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Kidlogger | TechRadar
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The best parental control apps differ in terms of the level of trust they provide to children – some offer more freedom, only reporting notable activity to parents, while others track everything children do on their device. KidLogger falls into the latter category.
That may not work for some parents, but it’s ideal if you need to closely monitor what your children are doing. And, as an added bonus, there’s a free version available – suitable if you want to save some pennies, too.
Plans and pricing
With the free version of KidLogger, you can monitor up to five devices and keep logs and histories for 18 days. You get a meagre 18MB of cloud storage space for storage.
The Standard plan costs $9 for three months of access, $17 for six months of usage, and £29 for one year – so that latter option is the best deal. It retains the five-device limit, which means it won’t be suitable for larger families with numerous devices, but it does increase the storage to 400MB and keeps logs for 60 days – both much better options than the free product.
That plan also adds features, including analytics, email reporting, dedicated technical support, and screenshotting.
The most powerful option is the Professional tool. This product allows parents to monitor ten devices, keep logs for 90 days and use 1GB of cloud storage, and it costs $89 for a year of access.
At this tier, you get scheduled email reports, more in-depth options for monitoring messenger apps, phone calls and cameras, the option to hide the software on children’s phones and powerful keylogging features.
Features
There will, of course, but many parents are unhappy with the prospect of using a keylogger that takes screenshots, looks through the camera, and listens to phone calls. There are plenty of parental control tools that are less intrusive.
It’s also worth checking whether this type of app is even legal in your country – in some countries, using such a keylogger may contravene the law.
If you do need that level of control and it’s legal, though, there’s no denying that Keylogger gets the job done, and it works on Android, Windows and Mac OS – so there’s more platform support than you’ll find on most parental control apps.
You’ll notice that iOS is missing because KidLogger is extremely limited on Apple’s smartphones, essentially functioning as a location tracker with little else available.
KidLogger will let you record keystrokes and, on certain platforms, text copied to the clipboard. It’ll monitor web history on Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari, and track the amount of time your children spend using their devices.
The app can log all external drives connected to devices, record the names of files and folders that are opened, take screenshots of the device every five minutes, and even take screenshots when children type particular keywords.
It monitors chats and messages on apps like Facebook Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, and Viber, and tracks the most frequently used applications on your children’s devices.
On certain platforms, like Android, you can track location, record incoming and outgoing calls, monitor text message content and view all the photos taken with the camera.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s now an offline mode that tracks activity and reports back once the children’s device reconnects to the internet – and an option to prevent any unauthorized user from removing the app’s monitoring abilities.
At certain product tiers, you can block websites and apps, and because KidLogger monitors everything, it does a better job of tracking direct messages, notes and search terms – things that other apps may struggle to track.
KidLogger doesn’t have traditional social media monitoring, even if it does have its keylogging and screenshotting features, and if you want to create screen time and app usage schedules then you’ll need to install a separate app. Using this module, parents can also allow kids to use certain apps without any time limits.
Also bear in mind that KidLogger does not support conventional website and content filtering options, but this is a philosophical choice: because while KidLogger tracks everything your children do on their devices, it’s not designed to be particularly restrictive with what they do.
It’s an app about tracking what they’re doing – not stopping them from doing it.
Interface and in-use
KidLogger is easy to install across all platforms, and its dashboard is easy to use, with clear sections for screenshots, messages, web usage, text records and other data that has been gathered from children’s devices.
The user interface doesn’t look particularly attractive due to its old-fashioned and basic design, but it’s very straightforward, making it easy to access the content you need to see.
There are few options here for actually interacting with your children’s devices – you won’t be able to check in, message, or restrict usage like you can with other tools.
Support
Head to the KidLogger website, and you can log a support ticket, consult the forum and browse knowledge base articles, and you can also email KidLogger directly. The company aims to respond to queries in 48 hours.
In terms of support, though, that’s it – don’t expect live chat or phone support from this relatively small organization.
The competition
KidLogger falls behind most of the competition in terms of its interface – tools like Qustodio and Bark are far more visually appealing.
Bark does a better job of monitoring social media and using AI to stay on top of new trends, and Qustodio is available on many platforms, including iOS.
The best alternative to keylogging is mSpy, which offers many of the same features as KidLogger – but that app is also more expensive. It’s worth weighing up the features of both to decide which one is more applicable to your situation.
Final verdict
KidLogger may not be a moral or legal choice in your family or location but if you do want a logging app for your children’s devices, there are few better than this – especially on Android.
It’ll track everything that children do on their phone, even going beyond texts with its screenshotting, camera monitoring and call recording, and it works on Windows devices too.
You’ll need to look elsewhere if you want a service that can block websites and apps and allow you to control your children’s screen time, but this is a first-class tool if you want to log, monitor and keep track of children’s device habits.
