With kids spending more time online than ever, parental control apps are essential tools for keeping families safe in 2025. The global market for parental control apps is projected to grow to $1.45 billion by 2025, reflecting a rising need for digital safety. But not all apps are created equal—families have different needs depending on their children’s ages, devices, and online habits.
To simplify your choice, we’ve analyzed the top four parental control apps based on usability, quality, cost, features, and accessibility. Each app offers unique tools designed to protect kids while empowering parents to manage their digital environments effectively.
By reading this article, you will:
- Learn which features matter most for parental control apps in 2025.
- Understand how to choose the right app for your family’s needs.
- Gain confidence in protecting your children’s digital lives.
Did you know? A 2024 report found that 71% of parents worry about their kids’ screen time, and 63% feel unprepared to monitor online activities effectively. Parental control apps help bridge this gap by offering powerful tools to track, limit, and manage online behavior.
Your next steps:
- Compare the four apps featured below.
- Identify the features that align with your family’s needs—whether it’s monitoring, filtering, or time management.
- Visit the Batten Marketplace to find expert-vetted apps designed to keep your family safe online.
Take control of your family’s digital safety today. Let’s review the top options for 2025!
Contents
How We Select the Best Parental Control App
All of Batten’s expert-recommended, user-vetted products are assessed on the following criteria:
- Design and Usability: How intuitive is the interface? Are settings hidden or easy to find and apply? How easy is it to see all family members and their settings?
- Quality: How well does the software perform? Does it block all harmful content? Send alerts when it should?
- Cost: How much is the subscription, and what value do you get in return?
- Features: What components does the software have? Where are the gaps?
- Accessibility: Can parents access devices and settings? Can children access and circumvent the software?
We ranked parental control apps based on these features, but because their features can differ so much, your choice will be based on your own kids’ ages and whether you favor monitoring, filtering, or management for your family. As your kids grow, you may find you want fewer filtering options and more monitoring, to guard against predators and bullies. These are the all-around champions.
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Best Parental Control Apps for 2025
Qustodio
Quostodio ($54.95/year for 5 devices; $96.95/year for 10 devices; $137.95/year for 15 devices) is one of the best-known parental control apps for a good reason. It’s a snap to set up, and you can click on multiple children’s profiles from your family page.
Who Is This Best For?
Parents who want ease of use. Scroll through children’s online activity, click to see those sites, and block content right from your reports. Its intuitive and straightforward interface saves frustration and allows for tons of customization.
Pros
- Tidy and intuitive user interface.
- Prevent controls from turning off. Qustodio will not let virtual private networks (VPNs) or browsers like Tor subvert controls.
- Custom time limits for every day of the week.
- Custom schedules that let you block particular apps during specific times.
- Handles most devices, including Amazon Kindle and Chromebooks.
- Monitors calls and show text messages sent and received (on Android). You can set a list of numbers to block.
- Location tracking alerts you when family members arrive and leave saved locations.
- It scans for particular words you don’t want your children to see. You can also add your own. It’ll block websites or posts with those words.
- 29 categories you can choose to customize or block
- Control in-game purchases so you don’t see any surprises on your next credit card bill
Cons
- Lack of message monitoring on trending social sites like TikTok and Tumblr
- It’s expensive compared to other leading parental control apps. But there’s a free version that allows for tracking one device and storing seven days of activity. However, you won’t get any other features like notifications.
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Norton Family
Norton’s antivirus program is authoritative. It’s no wonder the company sees protecting family computers with their wealth of databases as a logical expansion. Unlike Kaspersky, Norton Family’s ($49.99/year) suite of features is tightly connected to its antivirus software. Are you thinking of using it to protect your family computers? It might be a good choice for parental control, too.
Who Is This Best For?
Big families with lots of PC and Android devices. Families who are already using Norton’s antivirus suite (you’ll get the parental control/Norton Family suite through Norton 360 Deluxe).
Pros
- Monitor unlimited devices, which can be a great value for large families.
- Strong web filtering. You can choose to block sites or allow them with continuous monitoring. There’s even a “warning” category that allows the content with an alert to parents.
- Intuitive navigation through your child’s browsing history, including YouTube and Hulu videos when viewed on a browser. You’ll see thumbnails and can check out the content for yourself.
- Keep tabs on your family on a map. Set alerts if your child leaves a geofenced area. Geofencing works for Android and Apple and gives you a 30-day history of where your child has been.
- Monitors new accounts created by your child, including those with fudged birthdays
- Limited app supervision, available only for Android. You’ll be able to see what apps your child has downloaded and block unacceptable apps.
Cons
- Clunky dashboard makes it difficult to set up preferences.
- No communication monitoring (text, call, or email)
- Doesn’t support devices that aren’t fit for security and performance. If your MacBook or Windows 10 is in S mode, you won’t get to use Norton. It does work for Android, PC, and iOS.
- Unable to restrict apps by category, schedule, and time.
Are There Free Parental Control Apps?
Yes, both iPhone and Android devices have free options for minimal parental controls. You can also take advantage of freemium versions of more robust paid apps for some added control.
Choosing the right parental control app is about understanding your family’s unique digital dynamics. Whether it’s managing screen time, filtering content, or monitoring interactions, these apps are designed to adapt to the evolving digital needs of families, ensuring that children can benefit from the internet’s vast resources in a safe and controlled environment.
– Kurt Sanger Cybersecurity Expert
Free Parental Control App for iOS
Apple’s Screen Time is built into iOS if you set up your child’s Apple ID (not yours) under your own in a family sharing plan. You can control total screen time, app time, and make sure children don’t download apps you haven’t approved. There’s a catch: once you’ve approved an app, you won’t be able to change your mind.
Free Parental Control App for Android
For Android users, your free option is called Google Family Link. There’s an app for parents and an app for children. Download the parent app on your device, and it will walk you through downloading and setting up your children’s devices. Children over 13 do have the option to disable Google Family Link. You’ll be notified if they do.
Software settings can limit which apps your child sees in the app store, outstripping Apple’s app notification on the free software. You can approve apps and see when children download new apps, even if they’ve been installed previously.
Conclusion: You Can’t Go Wrong With Any Parental Control App
Families are different. Luckily, parental control apps are, too. You’ll want to sort through their differences to get the features that matter to you. Then support your family online with Batten’s curated marketplace of parental control software.
