Best Parental Control Apps in the UK | Top 13 Reviewed for 2024

The best parental control apps in the UK will allow you to protect your child from online threats, including cyberbullying, adult content, social media addiction, and more. Use a competent tracking app to track your child’s live location, set custom activity alerts, and even control their device remotely where you have no other choice but to step in to ensure their safety.

However, the market is filled with numerous options, including scams, which makes choosing a tracking app for kids difficult. We’ve got you covered. We’ve found and reviewed in detail the best parental control apps in the UK based on criteria like pricing, features, customer support, device compatibility, and others. Read on as we uncover why apps like mSpy, EyeZy, and uMobix are a notch ahead of the rest.

The Best UK Parental Control Apps | Top 13 Shortlist

mSpy is undoubtedly the best parental tracking app. It’s difficult to beat, credit to its features like real-time monitoring, versatile compatibility, excellent customer support, and easy-to-use features. Here’s how it fares against other best phone spy apps on our list:

1. mSpy — Overall, the Best Parental Control App in the UK | Try it Today With the 14-Day Money-Back Guarantee.
2. EyeZy — The Best UK Parental Tracking App for Content Filters and App Management | Offers a 3-Day Free Trial and 14-Day Guarantee.
3. uMobix — The Best Parental Lock App to Remotely Block Your Child’s Access to WiFi and Harmful Content | Try it Risk-Free for 2 Weeks
4. Cocospy — The Best Android Parental Control App for Social Media Monitoring | See if it’s Suitable for You With the 14-Day Guarantee.
5. XNSpy — A Leading Child Tracker for Detailed Insights Into Your Child’s Online Activities.
6. Qustodio — The Best Parental Control App in the UK to Track Multiple Devices Simultaneously.
7. TheOneSpy — A Quality Parent Tracker App to View and Listen to Your Child’s Surroundings.
8. NetNanny — A Must-Have Parental Control Software to Monitor Your Child’s Amazon Kindle.
9. KidsGuard — An Easy-to-Use Tracker With Impeccable Call Recording of the Target Device.
10. Norton Family — The Most Straightforwardly Priced Parental Control Software.
11. FamiSafe — A Champion of Multi-Device Monitoring to Set Screen Time Limits.
12. Intego — A Solid Antivirus + Parental Control App for 360-Degree Security of Your Child
13. Kaspersky — The Best Free Parental Control App in the UK + Leading Antivirus Software

Best UK Parental Control Software | Top 13 Reviewed

Are you eager to learn about the top parental control software in the UK? Dive in as we discover the best features, pros, cons, and pricing of each of our top recommendations.

1. mSpy — The Best Overall Parental Control App in the UK

mSpy’s been in the industry for over 10 years and is available to parents in 180+ countries, helping them monitor their children around the clock. One of our favorite things about mSpy is that it lets you track your child’s location in real-time through GPS tracking.

In addition to that, you can also create a virtual boundary on the map specifying the region that your child isn’t supposed to be outside of. Anytime your child crosses this boundary, you’ll be notified immediately.

This is a great way to prevent your child from sneaking out of school or your house. mSpy will also inform you of your child’s current location through the Wi-Fi tracking feature. Under this, you can see which Wi-Fi networks your child’s connected to recently.

For example, if you’ve forbidden them from visiting a particular friend’s house, you can check whether they listened to you by simply checking their latest WiFi connections.

Although mSpy is easy to use, you can also get expert support anytime you want, and that too, in your preferred language. If required, the mSpy team can also help you jailbreak your child’s device and set up the software for swift monitoring.

Pricing

mSpy offers fairly affordable plans, making it a solid feature-packed + cost-effective spy app to monitor your child’s social media, phone calls, text messages, and much more:

On top of that, mSpy also comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee. In the unlikely event that you don’t like the service post-purchase, ask for a refund and try the other tools on our list.

2. EyeZy — The Best UK Parental Tracking App with Excellent Content Filters and App Management

EyeZy is best known for its invisible shield that doesn’t allow your child to know that they’re being tracked without hampering your phone tracking experience. The app remains hidden in your child’s phone, and no expert or third-party application can detect it.

