TechRadar Reviews

FastestVPN is a cost-effective VPN solution based in the Cayman Islands, which makes it a solid choice for privacy-conscious users. However, in our testing, we found that while the service offers decent functionality and has come a long way in terms of privacy, features, and app usability, it still underperforms when compared to today's best VPNs.

That’s not to say FastestVPN isn’t worth considering, though. In addition to its sub-$1 two-year introductory plan, its lifetime VPN plan at just $40 is something you’ll rarely find elsewhere. It also boasts an audited no-logs policy and apps for all device types, and unblocks most popular streaming platforms with ease. Read on to see whether FastestVPN is worth your time.

Features

FastestVPN offers a standard suite of VPN features, along with a few less-common extras.

Even though it has a relatively small pool of servers, it’s impressive that FastestVPN offers P2P-optimized servers, allowing you to download and upload P2P files with increased security. Combined with its port forwarding feature – which can further boost download and upload speeds – FastestVPN is a solid option if you’re looking for a torrenting VPN.

Other than that, there’s also an ad blocker that enhances your online experience by ensuring you’re not bombarded with frustrating and potentially malicious ads. FastestVPN is also one of the very few VPNs to offer extra device logins for an additional fee. While it comes with 10 simultaneous connections by default, you can add more devices for $4 per device if you want to share the love.

Other add-on options include a dedicated IP and port forwarding, both of which are extremely reasonably priced. Admittedly, most VPNs don't provide port-forwarding, but some generous services (like Private Internet Access) offer it for free.

Plus, regardless of the plan you choose – monthly, yearly, or the exclusive lifetime plan – you’ll also get two years of free access to the FastestPass password manager, which helps improve the security of your online accounts and reduce the risk of identity theft by creating and safely storing highly secure passwords.

Features score: 5/10

(Image credit: FastestVPN)Server network

FastestVPN has over 800 servers spread across 49 countries, with over 100 locations to choose from. While there are plenty of servers across Europe, as well as access to the US, Japan, Australia, and Canada, it's not particularly comprehensive across the Middle East, Africa, or Asia.

Server locations, though, don’t add up: the website claims 100+, yet we could only count 66. It seems FastestVPN is inflating the figure by listing individual servers as distinct locations.

So, while it might not be the first choice for users in some of these countries, the good news is that all the popular streaming locations you’d expect are easily accessible.

The provider also recently rolled out a double VPN feature, which, as the name suggests, routes your internet traffic through two servers instead of one, adding an extra layer of encryption and security to your data.

Admittedly, FastestVPN is nowhere close to the thousands of servers offered by industry leaders like NordVPN, Surfshark, or ProtonVPN. However, it’s also worth considering that FastestVPN doesn’t have the same volume of users as these top providers. Still, I’d like to see the service add more servers and locations.

Server network score: 6/10

Apps

When you jump into the FastestVPN downloads page, you're immediately presented with nearly twenty different platforms to choose from. FastestVPN supports fully-fledged apps on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, as well as browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

For everything else like routers and TVs, there are setup guides available on the support site. There's a download link for Linux, too, but it just takes you to the features page. You'll have to read the support blog and use a third-party client – which can be tricky if you're not a tech-savvy Linux user.

Apps score: 8/10

(Image credit: FastestVPN)Ease of use

For me, this is where FastestVPN disappoints. When you boot up the VPN, you're immediately presented with the full app. However, trying to actually use it bounces you over to the login screen.

It's slightly confusing, but once you're through it only takes one click to connect to your nearest server. Even though it's easy enough to read and navigate, the actual app looks a little rough compared to some of its closest competitors.

Unfortunately, trying to use FastestVPN for the first time on a Mac testing machine brought up some issues with the app. After trying to connect to the DVPN servers for testing, the app shut down and wouldn't restart even after a reboot. I couldn't replicate this issue on any other platform, but if you're hunting for a bulletproof Mac VPN app, you might need to look elsewhere.

Ease of use score: 6/10

(Image credit: FastestVPN)Speed and performance

As our speed tests show, FastestVPN isn’t the fastest VPN – it’s actually one of the slower ones we’ve tested.

Against a 135 Mbps baseline, we managed just 105.5 Mbps on a local UK server, a loss of nearly 22%. In comparison, Mullvad lost under 5% and VPN Super a little over 12%. Speeds dropped further over distance, reaching just 86 Mbps on US servers – again, well behind both rivals.

Provider

UK-UK average download speed

Baseline retention percentage

UK-US average download speed

Baseline (no VPN)

135 Mbps

100%

N/A

FastestVPN

105.5 Mbps

78.1%

86 Mbps

Mullvad

128.5 Mbps

95.2%

121.5 Mbps

VPN Super

118.5 Mbps

87.8%

120 Mbps

FastestVPN’s results were also far less consistent over long distances than Mullvad’s, suggesting limited system capacity and too many users competing for the same resources at peak times.

These speeds don’t match up to our top VPNs, but they'll still suffice for most activities. If you need a VPN for gaming, torrenting, or HD streaming, then FastestVPN isn't a bad choice.

Speed and performance score: 7/10

Unblocking

FastestVPN might not be the fastest, but is it capable of working with streaming services?

To test a VPN's unblocking claims, we skip all of the marketing material and go straight to testing the top streaming sites. We check out multiple different Netflix regions (the US, Canada, UK, Japan, and Australia) as well as Amazon Prime and Disney+. We even check out some regional providers, like BBC iPlayer and ITV, too.

Unfortunately, streaming was a mixed bag. FastestVPN worked with Netflix (US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan), Amazon Prime Video Canada, Disney+ (US, UK, and Canada), DAZN (US and Canada), and YouTube UK, plus local services like BBC iPlayer and ITVX.

Elsewhere, results were patchier. Although it worked with 7Plus and 9Now in earlier testing, FastestVPN has since removed its Australian servers – and even then, more than one server was needed to access 7Plus.

The Canadian specialty streaming server couldn’t unblock DAZN or Prime Video, though one in Montreal could. Servers in Japan refused to open Disney+ or YouTube at all, and FastestVPN also failed with Amazon US and Canada, DAZN UK, and YouTube Canada.

Torrenting thankfully works pretty well on FastestVPN's dedicated P2P servers, and the inclusion of port forwarding means you'll be able to connect to the full swarm whenever you're torrenting.

Unblocking score: 6/10

Privacy and security

FastestVPN doesn't have the extensive suite of security tools you'd see from a provider like NordVPN or Surfshark, but it does cover the basics.

It offers all the VPN protocols you’d expect from a top service, including OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2, allowing you to choose the best option for your specific use case. On top of that, all FastestVPN apps have been audited and use the highly secure, industry-standard AES-256 encryption.

That said, it has yet to announce support for post-quantum encryption, which is becoming increasingly important as it protects your data against the threat of quantum computers and Q-Day.

Digging into FastestVPN's privacy policy revealed that the VPN commissioned its first no-logs audit in 2023 from Altius IT, a California-based auditing company with over 30 years of experience. The full report makes for illuminating reading. You can check it out yourself via the provider's site and the link included at the bottom of the page.

The only information FastestVPN logs is the date you connect to the VPN service and your email address. While this is certainly excellent and in line with what we expect from a private VPN, the provider hasn’t undergone another audit since. Ideally, a VPN should regularly submit its no-logs policy for independent verification.

Even if law enforcement does come asking for the little information that FastestVPN holds onto, it's headquartered in the Cayman Islands. This puts it far outside of the jurisdiction of Five Eyes nations while retaining strict data laws with a national data privacy policy comparable to GDPR.

