10 Best Parental Control Apps of 2026

Qustodio ranks first because it covers the three jobs most parents set out to do, screen time, content filtering and location, in one plan. The Basic plan at $59.95 a year, which Qustodio describes as $5.00 a month, includes games and apps blocking, daily time limits, web filtering, location monitoring, internet pause and custom routines for study time or bedtime, for up to 5 devices. Complete at $104.95 a year lifts the cap to unlimited family devices and adds deeper monitoring such as calls and messages. The limits are platform specific: Qustodio's own footnotes say Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X message alerts and the Panic Button work only on Android, and calls and messages monitoring on an iPhone needs a Windows or Mac computer. For a household with mixed phones, tablets and laptops that mainly wants rules and a map, Basic is the most complete package for the price.

Bark takes a different approach from filter-first apps: it watches for problems and alerts parents to them. The Bark App monitors texts, email, YouTube and more than 30 apps and platforms, and flags issues such as cyberbullying, online predators and suicidal ideation, so parents read the alert rather than every message. It also handles the routine work, with screen time management, website and app blocking and location tracking. Pricing is simple: $14 a month or $99 a year, and one subscription covers every child and device in the family with no limit. The catch is on iPhone. Bark's FAQ says that to monitor texts, photos and videos you need Bark Sync, a charger that scans the iPhone or iPad when it plugs in, at $6 a month or $49 a year, or the Bark Desktop App on a home computer. Families of Android users get more for the base price.

Apple Screen Time is the place to start for an all-Apple family because it costs nothing and runs at the system level. Apple's support pages describe Ask to Buy and Ask to Browse, which send a request to a parent before a child can download an app or open a new website in Safari and other supported browsers. Both are on by default for children under 13, and Limit Adult Websites is on by default for children under 18. Parents can choose who the child talks to in Messages, FaceTime and Phone, and require approval before a new contact can reach them. Communication Safety blurs photos and videos with detected nudity, gore or violence, and Screen Time Schedules allow different apps before, during and after school. It needs Family Sharing and a separate Child Account, it does nothing for Android or Windows devices, and Apple notes that not every control is available on every Apple device.

Aura is best known for identity theft protection, but its Kids plan is a full parental control product. For $10 a month billed annually, or $13 billed monthly, it covers unlimited kids and devices with content filtering and site blocking, screen time limits and schedules, and Pause the Internet. The feature that sets it apart is Safe Gaming by Kidas, which monitors in-game voice and text chat for cyberbullying and predators and sends a weekly gaming activity report. That suits families whose kids spend more time on consoles and PC games than on social apps. Parents who want their own identity covered can move to the Family plan, which Aura lists at $32 a month billed annually for 5 adults and unlimited kids, with $5M identity theft insurance. Location sharing is not listed among the Kids plan features, so families who need a map should look at Qustodio or Mobicip.

Google Family Link is the free default for Android families. Parents set daily screen time limits and downtime, give individual apps their own time limits or unlimited time, approve or block apps in Google Play, and manage filters for Chrome, YouTube and Google Search. Location sharing shows where the child's device is and can notify parents when the child arrives at or leaves a saved place such as school. Parents can manage everything from an Android phone, an iPhone or a web browser. Google is candid about the limits in its own FAQ: Family Link does not block all inappropriate content, the filters are not perfect, and a child signed into an iPhone or a web browser can only be partially supervised. It also does not read texts or social media, so parents of teens who want risk alerts should pair it with Bark or Qustodio.

Mobicip is the strongest value on the list. Its pricing page shows the same feature list on all three plans, including app and website blocking, uninstall protection, screen time limits, managed schedules, a Family Locator, remote lock, activity reports and a social media monitor, and the plans differ only by device count: Lite covers 5 devices for $2.99 a month billed annually, Standard 10 devices for $4.99 and Premium 20 devices for $7.99. Mobicip says it supports iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chromebooks and Kindle Fire, which makes it a good fit for homes that mix tablets, school Chromebooks and older Kindles. Its FAQ notes that app blocking works on iPhones, iPads, Android and Kindle Fire, so desktop control is mainly website filtering and time limits. There is a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

FamiSafe, from Wondershare, has one of the longest feature lists here. Its store page lists app blocking and app time limits, a website filter with browsing history, a call and message monitor, sensitive image alerts, TikTok history and a YouTube monitor. Location tools are the strongest part: real-time location, geofencing alerts, a location history report and driving route tracking, which suits parents of new drivers. The yearly plan costs $59.99, shown as $4.99 a month, and protects up to 10 devices; the quarterly plan is $19.99 for 8 devices and the monthly plan $9.99 for 5. A Free tier for 1 device is listed, and paid plans start with a 3-day trial. Value drops on short plans, and some features on the store page are marked as viewing demo data only, so check which features the free tier really unlocks before relying on it.

Norton Family focuses on visibility. Parents set web browsing rules, see the terms their child searches for, review the YouTube videos watched on PCs and iOS devices, and view a 30-day map of an Android or iOS device's location history. School Time limits what a child can open during remote learning, and Access Request lets a child send a note when they disagree with a blocked site. On its own it costs $49.99 for the first year, and Norton includes it in Norton 360 Deluxe and Premium, so families already paying for Norton antivirus may have it already. Platform support is uneven: Norton says Mac and Windows 10 in S mode are not supported, and App Supervision works on Android and Windows. It is a good match for a Windows and Android home, less so for Mac users.

Canopy is built around one problem: explicit content. The company says it detects and blocks pornography on every website and alerts parents immediately when it detects sexting, so filtering works on pages a block list has never seen. All plans include smart content filtering, app and website blocking, removal prevention, location alerts, screen time management and filtering for AI chatbot content. Canopy runs on Android 12 or later, iPhones and iPads on iOS 12 or later, Macs on High Sierra or later, Windows 10 or later (not ARM) and Chromebooks. Pricing is per device count: Essential costs $8.33 a month billed annually for 1 device, Plus $9.99 for up to 3 devices and Premium $12.50 for what Canopy calls unlimited devices, capped at 10. Every plan starts with a one-week free trial. It is less suited to parents who want broad activity reports or social media monitoring.

Net Nanny has filtered the web for families for more than 30 years and is now owned by SafeToNet. Its current product scans content on the device in real time as children surf, search and scroll, blocks pornography, sets screen time with hours of the day when a child can be online, and blocks apps on iOS devices. The Family Feed reports searches instantly and flags porn, suicide, weapons and drug-related content. Plans are sold by device count: 1 desktop for $39.99 a year, a Family Protection Pass for 5 devices at $54.99 and 20 devices at $89.99, all shown as limited-time discounts from $49.99, $79.99 and $129.99. The plans list Windows, macOS and iOS, with no Android, so Android families should look at Qustodio, Mobicip or Google Family Link. It ranks last because location and message monitoring are thinner than the leaders.