Qustodio Reviews 508

The calls and messages app for mac doesn't seem to work. I downloaded it and it won't even open. I only got the programme for this!

I felt my 13-year old son was getting addicted to his cellphone and computer, so Qustodio seemed like a solution.
I got the Premium membership, and it disappointed me immediately. My son loves Brawl Stars, so he needed some time limits. Unfortunately, Brawl Stars can’t be restricted - Strike ONE.
Qustodio claims you can set ROUTINES. So, from 10pm to 5am it is ‘Bedtime’ and devices should be blocked completely. Yet every night at 11 pm, he is still using his devices - Strike TWO.
The YouTube settings are set up, that is Access to Youtube is set up. My son has been watching YouTube for the last 20 minutes, but on the Dashboard, under YouTube activity it states, “No video or search activities today” - Strike THREE.
Setting the ’Screen Time’ and ‘Time Limits’ does work for some applications like Snapchat and Instagram, so that is positive, thus the TWO star rating.
It is not a useless app, as it has cut down on screen time for some apps and websites. However, there are too many loopholes that app companies or children have found to beat the system, thus rendering it almost useless and a waste of money.

I’ve been trying to install the call monitoring on Mac and it doesn’t load. I have a Mac sequoia 15.6.1 and the app just keep spinning. I’ve wasted an entire weekend on this with no help.

Qustodio is good for managing time limits, but only if you have internet: it doesn't work when offline which is an issue when travelling.

I never managed to get text message monitoring working properly which is a shame and the daily emails are way too much.

However, I love the alerts and feel that my kids are safer online because of Qustodio.

Qustodio works great for filtering, monitoring, and reporting on activity. We use it on all of our family's devices.

I have just installed and configured Qustodio on my child's devices. So far it has been very good. I will continue to monitor it

I really like the app with one exception. No matter what I do I can't get the phone call and text log to work. I've tried to unistall and reinstall the app and still can't get it to work. I would have given it five stars if I could get that feature to work.

I recently purchased a yearly subscription and was happy. However, 5 minutes ago, I recorded my 13-year-old son uninstalling the app in 15 seconds, rendering the app useless. After reading a few reviews, I realised that this was known. I consulted the product support pages and installed the kids' app several times, ensuring the app device admin was on. After each installation, I uninstalled the app and was never prompted for a password. The app is not suited above a certain age.

It's impossible to prevent it from being disabled on Android, it's impossible to give extra time to a one-time app, you have to change the daily limits (with difficult-to-use clock controls) and then change them and remember to go back! Embarrassing.

In theory its a great app but reality is that it does not work. The app would not allow my kids to use mobile data. They could only access internet via wifi and most public WIFI's do not allow VPN access.
It took us ages to investigate why it was not working and once we established is was down to Qustodio app we cancelled the contract. They refused to refund us even though their product is clearly faulty.

Useless for Apple devices, don't pay subscription. Don't spend your money on any subscription. Qustodio replied to my experience below by lying! They litteraly said this after contacting again Customer service once I read Qustodio's reply to my post: "When creating a custom routine, you can choose between Disconnect Internet or Block Devices. If you choose Block Devices, on iOS devices, when apps become available again after the restriction is lifted, they will appear outside of folders and in alphabetical order."Conclusion, beyond being a fraud they are not honest, they lie to their customers. If you have an Apple device, this software has no value or functionality whatsoever; it is useless because all it does is block internet access, nothing else without jeopardizing your device. Your children can continue to use their mobile phones for hours, unlimited, regularly using their applications without internet, or continue sending messages, doing calls, playing with photos, etc... literally whatever they want. Your kids will spend hours on their electronics. The reason is that if you give it the option to block/hide certain apps, Qustodio is unable to return them to the screen in the configuration they were in. It sorts them alphabetically, which means it destroys the device's screen, and your kids lose all the order, structure, and access they had. It makes no sense that every time they reach the time limit, they have to completely re-order their device, which makes the Qustodio app useless, for which you pay a subscription to services you cannot use. Look for alternative apps, Qustodio has not solved something basic and elementary for Apple devices. They don't tell this on their website nor to their customer service representatives. Basically it's a fraud as they hide it. You can read their public info here, and there is nothing about this huge problem on their help articles.

Can't give extra time, the help advice is pure fiction. It claims to have a "what's happening now card" but this bull pooh.

DON’T FALL FOR THIS APPLICATION! I installed Qustodio on my daughter’s MacBook and then it started closing all windows right after opening!!! I couldn’t even uninstall the application because I couldn’t enter any program or menu anymore. The only way to fix it was to reinstall the OS. I will never buy this again!!!

Should be given -99 stars. Completely broken software.