However, the company’s LinkedIn and Trustpilot pages list US addresses. This would be a very different picture for privacy, given US retention laws and Five Eyes membership. Adding to transparency concerns, there’s very little information about the people behind the company.

Privacy and security score: 7/10

Customer support

FastestVPN offers 24/7 live chat and email support, but its support section lags behind. Many setup guides are outdated – some still recommend PPTP, a long-obsolete and insecure VPN protocol dropped by other VPNs, with no warning of the risks. The site’s search engine is poor too: searching “slow vpn” returned just three results, only two of which displayed, and neither was relevant.

Accessibility is equally disappointing. The website scored just 10% on AccessibilityChecker, with structural issues that make pages hard for screen readers to interpret and poor color contrast for users with limited vision.

The Windows app fares no better: Tab switches between controls but without any highlight, making it impossible to even connect using the keyboard alone.

Customer support score: 8/10

(Image credit: FastestVPN)Track record

For a vendor with nearly a decade of experience, FastestVPN has a relatively uneventful history.

No traffic breaches, no huge exploits, no scandalous lawsuits. Instead, it's a VPN that has been slowly but steadily reinventing itself over and over into what is now a decent service. Maybe it isn’t at parity with top-tier VPNs, but WireGuard integration and a no-logs audit put it above a big chunk of the industry.

However, FastestVPN's reviews don't quite paint the same story. Some of the reviews I read complain about the lifetime plan running out or having other subscription issues, although it seems like the support team is pretty good at catching these complaints and rectifying them.

Track record score: 8/10

Pricing and plans

FastestVPN is one of the most budget-friendly VPNs around. At $5, its one-month plan is far cheaper than NordVPN ($14.99) or Surfshark ($16.45) – though these are among the best VPN services on the market – making it great for short-term coverage or a risk-free trial.

Longer plans offer even better value: the two-year subscription costs $19.95, working out at just $0.83/month – an 83% saving that rivals can’t match. FastestVPN is also one of the few providers to offer a lifetime plan at $40, less than two or three months with many competitors.

All plans include a 31-day money-back guarantee, though oddly its own support pages cite 15 days instead.

While the subscriptions are excellent value, the add-ons aren’t. Dedicated IPs are reasonable at $1.20/month, but extra devices are poor value. On the two year plan, adding five devices ($20) costs as much as buying an entire second two year plan with ten more connections.

Pricing and plans score: 9/10

Should you use FastestVPN?

FastestVPN is a strong budget option for those looking for basic security and privacy without breaking the bank. It's not the fastest VPN, despite its name, and it doesn't have the largest server network. That said, its affordability and core privacy features make it a solid choice for if you're a casual VPN user who's willing to compromise on some performance for a significantly lower price point.

However, if you require a VPN with high-speed performance, global streaming access, or advanced security tools, premium services like ExpressVPN or NordVPN may be better options.

FastestVPN alternatives

1. NordVPN – from $3.39 per month
The best VPN overall
There's no better VPN in the industry if you need a fast and secure provider with global server access. With a variety of security and performance features, including a built-in virus scanner and double-hop servers, NordVPN is great value for money.View Deal

2. ExpressVPN – from $3.49 per month
The best VPN for beginners and the most secure
ExpressVPN offers fantastic blocking capabilities with a nearly unparalleled set of locations to choose from. ExpressVPN guarantees high-speed obfuscated connections with its own proprietary VPN protocol, Lightway, as well as a high-quality server bank and audited no-logs server technology.View Deal

3. Proton VPN – from $3.49 per month
A superb all-round VPN and online security alternative
Proton VPN is the best free VPN out there, with a truly unlimited bandwidth plan across three different locations. Built by the minds behind Proton Mail, Proton VPN also provides a range of privacy-first features which make it a great choice if you're concerned about your internet data. The standout of these is Secure Core, which allows you to chain your VPN connection through multiple servers for better security.View Deal

FastestVPN FAQsAre all VPNs required to have a no-logs audit?

No, most VPNs do not provide proof of a no-logs audit. FastestVPN is one of the few VPNs on the market to have contracted a third party to audit its privacy policy.

Allow me to introduce the new Philips 34B2U5900C. On paper, it's pretty much the ultimate non-OLED 34-inch 5K2K ultrawide productivity monitor for PCs and Macs.

If that sounds like a rather convoluted classification that amounts to faint praise, it's not meant to be. OLED monitors certainly have some clear advantages. But you simply can't get one that matches this Philips' core specification of 34-inch ultrawide with a 5K2K resolution.

That's important, because this display offers a level of pixel density and therefore text and image sharpness and clarity that no current 34-inch ultrawide OLED monitor can match.

What's more, even up against the traditional LCD competition, the Philips 34B2U5900C looks pretty special. The full 5,120 by 2,160 native resolution is supported at 120Hz refresh and there's even a 2,560 by 1,080 alt-mode resolution at 240Hz.

Intriguingly, this is a VA panel as opposed to the IPS type you might have expected from a 5K2K model, which is why the contrast is quoted at an impressive (for an LCD monitor) 3,000:1. Notably, the full 5K2K at 120Hz is supported over all three video inputs: DisplayPort, HDMI and USB-C. While we're talking connectivity, it's positively comprehensive, with dual HDMI to accompany the aforementioned DisplayPort and USB-C and the latter providing an outstanding 140W thanks to supporting USB-C Power Delivery version 3.1.

A KVM switch likewise means this monitor is perfect for sharing across two machines, perhaps a PC and a Mac or a laptop and a desktop. There's plenty more in the huge feature set, including sensors for both light and user proximity, the former designed to adjust the screen's brightness to suit ambient conditions, the latter allowing this monitor to dim when you step away from your desk.

For the record, this is a DisplayHDR 400 certified panel, which means it's on the very lowest rung for HDR support and capability and doesn't offer local dimming, let alone the per-pixel lighting control of an OLED panel. But, again, this class of 5K2K panel simply isn't available with OLED technology. On paper, the Philips 34B2U5900C looks set to feature strongly among the best business monitors you can get.

Philips 34B2U5900C: Design and featuresFutureFutureFuture

• Slightly dated design
• Fantastic feature set
• USB-C with 140W power delivery

Specs

Panel size: 34-inch

Panel type: VA

Resolution: 5,120 x 2,160

Brightness: 550 nits

Contrast: 3,000:1 (static)

Pixel response: 2ms

Refresh rate: 120Hz (240Hz aat 2,560 x 1,080)

Color coverage: 95% DCI-P3

HDR: DIsplayHDR 400

VESA: 100mm x 100mm

Connectivity: HDMI 2.1 in x2, DisplayPort 1.4 in x1, USB-C with 140W PD in, USB hub with 3x USB-A and 3x USB-C, ethernet, 3.5mm headphone

Immediate impressions of the Philips 34B2U5900C are of a slightly clunky, dated old thing with a particularly thick lower bezel. An ultra-slim OLED it most clearly is not.

But it's well put together and exceptionally ergonomic. The latter attribute is thanks to the combination of a base that swivels through fully 360 degrees and clearly labelled and easily accessible ports on the rear. If you're fed up with battling with hard-to-access monitor ports, you'll love the Philips 34B2U5900C.

Speaking of connectivity, along with the dual HDMI ports, there's a DisplayPort socket and USB-C. The latter supports the latest PD 3.1 spec and so can deliver fully 140W of power delivery to an attached laptop. That's well up on the 96W of previous generations of USB-C single-cable connectivity and means that you use a single cable to drive this display and fully power many high-spec desktop replacement portables.

