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Best for Android users with younger families
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Lots of parental control features like web filtering, location tracking, time limits, and scheduling
Up to 5 kids supported
Best overall
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Robust parental controls to track, monitor, and limit device usage
Machine learning catches the latest slang and keywords
Screens content across 19 categories
Bark and MMGuardian are both good parental control apps, but in our opinion, Bark reigns supreme. We found that Bark has a more robust monitoring capability, scanning over 30 social media apps, including emails and file-sharing apps, something MMGuardian lacks.
Both apps are loaded with parental control app must-haves like web filters, content monitoring, screen time limits, location tracking, activity reports, and more. Let’s compare both apps to show which one is the best parental control app.
As we mentioned, MMGuardian and Bark are similar parental control apps with essential features to keep kids safe online and offline. Bark’s offering is much more substantial, including monitoring of email and file-sharing apps, something MMGuardian lacks.
Additionally, MMGuardian monitors a maximum of 8 social media apps (and only 3 apps if you’re an iOS user), while Bark monitors over 30 social media, messaging, and gaming apps.
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 Best overall
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| Star rating | ||
| Price | $4.17-$8.33/mo | $4.08–$14.00/mo |
| Free trial | ||
| Number of devices supported | 1-5 | Unlimited |
| Website filtering | ||
| Conversation monitoring | Yes — social media and text | Yes — social media, text, email |
| Screen time management | ||
| Location tracking | ||
| Activity reports | ||
| Remote lock | ||
| Supported devices | iPads and iPhones, Android phones, Android tablets, Chrome, FireFox, Opera | iPads and iPhones, Android phones, Android tablets, Chromebook, Amazon Fire tablets |
| Learn more | Get MMGuardian | Get Bark |
We put every parental control app through vigorous hands-on testing by downloading the software to our own devices. We test how the product works from both the parent's and child's perspectives, evaluating how well we're able to monitor device usage and deliberately attempting to sneak around the limitations.
By taking a fine-tooth comb through all available features and settings, we carefully compare each product using our proprietary grading rubric. The star ratings take into account price, screen time management, content filters, location tracking, monitoring, alerts, and ease of use.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full parental control testing methodology here.
MMGuardian has a lot of features we liked. For example, we were pleased with MMGuardian’s ability to read text and social media messages. We were even more impressed when it detected a selfie sent via text and triggered an alert.
MMGuardian also uses artificial intelligence to scan images for potential adults, so it will flag if an adult is sending your child images. This is also a huge win in helping kids stay safe on social media.
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The child app is hidden on their device, making it tough to uninstall. The app can only be uninstalled with the admin password.
While MMGuardian is a good app, there were also some things we didn’t love. MMGuardian is much more limited in its abilities. Compared to Bark’s breadth of content monitoring, MMGuardian’s app monitoring feels a little lackluster.
Bark really shines in its monitoring abilities. It can scan over 30 social media, messaging, and gaming apps and screen content across 19 different categories. Parents who are looking to receive alerts when appropriate will find a lot of value in Bark.
Bark scans online activities for potentially dangerous issues like depression, bullying, suicide, drugs, online predators, and more. What’s even more appealing about Bark is that it uses advanced technology to focus on a problematic keyword and conversational context.
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With the Bark Premium account, you can monitor images and videos on your child’s device. Bark scans photos and videos stored on the device itself, as well as photos and videos sent and received in texts, file-sharing apps, and some social media platforms.
Bark is slightly more effective on an Android device, but Bark still monitors a comprehensive list of apps on iOS devices as well. Parents don’t have access to every text sent and received on their child’s device, but it does send alerts for trigger issues. Depending on your family’s needs, you may prefer this, or you may want more surveillance.
Bark and MMGuardian are roughly the same price, but Bark’s monitoring capabilities and unlimited devices make Bark a much better deal.
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Our Pick | |
| Price range | $4.17-$8.33/mo | $4.08–$14.00/mo |
| Best value plan | Monthly Family Plan for $9.99/mo | Bark app $14.00/mo |
| Free trial | Yes — 14 days | Yes — 7 days |
| Money-back guarantee | Yes — 30 days | |
| Learn more | Get MMGuardian | Get Bark |
MMGuardian offers two plans, and they’re extremely straightforward. Both plans offer the same features; the only difference is the number of devices monitored. MMGuardian offers an Android phone, but it starts at over $200 and requires a separate mobile plan, so it can be a pricey option.
MMGuardian doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, but they do offer a 14-day free trial period for you to test out all the features on your device.
Bark offers several options for families to choose from, all designed to help parents work cooperatively with their children to help create safe online habits. Bark Jr., Bark’s most basic plan, is ideal for young kids, whereas the Bark phone might be better suited for older kids who frequently access the internet and apps.
Bark offers a free 7-day trial for users to try it out, but you do need to input credit card information to receive the trial.
It’s hard to beat Bark’s monitoring features, and while the delayed alerts irked us, we’d rather have a broader monitoring suite than real-time notifications on fewer apps.
