Circle

Probably the best parental control out there, but it is frustratingly limited Circle is probably the best parental control out there. I use it and it helps my family, but it is frustratingly limited. It does well what it advertises, but - If you have a home media server, Circle cannot stop your kids watching it. - There are a number of configurable limits (total screen time, total game time, total Minecraft time) and if you want to just let your kid play more Minecraft, you have to figure out which limit they have reached to extend that limit. "Try now" you say. "No, still not working," they reply. This can be very frustrating. - For shared devices, say the family living room smart TV (or TV with attached AppleTV/Roku), what if the parents just want to watch a TV show, but the kids have used up the time limit? Just like the above case, there is no simple "let me watch the @!$ TV" button, you have to be a sleuth to figure out which limit to extend. (Or you can simply remove the TV from monitoring if you think you can remember to re-add it later.) Other caveats - It does not track app usage so you still need to use the iOS/Android parental control tools for that. You have to run two sets of tools. - Time limits are defined within a single day so if you want to block device access 7pm-6am, you have to create two rules, one for 7pm-midnight and another for midnight-6am. This is in a way a minor thing, but it is such an obvious "of course actual humans think this way, and Circle has made this very awkward, and computer programs can easily be made to implement this in a more human-friendly way" issue, that it really makes me question Circle's whole customer-focus. - It has really nice industrial design, but if you plug it in to wired ethernet (not just WiFi), there is no hole in the rubber flap for the cable so your cable goes under this ugly open flap. (I resolved this by cutting a rectangular hole in the rubber, but I should not have to do this.) There are also no keyhole mounting holes if you want to wall-mount it in your internet utility area.

I wish the directions were a bit better for adding devices I do t want the app on my child’s device to connect to mine

People respond quickly, which is good. But they have not resolved my issues, which is not so good.

Ok

The home side of circle is great, but the mobile side isn't that great.