There's also a KVM switch, which makes it simple to share this monitor and, say, an attached keyboard and mouse combo, across two computing devices. The inclusion of an ethernet port means you can share networking across the devices, too. What's more, there's a multiview option allowing both machines to display on the monitor at the same time. Nice. Rounding out the connectivity is a three-port USB hub on the left bezel, with two USB-A ports and a single USB-C, plus a headphone jack.

Along with a light sensor that enables the 34B2U5900C to adjust its brightness according to ambient conditions and a proximity sensor that dims the brightness when you step away from your desk, perhaps the most unusual feature in a productivity context is the dual resolution mode. By default, the 34-inch panel runs natively at 5,120 by 2,160 pixels at 120Hz. That alone is pretty impressive for a productivity monitor with such a high resolution.

But Philips has also fitted this monitor out with a secondary dual-mode using pixel doubling to enable a resolution of 2,560 by 1,080 at 240Hz. It's the sort of feature that you'd expect on a gaming monitor. Exactly what the use case is for productivity, content creation or day-to-day computing isn't clear. But it hardly counts as a demerit to find it included.

Finally, color coverage of 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut is reasonable, but not really the stuff of professional content creation. That said, the 34B2U5900C is at least Calman Ready for rapid automated calibration using a colorimeter.

Philips 34B2U5900C: PerformanceFutureFutureFuture

• Super sharp image quality
• 120Hz at native resolution
• Surprisingly good response

The central appeal of the Philips 34B2U5900C is its 5K2K resolution. On this 34-inch ultrawide panel, that native resolution of 5,120 b 2,160 pixels works out to a pixel density of 163DPI.

That's exactly the same as a 27-inch 4K monitor and, indeed, this ultrawide 5K2K format is essentially a 16:9 4K 27 incher taken out to the 21:9 aspect. Add in a gentle 1500R curve, and you have a fantastic combination of widescreen ergonomics for multitasking and media immersion, plus super-sharp image quality and excellent text quality.

That applies to both Windows and MacOS operating. What's more, among the comprehensive selection of color spaces in the 34B2U5900C's OSD menu are both sRGB and Display-P3. So, you have immediate presets to suit the native color spaces of both operating systems.

This panel looks particularly good with MacOS. The pixel density isn't quite Retina class. But the font quality is still excellent and the ultrawide proportions allow for running as many as three application or browser windows side-by-side, a use case that obviously applies to Windows, too.

It's something of a surprise to find Philips using VA panel technology for this new 5K2K display. IPS is more typical. But this is one of the best VA screens we've seen for a long time. First, you get excellent inherent contrast for an LCD panel at 3,000:1. So, there's noticeably less light bleed than a similar IPS panel.

Even better, despite VA's reputation for poor pixel response, Philips has included three levels of configurable overdrive, the middle setting of which delivers very, very good response for this type of monitor. Motion clarity is very much in line with the 2ms quoted response performance and, in subjective terms, you're giving nothing away to the IPS competition, albeit OLED panel tech is nearly a full order of magnitude faster.

Speaking of speed, the 120Hz refresh rate is a very welcome feature. This isn't a gaming monitor and triple-digit refresh rates are not really a particular requirement for most productivity or content creation workflows. But 120Hz still makes for slicker and more responsive day-to-day computing.

The 240Hz 1080p dual-mode of more questionable utility outside of gaming. Enabling it makes for clearly compromised clarity, that's for sure. But it's there for the occasional fast-paced gaming session, if that's your thing on the side.

If you're looking for limitations, there are two obvious if hardly debilitating weaknesses. First, HDR support is capped at the entry-level DisplayHDR 400 tier. That means a peak brightness of 400 nits and no local dimming. So, this isn't a true HDR display. But then even LCD monitors with mini-LED dimming struggle to deliver a consistent HDR performance. You need OLED and perfect per-pixel lighting for that.

The other marginal shortcoming is color coverage. You'll do better than 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut this monitor offers with an IPS panel. So, if maximising color accuracy for pro content creation workflows is critical, you may find the 34B2U5900C slightly wanting.

Philips 34B2U5900C: Final verdictFutureFutureFuture

If you're looking for a fantastic all-rounder that combines crisp image quality with ultrawide multitasking ergonomics, great connectivity and even some surprising speed, look no further than the new Philips 34B2U5900C. It ticks so many boxes.

The 5K2K resolution on the 34-inch ultrawide panel is the main attraction. And certainly makes for both super sharp visuals and lots of desktop elbow room. In this application, the VA panel tech works really nicely too, delivering excellent contrast for an LCD monitor. Add the 120Hz refresh at 5K2K native and surprisingly nippy pixel speed and you have a very quick and slick productivity monitor, to boot.

Then there's the excellent connectivity. The highlight is the USB-C interface with 140W capability thanks to Power Delivery 3.1 support. It means you can keep a very powerful desktop replacement laptop fully juiced, which isn't something the previous USB-C PD standards could achieve.

All told, this is comfortably one of the best monitors of 2026. It absolutely nails its high-DPI productivity brief and adds a surprising turn of speed that makes it a versatile display, even if gaming isn't exactly central to its all-business remit.

FutureFutureFuture

For more displays, we've tested the best monitors and the best 5K and 8K monitors.

Glassdoor is the site Google always takes you to when seeking information about potential employers, particularly salary ranges for specific positions at a company. It aggregates information provided by current and former employees and delivers it to interested candidates, helping them know what to expect if they join a company.

Want to know how much a company pays for a role, the benefits, and remote work policies? Glassdoor offers the closest answers, provided by employees themselves.

It’s also a job board in its own right, connecting candidates to vast opportunities. What does Glassdoor offer, and how does it compare to rival sites? Where does it excel, and where does it still need improvement? I reviewed it extensively to answer these questions.

Glassdoor: Plans and pricing

Glassdoor is free for job seekers. Anyone can create a Glassdoor account to scour through job postings and view information about companies. You can check it out by clicking here.

The only catch is that Glassdoor often requires giving details about your company to unlock complete information for other companies, so while end users don’t pay money, there’s a little price to be paid.

On Glassdoor, businesses can also create Employer accounts, which let them respond to employee reviews, access employee insights, and build a Glassdoor profile, among others. Creating an Employer account is free, but Glassdoor charges money to access certain features, mostly around branding and recruiting.

Paid subscriptions allow enhanced profile customization for businesses, including the ability to feature employee reviews, add high-resolution media content, publish profile updates, and create up to five branded "Why Work with Us?" tabs highlighting a value proposition, leadership, and mission.

Paid plans also let companies remove competitors' ads from their profile and, if they wish, promote their profiles on pages of competitors not subscribed to a premium plan. This part feels a bit like paying to game the Glassdoor system, but such is it. Likewise, paying businesses also get access to detailed engagement data and can compare ratings, review trends, and brand impressions against industry rivals.

Note that Glassdoor doesn’t offer standard subscription plans for businesses. Instead, interested companies can contact Glassdoor’s sales team for a custom quote.

Prices are known to start at $5,000 per year (and go up to $20,000+ for some large enterprises), a steep amount that doesn’t favor smaller and medium-sized businesses. I’d advise a subscription only for major enterprises with budgets large enough to justify it as a marketing and branding expense.

Glassdoor: Setup

Glassdoor has a simple setup process. Anyone can create an account using an email address. For a smoother process, you can sign up with an existing Google or Apple account.

Employers can also easily create accounts, but understandably, this takes longer because of stricter verification processes.

Firstly, you’ll need a corporate email address matching your company’s official domain. Then, Glassdoor’s team will manually review your employer application, and this can take up to 3 days (all Employer account creations are manually reviewed).

