The latest tech advancements have made gadgets accessible to everyone. In fact, having a high-end cellphone now is inevitable even for the kids. Though the benefits of technology cannot be ignored, one can’t neglect the darker sides of it too.

On the other side, the easy availability of all the violent and nasty stuff on mobile phones is ruining our kids and teens. As they become familiar with the use of such gadgets, a strict parental check on their activities becomes the need of time.

With that said, are you going to grab your kid’s mobile phone right when he’s using it? Don’t you think it will further infuriate your kid? And, if your child has entered his teens, can you even deal him that way?

Well, today, we are fortunate to have some cool apps for parental control that help you spy your kids. On top all, we see Qustodio.

What is it? How does it work? Is it “really” worth downloading? Is it better than the other parental control apps?

To answer all these questions that could be jolting up your minds right now, here we are with our detailed Qustodio review.

Qustodio Review 2018 – Everything You Need to Know About Qustodio

Qustodio is an incredible spying application designed keeping in view the need for parental control. With Qustodio, you can monitor the texts, chats logs, app usage, and other things that you need to track about your kid.

In fact, you can also check where your child has been through this app.

The best part – you can do all the spying without jailbreaking or accessing the other cellphone. Moreover, through Qustodio, you can remotely keep an eye on your child’s phone.

If you ever wonder why your kid is spending a significant amount of time on any particular app, you can now know it all with Qustodio. Find out all the details about this app in our today’s review of Qustodio.

User Interface

The user-interface of the online web portal is quite traditional with old design schemes with dull blue and gray colors. You can find the Account Center and Help Centre at the top-left of your screen.

From these options, you can manage all the settings for the app and can take help from the Help Centre professionals. For any confusion regarding the use of the app, you can find the user guides under the Help Centre section.

The series of tabs for the navigation menu is then located under the Help Centre button. Towards the left, you will notice the list of all your child’s accounts. Whereas, there are two more tabs through which you can add any new profile or more devices to the account.

Creating your child’s profile on your account is easy. You just have to mention the name, gender and birth year – and select an appropriate avatar.

The device installation process is also easy and quick. Just download the app directly to your device or share the download link with any other devices you want to monitor.

Wondrous Things Qustodio Can Do

As said above, Qustodio is specially designed for parents who wish to keep a check on what their children do online.

Of course, it is their right to monitor and guide their children about the goods and the bads of technology.

So, for those who want that their kids stay familiar with gadgets and smartphones, yet they are concerned about their kids to be spoiled – Qustodio comes in as an excellent option.

This parental control program comes in two versions, Qustodio free and the premium version. Though both the versions offer efficient features, the premium version confers slightly more commands.

Qustodio has several amazing options that allow you to take command of whatever your child does on his cell phone. Here is what Qustodio offers you.

User Reports

Qustodio generates regular reports regarding the user activity. You can set up the report frequency to daily or weekly according to your preferences.

If you are too busy to read the reports but still want to monitor your child, you can visit the dashboard to find all activities.

The usage stats get presented in various charts. You can have an overview of all the web and social app searches and activities done by your child’s cell phone.

Since the activity reports are interactive, you can block any websites or apps right there.

Besides web search and browsing activities, you can also track your child’s social movements, such as Facebook.

Through its specialized ‘Rules’ tab, you can configure the rules regarding web browsing, usage time, and other limitations.

With Qustodio Premium, you can get a 30-days usage report instead of one or two weeks. That’s how it tells you about your child’s activities at a glance.

Web Filters

Web filtering is a crucial feature which outshines Qustodio from other parental control apps. It has a preset limitation for all websites belonging to the ten offensive categories, such as Gambling, Drugs, Porn or Violence.

Besides, it further offers 19 categories to the parents for any further filtering. These categories include File Sharing and Social Networking.

Though the app does not provide any descriptions for the categories, still, their names are self-explanatory about their genre.

Do you think this is it? Not really! What if there are any websites which may not be categorized yet deserve to get blocked?

Well, Qustodio browser monitoring has a solution for it too. It can work on the SafeSearch mode where it prevents all such websites and generates notifications.

The best part of Qustodio web filtering is that it blocks the websites independent of the browser. So, even if your kid plays smart to download another browser to override any limitations, this app will still won’t allow.

The same functionality is visible in case of mobile phones too. Unlike most other apps, Qustodio works fine with almost all mobile browsers (even in the incognito mode).

Restricting Usage Time

With Qustodio, you can set up a timespan, such as an hour or two, for your child to stay online. You can also set up a maximum timeframe for daily logins on your child’s device.

