Which Service Offers The Best Mobile Monitoring Updated: May 26, 2016

It seems that everyone these days owns a smartphone — even our children. With the Internet right at the tips of their fingers, it’s a little concerning to think about what your children may be getting into when they’re using their smartphone or tablet. Although some may try to be proactive when it comes to monitoring their child’s activity on a mobile device, it’s often difficult to find the time to pry the device out of your child’s hands. So is there a way to monitor your child’s activity on their smartphone without having to physically look through the device? That’s where parental control software apps step in.

Which parental control app is best?

Finding the right monitoring app for your child’s device depends on the level of information you want to track or block. After researching many of the top parental control software available, we found that Net Nanny and WebWatcher are the best options for monitoring your child’s Internet usage on their phones, tablets and other mobile devices. To help you find the best software for your parental control needs and standards, we have detailed the price and features of the iOS and Android apps for both software options below.

Net Nanny

As the top-rated service for parental control software, you can’t really go wrong with Net Nanny. Granted, its high marks are for its desktop monitoring program, Net Nanny is still an affordable option for a basic parental control monitoring app. The software is available on iOS and Android and each app has its own features. Both of the apps are also accessible through your Net Nanny desktop account, which allows you to stay on top of the monitoring.

Net Nanny iOS App

Price: The iOS app is available for free in the Apple App Store, but it does require a Net Nanny multi-device subscription. These plans start at $59.99/year.

Features: The Net Nanny app for iOS includes Internet filtering software, safe-search enforcement, profanity masking as well as a browser setting that replaces Safari. Net Nanny’s browser blocks all other web browsers on the device and limits what your child can see on the Internet, but still has the functionality of Safari. For example, with the browser setting, your child can open multiple tabs, set bookmarks and complete all of the standard user functions that you child can do on Safari, such as zooming in and out. The app also allows you to choose between three monitoring settings to decide how strict you want to set the monitoring features.

Net Nanny Android App

Price: The Android app is available for free in the Google Play Store, but it does require a Net Nanny multi-device subscription. These plans start at $59.99/year.

Features: The Net Nanny app for Android functions a little differently than the iOS app in the sense that it’s allows parents to be more selective in the monitoring because it doesn’t include a feature to replace your browser, as the iOS version does. Instead, the Android feature allows you to filter website content, block porn, mask profanity, allow or block apps and create age-based profiles for each of your children to use. This app also allows you to be much more hands-on than with the iOS versions because you’re able to set time controls, customize filtering categories as well as get remote access over the app as the administrator. You will also be able to receive reports and email notifications. Although the Android app is a little more costly than the iOS, it does allow you to set more custom specifications for parental controls on the app.

WebWatcher

For our third-rated overall parental control software, WebWatcher surprisingly came in as one of the top mobile app options. WebWatcher’s mobile apps are a little pricey, however they go above and beyond with their sophisticated mobile monitoring service. In addition, WebWatcher’s mobile app is a great option because it works in the background, making it almost impossible for your children to know that the app is installed on their device unless you tell them.

WebWatcher iOS App

Price: The iOS app usually costs $160, however you can get it for $99.95 with NextAdvisor’s discount. The app is available in the Apple App Store or through WebWatchers’ website.

Features: In terms of monitoring your child’s activity on their smartphone or tablet, WebWatcher is more invasive than Net Nanny. In addition to providing you with detailed reports of your child’s web history, this app also has some extra hands-on features. This app will provide you with logs of your child’s text messages and phone calls, so you can check for any inappropriate behavior or contact with an unrecognized number. In addition, WebWatcher will even provide you with a GPS location of your child’s device at all times. Finally, this app will provide you with access to any photo your child takes on their device.

Android App

Price: The Android app usually costs $110, however you can get it for $69.95 with NextAdvisor’s discount. This app is available in the Google Play store and WebWatchers’ website.

Features: The WebWatcher app for Android functions very similarly to the iOS app. To start, it provides you with a list of all of the websites your child visits on their device so you can make sure none of them are inappropriate. Next, the app gives you a complete log of your child’s text messages, phone calls and even photos so you can see how your child interacts with others using their smartphone or tablet. Lastly, the app will give you a GPS location of where your child’s device is located at all times.

If you’re looking for a basic parental control app, then you’ll want to select the Net Nanny app. On the other hand, if you want an app with all of the bells and whistles, then you should get WebWatcher. While Net Nanny works great at blocking harmful content, it doesn’t offer the in-depth monitoring that WebWatcher does. Read our parental control software reviews to learn more about Net Nanny and WebWatcher as well as see how they stack up against the competition.