If approved, you’ll receive an email confirmation and can begin managing the business profile.

Glassdoor: Features

At its core, Glassdoor is a platform that connects job seekers with company insights and potential opportunities. Suppose you want to work for a firm. You likely want to know about its compensation structure, benefits, interview processes, and working environment. Glassdoor is the right place to get this information.

On Glassdoor, you can view anonymous, transparent reviews about a company from employees. From these reviews, you’ll learn about the company’s culture, work-life balance, and general working conditions.

However, strike a balanced view when reading these reviews. Check multiple reviews to get a fair summary, not focus too much on specific negative or positive reviews. People can have different experiences working with the same company, so one review shouldn’t make you conclude.

Compensation data is a key benefit of using Glassdoor. Employees submit salary data for their respective job titles and years of experience. You can then explore this crowd-sourced data to get a clue about what a company pays for your desired role. The data isn’t always 100% accurate, as compensation often differs between employees in similar roles at the same company, but it’s as close as you can get.

(Image credit: Glassdoor )

Employees also talk about their interview experiences on Glassdoor, particularly questions commonly asked during their interviews. When seeking a role, you can use this information to prep for your interview. Familiarity with the interview process gives you a leg up over other candidates.

On Glassdoor, employees also discuss various topics related to their companies. You can peek into these discussions to learn a lot about a company. However, beware of the usual hearsay lurking in anonymous, community-based discussions. Don’t conclude based on one or two posts. Instead, seek information from multiple sources to get a balanced opinion.

Glassdoor provides a job board for candidates seeking various roles. You can search through millions of job postings, with advanced search filters to get exactly what you want. You can also upload your resume to Glassdoor’s database and get matched to prospective employers. Glassdoor is a job board in its own right, competing with the likes of Monster and ZipRecruiter.

Glassdoor also offers valuable features for businesses. As a business owner or manager, a Glassdoor profile lets you showcase your company story, mission, awards, certifications, and perks. Many prospective employees use Glassdoor to seek information, so you can deliver the right information directly to them.

For instance, you can highlight what your company does, the benefits employees enjoy, and post photos of your cosy workplace. If your company has earned a “Best Place to Work” badge, you can prominently highlight it for prospective employees.

With employer accounts, you can also respond directly to (anonymized) employee reviews. This presents an opportunity to clarify situations highlighted in negative reviews in a reconciliatory tone, and to respond to positive reviews in an appreciative tone. Avoid combative responses, as they look unprofessional to prospective employees.

(Image credit: Glassdoor )

Employer accounts can also track key statistics like employee sentiment and page visitor behavior, and benchmark their performance against competitors. However, Glassdoor requires a subscription to access the most advanced analytics tools.

I think Glassdoor offers great value to both job-seekers and employers. Job-seekers can access opportunities and vast amounts of information about potential employers.

On the other hand, employers can create branded profiles to reach out to prospective employees and maintain a positive brand. However, for employers, Glassdoor locks many valuable features behind a paywall.

Glassdoor: Ease of use

(Image credit: Glassdoor )

Glassdoor gets a good score when it comes to user-friendliness. Despite its numerous features and complexities, the interface is arranged in a way that makes things easy to navigate.

Whether you’re searching for jobs, reading company reviews, seeking interview prep information, or scouring salary data, Glassdoor has distinct menus that you can easily switch between.

Similarly, when using an Employer account, Glassdoor also provides distinct menus that you can navigate from your dashboard. The platform helps by providing on-screen onboarding guides for first-time users. You can access Glassdoor from a web browser or download the iOS or Android smartphone app.

Glassdoor: Support

Glassdoor provides decent support resources. The official Help Center lists guides, how-tos, and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Glassdoor, making it the ideal go-to spot when experiencing issues.

I like that there are separate Help Centers for job-seekers and Employer accounts, an ideal arrangement because both interact with vastly different features. This way, you can easily find help for issues related to your account type.

Employers with paid subscriptions can contact Glassdoor’s support team via live chat. Job-seekers seeking direct help can fill out a support ticket and await an email response, which takes anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

Understandably, instant live chat support is restricted to businesses that pay thousands of dollars in annual subscriptions to maintain enhanced Employer accounts.

Glassdoor: The competition

Glassdoor has formidable competition as a job board, particularly Monster and ZipRecruiter. These rival platforms aggregate vast job opportunities and make them easy to scan through. Users can also upload resumes and get connected to fitting employers through these platforms.

However, Glassdoor outshines rivals when it comes to finding information about companies. It offers the broadest database of salary data, interview prep tips, and employee reviews amongst fellow job portals.

Glassdoor: Final verdict

If you want to learn about prospective employers, Glassdoor is the go-to spot. It provides a vast amount of information about companies and the roles you’re interested in. It’s also a good hub for finding job opportunities, although it has formidable competition in this sector.

Employers can also build a strong Glassdoor profile to boost their reputation with prospective employees, but Glassdoor demands money to access some valuable tools that help them do so.

For more picks, we've tested the best recruitment platforms and the best job sites.

Monster is one of the most popular job boards and, more so, is a pioneer of the online job board industry. It began back in 1994, making it one of the earliest job sites still up and running.

Over three decades after its founding, Monster still maintains a large user base, although later rivals like Glassdoor and Indeed have overtaken it in terms of number of users.

Is Monster a good job board for you? What does it offer for job-seekers, or employers seeking job candidates? What are its key features, and how does it stack up against rival job sites? I thoroughly used Monster to answer these questions, so read on to learn what it offers.

Monster: Plans and pricing

Like most popular job boards, Monster runs a business model where it’s free for job-seekers, but businesses pay to advertise job listings, access the resume database, and unlock other advanced features. You can check it out by clicking here.

Anyone can create an account to access job listings. You can filter listings by location, title, remote or hybrid, and other factors, and also upload your resume to Monster’s database for employers to find you. Access is completely free for job-seekers.

On the other hand, Monster charges businesses to access its resume database, promote job listings, and message job candidates right on the platform.

The Monster+ Pro plan costs $299 per month, or discounted to $2,990 if paid annually ($598 less than paying month-to-month).

This plan unlocks complete access to the database of resumes uploaded by job-seekers and the ability to message candidates about job offers. It also includes 299 monthly credits, which are spent when candidates click on a company’s job postings and when the company views a resume or contacts a candidate.

Monster also lets businesses promote job listings like ads, with budgets starting from $8 per day. You’ll only pay if a candidate clicks, taps, or swipes to view your job listing, not based on views like some job boards.

Large enterprises can also negotiate custom deals by contacting Monster’s sales team. For example, a company with 500+ employees and a rapidly growing headcount can get significant discounts compared to the standard Monster+ Pro plan to promote job listings and find the best candidates.

Monster’s pricing isn’t the most affordable, considering the use of limited credits to interact with the resume database. However, job seekers have nothing to worry about because they can use Monster without paying a dime.

Monster: Features

Think of Monster as a pairing system between job candidates and employers. For job seekers, it’s the go-to platform for finding opportunities in diverse industries.

From healthcare to software development, logistics, professional services, retail, hospitality, and more, Monster hosts numerous job listings. You can filter these listings by your preferences (remote status, date posted, full-time, part-time, city, region, country, and specific keywords).

Scouring job listings can get tiring, but you don’t always have to do that. Monster lets you upload a resume, and this resume is scanned to get paired with the right jobs. Employers can find your resume and contact you for a fitting role.

(Image credit: Monster)

I like that Monster doesn’t just let users upload resumes but also offers a tool that assists in creating resumes. I got AI recommendations for refining my resume, particularly optimizing keywords to align with specific job applications.