Another benefit of using EyeZy is its Magic Alerts feature which will send you notifications only if certain predefined events occur.

So, instead of constantly being on top of your child’s messages, you can flag certain words as inappropriate and get an automated notification anytime these words are used. Similarly, you can create virtual GPS geofences and be notified when they cross the distinguished area.

Plus, if you still want every detail of your kid’s phone activities, EyeZy’s keylogger feature will be your friend — it’s one of the best keylogger apps on the market right now.

With this tool, you’ll have a record of every single button your child presses on their phone. It doesn’t matter whether the message was sent or not. If something is typed, it’ll show up on your control panel, ensuring nothing remains hidden from you.

To know more about their social life and upcoming events, EyeZy also gives you a sneak peek into your child’s calendar, where you’ll find the upcoming events with details such as the date and time.

Pricing

EyeZy is comparatively cheaper than mSpy:

That said, if you’re after a shorter commitment — say you only want to monitor your kids for a summer — go for either the monthly or quarterly plans. Try EyeZy risk-free with the live demo, 3-day free trial, and 14-day money-back guarantee. No risk of losing any money. No hassle.

3. uMobix — The Best Parental Lock App to Remotely Block Your Child’s Access to WiFi and Harmful Content

uMobix gives you control over your child’s phone like very few parental control apps do. Along with monitoring their activities, you can also send remote commands and manage their device without ever touching it.

For example, if you don’t approve of a website or app your child is using, you can easily block or uninstall them remotely. Similarly, if you feel your child is spending too much time online or on their phone in general, you can:

• Block their Wi-Fi connection
• Disable messages and,
• Even restrict them from calling certain contacts

Another benefit of using uMobix is access to deleted information. If your child is trying to outsmart you by deleting controversial messages and calls, uMobix will dig up that information for you.

In addition to that, if your kid renames a contact that you specifically asked them to delete, uMobix will inform you of their falsity and show you the renamed contact. If your child is smart, uMobix is certainly smarter.

uMobix’s features are as advanced as they get. For example, if your child is using a secret SIM card to avoid detection, uMobix will not only notify you about the SIM card replacement but also track every data on the new SIM card.

Pricing

uMobix is priced slightly higher than our top two picks at $12.49/month on its yearly plan. However, it’s a reasonable ask since you’ll get one of the best web browsing history trackers and remote control of the target device.

The best part? You can try uMobix without putting money on the line, thanks to its 14-day money-back guarantee. Sign up now.

4. Cocospy — The Best Android Parental Control App for Social Media Monitoring

Cocospy is a solid, well-rounded parental control app that particularly stands out as the best Facebook spy app. Yes, its features might not be as advanced as we’ve seen above, but they’re certainly adequate in keeping your child safe without being too invasive.

You’ll find Cocospy’s GPS tracking feature quite helpful. The location updates are accurate, plus they’re always updated in real-time. It’ll not only help you track your child but also retrieve their device in case they lose it.

With Cocospy, you’ll get a basic overview of your child’s communication channels, including social media, phone calls, and messages. Speaking of social media, you can check their messages, posts, recent contacts, and even calls placed on any of the popular social media apps.

You’ll also have insights into your child’s entire contact list — you’ll know all you should know about their friends and acquaintances. All this will help you find out who your child is closest to, and then you can verify for yourself if they’re healthy company.

Besides this, like uMobix, Cocospy too comes with SIM tracking. Any time your child uses a new SIM, you’ll be notified of the change and continue to get all reports from the new SIM.

Pricing

Cocospy’s 12-month plan, priced at $12.49/month, will give you the best bang for your buck.

Note that, like most other tools on our list, the features of Cocospy too, remain the same in every plan, and the plans differ based only on their durations, with the 12-month plan being the most cost-efficient:

Unsure? See for yourself why Cocospy is on our list with the 2-week money-back guarantee on your side. You won’t lose any money if the tool isn’t for you.