Installed on an 2025 Android tablet (Wifi only, no 4G). When travelling, i.e., temporarily leaving the home Wifi zone, the tablet was unusable as Qustodio blocks access to settings which is needed to enter a new Wifi password. It is impossible to unblock this locally with the parent/admin password. Imagine the "joy" of travelling with a kid and experiencing this mess.

After changing the SSID of the home Wifi, the tablet became permanently locked. When we reset the SSID to the value known by the tablet, Qustodio complained about a "missing permission". It requested "allow accessibility" but systematically failed to show and accept the requested settings changes.

Result of this shambolic broken "software" is a permanently bricked, unusable tablet due to failure of Qustodio to correctly work with the Android version of the tablet. We'll have to remove all data and factory-reset the device.

When travelling we reached out to their "customer service". A shambolic, insulting experience of delays (takes several days to get an answer) followed by denial, useless "advice" that does not work, and cynical corporate weasel-speak.

Qustodio is a parasitic firm that preys on the plight of families with kids who were made online addicts by the devious crack dealers of the online world (such as Roblox, Instagram, Tiktok). Parents desperate to get back some balance in their kids online habits fall prey to the false promises of Qustodio and buy into a "service" that so grossly malfunctions, it not only fails to protect their kids, it causes massive stress, waste of time, and potential loss of data (if anything relevant is stored on a "protected" tablet).

Forget to ever get your money back from this scavenger firm. They lure you with false promises, lock you into a subscription which cannot be cancelled, and enjoy preying on your problems with online-addicted kids.

You have been warned. DO NOT install this toxic software, give them a wide berth.

Update (18 Aug): I was threatened to block my review as "not genuine". That is what such firms do. I was stupid to pay for two years of subscription which has given us untold grief. No point about further "support" from you guys - we went through that exercise when travelling, and we know from wasting a lot of time that Qustodio on Android (especially Wifi-only Android) is a bad choice. In fairness, we found Qustodio to work better on Windows.

I had the basic service for a year. It was fine. Then at the yearly renewal, I decided to upgrade to premium. After I upgraded, I got notice that my daughter’s ipad was not showing in devices. I needed to log into the app on the ipad for the upgrade. I didn’t need to do this for her phone, it updated with no issue. I attempted to log in and couldn’t remember my password. I went through the steps of doing a password reset, but the password reset email never came through. I ended up logging myself out of the app on my phone. So now I’m at the mercy of the worst customer service ever. When you send an email for help, you will receive a response that states they usually get back to you in one business day, but after two business days check your spam, ect. I have been without this service for more than 24 hours now. If my daughter goes anywhere I have no way of reviewing alerts, which do still come to my email. It’s unbelievable to me that I paid for a service and get ZERO help for a simple issue! I will look for other parental apps, but I’m stuck with this for a year.

I installed this app, with a yearly premium subscription, on my daughter’s phone as she was traveling abroad. Just a few days later, the phone became locked, despite there being no restrictions configured. I reached out to the support team expecting a prompt resolution. I received no reply. I followed up again, but 24 hours later, still no response.

My daughter, who is 12 years old, was left completely unreachable in a foreign country. To make matters worse, I discovered that Qustodio had deleted my account without notice, cutting off all access to support and effectively disabling my daughter’s phone — leaving a minor stranded 3,000 kilometers from home without communication.

Qustodio caused multiple instances of loss of internet connection, which could not be easily restored and the last attempt completely failed. It's a known issue with its VPN reliant architecture. To add further misery, even though the Admin deleted my iPhone from Devices in the Parent App, Qustodio left behind something that corrupted my iPhone iOS that required a complete reset and restore from backup despite numerous attempts to reset network settings or other interventions. It took hours of research and system work to restore my phone from the common Qustodio Poisen. Their programmer are "wanna-be" poor coders who don't understand the iOS/VPN ecosystem.

I bought an annual subscription. Installed on child devices. The app starts blocking technology sites that I had previously allowed. It defines them as technology and block. When I ask the support to fix, they just suggested reinstalling the app. But it's impossible - their package doesn't work like it's described in the help article. So, the only way is to reinstall the OS.
DON'T BUY IT - SCAM

I just paid £39 subscription. To get totally inaccurate Location . It tells me some web activity like download of apps and yet it doesn't tell me what app. Let alone I cant see calls or messages for that price.whats the point. I want to get out of this subscription

It really is very poor. I have been using it for 18 months

Kids can turn off the android version easily

The timing difference between the kids phone and their xe teal system is way out causing major ructions

Latest version seems to have broken it even further. Timing out, it says permissions are now missing

They should spend less time on cosmetic app changes and more on basic functionality - like stopping the ways kids can bypass the app