If you’re a parent of a teen or a kid then the thought of safeguarding your child would have certainly dropped in your mind.
Securing your kid with a monitoring app is another thought that you would have gone through. But when you finally decide to go for a spying app and search for the best one, this is where the mind starts boggling.
The list of apps showing themselves as unbeatable is never-ending. This is where you need someone like me, who knows the in and out of spy and monitoring apps to recommend one app that is really helpful for you.
If you have searched the internet and looked for the best parental control apps for iPhone and Android devices for your kids, reading about FamiSafe and Qustodio is not a big deal.
But you only need one of them to monitor your kids. So which one should you go for – FamiSafe or Qustodio? Well, let’s compare both the parental control apps in this article today and see who wins the battle in a match between FamiSafe vs Qustodio.
Table Of Contents
- Qustodio Vs FamiSafe
- Pricing
- Setup
- Screen Time
- Web Filtering
- The Number Of Devices
- App Blocking
- Compatibility
- Location Tracking And Geofencing
- Final Verdict
Qustodio Vs FamiSafe
I am comparing both monitoring apps after religiously testing them for days. You can have a look at their detailed reviews for further information about the two apps.
In this Qustodio Vs FamiSafe comparison, I have tried to compare both the apps on various factors so that you can easily choose a better app out of both.
All these factors have been covered to finally decide which app takes the win. So let’s start and compare these factors thoroughly.
1. Pricing
Everything else matters afterward, the pricing is the first thing that lures the customer to either go for the app or either kick it out of its list.
FamiSafe is one of the cheapest monitoring apps for kids especially when you compare the price to its amazing features. The tracking app gives you 3 different plans.
MONTHLY plan which costs $9.99/month with connectivity to 5 devices. The QUARTERLY plan will cost you $19.99/quarterly, and the ANNUAL plan for $47.99/yearly. Both the Yearly and Quarterly plans can monitor up to 10 devices.
Interested buyers can take a 3-day free trial and make a final decision whether FamiSafe is good for the kid’s safety or not.
Click Here to Check Price on Official Site
Talking about the pricing of Qustodio then it is divided into 3 different plans just like FamiSafe. These plans are Small, Medium, and Large. The first plan i.e. the Small plan can monitor 5 devices at a given time and costs you $4.58/month. On the other hand, Medium and Large plans cost $8.08/month and $11.50/month respectively while allowing you to monitor 10 and 15 devices each.
On top of that, Qustodio has a free trial with access to all the premium features for 3 days. If you don’t want the premium features, you can use Qustodio for free with all basic features handy.
Click Here to Check Price on Official Site
Who Wins?
The pricing of both apps is genuine. But still, Qustodio takes the win. The reason is that you get to use the free version of the app. It’s hard to find spyware with a free trial but Qustodio not only offers a 3-day free trial but also a completely free plan which offers basic features.
2. Setup
Monitoring apps are meant to extract data from the target device. And full control of the kid’s smartphone is given remotely to the parents and that’s not something that can be done by a normal app.
Due to this reason, the tracking apps take enormous permissions from the target device in the case of Android phones.
This is the case with both Qustodio and FamiSafe. Both the apps demand plenty of permissions as well as physical access to the target device while setting up the app.
Who Takes The Win?
It’s a tie. The time that will be taken to completely install and set up the app is almost the same. That said, it takes around 5-7 minutes to set up a parental control app completely.
3. Screen Time
Parents usually get concerned about the time their kids spend on the phone or on some particular app.
This habit of using the phone or some particular app for hours can be problematic in the future. It can lead to addiction to the smartphone or may cause some physical or mental problems like joint pain, weak eyesight, anxiety, stress, etc.
So it’s your duty to keep a check on the time spent by your kids on their phones with the Screen Time feature of the spying apps.
FamiSafe understands that screen time is an important feature to keep the child in control.
This is the reason that the app gives access to the screen time of the target device for the present day as well as the cumulative screen time of 30 days.
Getting the record of 30 days can be really helpful and you can set the limit for cellphone usage based on that data.
