OurPact parental control app review
Our Verdict
OurPact offers functions and features on iOS that no other service can match, simply it even so lacks location history and a proper web-filtering system.
For
- Excellent user interface
- Powerful iOS feature set
- Covers twenty child devices
Against
- Relatively expensive
- Not much web filtering
- Complicated installation process
Tom's Guide Verdict
OurPact offers functions and features on iOS that no other service can match, but it still lacks location history and a proper spider web-filtering system.
Pros
- +
Excellent user interface
- +
Powerful iOS characteristic set
- +
Covers 20 child devices
Cons
- -
Relatively expensive
- -
Non much spider web filtering
- -
Complicated installation process
OurPact: Specs
Cost: Free to $100/twelvemonth
Number of devices: ane to twenty
Platforms: Android, iOS
Web portal for parents: Yeah
Call logging: None
Text logging: None
Call blocking: None
Text blocking: Yes
Geofencing: Yes
Location tracking: Yes
Location history: None
Web monitoring: None
Web filter: Yes
Fourth dimension limits: Yes
Scheduling: Yeah
App direction: Yeah
App blocker: Yes
OurPact was launched in 2015 with a more robust feature set on iOS child devices than most other parental-command apps.
It and so had a turbulent couple of years as Apple starting time cracked downwards on those features and threw OurPact out of the App Store, then somewhat relaxed its policies regarding third-political party parental-command apps and let OurPact back in.
OurPact has ever offered an excellent user interface and overall experience, and despite some feature changes, that remains truthful.
At $70 a year for the premium version of the app or $100 for the full characteristic set, OurPact is one of the priciest options available on the marketplace. Merely it does cover up to 20 devices, and so if you have a lot of devices and/or children, the per-device price might non look so bad.
While the rest of its competitors have made up some design ground over the last couple of years, OurPact remains one of the all-time parental command apps when it comes to both looks and usability, and it has a couple of unique and clever features that may help justify its high cost.
Read on for the residuum of our OurPact review.
OurPact: Costs and what's covered
OurPact has a pricing plan that'south slightly more confusing than most, with four options: a costless tier, OurPact Plus, OurPact Premium and OurPact Premium+.
With the free tier, users can manage i kid device and apply up to 5 manual blocks per month, along with 1 automated block schedule. Upgrade to OurPact Plus for just $ane.99 per calendar month, and yous tin can support up to 10 child devices with unlimited transmission blocks and unlimited automatic block schedules. Both these tiers support the company's "App Scrambling Solution!" for iOS (more on that later) and also full web browser blocking, including for Safari.
The next step upwards is OurPact Premium, which costs $vi.99 per month ($69.99 if paid yearly) and gives you support for upward to 20 child devices, unlimited transmission blocks, unlimited automated block schedules and every premium characteristic in the app but one. That one feature is reserved for OurPact Premium+ at $nine.99 a month ($99.99 if paid yearly) and information technology's the ability to receive both automated and on-demand screenshots from your kid'southward device.
Nearly parents will want OurPact Premium, but if your just goal is to manage device time, and then the complimentary or Plus plan may be enough.
OurPact: Installation
Different most parental-control apps we tested, you lot will demand a macOS or Windows figurer to install OurPact. The app requires that you lot install its OurPact Connect software and iTunes on a reckoner to set up the kid devices. Yous volition also need a USB cable to connect the child devices to your PC or Mac and the screen-lock passcodes to the child devices.
The installer walks you through the procedure from in that location, only you will also demand to unlock the child device and disable "Find My iPhone" in the settings. You'll so need to assign the device to a child or create a kid profile if you hadn't already done so. It's nothing more than entering a proper noun.
The child device will reboot, and you'll need to enter the passcode again. Side by side you need to navigate to Settings, tap the Profile downloaded and Install. Follow the onscreen instructions to cease setting up the Mobile Device Direction profile, which will let your kid's phone be remotely monitored.