Many companies use applicant tracking systems (ATSs) to scan resumes for specific keywords, then filter the matching resumes out of the many ones submitted, and optimization increases the chances of getting past ATS filters.

Monster does more than curate job listings. I also found interview prep guides, cover letter templates, and salary data that helped inform job applications. Particularly, the Monster Salary Calculator let me look up average pay ranges for specific job titles, experience level, skills, and locations.

Monster curates this data from various sources, including employee submissions. The salary data isn’t as detailed as that of Glassdoor, a major competitor, but it’s still helpful.

I’ve dwelled on Monster from a job seeker’s perspective, so let’s now look at it from an employer’s perspective. As a business seeking to hire candidates, Monster offers a vast pool to choose from. Its database hosts millions of resumes that you can scan to find the right fit.

Of course, scanning through this database manually will be very hectic, so Monster uses algorithms to pinpoint resumes that match your job descriptions.

(Image credit: Monster)

Suppose your business needs a graphic designer specializing in Adobe Illustrator, and this role is based in Miami, Florida. From the database, Monster’s algorithms will identify graphic designers whose resumes indicate they’re based in Miami and work with Adobe Illustrator. You can then contact the candidates considered the best fit, but note that Monster charges credits for each contact.

Monster+ Pro plan costs $299 per month (or a discounted $2,990 annually), and it includes 299 credits. Viewing a resume costs 2 credits, and contacting a candidate costs another 2 credits, so use them efficiently. Credits expire monthly and do not roll over. If exhausted, Monster bills for additional credits used at a rate of $1 for 1 credit.

Your company can also promote job listings on Monster, and the listings will be shown to candidates matched by the platform’s algorithms. The listings are like running ad campaigns, where you’ll select your daily budget and how long you want it to run. Monster bills based on how many candidates interact with your job listings, not based on views, so there’s some certainty of getting candidates.

Likewise, your business can create a custom Monster page to highlight employee benefits, workplace events, and other information that compel candidates to apply for jobs.

Overall, Monster offers valuable features for both job seekers and employers. As a job seeker, you’ll get access to immense job listings and can upload your resume to connect with the right businesses. Employers unlock access to a vast candidate pool and can contact qualified candidates right on Monster. The platform excels at pairing job candidates with the right opportunities.

Monster: Ease of use

Monster offers a modern, intuitive interface. I particularly like the fusion of purple and white colors with minimal clutter, as it makes navigation quite enjoyable. From registering to scouring job listings and applying, I didn’t find any issues with the workflow.

Users can easily access Monster from the web interface or download the official iOS or Android smartphone app. There’s no native Monster desktop app, but most job boards don’t have a desktop app, so it isn’t really a competitive disadvantage.

Monster: Support

I found Monster’s support resources to be sufficient, beginning with the Help Center. This Help Center contains detailed information about commonly encountered issues plus user guides for Monster’s features.

I found it helpful as a newish user. I’ve used Monster before, but some things changed since I last reviewed the platform, so I needed help understanding them.

The Help Center also contains detailed user guides for paid business accounts. For direct help, businesses can contact Monster’s support team via telephone or by filling out a support ticket and expecting an email response. Overall, Monster offers good support resources compared to the competition.

Monster: The competition

Monster has formidable competition. Glassdoor is one, known for its rich database of salary data, interview prep tips, and company reviews. Monster offers some salary data and information about companies. However it’s not as detailed as what you’ll find on Glassdoor.

If you’re researching compensation, company culture, and interview tips, Glassdoor serves you better. However, I’ll say Monster is as good as Glassdoor in terms of scouring job listings.

ZipRecruiter is another notable competitor. For job seekers, it offers a vast database of available opportunities on par with Monster. However, I think ZipRecruiter is a more budget-friendly option for businesses, as a subscription (starting from $419 per month) unlocks unlimited access to the resume database, unlike Monster that offers exhaustible credits.

Also, any job posting a business makes on ZipRecruiter is syndicated to over 100 other job boards. Monster does some syndication too, but it isn’t as broad as what businesses get on ZipRecruiter.

Monster: Final verdict

I consider Monster a good option for job seekers, particularly for its vast job database, but it kind of lacks an edge when compared with rivals like Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter. Sure, it offers a rich job database, but so do several other platforms, and its salary data isn’t the most detailed.

For more picks, we've tested the best recruitment platforms and the best job sites.

Potensic Atom 3: One-minute review

Many have tried and failed to produce drones to rival DJI's, but the Potensic Atom 3 is a DJI drone alternative that's actually worth considering — and not just on paper, but in actual flight conditions.

The folding quadcopter impresses with level 5 wind resistance and a 10% bigger battery than its predecessor, the Atom 2, making for robust flight performance even in tricky conditions. It's gargantuan RC PTD 2 touchscreen controller (in the pricier bundle) feels top-drawer, too.

Its 3-axis gimbal camera isn't half-bad, either — being equipped with a 1/1.3-inch sensor and offering 4K video up to 60fps in standard, HDR or Log profiles, slow-motion recording, and up to 50MP stills in RAW and JPEG.

The larger sensor, higher 4K video frame rates and bitrates, plus improved battery life and transmission range are all meaningful upgrades on the Atom 2, and make the Atom 3 a compelling DJI Mini rival, especially given Potensic's competitive pricing.

Despite a few handling issues (which I'll get into below), the Atom 3 could have pinched top spot in our beginner drones guide... six months ago. The bad news for Potensic is that the DJI Lito X1 is now in the picture, raising the bar for any would-be challengers.

For practically the same money, the Lito X1 is the slightly more polished drone overall — and it features object sensing, which the Atom 3 lacks, delivering this incredibly useful feature at a new-low price point (compared to DJI's Mini 5 Pro). Ultimately, the Lito X1 gives consumers so much for the money that the fight here feels unfair.

Would I still recommend the Atom 3? Absolutely. It's way better than the Ruko U11Mini 4K, which we recently tested, and the next best thing for consumers who don't want, or can't buy, a DJI drone (US pricing is displayed on the Potensic website, suggesting it's available there, unlike new DJI products). Ultimately, Potensic's best drone yet is a highly capable beginner option — but it remains one big step behind the DJI competition.

The Atom 3 feels very much like a DJI Mini drone (Image credit: Tim Coleman)Potensic Atom 3: Price and availability

• Priced from $429.99 / £339.99
• Touchscreen RC3 controller bundle costs $424.99 / £499
• Available now direct from Potensic and via Amazon; not available in Australia at launch

The Potensic Atom 3 is available now directly through Potensic's website and via Amazon in the US and the UK, but it's yet to hit stores in Australia.

Pricing varies considerably depending on the region and the bundle. In the UK, the base package costs £339.99, with the price rising to £579.99 for the Fly More Combo with RC PTD 2 bundle (which I tested), which includes two additional batteries, a charging hub, case, and the touchscreen RC PTD 2 controller in place of the standard smartphone-based remote.

US pricing starts at $429.99, though at the time of writing only two of the five bundles are available there — it seems as though the touchscreen RC PTD 2 controller is not available directly through the Potensic site in the US. The Fly More Combo, which is available and includes the standard smartphone-based remote, costs $549.99.

At the time of writing, the Potensic Atom 3 is not available in Australia, but Potensic does have a dedicated Australia website which is the best place to check for future availability.

DJI's Lito X1 is the Atom 3's obvious rival, and it costs from £359 at Amazon UK, so just a little extra money gets you that drone's massively useful object-sensing feature. However, like other DJI drones, the Lito X1 is not available to buy in the US.