Qustodio also reveals the total screen time spent by the kid on the smartphone. The data for the time spent on the apps individually is available in percentage.
But in my testing, this feature didn’t work to my expectations as the data it showed was somewhat inaccurate when compared with FamiSafe.
Who Takes The Win?
No doubt that FamiSafe is the winner this time. First of all, unlike Qustodio the total screen time is available for the present day, 7 days, 15 days, and 30 days in FamiSafe.
Secondly, the screen time shown by Qustodio is not reliable, which gives an upper hand to FamiSafe.
4. Web Filtering
It’s gonna be really terrible for you if someday you caught your kid watching adult content on the internet like pornography, gambling, drugs, etc.
But you can secure your kids from these sensitive websites by blocking them in the first place.
Now, even if the child tries to access these sites manually, they won’t be able to do so. Both Qustodio and FamiSafe provide settings that filter and deliver only the content that is safe for the kids.
The FamiSafe app is supposed to detect inappropriate content automatically and stop it from appearing on the teen’s smartphone.
But while using this feature of the FamiSafe app, I found that the web filtering feature was not that accurate i.e., sometimes it blocked adult content while sometimes it didn’t.
The app was just able to detect and block those adult websites that included an inappropriate name in their domain name.
After seeing how FamiSafe performed in web filtering, I didn’t have many expectations from Qustodio. But to my surprise, the app performed really well.
Qustodio was able to detect the explicit content on its own no matter whether the website consisted of an inappropriate name in the domain or not.
Is there any particular website that you don’t your child to access? If yes, then simply include the link to that website in the exception list.
Qustodio won’t allow the child to open that site at all.
Who Takes The Win?
The explanations given above are enough to tell that Qustodio gives a better web filtering service than FamiSafe.
FamiSafe also gives an option to add exceptions. But blocking the sites by automatically detecting the unsafe ones is where the app lacks.
5. Number Of Devices
If you have more than one kid then as a parent, it’s your duty to keep not just one but all your kids safe.
Or if you live in a joint family with quite a number of kids then also you need an offer that monitors all the little ones with less money spent.
For that, you need to choose an app that supports more devices in a single plan.
As I have told you in the pricing section, FamiSafe offers 3 different plans to its users. The number of devices that FamiSafe supports differs according to the plan.
The monthly plan supports 5 devices per FamiSafe account, and the Quarterly and yearly plans support up to 10 devices each.
Qustodio also has 3 different plans for its users. Based on these plans the number of devices that Qustodio supports also differs.
The small plan supports 5 devices with one account, the medium plan supports 10 devices and the large plan supports 15 devices at a time.
Who Takes The Win?
Both apps make it possible to track multiple devices with a single account. If you want a plan with which you can monitor most devices then you can go for the large plan of Qustodio. With it, you can track up to 15 devices from a single account.
So it’s clear that Qustodio is a winner when it comes to tracking more devices.
6. App Blocking
Apps like PUBG, Call Of Duty Mobile, and Instagram are too much addictive. People use these apps continuously for hours without even realizing that it is such a waste of time.
This mostly happens with tweens and teens. Parents need to make sure that their kid is not walking on the same path of addiction that most kids of their age are walking on.
FamiSafe has added an app blocker feature to address this concern of the parents for their kids.
All the apps that you think are hampering their studies and wasting the kid’s time can be blocked with a single click.
If the child needs to open the blocked app immediately, they can send you a request which can be seen in the notification center.
The feature to block unnecessary or addictive apps is given by Qustodio as well.
Just like FamiSafe, Qustodio stops the app from opening the moment you toggle on the button in front of the app.
The same button needs to be toggled off to let the kid get back access to the app.
There’s no use in keeping the app blocked forever. Time needs to be set for which the kid should be given access to the app.
Qustodio makes it possible and you can easily set the time for the use of a particular app. Right after that time elapses, the app becomes inaccessible.
Who Takes The Win?
The app blocking feature of both apps works perfectly.
The apps on the target phone get blocked right after you click the block button, so I can say that it’s a tie.