Moreover, if you wish to restrict the overall screen time, then you can do so by turning off per-device settings. With this configuration, your child cannot use any of the devices until you allow.

Besides restricting browsing, with Qustudio, you can also limit the usage time for the entire device. Subsequently, you get notified when your child completes the permitted time.

If you suspect disobedience, you can remotely turn off your child’s device.

Don’t worry while locking down the device. Your child can still make emergency calls due to the flexible app control feature. So your kid stays safe.

Now that you have put locks on specific apps in your kid’s device, you will be notified whenever he/she tries to hit that app.

The entire app activity is recorded in the activity feed so you will continue to get accurate reports of whatever your child is doing on his device.

For quick app control, you can search your desired app through the search bar feature of Qustodio. It saves you from scrolling down a lot of apps.

The individual app control features work amazingly well to keep your child away from any time-wasting activities.

Thanks to Qustodio that you can now lock those apps, without the need to scold your child again and again for focusing on his studies.

Dedicated Facebook Monitoring

Although Qustodio features a separate tab for monitoring social media, it cannot track any other app besides Facebook.

It is somewhat a limitation for using Qustodio, especially if your child is habitual of using other social networking websites too.

As regards Facebook monitoring, another limitation is that Qustodio cannot monitor Facebook Messenger. But, besides these this limitation, Qustodio has excellent tracking for Facebook.

You might be thinking why we mentioned about these limitations! Well, we intend to present a Qustodio honest review over here, so we feel it necessary to highlight every good or bad with this app.

Coming back to our Qustodio review for Facebook monitoring, it just requires a one-time login to the Facebook account of your child.

After that, the tracking plugin of the app gets activated. From then on, it continues to monitor all Facebook activities no matter what device your child uses to log in to Facebook.

Moreover, your child is bound to sign in to the account only when the Qustodio plugin is activated. Otherwise, login won’t be possible! (That sounds a strict parental technique employed by Qustodio!)

Your child’s entire Facebook wall is visible through the Qustodio app dashboard. You can visualize all the posts, comments, pictures and details about your child’s friends in a chat.

However, Qustodio doesn’t allow you to read your child’s chat content (seems it intends to protect your child’s privacy). But you can know about the time of conversation and the names of everyone involved in the chat.

Real-time Location Monitoring

Here is another fantastic feature that we deem necessary to mention in our Qustodio review. With this app, parents can also track the real-time location of their child.

If you are wondering every five minutes about where your child would be, you can quickly know about it via Qustodio.

Though this location monitoring offered by Qustodio cannot be compared with the Geofencing provided by Locategy or Boomerang, it still suffices to help you keep track of your child’s movements.

Setting Up Qustodio App

Since we are now done with all the features which need to be mentioned in this Qustodio parental control review, we now head on towards the setup and installation processes.

To begin with the installation, you need to purchase a subscription to the app. Though a free version of Qustodio is also available, it does not offer as many features as the premium version.

The company gives the premium version to free subscribers for three days, as a welcome gift. We will have a detailed look at these differences (the difference between free and premium plans) later in this article.

So, after you have purchased the subscription, you can install the app on all devices you wish to involve in your parenting strategy.

You can configure the app accordingly and can set up all user accounts either together on a PC, or individually on smartphones and other devices.

These configurations can simply be done through a single app.

Qustodio App for Windows And Mac

While installing this device on PC (both Mac and Windows), you cannot hide this app’s presence from your child since it is visible in the Task Manager and the control panel.

However, if your child is not too smart, he may not detect its presence since no notifications or icons will appear for this app.

Here is how to install Qustodio on your PC:

• Download the app from the official website qustodio.com/download
• The setup will begin downloading automatically. Once completed, click on the Qustodio installer.
• When prompted, click on the “accept and install” to begin the installation process.
• The next window will ask you whether or not you have a Qustodio account. Choose an option accordingly and click next.
• If you clicked on “I already have a Qustodio account,” you will be required to enter your login credentials. If not, the new window will ask you to enter the details to complete the registration process.
• You will be prompted by the next window to enter a computer name.
• Now select the profile of your child from the list appearing on the screen. If you wish to add a new profile, click the appropriate option.
• Now configure the device accordingly as prompted by the subsequent instructions.

Once the configuration finishes, you are all set to use your app via the Family Portal.

Qustodio for Android

The Qustodio app for Android has a relatively contemporary interface with gentle color schemes that blend well with the app’s nature.