5. XNSpy — A Leading Child Tracker for Detailed Insights into Your Child’s Online Activities

XNSpy is a popular spy app commonly used by parents to monitor children as well as by companies to keep an eye on their employees.

The biggest USP of XNSpy is its informative dashboard. Right on top, you get the basic information of the target phone, followed closely by a quick graphical representation of their recent calls and texts.

This is a great way to quickly check what your child is up to without spending hours going through their entire activity list. On the same page of the dashboard, you’ll also get a quick overview of your target’s last known location and recent messages.

Rest assured that anything important will be brought to your attention immediately. As one of the best call logger apps, XNSpy will also provide you with a detailed report of your child’s call logs, including their incoming, outgoing, and missed calls.

What’s more, most of XNSpy’s features can be accessed without rooting. In fact, the only features that require jailbreak are IM monitoring on WhatsApp, Facebook, Line, Kik, and more.

Along with social media messages, you can also check the regular SMS threads and emails on your child’s phone — all possible communication channels can be smartly monitored by XNSpy.

Pricing

In addition to being feature-rich, XNSpy’s managed to win a huge user base with its affordability — you can get started for as little as $7.50/month:

With the basic plan, you’ll have many advanced parental control features in your arsenal, such as your target’s top callers list, surround tracking, and much more. The best part? You can try all these features without risking a single penny, thanks to the 10-day guarantee.

6. Qustodio — The Best Parental Control App in the UK to Track Multiple Devices Simultaneously

Qustodio is trusted by over 4 million parents across the world, thanks to its quick installation process and multiple device compatibility.

Qustodio is one of the few parental control apps that let you monitor your child’s Kindle. As you might know, there are many adult novels available on Kindle that might not be suitable for your child, depending on their age.

While you can’t curb their curiosity, you can certainly protect them from being exposed to adult literature. On top of this, another benefit of using Qustodio is its content filters that go beyond just internet searches.

Sure, you can manage whether your child gets to see adult content online, but with Qustodio, you can also manage the content they interact with on social media, chats, or through shared files. After all, websites aren’t the only potentially dangerous place for your child.

Qustodio’s screen time feature is also quite detailed. On top of a complete overview of your child’s screen time, you can also check how it was distributed among the apps and different hours of the day.

This tool will come in very handy in identifying patterns in your child’s behavior. For example, if you see their phone activities sharply increase right before bedtime or even after it, you might want to address the issue directly with them.

Pricing

Qustodio is easily one of the cheapest parental control apps out there, not to mention that its basic plan will let you monitor up to 5 devices simultaneously, making it the perfect choice for parents with multiple kids:

Backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, Qustodio gives you enough time to find out whether it suits your needs before asking you to commit to it financially. Get started today.

7. TheOneSpy —  Quality Parent Tracker App to View & Listen to Your Child’s Surroundings

TheOneSpy is the perfect parental control app for those kids who need protection both online and offline. Since it’s primarily a spy app for cheating spouses, the phone tracking features are more detailed.

For example, you can bug their microphone and camera to record their surroundings remotely. This is a great way to protect your child from harassment or bullying in school. TheOneSpy will also keep a copy of the audio and video recordings in case you need evidence.

Also, along with reading their social media messages, you’ll get access to a live recording of their screen to catch them in the act. This feature, along with the keylogging feature, is a potent way to capture their intent even if they didn’t act upon it.

For example, let’s say your child was typing something inappropriate in a search bar but didn’t click “Enter.” The screen recording and keylogging feature will help you catch that — you’ll know what they were about to search for and maybe address their curiosity beforehand.

In addition to that, you can also monitor your target’s phone calls — not just the call logs and list of contacts, but also the content of those conversations — through the call recording feature.

If your child is engaging in inappropriate conversations over call, thinking they’re leaving no proof, TheOneSpy will be there to catch them red-handed.

Pricing

TheOneSpy’s cheapest plan is a yearly subscription to its TOS XLite Edition plan. If you’d also like advanced features such as VoIP call recording and Password Chaser, bump your plan up to the TOS Premium Edition:

Note that these are the pricing for Android monitoring. iPhone tracking will cost just a little bit more. In addition to that, you’ll have two full weeks to decide if this app works for you or not.