Android users get things a little easier as no additional software beyond OurPact Connect is needed. Plug the kid device into the reckoner and you will be prompted to plow on "Developer options." The instructions on how to do this volition appear on screen if you haven't done it previously.
Then y'all will need to turn on USB Debugging in the Developer Options carte du jour on the child's telephone. You'll need to create the OurPact profile for this child if you haven't already done then. Wait for the app to complete the pairing process and yous're done.
This is certainly a more cumbersome process than you lot'll get with most parental-command apps, simply it should exist a former, or at least an exceptional, affair. Once it's done, you'll exist able to manage everything from the parent app.
The app does an first-class task walking yous through that the setup process, but after that it abandons y'all. It would be prissy to have a brief tour or at least a walkthrough about finishing the kid profiles, which at this point will just have names.
The app will select a random little drawing avatar for each kid, just if yous click on the contour, you can upload an actual photo of your child (or any you want to represent them). You tin besides enter their historic period and gender if y'all wish, although those have no effect on the app.
Every feature in the app is disabled by default, so you will need to customize each setting for each child. I need to stress that I love the OurPact interface but given the thoroughness of the installation walkthrough and the care given to the rest of the app, I find the lack of any guidance on the setup process to exist an odd oversight.
The more recent versions of both Android and iOS don't let yous grant permanent location privileges to an app in the pop-up dialog box during installation. If yous want the location tracking to always piece of work, you need to go to the telephone'south settings menu and toggle the location privilege selection for OurPact.
One other note: If yous ultimately decide to remove OurPact from your child's device, you must utilize the OurPact Connect desktop app to practice this. It's much simpler than the installation procedure: Yous just need to connect the device over USB, click remove, select iOS or Android and so click start. If you don't practice this, then the management system will remain in place without the ability for you to control it.
OurPact: App direction
App management is one of the strengths of OurPact, as information technology is identical on iOS and Android. Every app can be set to adhere to the overall schedule set for the child or can be toggled to "E'er Blocked" or "Always Allowed." No other parental-control app that I tested that came close to this level of functionality on iOS.
The full list of installed apps on a child'due south device is automatically populated on both iOS and Android. I would beloved it if OurPact gave you lot a sorting option for this alphabetized list , but that's a relatively minor complaint.
Clicking on each app's proper name shows you lot some of the app-store information on it, including the recommended user age, its rating, screenshots and the description. While this is not equal to the full app-advisor service yous get with Net Nanny, information technology's still quite handy for identifying potentially unwanted apps.
Another new feature is the "App Organizer." OurPact used to make blocked iOS apps literally disappear and so couldn't bring them back in the same order in which they were originally installed. Reinstated apps were only dumped back onto the home screens in alphabetical order.
The App Organizer now allows the child to sort and save their dwelling house screens inside the OurPact Jr. app. Apps will return to their places once the electric current block is over. This new characteristic is non going to let for the fancy iOS 14 custom home screens, but it'south worlds improve than the way it previously was.
Android app management is excellent and avoids the disappearing/reappearing iOS app headache by simply graying out apps that aren't before long bachelor. This isn't as impressive on Android, as most parental-command services manage information technology on that platform, but OurPact is one of the very few to have cracked this trouble on iOS.
OurPact: Filtering
Spider web filtering remains an reconsideration on OurPact. Parents can toggle the selection to cake developed content ... and that's it. At that place'southward only one category yous can set to on or off. Now I volition say that unlike some of the other services, OurPact'south filtering for its 1 blockable category did actually work. It tells the child that a site is restricted due to adult content, including Google search results that could include adult content.
Your merely other options in this department of the service are to either block or allow specific domains or subdomains. The functionality that is hither works, only this is just incredibly limited and has been for years. If spider web filtering is a master business organization for you, then wait to Net Nanny.
OurPact: Fourth dimension management
This is another area of the OurPact app that could employ more attending. In that location are ii dissimilar components to fourth dimension direction in OurPact; Schedule and Allowance. These are on distinct pages, which isn't a problem, but is perhaps unnecessary.
