and desktops with Win 7 and up
- Macs with OS X 10.9, including Big Sur
- Kindle devices with Android 5.0 and up
- Chromebooks with Google Play
Block Pornography
Our review of Qustodio includes this feature since it’s essential for blocking unwanted pornographic content. Unfortunately, such content is all over the internet, and your child is exposed to it all the time.
Luckily, Qustodio offers real-time filtering of pornographic content, even from a private browsing mode. Head over to Qustodio to see how you can keep your kids protected at all times.
Balance Screen Time
We know that devices can sometimes help keep your child occupied. However, spending too much time online can affect your kid’s behavior in more ways than one. They’ll become impatient, suffer from lack of sleep, and have difficulty learning.
When it comes to Qustodio free vs. premium, you should know that the Premium version lets you set up time restrictions and schedules. This will limit the time your child spends online and improve cognitive health. You can check out how to set up time limits by visiting the Qustodio website.
Control Games and Apps
Parents usually agree that games and apps increase some skills in children. For example, they teach kids to love puzzles and practice imaginative thinking. Still, there are certain risks related to letting a child play online.
Sometimes, regardless of the gaming platform, violent or inappropriate content can exist in the game itself. That’s why we’ve included this feature in our Qustodio review. With it, you can set the time limits for games and apps or even block some completely. Find out how below.
YouTube Monitoring
Even though YouTube looks like a safe platform for entertainment, sometimes your child might get exposed to unwanted content. You can see what they search for on the platform and what content they watch.
Check out how to install it on Windows, Android, and Mac, and keep track of what your child does on this popular platform.
View Social Network Activity
Keeping an eye on what your child does on social media can be crucial in preventing cyberbullying and exposure to unwanted content. There are a few software solutions to help you do this. When it comes to the Qustodio alternative, chances are you’ll have the option to block social media apps completely. This software allows you to monitor:
- WhatsApp, and other apps
With Qustodio, you can observe the activity without preventing your child from browsing their favorite apps and talking with their friends.
Still, keep in mind that your child can find a way to uninstall this app from their phone and family desktop. This is why it’s essential to discuss your decisions with your child and agree that you’ll use the software.
Head over to Qustodio to learn more about installing it and setting it up.
Track Calls and SMS Messages
This is another excellent feature of Qustodio parental control that we’ll tell you about in our review. You can never know who may have your child’s phone number. They can talk to many people, and it’s essential to understand their circle of friends. With Qustodio, you can:
- track phone calls
- see who your child texts the most
- read SMS messages
- set a list of blocked contacts.
This feature works on Android devices only. See how you can use it below.
Family Locator
This is an essential feature because it allows you to locate a family member by using GPS and location sharing.
Family locators work similarly on all parental control software. You’ll find the biggest similarity if you think of Qustodio vs. Net Nanny. However, with Qustodio, you can also enjoy immediate updates as soon as your child changes location.
Family locator is available for Android and iOS. You can sign up and start using it in five minutes.
Panic Button for Android
Even though mobile phones can cause stress, they can also be wonderful tools to ease your mind. For example, the Panic Button for Android feature lets you set up an SOS button on your child’s phone that will send you location-based alerts if they’re in trouble. There’s also a three-day free premium trial available to let you test out this feature immediately.
Qustodio for Schools
The Qustodio team isn’t limited only to families. The company made some of its features available for schools as well.
If you, or someone you know, needs Qustodio for schools, they’ll have a 14-day Qustodio trial and enjoy free protection. Qustodio for schools offers:
- Intelligent reporting
- Smart web filters
- Better management, and more.
Monthly plans are listed on the official website, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
Qustodio App
Now it’s time to talk about how powerful the Qustodio app is. This app is available for iOS and Android. You should install it on your and your kid’s device and connect them to supervise your child.
This app has all the desktop software features, and it can make your parenting easy. Based on another review of Qustodio for iPhone, some features that are available for Android and desktops aren’t yet included in the iOS version. The current iOS edition lets you:
- Schedule and restrict the time
- Filter web content
- Set up rules for applications
- Use geolocation
- Monitor YouTube
Qustodio for Android lets you do all this, plus:
- Enjoy the Family mode
- Block pornography
- Monitor social media, and more
You should know that you won’t be able to hide the application on your child’s device, meaning they’ll be able to delete it.
The Android app is available as a free and premium version, and you can download it below.
Qustodio Customer Support
If you’re having some Qustodio problems, you can head over to the Help page from the menu. There, you’ll find various articles and be able to search for your issue. The page also contains resources for parents, where you can read more about how you can approach parental control and how essential cybersecurity is for the family’s wellbeing.
Unfortunately, if you face any emergency, you won’t be able to reach out to customer support for an immediate solution. Overall, parents are satisfied with the support and the software itself.
Summary
Even though kids can easily uninstall it from their mobile devices, we’ll finish this Qustodio review on a positive note. This software has everything you need to keep your family safe from online predators, prevent cyberbullying, and monitor your kids’ online activity.
For some, Qustodio is on the expensive side. However, we believe that it’s suitable for most families. Various devices support it, and even the free version of the software provides you with enough to start exploring it.
People Also Ask
If you’re a worried parent who needs to know what their child does online, Qustodio is a great app to consider. Monitoring children’s online activity is tricky, yet this software allows you to keep your kids safe when they use the internet.
It has powerful features such as social media and YouTube monitoring, extended reporting, screen scheduling options, a pornography blocking feature, and more. It even helps you keep track of your kid offline with a GPS locator and feel safe with the SOS button options.
If your child has access to the family computer where you installed the app and knows the username and password, they can delete it. The app can also be easily removed from mobile devices.
If you notice that your child deleted it from the system, the best thing you can do is discuss the reasons for installing the app in the first place. Explain to your child that you’re worried and that the internet is far from a safe environment. Make a deal with your child to keep the app in exchange for something else.
There is much similar parental control software on the market that, in some ways, is better than Qustodio. Usually, parents will decide on a cheaper app, like Norton Family Premier or Kaspersky Safe Kids. Net Nanny is another program with similar features that works great with iOS.
Moreover, Bark is the best option for social media, OurPact is great to get your kids involved, and Screen Time is just for scheduling access to a device. MMGuardian has a powerful array of features for Android, but it may come off as frustrating.
Qustodio lets parents view the activity on various social media platforms. The Social Monitoring feature can show Facebook posts, but it can’t display Messenger. Parents can only monitor other social networks, like Skype, Instagram, and Snapchat. However, Qustodio won’t reveal what is written in the chat.
This software will only show if and when the child uses the app. Moreover, parents can completely block social media apps or set up a time restriction. As we mentioned in our Qustodio review, parents can still read the SMS content and know when the messages are exchanged.