7. Compatibility
One can only utilize a monitoring app if the operating system of the kid’s device supports it. If the device doesn’t support the app it doesn’t matter how good a monitoring service you own, you won’t be able to relish it.
So we can say that the compatibility of the device is the most important thing in order to secure the kid with a tracking app.
Android and iOS are the most common operating system in the market today and FamiSafe works amazingly with both of them.
Windows PC and macOS system of the child cannot be secured with FamiSafe.
Qustodio provides its service for Android and iOS as well but this is not the end. It also works as laptop spyware which can monitor all the activities of your child that they perform on their Mac or Windows PC.
This is no more a concern as the Qustodio app secures the Windows PC and macOS system of the child. Security to the Kindle devices, iPod touch, and iPad is given as well.
Who Takes The Win?
Keeping the number of operating systems in mind there’s no doubt Qustodio secures its position above FamiSafe.
There is hardly any monitoring app service available that provides compatibility with Kindle, iPod touch, and iPad.
8. Location Tracking And Geofencing
Not letting the kids go outside can make them lethargic and develop annoying behavior in them. But letting them go out and explore new things can put them in danger which is totally unacceptable.
They might go somewhere they are not supposed to or maybe they can get lost. So what to do now?
Why do you think location tracking and geofencing features are given in the tracking app? To keep a track of the kids by monitoring their location and giving a sigh of relief to the parents.
FamiSafe gives both location tracking and geofencing features. Both of them work as you expect them to work.
FamiSafe continuously reads the location of the target device and shows it on the parent’s device.
A marketplace in the city with all the cars and trucks running on the roads is highly dangerous for the child.
Every parent wants their kids to stay in the vicinity, but it’s impossible to always track their location by watching the screen continuously.
Being a geofencing app, FamiSafe makes your work easy and notifies you whenever the teen leaves the area set by you. The minimum area that can be set is 100 meters and the maximum can be 1000 meters.
Qustodio sends the current location of the target device every few minutes which can be seen in the activity timeline. But you can’t personally check the location when you feel like it.
Moreover, while testing the Qustodio app, I didn’t find the geofencing feature on it.
Who Takes The Win?
Both location tracking and geofencing features are present in FamiSafe, and both of them work well.
But Qustodio’s location tracking is quite inferior to FamiSafe and the geofencing is not present at all. This is enough to state that FamiSafe wins here.
Final Verdict
Both the apps work perfectly and do their job as expected from them. There’s an imperceptible difference in their working but as we have to choose any one of them, I’ll recommend FamiSafe.
The app provides other amazing features as well like, the detection of suspicious photos, alerts on the use of adult words, etc.
But this doesn’t mean that you can’t go for Qustodio. Features of Qustodio like web filtering work far better than FamiSafe.
Similarly, if you want to secure the computer device, iPod, or iPad of your little one, Qustodio is the best option for you.
However, If I have to pick one app out of both then I will pick FamiSafe as it has more features than Qustodio at an almost similar price point.
Thank you for that great and detailed bit of information.
Very helpful.
Glad you found it helpful. It would be great if you can share which app did you finally decide to go for and why?
Thank you so much. Very helpful. I might go for Qustodio as Web filtering is more important for me.
It all comes down to your requirements.
I need to secure 3 devices (windows and iPad) as my son uses them. Location tracking for me isn’t important at this point.
Thank you again.
We are glad you found it helpful. Yes, the selection of the app depends on your specific requirements as no app is perfect. Let us know how it goes for you.
We are currently using Find My Kids, which, until recently, worked great. It now goes off line quite often and the customer service, unfortunately, is not at all helpful. Their troubleshooting is pretty poor. We also switched from Androids to iPhones so the app usage feature is no longer available (not a feature for IOS). For these reasons, we are looking for a new app, and I’ve found this article extremely helpful. Thank you so much. I think we’re going with FamiSafe based on our family’s needs.
Hi Nyree,
I am glad you found the article helpful. Thank you for sharing your experience with everyone. Let us know how FamiSafe goes for you.
Thanks!