Qustodio Parental Control App

We have used this app for over 2 years. For the most part it has been a very helpful tool when it comes to keeping our kiddos accountable for their screen usage and for blocking unwanted temptations and trolling. We use it along with Screen time on their iphones and as the main monitoring software on their microsoft laptops. I know others have commented that it doesn’t work with Screen time, but we found that if you set allow on each ios app inside of Qustodio, screen time does it’s job on the iphone well. We use it on iphone to keep track of the total time they’ve been on a screen throughout the day. We have 2 major complaints with Qustodio. First, the time zones are not correct. So if you use the restricted times on your devices every thing gets thrown off by an hour. Example, they have PT at 8:00 with MnT at 7:00. We live in Colorado and these times should be switched. Second, their calls and messaging monitoring only works sometimes. You have to us it from a laptop or desktop and you have to leave your computer on all the time. If you shut it down or close your MacBook you lose the connection and have to reset everything in order to start monitoring again. At the moment the program is turning itself on and off by itself on my macbook, so am trying to completely delete it.

Been using this for a while on my 14yr old son’s PC. Did the trial that ran out and the free version was fine for what we needed it for. Recently he’s been on his phone a lot during class. iPhone’s Screen Time apparently didn’t work so before spending money I swapped the Qustodio protection to his iPhone to block use during school hours starting yesterday, 8:20-2:40. First issue is the time intervals, hour blocks don’t work for most schedules. I had to pick 9-3pm because he’s still commuting at 8am and I want him to have access to his stuff and didn’t want to end it at 2pm because he’s still in class. At the very least there should be 1/2 hr blocks if not 10mins! Another immediate issue when he got to school, when he was in class he needed to take a pic with his phone (Film class) then upload to Google Classroom…except it was blocked on his phone because it’s all or nothing. There’s no way to “always allow” particular apps! Not limits, which are of no use when the phone is on lock down. I asked why he didn’t use his school Chromebook and he said because he took the pic from his phone. Fair enough. I had to take off the block to let him do that then put it back on. Decided to pay for the small package thinking I was limited because I was using the free version and nope. Same thing. There’s really nothing more I need with the paid version that I didn’t already have, like location tracking and app limits. Messaging and call tracking don’t work on iPhone anyway.

I don’t feel like this has been worth the large sum of money I spent. I liked it as a free tool for one teen but having paid as much as I did you would think it would be more reliable and have more convenience. You can’t specify different time limits for different apps. It was useless for the first 5 months while my kids were in school on their devices because It was all or nothing. I’m regularly having to give my kids extra time because Qustodio says they used all their time but they swear they haven’t used any. I look at their activity to show them and Qustodio shows no activity for the day, as does Screentime, so then I have to just give them more time in all fairness. How does it say they used up all their time but on nothing?! I find it inconvenient when I’d like to encourage them to spend time on educational apps by allowing separate time on that. I find it a huge hassle that if there’s a random odd day where I want to allow them online after our usual rule I have to change the rule completely then set it again instead a simple button to extend their time. It shows me what their search activity is and blocks certain websites I wouldn’t want them on which is good but is that worth 100 something dollars? Not really.