Free or paid? What the money actually buys.
The free tools are better than the paid marketing suggests, and the paid tools are worth it for a narrower set of reasons than they claim. Here's the actual line.
What you get free, and it's a lot
Apple Screen Time (iOS/macOS)
Downtime, app limits by category, communication limits, allowlist web filtering, purchase approval, usage reports. Genuinely strong, particularly the allowlist mode for young children.
Google Family Link (Android)
Daily and per-day limits, bedtime, per-app limits, app install approval, location. Best-in-class screen time controls. Weak content filtering; supervision can be ended by the child at 13.
Microsoft Family Safety (Windows/Xbox)
Screen time across Windows and Xbox, app limits, Edge-only web filtering, spending controls.
Free DNS filtering services
Several public resolvers offer filtered DNS at no cost. Set at the router, they cover every device on your home network for adult content and malware.
Screen Time or Family Link for time limits, plus a filtering DNS resolver at your router, gets most families a long way for nothing. If budget is tight, set that up first and see whether you still have a gap. A fair number of families won't.
Where paid tiers actually earn it
1. Cross-platform coverage
Free tools are single-ecosystem. A mixed household means running three systems with three interfaces and three sets of rules. Paid tools cover everything from one dashboard, and that's a genuine saving in effort.
2. Content categories beyond adult
Free tools generally offer one content category. Gambling, vaping and nicotine retail, scam and phishing, self-harm content, anonymous chat apps, and VPN bypass tools are separate categories that free tools don't provide.
3. Filtering that survives the child
Family Link supervision ends at 13. Free DNS at the router is bypassed by changing a Wi-Fi setting. Paid tools with device-level enforcement and PIN-locked uninstall protection are harder to remove.
4. Off-network coverage
Free router filtering stops at your front door. On-device filtering follows the phone onto cellular and every other network. For a teenager, that's most of their usage.
5. Per-child rules
A 16-year-old and a 7-year-old need different blocklists. Router-level free filtering applies one policy to everyone.
Start on the free tier
Defenras Free covers one device with full content filtering. Paid adds multi-device and scheduling — no trial, no card.
Get Defenras free →How "free" third-party apps pay for themselves
Screen Time and Family Link are free because Apple and Google sell devices and ads. A free parental control app from a company that sells neither has to make money somehow. Usually one of:
- A trial dressed as a free tier. Genuinely free for 7 days, then a subscription.
- A tier so limited it's a demo. One device, no blocking, view-only.
- Ads inside a child-safety product, which is its own problem.
- Data. The one to actually worry about. An app that sees your child's browsing and charges nothing is monetising something, and the browsing is the asset.
How to check: read the privacy policy for the phrases "third parties," "affiliates," "business partners," and "aggregated data." Then check the app store data-safety disclosure. If a free app collects browsing history and shares it with partners, you've found the business model.
What Defenras Free actually is
So you can check us against our own standard:
- One device
- Full content filtering — adult, gambling, vaping, scams, malware
- PIN-locked
- No time limit, no card required, not a trial
- No ads
- No browsing data collected — same as the paid tier, because we don't collect it at all
Paid adds multiple devices, scheduling, per-app blocking on Android, the panic button, and custom blocklists.
Deciding
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| One young child, one platform | Free built-in tools |
| Several devices, one platform | Free built-in + router DNS |
| Mixed iOS and Android | Paid cross-platform |
| Teenager on cellular data | Paid on-device filtering |
| Need categories beyond adult content | Paid |
| Kids of very different ages | Paid, per-child rules |
Frequently asked questions
Are free parental control apps safe?
The ones from Apple, Google, and Microsoft are. Free third-party apps need scrutiny — check the privacy policy and the app store data-safety disclosure for what's collected and shared.
Is Apple Screen Time enough?
For a young child on Apple devices, often yes. It falls short on filtering categories beyond adult content and doesn't cover non-Apple devices.
What's the catch with Defenras Free?
One device. Full filtering, no time limit, no card, no ads. The paid tier adds multi-device, scheduling, app blocking, and the panic button.
Do I need paid if I already use Family Link?
Only if you need content filtering beyond Chrome, coverage past age 13, or non-Android devices. If none of those apply, Family Link may be enough.
Defenras blocks all of this — without collecting your child's data.
One app, every device, every browser. Adult content, gambling, vaping, scams, malware, social media — all blocked. PIN-locked. Free version available, no credit card.