Qustodio for Families Premium Review

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ibssguy

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Aug 21, 2015
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4,510
Much of the software works as advertised, but one of the most important and foundational functions, not only doesn't work, but the software tells you it works when it really doesn't, and they know it but aren't forthcoming with their customers. In the rules, one option allows you to 'block' or 'allow' specific domains, for instance you can tell it to block youtube.com. The ugly truth is, even though you tell it to block a site, it won't. HOWEVER it will tell you, the parent, that the site is blocked. I pay for the premium service, and sent an email regarding this to their tech support. The answer I got was "yes, we are aware of that problem and our engineers are working on it, is there anything else I can help you with?". Bottom line is you can't trust Qustodio.
 

Becky_2

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Aug 29, 2015
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4,510
I purchased this product based on your recommendations. However, it does NOT tell you that the app blocking/time limit software does not work with iOS. That is the SOLE reason I purchased the software. Now, I'm forced to attempt to get my money back from Qustodio. BUYER BEWARE!!!!
 

bernad

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Dec 31, 2015
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4,510
The new 'improved' iOS app is hopeless. It routes traffic through a VPN which in turn breaks all online games on the phone making them unplayable. The VPN itself can also be turned off without parent controls preventing it by disabling the VPN on demand setting from it's info section, which then allows the VPN to be turned off.

If this app had been tested at all in any practical sense this really should have been picked up. Very poor indeed Qustodio
 

EJNaiman

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Jan 5, 2016
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4,510
Be aware that we spent tens of hours trying to get this software to work on ~100 phones. ABout 20% of iphones did not work. You have to wipe an iphone first to prevent the VPN from being turned off. Way too easy to uninstall it from an Android.
All in all - the company disavowed responsibility for for what they promised and their support was sorely lacking.
And the clincher - they did not honor their money-back guarantee - stay away!
 

MONICA VALENTE

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Jan 13, 2016
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4,510
The program ( Qustodio ) should not be used on teenagers/young adults in the first place. It breaks trust between parent and child. With extreme internet limits the child does not need to exercise self control when it comes to social media, as the program does that for them.The child therefore is inclined to go wild without self control when there is no longer such extreme limitations on the social media time and internet search.This will be more damaging to the child and the child would probably no longer care as they feel they are not trusted by the parent anyway to put their own self control to good use when it comes to social media and the internet. i have experienced this first hand.
 

adenicol

Commendable
Feb 8, 2016
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1,510
Our son has a Androd Phone, a Laptop and a PC he uses for homework. We downloaded this because we wanted to limit his time on his laptop and phone to 2 hours a day of play time. We still wanted him to have access to his phone to make calls or text us so if he is out and needs to get in touch with us he can. Unfortunately, after talking to support this isn't an option. Basically when you set a max time for the device you can't have any exclusions such as the phone or texting features. If anyone know of something that will do that, please let me know :)
 

rajsookrah

Distinguished
Sep 5, 2007
1
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18,510
I had lots of issues one of them being that other user accounts would periodically get locked out on windows and the service would deny login. Its a bug in the software but they are denying it exists. Once I mentioned a refund I never heard from them again.
 

appliancethug

Prominent
May 3, 2017
1
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510
In terms of features, QUSTODIO was may favorite. I used it for 1.5 year, but the past six months, QUSTODIO deleted all my custom settings, deleted my devices, deleted everything multiple times. Their tech support is non-existent. It seems they're going out of business.
 

groaningjim

Prominent
Sep 22, 2017
2
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510
Of all the parental control products I see reviews for here, this is the only one I've tried but also the closest to what I'm looking for. It still seems a bit OTT to me though. I liked being able to add multiple users and multiple devices per user, and I like their time limit system. There's quite a bit of spy stuff on there though which I just don't want to even be tempted to look at. I actually prefer this new wave of parental control app startups: ourpact, unglue, kidslox (which we're trialling now), which offer something very similar to qustodio, but without such an emphasis on watching your kids every move. They're all a bit flaky and startuppy of course, but they're going in the right direction and they all release new features and updates like there's no tomorrow... Of course, they don't help with desktop computers though, so we still have to use multiple solutions. And games consoles are another beast altogether. This problem's not going away any time soon.
 

evgeniachykolaeva

Prominent
Nov 2, 2017
2
0
510
We also tried this app as wanted to limit the time our kids spend for using their devices. It didn't work for us, as once we tried to install it on iOS device the internet switched off and everything stuck, after multiple tries, we have installed it and found out that once the daily limit is over your child can no longer use the phone for calls and you can't get through to your child as well...this is not thoughtful for security purposes as I always want to be able to call to my kids. After that we've tried Kidslox (kidslox.com) and it worked just great for us and it met all our needs, daily limits and content blocking features work great and you can also block apps you don't like. Now I know that my children are protected and of course before using the app I talked to them and explained why we are doing this.
 
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