It also offers various options including strict monitoring of all calls, SMS, chats and other activities done through the cell phone. If you want to record your child’s activities, you can also do so via this app.

However, as stated above, you cannot record the content of any third-party chats such as WhatsApp or Facebook.

Panic Button

A fantastic Qustodio app feature that is unique to Android is the “Panic Button”. With this feature, you can assign a few trusted contacts to rescue your child in times of need.

Whenever there’s any panic situation, your child can hit this button in Qustodio app that will trigger all the designated contacts. This feature will keep broadcasting the child’s location for every five minutes until it is disabled manually.

Here’s how to install Qustodio on an Android phone.

1. Search/download the Qustodio app from Google Play Store.
2. Tap on “Install.”
3. Click on “Accept” after reviewing the app permission requests.
4. After it is installed, tap on “Open” to open this app.
5. Now start setting up the app. If you have an account already, choose the appropriate option.
6. Enter your account credentials.
7. Choose whether the Android belongs to you or the kid.
8. Give a name to the device for the record.
9. Select a user profile.
10. Tap on “Activate Now” from the next screen to activate app supervision.
11. You will now see a new screen. Tap on Qustodio.
12. Toggle the permission settings to turn on Qustodio app’s monitoring feature.
13. Now activate Web Supervision in a way similar way according to the screen options.
14. After it is done, activate the Uninstall Protection feature. That too will follow similar steps.

The above steps are for installing the app to your child’s Android phone. If you desire to set up a new account; tap on “I’m new to Qustodio” to begin configuring a new account for your child. Enter the details as prompted (email address and password), enter your child’s name, gender, and date of birth.

You can also set up a profile picture or avatar for this account. Once done, activate all three features as stated in the points above.

If you want to download Qustodio on your Android as a parent; tap on “this is a parent’s device” in step 7 given above. Tap on “I understand” on the new screen. You then will get redirected to the instructions about this app.

So this is it! You have successfully installed Qustodio app on Android.

Qustodio App For iPhones

Qustodio app for iPhones is carefully designed keeping in view the limitations Apple imposes on third-party apps interactions.

Since Apple itself offers specific parental control options, Qustodio makes use of these rules, MDM and VPN, to empower itself with web-filtering possibilities.

The main features of Qustodio iPhone app are similar to what is offered by the Android variant.

However, the features like Panic Button, location tracking, or calls and messages blocking options do not work as well for the iOS devices as they do for Android.

Moreover, its app blocking feature is also limited to approximately 70 apps only. There could be many games and apps which you might not block for your child.

Here is how to install Qustodio app on your iPhone.

• Download and install the app from iOS App Store on your device.
• Open the Qustodio app on your iOS device to begin

If you have to create a new account, then,

1. Tap on “I’m new to Qustodio” appearing on screen.
2. Enter all the details as prompted and tap next.
3. Enter the name, date of birth and gender of your kid and proceed.
4. In the subsequent step, you can select an appropriate avatar for your child.
5. Now enter the device name for your record.
6. Grant permissions for location tracking to the app in the next step.
7. Grant permission to activate motion fitness and activity feature.
8. Turn on the location when prompted.
9. Now proceed to install the Qustodio iOS profile on your device.
10. You will see “Install” at the top right corner of the new screen window. Tap on it.
11. Enter the iOS device passcode.
12. Tap “install” once again at the new screen window.
13. When prompted for remote management permission, tap on “trust”.

Now you will be provided with a virtual app tour to guide you through the various features and other app instructions. Tap on “Close tour” when you reach the final step. You are now all set to use the app.

If you already have an account and you just wish to configure it on the iOS device, then,

1. Tap on “I have an account” after opening the app.
2. Now tap on “This is a kid’s device”.
3. Enter the login credentials of your child’s profile you wish to monitor.
4. Choose the desired child profile and tap “next”.
5. Enter the device’s name when prompted and tap “next”.
6. Now proceed the rest of the steps in the same way as the steps 6 to 13 given above for creating a new account.

If you are a parent, then you don’t need to go through extensive configuration steps. Just tap on “This is a Parent’s device” in the initial step. You will see a new window where you need to click on “I understand”. Read the instructions, take a tour, and your app is ready to work.

Qustodio Pricing Plans

Qustodio app is available in both free and premium versions. Of course, the free version lacks several noteworthy features which are offered by the premium services.

Yet, it works well when you urgently need a smart app to monitor your child. It is also beneficial when you just have to keep an eye on your child’s activities without the need for continuous monitoring.

Qustodio Free App

The free version of Qustodio app supports one user and one device. If you want to add multiple devices, then there are various premium packages on different rates.