8. NetNanny — A Must-Have Parental Control Software to Monitor Your Child’s Amazon Kindle

NetNanny is quite easy to use and covers a wide range of devices, including Amazon Kindle, just like Qustodio. As mentioned above, websites aren’t the only place where your child can interact with adult content. There are plenty of adult novels that your child needs to avoid.

Another benefit of using NetNanny is that it has separate apps for the parent and the child. Your child can use the app to check their screen time limit for the day. This is a great way to teach them time management and improve their decision-making skills.

On the other hand, the parental app has more advanced features such as location tracking, call log tracking, message tracking, and ample more. The main page of the dashboard gives you a quick overview of your child’s latest activities.

If you’re a working parent, this will help you keep an eye on your child without sacrificing your professional time. The overview report consists of the latest searches, YouTube history, screen time, current location, and other alerts.

NetNanny’s also a champion of tracking multiple kids together, thanks to its Family Feed. Instead of tracking individual kids and their activities separately, you get a collated report of their activities in one place.

This saves you the trouble of juggling multiple profiles and looking for the same data for each kid.

Pricing

For just $54.99/year, NetNanny makes for a compelling package since it offers simultaneous tracking of up to 5 devices. It’s also compatible with several device types, including iOS, Android, Mac, and so on.

Try NetNanny risk-free today, with its 14-day money-back guarantee saving your money if you change your mind or if the tool doesn’t live up to your expectations.

9. KidsGuard — An Easy-to-Use Tracker with Impeccable Call Recording of the Target Device

KidsGuard has two major benefits — it’s easy to install, and rooting or jailbreaking isn’t mandatory. Granted, rooting will give you access to all its features, but even without that, you can get considerable control over your child’s device.

If you’re worried about your child’s addiction to the phone, you’ll certainly like KidsGuard’s app activity tracker, as it monitors individual screen time for each app. Along with that, you’ll also get basic app information, such as the installation date, size, and version.

By knowing how often your child opens a certain app and how much time they spend on it, you can easily identify patterns of addiction and take the necessary steps.

While it doesn’t offer a call recording feature under the phone section, you’ll still be able to send remote commands to record a particular conversation. This way, you’ll have their call log in hand and a detailed account of each conversation.

This feature, along with the SMS and social media tracking tools, ensures that no form of communication goes untracked. To top it off, you can also remotely command the device to take a screenshot of its current activity or a photo of its surroundings.

Either way, the camera will take the photo discreetly so that your child doesn’t grow suspicious.

Pricing

KidsGuard has a robust set of features, but it’s their affordable pricing that grabs attention. Priced at just $8.32/month on the 1-year plan, you can enjoy file tracking, message monitoring, call log access, and many more monitoring features at a nominal price.

The best part? If you need more time to assess the platform, its 14-day money-back guarantee will be your friend. Try it risk-free today.

10. Norton Family — The Most Straightforwardly Priced Parental Control Software

Norton is one of the most experienced tech brands, so much so that its parental control app, Norton Family, has been in the market for over a decade now.

If you’re looking for an affordable monitoring app to cover your entire family, Norton is certainly a solid option. It’s one of the few parental control apps that come with flat pricing and covers unlimited devices and children under the same plan.

While its features are quite basic, they’re certainly effective and adequate in keeping your child safe. For example, you’ll get a complete list of all the apps on your child’s phone to learn if they’re hooked to any inappropriate apps, such as dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, and block them remotely.

Norton Family’s web filtering tools come with a few predefined options that make your work easier as well — it would be impossible to manually find and block every inappropriate website, that’s why Norton Family has restriction levels ranging from “Very High” to “Low.”

The tool will automatically block unsuitable content based on your child’s age. You can also choose to simply monitor your child’s activities and send them warnings instead of completely blocking their access to these websites.

This gives your child’s natural curiosity a fair chance to grow without propelling them toward danger, as you’ll always be watching them.

