Qustodio Parental Control Review

Nearly half of parents say their kids have seen inappropriate content online, and about 1 in 3 report their children have been victims of cyberbullying, according to our most recent Kids Safety Survey. With numbers like that, it’s no wonder parents are looking for ways to protect their kids without hovering 24/7.

Qustodio is a parental control app that helps you set boundaries, block harmful content, and get real-time alerts about suspicious messages—all without turning you into the family’s internet police. We picked it as the best parental control app for anti-bullying in our Kids Safety Awards thanks to its new AI-powered alerts, easy-to-use dashboard, and versatile features that work across devices and age groups.

Whether you’re locking down a first phone for your 10-year-old or giving your teen more freedom with guardrails, Qustodio lets you customize rules for each child — so you can relax knowing they’re safer online..

Qustodio packs in powerful features that make it a standout among parental control apps — especially if you're concerned about cyberbullying, online predators, or inappropriate content. You can monitor text messages, block dangerous apps, and even restrict calls from specific numbers. It also features new AI-powered alerts, a panic button, SMS monitoring, and user-friendly tools like location tracking and geofencing. While it's a bit more expensive than some other top apps (still under $10 per month for the top plan) and has limited social media monitoring, the robust protections and intuitive design help justify the higher price.

Qustodio's varied plan options are one of our favorite things about this parental control app. Here's a snapshot of what each plan costs and offers: 

• Free Plan – Monitor 1 device with core web filtering, time limits, and location tools.
• Basic Plan ($54.95/year) – Monitor up to 5 devices, adds advanced filtering and app controls.
• Complete Plan ($99.95/year) – Unlimited devices, AI alerts, calls/messages monitoring, custom rules, YouTube monitoring, and optional Care Plus support.

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Qustodio works on a wide range of devices — including Android, iOS*, Windows, Mac, Chromebook, and Kindle — and offers tools for both everyday screen time management and advanced online safety.

(*Some features, like call/SMS monitoring, require a Mac to monitor iOS devices.)

Highlights:

• Real-time AI-powered alerts flag suspicious messages in apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Line, helping parents spot signs of cyberbullying or online predators.
• Comprehensive activity monitoring with an Activity Timeline that gives a minute-by-minute view of app usage, web visits, and device activity.
• Website filtering across 29 categories, plus custom site blocking — when a site is blocked, your child sees a “for your safety” message instead of the homepage.
• App and game time limits and daily device screen time controls.
• Location tracking & geofencing with safe zone alerts.
• Panic button on Android devices for instant emergency contact.
• Calls & messages monitoring with the ability to block suspicious contacts (Android only for Instagram messages).
• Multi-device management from one dashboard with separate rules for each child.

Each Qustodio plan includes these features:

• Games & apps blocking
• Location monitoring
• Web filtering
• Pause internet access
• Device blocking routines
• Daily time limit
• Online reporting dashboard
• 30-day activity reports
• Panic button (only available on Android)

Qustodio Free does a great job on basic protection, but if you have multiple devices or multiple kids, you'll probably want to invest in the Complete plan for full protection and monitoring across all your kids’ devices. This is what additional access you get with a Complete paid plan:

• (NEW) AI-powered alerts
• Calls & messages monitoring
• Custom app and website rules routines
• Social media monitoring
• App download alerts & insights
• YouTube monitoring
• Calls and messages monitoring
• Games & apps time limits
• Care Plus (upon request)

Some features aren't available on particular devices due to privacy restrictions, but this problem is consistent with virtually every parental control app. It's out of Qustodio's control.

The Qustodio interface is easy to navigate, so even less tech-savvy parents shouldn't have a problem setting up specific guidelines for their kids’ devices. Its new AI-powered alerts help protect your tweens and teens from suspicious websites, online searches and social media messages. As a parent or guardian, you will get real-time alerts if your child sends or receives problematic messages over SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Line. You can see text messages and calls, and block suspicious contacts.

It has some other cool features like the Activity Timeline and Panic Button, too. Rather than just a list of the sites your child has visited, the Activity Timeline shows a minute-by-minute breakdown of all your child's activity on their device, including the apps they used and websites they visited.

In addition to allowing or blocking certain categories of websites, the Qustodio app can also alert you if a child accesses a specific type of website in 29 categories, like a file-sharing or chat site. The app allows kids to access some potentially risky — but not totally unsafe — sites, but you’ll get an alert when that happens. That way, you can keep an eye on their activity.

No parental control app is perfect — and Qustodio’s strengths come with a few limitations to be aware of:

• iOS restrictions – Some features (like calls/SMS monitoring) aren’t available on iPhones due to Apple’s privacy rules. This is true for all parental control apps, but it’s worth noting if your family is all-in on iOS.
• Limited social media monitoring – Works with Instagram, WhatsApp, and Line, but Instagram monitoring is Android-only.
• Panic button limited to Android – A standout safety feature, but not available on iOS.
• Antivirus conflicts – Installation on Mac may require temporarily removing antivirus software to avoid setup issues.
• No image scanning – Unlike Bark, Qustodio doesn’t scan images for inappropriate content.

To write our Qustodio review, we downloaded the software and tested it ourselves to see how it operated in real-world situations. We read what others were saying about it, and we compared it to similar products. Find out more about our review process by checking out SafeWise's methodology.

When we downloaded the free Qustodio app, we got an instant three-day free trial of the Premium version. And, unlike many free trials, the Qustodio Premium trial didn't require a credit card number, so we didn't have to worry about canceling after the three free days.

Three days isn't a lot of time to test out a parental control product. Children's device activities are unpredictable and can vary from one day to the next. On top of that, you want to make sure the software can handle whatever your kid throws at it. We'd like to see a seven-day trial, at minimum, for this kind of software.

If you do subscribe, Qustodio gives support preference to customers with Complete subscriptions. If you often need tech support, consider upgrading to reduce wait time, or add on the Care Plus package for an additional fee.

With Qustodio, you can step back from being the family’s internet police — and still know your kids are protected.

Qustodio goes further than basic parental controls, giving you a tool that helps teach your kids good online habits and keep them safe from cyberbullying and online predators through text messages, apps, and online monitoring. 

Its time limit controls help prevent screen addiction, too, which is great for today’s high-tech households. Just keep in mind that it may be more expensive than other parental control options, and you need a Mac computer in order to monitor iOS devices.