• Price score: 4/5

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)Potensic Atom 3: SpecsPotensic Atom 3 specs

Potensic Atom 3

Camera:

12.5MP 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor (with 50MP mode)

Video:

4K 60fps

Flight modes:

3x speeds, 7x Quickshots, 3x AI tracking

Storage:

MicroSD card slot, no internal storage

Battery:

2,590mAh / up to 40 minutes flight time

Charger type:

USB-C / Battery Charging Hub (Fly More Combo)

Weight:

249g / 8.8oz approx (C0 EU class)

Dimensions:

148 x 91 x 62mm / 5.83 x 3.58 x 2.44 inches (folded)

Potensic Atom 3: Design and build quality

• Folding mini design, weighing under 249g
• USB-C charging and MicroSD card slot, but no internal storage
• Optional touchscreen RC PTD 2 controller is huge

The Atom 3's hard-plastic design is strikingly similar to recent models in DJI's Mini and Lito series of sub-250g folding quadcopter drones. It's a familiar formula — the drone folds down to a coat pocket-able size and, like most beginner models, weighs under 249g. Sub-250g drones are exempt from the strictest drone registration requirements in most regions, including the UK and US.

At the rear of the drone is a USB-C slot for charging the device directly, and for transferring images from the inserted microSD card. The card slot is also at the rear — there's no internal storage.

I was able to transfer files directly onto a MacBook Pro via that USB-C wired connection, but when I tried connecting the memory card directly my computer was unable to read it. Another option for file transfer is to download the desired files through the Potensic app, which is a reliable albeit slower process.

The Fly More Combo with RC PTD 2 bundle — the priciest of all the bundlesTim ColemanThe drone with its protective coverTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim Coleman

A clip-on cover ably protects the camera and gimbal mechanism when the drone isn't in use, and this is locked in place with a rear clip by stretching an elasticated band that connects the two (see above).

The Fly More Combo (with RC PTD 2 remote controller), which Potensic supplied for this review, comes with a padded zipped case that holds the drone, the charging hub with its two additional batteries, and the sizable controller. The case is notably larger than the one for the equivalent DJI Mini 4K bundle.

The touchscreen controller feels high-quality; the screen is huge, detailed, and provides a 1080p feed up to 60fps, with Potensic's latest PixSync 5.0 video transmission system boosting the range from 10km to up to 16km, and reducing latency to 150ms. In short, the on-screen feed is smooth and immersive beyond distances that you'll ever realistically fly over.

I found certain movements of the controller's joysticks a little jerky, which spoiled some of my footage, but with practice I was able to find the sweet spots of those controls for smoother moves.

The USB-C and microSD card slots at the rear of the Atom 3Tim ColemanThe 3-axis gimbal cameraTim ColemanPotensic supplied me the dedicated ND filter kit. However, the lens guard in the press sample I received was glued in place, so I couldn't use these filters. Potensic assured me that retail units will be fine. Tim ColemanThe RC PTD 2 remote controllerTim ColemanTim Coleman

• Design score: 4.5/5

Potensic Atom 3: Features and flight performance

• Battery life quoted at up to 40 minutes; the drone typically lasted around 20 minutes in real-world testing
• No object sensing, just the usual downward-facing sensors for landing and takeoff
• Decent selection of flight and tracking moves, but some have frustrating restrictions

Potensic quotes a battery life of 40 minutes for the Atom 3, which is an improvement over the Atom 2, thanks to a 10% (approx) higher-capacity 2,590mAh unit, and on paper, this performance beats the comparable DJI; however, I didn't get close to this in real-world use.

The best battery performance I got during testing was more like 25 minutes on a calm day, while in windy coastal conditions I rarely, if ever, got more than 20 minutes. The drone's level 5 wind-resistance rating (19-24mph) seems fair, though — I used the Atom 3 in such conditions, and I found flight to be impressively stable and smooth, even if headwinds further drained the battery as I fought to bring the drone home when power was low.

When battery life drops to 10%, the drone automatically initiates landing (avoiding it simply dropping from the sky), so that's something to bear in mind, especially if you're flying over risky areas such as bodies of water.

The Fly More Combo includes three batteries and a charging hubTim ColemanBattery capacity has been upped to 2,590mAhTim Coleman

The Atom 3 has downward-facing sensors for takeoff and landing, with the useful Return to Home feature, but there are no front-, side- or rear-facing sensors, like you get with pricier drones equipped with omni-directional object sensing.

Six months ago I wouldn't have expected any more from a drone at this price point, but DJI has since brought object sensing to the much more affordable Lito X1. If Potensic is to go up a level, adding this incredibly useful feature is the logical next step for the Atom series.

Return to Home (RTH) worked flawlessly, with the drone automatically updating its position at takeoff — there's also an on-screen guide indicating where the RTH position is in relation to where the drone is in the air. It's possible to update the RTH position mid-flight, say if you move to a different location during flight and want it to land at your new location.

Downward sensors assist takeoff and landing, but there are no other sensors for obstacle avoidanceTim ColemanTim Coleman

For regular flight, there are three speeds to choose from, with the Sport Mode being the quickest at 16m/s (horizontal), 5m/s ascent and 4m/s descent. It's not the quickest drone around, but it's zippy enough for beginner use.

I really did miss object sensing, given that I regularly fly in object-packed areas to capture dynamic footage, so I needed to be extra cautious about where I flew the drone. It is possible to get smooth and stable-looking footage, though, after much practice to get a feel for the controller's joysticks.

There's a good selection of DJI-style 'QuickShot' flight moves, which perform an automated move using a selected subject as the reference point. To do this, you drag a box over the subject using the controller's touchscreen (or your smartphone's screen if using the basic controller). There are seven automated moves in all, including pull-away, rocket and boomerang.

I was happy to see three tracking modes too: Follow, Parallel and Spotlight, each of which keep your subject in the center of the frame as they move. 'Follow' tracks your moving subject from behind (though remember there's no object sensing), while 'Parallel' does the same but from the side. 'Spotlight' simply keeps the subject central as they move around the frame.

The tracking modes are hamstrung by several frustrating limitations, while the omission of object sensing further limits where you can fly. For example, to initiate Follow, the angle of the camera needs to be pointed down a certain degree — in other words the drone needs to be quite high up.

For me, the most dynamic 'follow' footage would be from a lower angle. It's possible to override the limit in the app's menu, which requires checking the option to say that propellor guards are installed (whether in reality they are or are not). Even with the options selected to free up the drone for tracking from a lower altitude, I regularly found that the drone reset itself, reimposing the restriction.

I also found that the tracking functions gave up altogether in less-open areas, when the GNSS (GPS/ GLOSNASS / Galileo / BeiDou) signal was weak. One example was trying to get tracking video of myself biking in my local woods — the drone kept stopping just a second or so into sequences. I had no such issues in the same scenario when testing the DJI Mini 5 Pro (which also has omni-directional object sensing).

Those flight moves are great to have, but adding object sensing, and addressing the other limitations, would make them way more useful for dynamic footage.

• Flight performance score: 3.5/5

Potensic Atom 3: Image and video quality

• 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor, 4K video up to 60fps
• Wider 24mm f/2.8 lens (vs 26mm f/1.8 lens of the Atom 2)
• RAW stills and flat P-Log video color profile provide editing latitude

Video and photo quality are an upgrade from the older Atom 2, with the Atom 3's camera using a larger 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor that's comparable to those in the DJI Mini 4 Pro / Lito X1, rather than the Atom 2's 1/2-inch sensor. There's also a slight change to the lens — it's a wider 24mm f/2.8, where the Atom 2 uses a 26mm lens with brighter f/1.8 aperture, which somewhat counters the sensor-based advantage the Atom 3 has.