Schedule identifies the periods of time when you lot do not want your child to be able to utilize their device at all. There is a "Bedtime" schedule already programmed with a Sunday-Thursday routine, but yous tin can make changes to it or hit the plus button in the upper-right corner to add your own schedules.
You lot can toggle each of these schedules on and off without getting rid of them. This is keen if you have different schedules over the course of the year, such as for the summertime. Just make the schedules once then toggle as advisable.
Allowance is the other time-direction component. This is the total amount of time each child is immune to utilise their device during a given 24-hour interval of the week. The options ascend in xxx-minute increments from nix to three hours, then from three hours to eight hours in hourly increments, and and then jumps to "All Day."
This lack of granularity is a piddling odd, every bit I tin't imagine how or why it would exist problematic to give you the xv-infinitesimal increments you get with Qustodio. At the same time, I retrieve almost parents will notice OurPact'south interface a reasonable choice.
OurPact has closed the flick-in-picture loophole that would let YouTube or Netflix play on fifty-fifty later on time was upward. Only another time-management annoyance still exists. The kid needs to tap the play button to start the clock on their daily allowance, then return to the app to hit break again when they're done. These steps are easy to forget, and OurPact should be able to simply pause the allowance automatically when the kid's device goes into standby mode.
OurPact: Texting direction
OurPact's solution to texting direction is to let you cake texting apps when you don't want your kid using them. Somewhat impressively, this does include Messages on iOS, only while this does terminate texting, at that place'southward no text monitoring bachelor. Text monitoring and logging seem to have fallen out of favor among parental-command apps regardless, and then this isn't likely something OurPact'south developers will address in a future update.
OurPact: Location tracking
OurPact does a solid job delivering near of what we want with location tracking, although information technology offers no location history. If you click on the map immediately to the right of your child's avatar, it will pull upwardly the Family Locator map with anybody'south concluding known location. If you click on their icon on the map, it will tell you when they were final detected.
Places is the geofencing feature for OurPact. It'southward quite well washed and is now available on both Android and iOS.
Blazon in an address and so set a circle centered on that indicate to create an area. Select to which children it should apply and whether you would like notifications when they enter or get out the circle. The minimum circle radius size of 656 feet (or 200 meters) seems slightly too big, simply the maximum radius of 32,808 feet (10 kilometers) borders on the comical, equally that creates an area of more than 120 square miles. Yous can easily resize each circumvolve past clicking and dragging.
Grant/Block
These features get prominent placement as they are the master functions for the free and OurPact Plus tiers. They are quick and easy to utilize when you want to ignore the schedule or allowance. They either but give your child extra device time or cake them from using their device immediately.
You just select the length of fourth dimension that y'all want to "Cake" or "Grant" from the drop-down menu and that's information technology. The moment you click on it, it will be in effect. To go back to the normal fourth dimension management before fourth dimension is up, just click or tap "cancel override."
Encrypted Screenshots
This new feature is the sole actress y'all get with the summit-tier OurPact Premium+. It allows you to fix the app to capture automated screenshots from your child's device or to trigger a screenshot immediately. Information technology will also apparently tag screenshots that take concerning keywords on screen. These are and so loaded into the encrypted gallery establish between the map and the Grant/Cake spaces on your OurPact dashboard.
This is a somewhat odd improver, and I just don't run across it equally existence worth an extra $3 a month to nearly users. Merely nosotros'll have to see if it hangs on in the future.
OurPact review: Lesser line
OurPact has made its fashion back into consideration for its iOS functionality, but there are still some definite drawbacks to the service for some users. The lack of any call or texting monitoring may be a deal-billow for some parents, and the almost complete lack of web filtering makes it a less useful overall tool than competing apps like Net Nanny or Norton Family.
For iOS-showtime households, none of the other services that I've tested offer anything close to this level of control over iOS devices, just that app command would have to be your top priority to justify going with OurPact. The pattern, particularly in the mobile apps, is still unmatched by the rest of the services I tested, but I'm unconvinced by some of the new characteristic additions given that OurPact even so lacks a few core features.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/ourpact
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