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OurPact | TechRadar
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Lots of the best parental control apps pair a full set of features on Android with a much more limited offering on iOS, but OurPact tries to provide a far more comprehensive set of features on Apple devices.
With geofencing, scheduling, screen time allowances, encrypted screenshots and more available across both platforms, there’s plenty to like here – and, in theory, plenty of reasons why OurPact should be able to compete with rivals from across the parental control sector.
Plans and pricing
OurPact’s two paid options, Premium and Premium+, cost $6.99/£5.45 or $9.99/£7.78 per month if you pay annually.
Both tiers allow you to manage up to twenty devices, which is ample for all but the largest families. The more affordable tier, Premium, includes the app’s core features, like scheduling, app rules, screen time management and family location ability.
In the Premium version of OurPact you also get the option to set rules for messaging apps and website visits.
Premium+ includes all of those features alongside the ability to view a gallery of your children’s screenshots, instantly take screenshots of your child’s device, and automate those screenshots – and the option to filter those screenshots by specific content categories.
That pricing is reasonable: Qustodio and Bark are a little more expensive and MMGuardian is slightly cheaper if you purchase the annual products rather than pay every month, but all four products offer similar pricing.
OurPact offers a 14-day free trial if you want to try out its Premium and Premium+ features. There’s also a free version of the product, although it’s very limited: it includes one automated schedule and management of one device alongside the ability to block web browsers.
Qustodio’s free product is better, and Microsoft Family Safety is also more impressive than the free version of OurPact.
Features
The Screenshot feature in Premium+ is one of OurPact’s key innovations. It offers three differing ways to see what your kids are doing: periodic screenshots, on-demand screenshots and a gallery.
The periodic view delivers automated screenshots of your child’s device at a schedule you set, although bear in mind that your children need to start the OurPact Jr app’s recording feature themselves for this to work. Bark takes a different approach here, only delivering screenshots when it detects suspicious content.
The on-demand option allows parents to look at their kid’s behavior whenever necessary. And when navigating the gallery, parents can browse by device, data or by categories like drugs, violence, romance and many more.
OurPact’s web filter allows parents to block inappropriate content, and parents can also create custom lists of blocked sites and websites that are always allowed – ideal if you want to allow your kids to always access educational resources, for instance.
As well as this conventional filtering, OurPact enables parents to prevent kids from making in-app purchases and uninstalling apps, and it can also disable iOS features like Siri and AirDrop – and limit the data that is collected for advertising usage. On Android, parents can also disable airplane mode.
That filter works in conjunction with a feature that allows parents to disable browsers like Chrome and Safari.
OurPact has mediocre scheduling abilities, with customizable daily scheduling available alongside easy app blocking during specific periods – but other apps offer far more granularity in terms of time periods that can be chosen when building a new schedule.
Parents can reward children with more screen time within the app. Individual apps can be allowed permanent or scheduled access – but children can’t send a request for more screen time, which is an increasingly popular feature elsewhere in the market.
Children can also use their version of the OurPact app to track their screen time, and this is a manual process that helps them stay mindful of their device usage and take responsibility for their behavior.
OurPact is one of the only parental control apps that allows parents to block iMessage on iOS devices, and it’s also possible to block text messaging apps, too.
And, finally, there’s the location tracker – which has real-time tracking, geofencing with a generous 1,000m radius, and location history for all of your children. You’ll also get push notifications when children arrive or depart your safe or forbidden zones.
There’s no doubt that OurPact has a good range of features, especially on iOS – indeed, it’s unusual to find a parental control app where core functionality is shared across Apple’s platform and Android, with the latter usually far more versatile.
That said, it’s clear that OurPact misses out on some basic features too.
It doesn’t have clear, easy activity reporting, so it can be difficult to get an overview of your child’s recent device behavior – and this is something that’s extremely common with rival tools. And while we’re always pleased to see web filtering, it just has one filter to use for all adult content, while Qustodio offers more than 25 filters and MMGuardian delivers over 100.
While OurPact’s web filter does block adult content, those rival apps do a better job of blocking anything else that you might consider inappropriate, so it does a better job of giving parents control over what children see.
OurPact doesn’t have in-depth social media monitoring like Bark, and it doesn’t monitor messages in the same way as Bark or MMGuardian. If you’re a parent who would like that level of control, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Interface and in-use
To get started with OurPact, parents need to create an account – but once that’s done, things get a little more complicated.
On iOS child devices, parents need to disable the Find My iPhone feature for OurPact to work properly. On Android, USB debugging needs to be enabled. This is a little more technical than many other apps but, thankfully, OurPact provides clear instructions on how to get the job done.
When you’ve got the apps set up, OurPact is easier to use. The interface is intuitive on all platforms, with easy navigation even for beginners, and the OurPact Jr app for children makes it easy for them to see their screen time allowances and other important information.
The only complaint we’ve got is that OurPact looks a little bland and dated – but that’s a purely aesthetic issue that has no bearing on how the app functions day-to-day.
Support
OurPact’s Support page offers straightforward guides to setting up and using the app alongside a troubleshooting section for fixing common problems.
If you need to get in touch, there’s a web form that promises responses every day of the week, with reports suggesting that responses are both fast and helpful. OurPact promises a Live Chat feature, too, but reports elsewhere suggest that agents are rarely available – so it’s best to stick with email.
There’s also a Family Resource Page that provides links to helplines for families or children who may be experiencing distress.
It’s a reasonable support offering that matches many other apps, but Bark and Qustodio are notably better: Bark provides loads of help videos and Qustodio has its superb Care Plus package that’s included with its Complete product.
The competition
Indeed, it’s easy to see where OurPact’s key rivals are much better. With Bark, you get improved social media, message and email monitoring for a slightly cheaper price.
Qustodio, meanwhile, costs a little more, but it has better filtering and scheduling abilities. And MMGuardian delivers the best filtering around alongside more comprehensive messaging monitoring.
It’s also worth noting that all three of those apps offer top-level reporting abilities that make it easier to stay on top of child behavior, which isn’t available with OurPact.
Final verdict
It leaves OurPact looking a little meagre, especially when the price and competition are considered.
It may have reasonable screenshotting, app control and screen time abilities, but rivals are better in most of those areas – and, as we’ve seen, other apps also go far further with web filtering, social media monitoring and reporting. If you want a free product, Qustodio’s no-cost version is better than the OurPact equivalent, too.
And while OurPact may be strongest on iOS, rivals like Bark and Qustodio still have reasonable Apple offerings – even if they’re stronger on Android.
OurPact, then, is only worth serious consideration if you’re an Apple-based family – and, even then, weigh up the features first. For everyone else, look elsewhere for stronger alternatives.