To download the free Qustodio app, just register yourself by entering your name, email address, and password, and click on “Get Started for Free”.

Qustodio Premium App

Qustodio premium download is available in various monthly packages that support a varied number of multiple devices.

These packages have been specially designed keeping in view the need for family level monitoring, or for schools.

All these plans allow you to enjoy the entire premium features of Qustodio app.

Qustodio Premium For Family

Qustodio premium for the family is available in two different yearly pricing plans. Both the packages provide all premium features of the app.

Premium 5:

• of users: 5
• of devices supported: 5
• Price: $54.95 per year

Premium 10:

• of users: 10
• of devices supported: 10
• Price: $96.95 per year

Qustodio Premium For School

Qustodio premium plans for schools allow you to monitor your kid’s activities even when they are in school. The school authorities can also use these pricing plans for the real-time protection of their students.

The best part of Qustodio premium plans for schools is that you can avail the service for a free 30-days trial period for five devices. You can begin enjoying the trial version right away just by registering your account.

For the premium plan, Qustodio offers five different packages with a varied number of devices and price range. You can avail any of these packages to monitor up to 100 devices from a single interface.

However, if you wish to add more than 100 devices, you can negotiate a customized plan from the support center.

Qustodio Free Vs Premium – What is the Difference?

Besides being paid, Qustodio premium has several features which make it outclass the free version. Although you are bound to spend some money for downloading the premium app variant, the number of features it offers in return does not cost you a fortune.

Features Offered By Qustodio Free

Qustodio free app is useful for quick parental control of your child’s device. Primarily, you will get the following features with the free version.

• Real-time web filtering best suited for blocking adult or violent content.
• Time tracking for social media apps.
• Usage time limits for multiple devices.
• Monitoring and blocking games and apps.
• Tracking SMS and calls.
• Real-time location tracking
• Panic button feature

Features Offered By Qustodio Premium

Qustodio Premium not only includes the above features offered by the free version, but it also provides some other benefiting options.

• Support multiple devices empowering an extensive parental control
• Blocking various apps on PC (both Windows and Mac)
• Blocking apps on Android devices
• Time restrictions of use across all devices
• Advanced Facebook monitoring
• A complete record of all calls and SMS as well the details of the contacts involved in the conversations.
• 30-day activity report
• Panic button
• Priority attention to your queries and issues by the support center

Qustodio Vs. Other Parental Control Apps – A Quick Comparison

Besides Qustodio, several other parental control apps also offer great features for monitoring and controlling your child’s activities. Each app comes with individual pros and cons when compared with Qustodio.

All these apps come with different pricing plans. Yet, Qustodio is still popular among the parents as a controlling app.

What makes Qustodio stand out among others?

Is it really better than the other favorite apps?

Does Qustodio lack any unique features which may be found in other apps?

To find out the answers to all these questions, here we draw a quick comparison of Qustodio with other top-rated apps.

Qustodio vs Mobicip

Mobicip is one of the pro-parental control apps offering remarkable control features.

Knowing what your child is up to is made easy with Mobicip. It gets you connected with the internet usage details of the other devices instantly through your monitor app.

Like Qustodio, it also has separate pricing plans for family, school and business levels. So, you can avail of these packages depending upon the number of devices you wish to monitor.

If you wish not to go for any premium versions, you can still use the app for free which offers all the basic parental control features to you.

With a bunch of remarkable features, Mobicip is giving a tough fight to Qustodio in the Mobicip vs Qustodio war! Let’s take a look at its prominent features.

Prominent Features:

• Compatible with all devices (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) including Chromebook (now that is a plus!)
• User-friendly admin panel
• Smart app monitoring feature
• Continuous reports with browsing history
• Provision of access requests. If you think you can give access to your child to a particular app, for the time being, you can accept the request generated from the other account
• Usage time restriction feature with complete reports
• Three-way web filtering (keywords-based, link-based, and domain-based)
• Accountability mode which lets you monitor all activities without any restrictions (you can “actually” spy on your child with this feature)
• Multi-user monitoring across multiple devices

Features that Make Mobicip Lag Behind:

• Initial configuration is a bit tricky
• Daily or weekly internet usage cap is not available
• No provision for real-time notification to the parents

Qustodio vs NetNanny

Net Nanny is another parental control app which is especially useful if you have only one Android device to monitor. Setting up profiles with Net Nanny is much more comfortable.

It is a typical child-centric app, so you don’t have to configure the settings individually on multiple devices.