Pricing

Norton Family comes with the simplest pricing of all — a flat price of $49.99/year, that’s it.

In addition to that, it also offers one of the longest money-back guarantees in the industry — 60 days. You’ll have a full two months to find out whether Norton Family meets your monitoring requirements or not.

11. FamiSafe — A Champion of Multi-Device Monitoring to Set Screen Time Limits

FamiSafe isn’t a typical restrictive parental control app. Instead, it helps you set healthy boundaries with your child while letting them enjoy their personal space.

For example, FamiSafe will allow you to set automated screen time limits on your child’s device. Once the time limit is up, the device will automatically shut off.

However, FamiSafe also has an app for your kids where they can request additional screen time. So it not only helps them learn time management but also simplifies the communication between you two so that there’s no room for grudges.

If you want your child to keep using the educational apps even after their screen time limit is up, you can set custom limits on individual apps based on their usage. The usage reports will also reveal if your kid is addicted to an app so that you can further reduce their allocated time on it.

FamiSafe is also one of the few apps to provide driving monitoring, which is a blessing for parents with older kids. You can check their average speed, current speed, location, and total driving time.

You can also check how many times they went over the speed limit in a given duration or how many times they braked aggressively. If you can’t be present with your kid every time they take the car, these weekly driving reports will help you teach them healthy driving habits.

Pricing

FamiSafe offers one of the most affordable monthly subscriptions for a spy app, especially when compared to industry leaders like uMobix and mSpy. You can get it for a single month for just $10.99:

The annual and quarterly plans are, of course, more affordable. But is FamiSafe for you? Find out for yourself. There’s a 7-day money-back guarantee to cover you if you don’t like the tool.

12. Intego — A Solid Antivirus Parental Control App for 360-Degree Security of Your Child

Intego is a popular antivirus solution specially designed for Mac devices. However, it also offers a potent intuitive parental control app that comes bundled with its antivirus — you can’t get the monitoring app without purchasing the antivirus as well.

An add-on to its anti-virus service, Intego lets you protect your child from strangers as well as malware and viruses with the same tool.

For starters, you can monitor your child’s entire chat activity, and if you find anything inappropriate, you can block that contact without even touching the target device — protect your child from bad company.

If you want to sit them down and have a face-to-face talk, Intego will ensure you have enough evidence for the discussion. It’ll fetch you screenshots of all your child’s mobile activities, including their chats.

You can also get your hands on a transcript of everything they type on their phone through Intego’s keylogger feature. By tracking everything your child types, you’ll get a glimpse into their personal notes and thoughts.

Another benefit of using Intego is that it lets you restrict your child’s access to the WiFi network at any given time or day.

For example, if you want them to complete their homework on time, you can block their access to the internet to keep away distractions without disabling their phone — after all, they might need to get in touch with you in case of emergencies.

Pricing

Intego has a simple pricing structure with only two plans:

While this plan doesn’t support mobile devices, you get the benefit of antivirus software and parental control app in one subscription. Will a combo of antivirus and parental control tool work for you?

Try Intego to find out. Thanks to a 30-day money-back guarantee, you won’t lose any money if the tool isn’t for you and if you ask for a refund within the first month of purchase.

13. Kaspersky — The Best Free Parental Control App in the UK | Get Started at $0

Kaspersky is a phenomenal antivirus solution best known for its high-speed connectivity and wide network of servers. Like Intego, this popular antivirus also has its own parental control application — Kaspersky Safe Kids.

However, the good thing is that Kaspersky’s parental monitoring app isn’t an add-on like it was in Intego — you can purchase the two separately.

What’s even more impressive is that Kaspersky Safe Kids has a free forever plan, making it the only completely free parental control app on our list. Our favorite feature of Kaspersky is the battery tracker, which notifies you anytime your child’s device’s battery gets dangerously low.

Children are often careless about charging their devices on time, so Kaspersky will help you remind them. You certainly don’t want your kid to be stranded anywhere outside the home with their phone dead.