4K video recording up to 60fps can be done the easy way or the hands-on way, using the standard or detail-rich HDR profiles for ready-to-go footage, or the flat P-Log profile, which holds more detail in highlight and shadow areas, but which requires editing to taste later.

I tried all three profiles at 30fps and 60fps, and then took P-log footage to Adobe Premiere Pro for editing and compared the footage. There are incremental image quality gains when using P-Log, but on the whole I found myself happy with the quality of HDR footage, saving myself the editing hassle.

The 24mm f/2.8 cameraTim ColemanSame scene as before, but with the 2x digital zoom employedTim ColemanThe exposure here was too brightTim ColemanWhereas manually adjusting exposure using exposure compensation kept the highlight detailsTim ColemanTim ColemanThe minimum focus distance doesn't allow for selfies!Tim ColemanTim Coleman

In addition to 4K video, there's slow-motion capture up to 7x, but only in 1080p HD resolution. Meanwhile, stills are reasonable: 12.5MP as standard, or 50MP in the '8K' mode, with JPEG and RAW formats available.

Where photo quality impresses is in how much tonal depth is retained, although images benefit from a little sharpening afterwards. Another option for further increasing shadow and highlight detail is the 'bracket' mode, which combines multiple photos at different brightness values into one with a wider range of tones, but the standard mode already does a good job.

Interval and burst shooting modes are also included, while a panorama mode combines multiple images into one ultra-wide perspective that covers 180 degrees, with the drone automatically capturing multiple frames one after the other.

I'd say image quality is just about on par with the DJI Lito X1 / Mini 4 Pro, and it's clearly a cut above the recent Ruko model.

Tim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim ColemanTim Coleman

• Image and video quality score: 4.5/5

Potensic Atom 3: Testing scorecardPotensic Atom 3

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Price

Competitively priced, but matched by the overall better DJI Lito X1.

4/5

Design

DJI-like build quality, immersive touchscreen controller (optional), no internal storage

4.5/5

Features and flight

Stable flying, sticky controls, no obstacle avoidance, flight modes hit with limitations

3.5/5

Image and video quality

Smooth video even in windy conditions, decent 4K video quality, punchy HDR setting, and detailed stills. Digital-only zoom, though

4.5/5

Should you buy the Potensic Atom 3?Buy it if...

You're a US buyer and beginner pilot
With the Lito 1 and Lito X1 unavailable in the US, the Potensic Atom 3 gives budget-conscious American buyers another option to weigh against older DJI models like the Mini 4K.

You want attractive footage straight out of camera, plus the option of flexible editing
Attractive standard and HDR footage looks great, with no editing required, while a flat P-Log profile better enables editors to get the look they like from footage with wide dynamic range.View Deal

Don't buy it if...

You plan to fly in places with lots of hazards
The Atom 3 has no obstacle-avoidance safety features whatsoever, but the similarly priced Lito X1 does. Some of its flight modes, such as Follow, didn't work for me in obstruction-filled areas such as forests, either.

You want a super-cheap 4K drone
The Atom 3 is the best DJI alternative for beginners, but the Atom 2 remains a decent buy for less, if you can live without the latest model's upgrades.

You want precise joystick control
Even the pricier RC PTD 2 controller by Potensic lacks the finesse I've experienced with DJI's alternative controller, making cinematic movements a challenge. View Deal

Potensic Atom 3: also consider

DJI Lito X1

DJI's Lito X1 is not available in the US, but for other regions it's the better pick over the Atom 3, for a similar price. Video and photo specs are similar, but the X1's flight modes are more polished and flight features are superior, including obstacle avoidance, which is lacking in the Atom 3. DJI has really made it tough for others to compete with the X1.

Read our in-depth DJI Lito X1 review

Potensic Atom 2

The Atom 3 is a solid upgrade over the Atom 2, with a larger sensor, high video frame-rates and 10-bit color depth with P-Log color profile. However, the Atom 2 offers a similar flying experience, and costs less.

Read our in-depth Potensic Atom 2 review

(Image credit: Tim Coleman)How I tested the Potensic Atom 3

• I tested the Atom 3 in a range of conditions — in daylight and at dusk, and in both calm and windy weather
• I shot video at every available resolution and frame rate combination, and still photos in all modes
• I assessed battery life and wind resistance over several flights in various conditions

Potensic sent me the Atom 3 Fly More Combo kit with the RC PTD 2 touchscreen controller. The kit included the drone, battery hub with three batteries, controller, ND filter pack, spare propellors and a USB-C to USB-C charging cable.

I conducted multiple flights in daylight and in low light at dawn / dusk, and in both calm and particularly windy coastal conditions. I tried the various flight settings and modes, and regularly ran the three batteries down, making notes of real flight times and flight stability.

I took the same video sequences in the various color modes; standard, HDR and P-Log, and at 30fps, 60fps and 6x slow motion, and compared the 4K footage. I also tried the various photo modes, including RAW & JPEG capture, panorama and 8K (48MP) modes. I edited photos in Adobe Camera Raw and videos in Premiere Pro.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read more about how we test

Founded in Lithuania in 2015 to meet rising global demand for public web data infrastructure, Oxylabs has scaled into an industry leader. These days, the provider delivers access to a full array of virtually all types of IPs across 195+ countries.

Users can gain access to residential, mobile, datacenter (shared and dedicated), and ISP proxies, as well as Web Scraper API, Fast Search API, and comprehensive datasets (all scraped ethically from publicly available sources).

On top of that, Oxylabs supports HTTP(S), HTTP3, and SOCKS5 protocols, which is great for threat intelligence and cybersecurity. Then, there’s the Web Unblocker for real estate scraping and travel fare aggregation.

You can precisely target IPs by country, city, state, ZIP code, ASN, and even geographical coordinates, so access to localized data shouldn’t be a problem.

Oxylabs: Plans and Pricing

The residential proxies come in four monthly plans: Starter at $30/month ($6/GB for 5GB), Basic at $100/month ($5/GB for 20GB), Advanced at $500/month ($4/GB for 125GB), and Corporate at $2,500/month ($2.50/GB for 1TB). You can request a free trial, during which you can access the limited residential proxy pool and proxy IP addresses for web scraping.

ISP proxies start at $1.20 per IP for shared access and $2.50 per IP for Dedicated ISP proxies. The higher the number of chosen IPs, the lower their unit cost, with all plans featuring unlimited bandwidth under fair usage and SOCKS5 support.

The mobile proxies entry plan will cost you $3.50/GB under the pay-as-you-go model, with discounted per-gigabyte rates available on larger monthly commitment plans.

If you want regular datacenter IPs, the choice of payment is between pay per IP or GB. Bandwidth pricing kicks off at $0.59/GB, while shared IP pricing is $1.20 per IP at the cheapest. Oxylabs also offers a free tier with five free US datacenter IPs and 5GB/month of bandwidth. For dedicated proxy servers, the pricing starts at $2.25 per IP with unlimited bandwidth and 99.9% uptime.

To round out the enterprise-grade data collection infrastructure, Oxylabs also has a few additional goodies on offer. There’s the Web Scraper API at $49/month for up to 98,000 results ($0.50 per 1k results), following a 2,000-result free trial. Self-serve tiers reach $249/month ($0.40 per 1000 results), whereas enterprise plans cost from $499/month.

The AI-powered Web Unblocker automatically bypasses sophisticated anti-scraping defenses, CAPTCHAs, and IP blocks through a standard HTTP proxy endpoint. The pricing begins at $5.64/GB via a success-based model where users are billed solely for successful data responses.