Though Net Nanny has several features which are a must-have for any parental control app, yet it has several drawbacks which make it lag behind Qustodio. Let’s take a look at what Net Nanny has for us!

Prominent Features:

• Web filtering and blocking
• Recording activities
• Reports and notifications
• With text notifications feature, you can even block words instead of whole pages

Features that Make Net Nanny Lag Behind:

• No free app
• Cannot monitor texts and calls
• Usage time cannot be restricted
• No location tracking feature

Qustodio vs Norton Family

Norton Family Premier is indeed one of the best apps for parental control. It offers several astounding features which make it outnumber others.

In the comparison of Qutodio vs Norton Family, we can observe several features which let Norton give a tough fight to Qustodio.

Norton Family Premier is particularly useful for those wanting a multi-device parental control app.

Prominent Features:

• Efficient category-based web filtering and content blocking
• Age-based restrictions
• Get access to all downloaded apps on your child’s device
• You can also block specific apps from your parent’s portal (available to Android only)
• Customizable device usage time restrictions
• Location tracking

Features That Make Norton Family Lag Behind:

• The iOS version lacks several key features (such as app blocking)
• Does not support Mac at all
• No call blocking/text blocking function
• No list of contacts involved in a chat is available
• It reads text messages but alerts your child and the other recipient about it
• No usage limit for texting
• Poor social media managing feature
• No chat records over third-party apps

Qustodio vs Circle

Circle with Disney gathers all essential parental control features together to serve as a one-stop solution for monitoring your child.

It is a simple device that gets connected to your network via WiFi or ethernet.

Then it can track all the devices connected to your home network. It hence saves you from the hassle of installing parental control apps on individual devices. Its basic features are similar to what Net Nanny offers us.

Prominent Features:

• Monitoring all devices linked to your home network
• Cost-effective control resource
• Remarkable content filtering
• Regular reports and notifications
• User-friendly interface
• App control feature
• Screen-time restriction feature

Features that Make Circle Lag Behind:

• The monitoring feature is limited to your network only. Once a device leaves your network, its control features become useless.
• Interferes with the internet connection

Qustodio Vs Ourpact

Ourpact is one of the most robust parental control apps for iOS. It is particularly notable for limiting your child’s iPhone usage. Just by installing this app on your child’s device, you can swiftly monitor entire activities of your child.

Prominent Features:

• Compatible with both iOS and Android
• A free service
• Web filtering and internet blocking
• Location tracking
• Screen-usage time restrictions
• App and game lock feature
• Text blocking available
• Bedtime management feature

Features that Make Ourpact Lag Behind:

• Remote access not available
• Specific app locking is not possible. You can only block all apps together
• Reported bugs in the app

Qustodio Review Summary – Wrapping it All

So we now have reached towards the end of our review. We covered all the features, installation process, device compatibility and pricing plans for this app. We even tried to give you a quick comparison of Qustodio with other parental control apps.

If you find it difficult to extract out the critical points from this review, then here we round up everything about Qustodio in brief for you.

Pros:

• Quick and easy installation setup
• User-friendly interface
• Smart web monitoring and content filtering
• Facebook monitoring
• Screen-time, app-usage limitations
• Games and app blocking feature
• Complete recording of calls and texts
• Panic button feature
• Location tracking available

Cons:

• Pricing plans are expensive
• iOS version is not as efficient
• Social media monitoring is limited to Facebook only

Qustodio Review Summary

Qustodio is undoubtedly among the most robust parental control apps that make your life easy as a parent.

With Qustodio, you don’t have to roam around your child to trace his activities. You can easily keep an eye on all his actions from your device.

You can also control how your child uses and accesses a device or specific apps. Though Qustodio is not smart enough in social media monitoring, on the whole, it is a useful application.

FINAL VERDICT

Parental control cannot indeed be misinterpreted with spying. As a parent, you have got the right to see what your child is up to, and to control from any wrongdoings.

Spying your children will make them skeptical towards your behavior. It will indeed create an ambiance of distrust between you and your child.

But, if you monitor and control their activities authoritatively, it will surely help you achieve your desired results. That is what Qustodio is based on.

With its smart parental control features, you can monitor your child round the clock – without the need to wander around him. Whether your child is at home, in school, or somewhere outside, you can stay in touch with him via Qustodio.

If you were in search of some efficient parenting app, we hope our review has helped you get an answer. You can install Qustodio right away on all your devices, and enjoy full control over child’s movements. Happy parenting!

If you want to give Qustodio a try, go to www.qustodio.com.