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Our Pick | |
| Website filtering | Yes — 9 categories | Yes — 19 categories |
| App filtering | Yes — WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, Tinder | Yes — Dropbox, Google Drive, GroupMe, Pinterest, Slack, Spotify, WhatsApp, YouTube |
| Social media monitoring | Yes — WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, Tinder | Yes — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord |
| Text message monitoring | ||
| Email monitoring | ||
| Internet search monitoring | ||
| Screen time limits | ||
| Remote lock | ||
| Cyberbullying and online predator alerts | ||
| Location tracking | ||
| Activity reports | ||
| Learn more | Get MMGuardian | Get Bark |
At a glance, it appears that MMGuardian and Bark offer a similar set of features. While MMGuardian monitors only 9 categories of website content, it contains multiple subcategories and additional filters.
But when it comes to app monitoring, there is no comparison. MMGuardian monitors 8 apps in total. And that’s if you’re an Android user. iOS users get only 3 apps monitored. Bark, on the other hand, offers comprehensive monitoring of 30+ popular apps, from social media to gaming to file sharing.
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When testing Bark, we specifically tried getting Bark to trigger alerts for the Discord app. We had friends send us “mean” messages to see if we could trigger any alerts, but nothing popped up. We also sent ourselves a mean email, and while we did receive an alert, the notification didn’t come until the next day. We also weren’t able to track location accurately.
MMGuardian doesn’t have email monitoring. Is email monitoring a deal breaker? Honestly, it kind of depends on your child, but to not even have the option of monitoring emails feels like a miss.
We tested MMGuardian on an iOS device, so our monitoring was limited. When testing, we received alerts immediately, which was a nice change from Bark’s delayed notifications. We received an error message each time we tried to track location, so we weren’t able to successfully test that feature.
Bark’s website is much easier to navigate, and there is much more easy-to-find information in their online guides. We were able to find the answer to nearly every question in an online guide. We emailed both services with a question, and we were pleased with the response time and an answer to our question.
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Our Pick | |
| Windows | Yes — for reports online | |
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| Browser extensions | Yes — Chrome, Firefox, Opera | Yes — Chrome, Edge Chromium |
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Customer support options | Email, online guides | Email, guides, live chat |
| Learn more | Get MMGuardian | Get Bark |
In our experience, both parental control apps were easy and very user-friendly, even for less tech-savvy parents.
Installing and setting up our Bark account was quick, but we did have to sync all of our children’s devices that we wanted to monitor, and that was a bit time-consuming. Since this is a monitoring app, expect to enable a lot of permissions when setting up your account and your child’s devices.
Overall, Bark performed how it’s supposed to — besides the location tracking and how it missed our Discord messages. We just wish it offered real-time alerts. We were pleased with Bark’s customer service options.
Our experience with MMGuardian was similarly seamless and straightforward. MMGuardian walks you through the process with very clear instructions. Setting up our account was quick, but like Bark, syncing our device took some time.
Yes. Both are good parental control apps, but Bark offers a broader scope of monitoring across a variety of apps with greater compatibility of devices, making it more widely appealing for families.
In our opinion, it’s really hard to top Bark for its parental control features alone. But if you’re looking for bundled services, like parental control with antivirus or identity theft protection, there are other parental control apps, like Norton, to consider. But overall, Bark is the best parental control app we've tested.
When choosing the best parental control app, we recommend comparing features, cost, installation, ease of use, compatibility, and app management. It’s also important to consider what your main objectives are. If you’re looking for software to track everything your child does, you may choose a different app than if you’re looking for an app that blocks software.
Our number one complaint with Bark was the delayed alerts. In our tests, Bark only informed us of inappropriate content a day or so later, so you aren’t seeing your child’s communications in real time.
MMGuardian has a lot of worthwhile features for a parental control app, but we wish it had the ability to monitor more apps, and a wider variety of apps than just social media. Broadening their monitoring to include email monitoring would also be very helpful.
As these two parental control apps go head to head, we have to give Bark victory for better monitoring capabilities, device compatibility, and value.
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Our Pick | |
| Value | ||
| Features | ||
| Compatibility & customer support | ||
| Learn more | Get MMGuardian | Get Bark |
We believe Bark is the better parental control software because it performs better and offers more comprehensive monitoring than MMGuardian. MMGuardian is a good parental control app, but Bark is just better.
Robust parental controls to track, monitor, and limit device usage
Machine learning catches the latest slang and keywords
Screens content across 19 categories
Today’s tweens and teens are all over the web, and Bark’s variety of social media and gaming app monitoring is better tailored to an app-savvy generation. While MMGuardian monitors some of the most popular apps — a very good start — it’s limited to social media apps. And it’s even more limited if you’re an iOS user. That, paired with the lack of email monitoring, makes Bark the clear winner in our book.
If you’re looking for a parental control app with different features or maybe a bundled parental control app, there are other options to consider. Our guide to the best parental control app can help you find a good fit for your family. We still think Bark is the best parental app overall, but Norton Family and Aura offer great bundled features.
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Excels at app blocking and content filtering across 47 categories
Offers age-specific restriction levels to enhance safety and unlimited device connections
Norton Family is the clear winner if you want parental controls bundled with antivirus software. If you choose Norton, be aware that you mostly pay for web filters and antivirus protection, as Norton lacks traditional parental control features like social media, text, and email message monitoring.
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Blocks harmful content on mobile devices
Robust screen time management tools
Unlimited devices
Aura Parental Controls combines identity theft protection with some essential parental control features, like website filtering, cyberbullying alerts, and screen time management. However, it does lack location tracking.
Robust parental controls to track, monitor, and limit device usage
Machine learning catches the latest slang and keywords
Screens content across 19 categories
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