Why Choose Qustodio over Google Family Link or Apple Screen Time?
A comparison of leading parental control apps
Parents understand the importance of protecting their children online and helping them to build healthy digital habits, but knowing the best tool to help them achieve this can be challenging. We want to help make your choice simpler by comparing Qustodios features against Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time features, to help you find what works best for you and your family.
Qustodio vs Google Family Link vs Apple Screen Time
Qustodio
Google Family Link
Apple Screen Time
With Qustodio, parents can ensure safer browsing by automatically filtering or restricting access to apps, games, and websites that aren’t age-appropriate. You can block entire content categories, like social media or gaming, just like you can with Apple Screen Time. While Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time also let you block individual apps, Google’s system mostly depends on age-based ratings. What sets Qustodio apart is the proactive instant alert you receive if your child tries to access something restricted.
Qustodio understands parents increasing concerns related to social media. Social monitoring helps parents stay informed by flagging any risky or inappropriate messages on your child’s social media. Parents receive both a push notification and an email that includes a small overview of the conversation, giving immediate context. This feature currently monitors WhatsApp, Instagram messages (Android only), and Line. Unlike Qustodio, Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time do not provide social media monitoring capabilities.
Qustodio’s AI-powered search alerts notify you instantly whenever your child searches for anything concerning. This feature helps you stay informed and take action if your child needs support. Unlike Qustodio, Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time do not provide real-time alerts for search activity concerns.
Stay informed with Qustodio’s detailed activity reports, available via your dashboard or email on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. These reports provide a comprehensive overview of how your child spends time online, which sites they visit, and the apps they interact with most. You’ll also receive instant alerts the moment your child attempts to access blocked content or engages in potentially risky behavior online. Even though both Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time also provide activity reports, Qustodio offers the most frequent and comprehensive monitoring insights.
Establishing healthy screen habits is easy with Qustodio’s routines feature. Parents can create custom routines that align with both their child’s schedule and their family needs, from quiet time in the evening to focused hours during the school day. Whether you want to pause access during dinner or limit gaming before bedtime, Qustodio gives you the ability to set recurring rules that fit your family’s lifestyle. Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time don’t offer this level of personalised scheduling.
With Qustodio’s YouTube monitoring tool, you gain full visibility into your child’s video activity, letting you see what they’ve searched for and which videos they’ve watched across both the YouTube app and website. Available on both iOS and Android, it also allows you to block unwanted content and set screen time limits specifically for YouTube. While Google Family Link offers a restricted mode to help filter mature videos, it is not as specialized to YouTube as this Qustodio feature. Apple Screen Time doesn’t include any YouTube monitoring features.
Location tracking
Qustodio’s location tracking makes it easy to stay connected to your child’s whereabouts. View their current location, check location history, and save most visited places like home or school for quick reference. You can use Qustodio’s geofencing tool that automatically alerts if your child enters or leaves safe areas defined by you the parent. Google Family Link offers only real-time location for Android users and lacks both geofencing and location history. Apple Screen Time doesn’t include tracking at all; it relies on the separate Find My app for location sharing.
Panic button
In emergencies, Qustodio’s panic button feature allows your child to instantly send an alert to trusted contacts with just one tap. This function is currently available on Android devices only. Unlike Qustodio, Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time don’t include any built-in panic alert or emergency messaging tools.
Qustodio provides a call and text monitoring tool that helps parents stay informed about who their child is communicating with. You can review incoming and outgoing messages, check call logs, and block specific phone numbers to prevent unwanted contact. This feature is exclusive to Qustodio, neither Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time offer any form of SMS or call tracking.
Qustodio’s premium support service Care Plus is designed to provide personalised assistance whenever you need it. You will have access to expert help over the phone, whether it’s setting up the app, configuring screen time limits, or troubleshooting technical issues remotely. Regular follow-ups and step-by-step guidance ensure your family gets the most out of Qustodio. Neither Apple nor Google currently offer this kind of dedicated support for their parental control tools.
Qustodio vs Google Family Link & Apple Screen Time
Cross-platform
Especially in multi-device households, you want a parental control app that works across operating systems. Qustodio works on iOS, Mac, Android, Windows and Kindle. Google Family Link works on Android (but can manage from Android or iOS). Apple Screen Time works on iOS only.
Time Limits & Downtimes
Parents know that structure is important, but it is often challenging to establish and maintain rules at home. Parental controls help you create digital guardrails and screen time consistency. Qustodio, Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time allow you to set time limits and blackout periods or downtimes by day and by app. They also allow you to give extra or bonus time when time limits expire.
Block Apps
Many apps are designed to be addictive and can give strangers a door into your child’s life. Qustodio allows you to block any of those apps so you don’t have to worry about them. Apple Screen Time allows you to block individual apps and categories such as social media or games. Google Family Link lets you block by app but takes a different approach to categories, allowing filtering by PEGI rating or age.
Activity Report
Information gives you the power to have the right conversations at the right time and make informed screen time decisions for your family. Qustodio provides a full daily and weekly activity report, online and via email, including location history, web browsing and apps. Google Family Link gives a snapshot of app activity for today, yesterday, 7 days and 30 days. Apple Screen Time reports time spent by category and by app, most used apps, times phone was picked up and number of notifications per app, today and over the last 7 days.
Web Filter
Even short time exposure to harmful content can have long term consequences. Qustodio allows you to block by site and by category and has SafeSearch on all platforms and browsers that Qustodio supports (Chrome, Firefox, Silk). Qustodio blocks unsupported browsers by default on Android. Google Family Link filters searches only on the Chrome browser and has a separate adult content blocking option. Apple Screen Time lets you restrict adult websites on any browser as well as whitelist and blacklist sites.
Activity Alerts
Knowing that a parental control app has got your back brings added peace of mind. Qustodio sends you alerts when your child installs a new app, reaches a time limit or visits adult content. Google Family Link notifies you when your child installs a new app or changes a setting. Apple Screen Time has no alerts.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the most popular video platforms in the world. Staying on top of all that content is a huge challenge. Qustodio helps by giving families detailed YouTube reporting and monitoring. Google Family Link allows you to turn on YouTube restricted mode to help screen out potentially mature content, but the filter is not 100% accurate. Apple Screen Time does not have a YouTube feature.
Location Tracking
Parental control isn’t all about online. It can be a great way to know where your family is in the physical world, too. Qustodio uses geolocation to give you a bird’s-eye map view of where members of your family are and where they have been. Google Family Link has various geolocation settings. Apple Screen Time does not provide location tracking, it requires a separate app.
Family Locator
You probably don’t want to be checking your map all day long to know where your family is. That’s where geofencing features come in handy. Qustodio Family Locator notifies you when a family member arrives or leaves a designated place or zone. Google Family Link and Apple Screen Time do not provide location-based alerts.
Panic Button
Though it is no replacement for emergency services, the Qustodio panic button available on Android devices is a quick way for your child to let a list of trusted contacts know their location and that they need help.
Calls & SMS
Cyberbullying and online grooming are on the rise. Qustodio gives parents one more way to spot and stop predators with the ability to read the content of text messages/SMS exchanged, know when they were sent or received and to whom, and block incoming messages. This feature does include messaging on apps.
Qustodio provides the most parental control features and extensive reporting for parents who want one app that does it all, across devices and operating systems. Qustodio can also be used in combination with Google Family Link.
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