Kaspersky also has a unique Safe Search feature which, when turned on, only displays kid-friendly content and filters out all other inappropriate websites. When you get the app, you might need some time to manually select the websites unsuitable for your kid.

Until then, you can use this automated web content filtering feature. This Safe Search feature also extends to YouTube and acts as an extra layer of protection on top of YouTube’s native kid mode.

Along with blocking inappropriate sites, you can also set up automated notifications to be sent to you in case your child looks up any topic not fit for their age, such as alcohol, nudity, and more.

Instead of completely shutting off your child’s natural curiosity, Kaspersky allows you to discuss a certain behavior with them at the right time.

Pricing

If you’re after a free forever parental control app, Kaspersky is the best option on our list. It’s also the only app with a genuine free plan that includes features like an online content filter, app usage control, and screen time management.

You’ll want to opt for the premium plan for features like the GPS child locator and battery tracker. Thankfully, the premium plan is easily the cheapest spy app plan we’ve seen.

If dirt cheap pricing wasn’t enough, Kaspersky also offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee so that you can test the tool risk-free before paying for it.

Top 13 Parental Tracking Apps in the UK | Compared

Comparing tools head-to-head often makes narrowing down your options far easier. Here’s a quick table highlighting the key differences between our top recommendations to help you arrive at a decision:

Why Do I Need a Parental Tracker App?

As a parent, worrying about your child’s safety and well-being is natural. A parental tracker app can provide security and reassurance, allowing you to keep track of your child’s movements and activities. Tracking apps can help you in several ways:

Ease Your Fears

Parental tracker apps can provide peace of mind for worried parents. These apps can be installed on a child’s phone and provide real-time updates on their location and activity, allowing you to keep track of your child’s movements and activities.

Using a parental tracker app, you can feel more secure and reassured about your child’s well-being, knowing you’ve got a reliable way to monitor and protect your child.

Prevent Potential Issues

Using a parental tracker app to monitor your children’s activity can help prevent a range of potential problems. For example, if a child is being bullied online, you can use the app to see what’s happening and take action to address the situation.

Tracking apps can also help prevent sexting, illegal online activities, and other risky behaviors. Using a tracker, you can see what your child’s doing and be proactive in stopping potential problems.

Save Valuable Time

Tracking apps can be a time-saving tool for busy parents. With just a few clicks, you can quickly and easily access real-time information about your child’s location and activity without constantly checking in or relying on your child to report back.

In addition to tracking a child’s location, many tracking apps also allow parents to monitor other aspects of their child’s phone use, such as social media activity, location history, contacts, and texts.

This can save you time and effort in keeping track of your child’s whereabouts and activities and help you feel more in control and less anxious.

How to Use a Parental Control App

As a parent, it’s important to take steps to protect your child from the potential dangers of the internet. One way to do this is by installing one of the best spy apps for iPhone and Android on your child’s phone.

mSpy is a popular parental control app that can help parents monitor their children’s online activity and keep them safe. Here’s a step-by-step guide to installing mSpy.

1. Step 1 —  to mSpy’s website and create an account. You must provide personal and billing information to complete the sign-up process
2. Step 2 — Select the type of device you want to install mSpy. Choose either Android or iOS
3. Step 3 — Next, you’ll need to choose and purchase a subscription plan
4. Step 4 — To install mSpy on the target device, you must disable Play Protect to ensure it doesn’t interfere with mSpy
5. Step 5 — Download the mSpy installer. You can visit the link(https://getmspy.net/) using the target device’s web browser
6. Step 6 — Once the download is complete, tap on the installer file to begin the installation process
7. Step 7 — Follow the prompts to complete the installation and open the app
8. Step 8 — Tap “Allow” on all these prompts to grant mSpy access to the phone’s data
9. Step 9 — Enter the registration code you received when you created your mSpy account. Enter this code and tap “Next.”
10. Step 10 — Finally, tap “Complete Installation” to finish the setup process

That’s it. From here, log into your mSpy account on your own device to monitor the activity.

Parental Control App FAQs