Finally, for projects requiring complex interaction with dynamic web applications, Oxylabs provides a managed Headless Browser tool starting at $4.70/GB, built to support AI agents and browser automation frameworks like Playwright and Puppeteer.

Oxylabs: Features

Oxylabs simplifies workflow setup through a unified web dashboard accessible via standard credentials or Google Single Sign-On. From this central interface, teams can manage proxy deployments, view bandwidth analytics, configure scraping tools across categories, and more.

(Image credit: Oxylabs)

Let’s dive deeper into the features:

Residential proxies

Residential proxies are real IP addresses offered by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They’re tied to real devices in physical locations, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions for different purposes.

For example, price comparison sites need to scrape localized data from different websites to offer good deals to users. However, retailers are often against price scraping and use geo-restrictions to prevent their sites from being scraped.

A residential proxy lets price comparison sites bypass these geo-restrictions and harvest the required data. Because the residential proxy is tied to a legitimate device, the price comparison site operator can visit a website like any normal user.

Retailers also often have different prices for different locations. Residential proxies let price comparison providers visit localized versions of a retail website. Oxylabs provides access to over 175 million residential IPs across 195 countries, including over 10 million in the US, more than 5 million in China, 3.5 million+ in Germany, and about the same amount in the UK.

You can precisely target IPs by country, city, state, ZIP code, ASN, and even geographical coordinates, which makes it easy to get localized data. Oxylabs' developer-friendly documentation and integrations make integrating these IPs into your app as smooth as possible.

Oxylabs’ IPs are legitimately sourced, which is important in a proxy sector that constantly grapples with illegitimately acquired IP addresses that expose customers to risks. It gets its residential IPs from consenting device owners who agree to join the network in exchange for a benefit, e.g., a VPN service.

ISP Proxies

For all their reliability across a wide span of use cases, residential proxies have limitations regarding large-scale data scraping. Usage restrictions, such as bandwidth limits and available time per day, make them unsuitable for scraping massive amounts of data.

Oxylabs mitigates this situation by providing proxies leased directly from ISPs like AT&T, British Telecom, Comcast, Lumen, Orange, and Frontier. You can request a shared ISP proxy (shared by up to 3 users) or a dedicated proxy, which is more expensive.

Oxylabs provides ISP proxies for enterprises with unlimited duration sessions, unlimited bandwidth under fair usage, or dynamic IP rotation. All ISP proxies support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols. These ISP proxies are well-suited for heavy traffic loads, such as mass data scraping, app testing, and ad verification.

Mobile proxies

Behaving much like mobile devices, mobile proxy servers enable users to bypass geo-restrictions and general website blocks. For instance, many websites use CAPTCHA to prevent web scraping bots from accessing their data. But with Oxylabs, you can use real mobile IP addresses to bypass CAPTCHA and scrape the needed data.

The platform provides access to a huge mobile proxy pool with 20 million+ addresses in 140+ countries. You can filter these IPs by country, state, city, ZIP code, ASN, and coordinates to find precisely what you want. Its largest proxy pools are available in the US, Germany, France, Canada, the UK, and Mexico.

A mobile proxy is also a great tool for ad verification. Companies use them to monitor whether their ads are displayed to real traffic rather than bots. Likewise, businesses can combine Oxylabs’ mobile proxy service and scraping API to gather and respond to real-time reviews.

Data center proxies

Moving on, Oxylabs offers datacenter proxies that aren't sourced from ISPs, but come from secondary cloud service providers. As such, they offer enhanced anonymity and private IP authentication across a pool of 2 million+ IPs in 188+ countries.

(Image credit: Oxylabs)

Datacenter proxies are high-speed and perform well, which makes them a highly suitable option for massive data scraping. You can buy them on a pay-per-IP or pay-per-GB basis, starting at $0.44/GB for rotating shared, $0.70/IP for shared, or $1.20/IP for dedicated, compared to their more expensive residential and mobile counterparts.

Oxylabs provides shared and dedicated datacenter IPs, the latter of which will cost you more. Shared IPs and dedicated IPs both support HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5 protocols. Shared pools offer pay-per-GB or flat-rate options, while dedicated plans feature unlimited bandwidth.

Web Unblocker

Almost a staple among enterprise-minded vendors, a Web Unblocker specializes in bypassing anti-bot systems. Many websites use advanced systems to stop scraper bots in their tracks, but thanks to Oxylabs’ solution, you can elegantly circumvent these hurdles and scrape the data you require.

It uses dynamic fingerprinting to simulate human-like browsing, with the same headers, cookies, and JavaScript rendering as a web browser. You’ll use a proxy, but the websites think it’s a legitimate user, and it serves the required content without hassle.

Web Unblocker also uses machine learning techniques to select and rotate proxies, and decide what works best on a specific site. If your scraping request fails, the tool automatically rotates proxies to send another request. This process occurs until the request is finally fulfilled, with billing based strictly on successful responses.

Scraping APIs

It’s no secret that data scraping is a frequent use case (if not the primary use case) of residential, ISP, mobile, and datacenter proxies. Companies employ them to scrape data manually, a process that gets cumbersome when dealing with massive amounts of data.

At that point, turnkey extraction solutions, including Web Scraper API and Fast Search API, come into play. They automate data scraping and deliver structured JSON/HTML information from search engines, marketplaces, real estate portals, and a whole bunch of other places.

It works like this: you select the type of data you want to scrape (text, images, prices, ads, social media likes, etc.) and choose your target website. Then, the API goes to work, scraping the data as you focus on other tasks. You’ll be alerted once your data scraping task is complete.

(Image credit: Oxylabs)

That’s not all, since Oxylabs throws in a few supplementary dev tools for good measure. These include a managed headless browser for scraping and automation, AI Studio that itself contains various low-code and no-code AI-powered apps for data extraction using natural language, and pre-collected structured Datasets ready for immediate use.

Oxylabs: Ease of Use

Oxylabs offers an intuitive interface that’s easy to navigate. All features are neatly arranged on the dashboard, with the menu on the left and the viewing pane beside it.

The interface sports a white background, purple and black text, and contrasting colours that look visually appealing. The dashboard allows users to manage proxy sub-users, view detailed usage statistics, whitelist IP addresses, and generate custom proxy endpoints via a built-in Endpoint Generator.

It’s obvious that Oxylabs has put considerable effort into its proxy integrations, as it has provided ready-to-use code snippets in multiple programming languages (Python, cURL, Node.js, Go) and step-by-step setup guides for major third-party antidetect browsers and tools.

If user-friendliness was the only criterion for this review, Oxylabs would get a perfect score.

Oxylabs: Customer Support

The platform provides 24/7 support for customers. You can start a live chat with a support agent for near-instant responses, or send an email and expect a response within a few hours to 24 hours. Enterprise clients also get dedicated account managers for tailored onboarding and account maintenance. Oxylabs’ support team was active and highly willing to resolve inquiries during our test.

Customers can also access complementary support resources, primarily comprehensive documentation for its features. On Oxylabs’ website, you can find detailed guides and user manuals for all types of proxies, along with an interactive API playground, which makes them easier to configure.

There’s a ‘Scraping Experts’ hub featuring web scraping video tutorials. This section provides valuable knowledge from Beginner to Advanced levels, and teaches the ins and outs of website scraping. The section is continuously updated with new videos and includes on-demand Q&A sessions to learn directly from scraping experts.

However, we noticed a drawback. There’s no direct phone support hotline for customers, though users can book consultation calls with Oxylabs experts via calendar links for sales and account inquiries.

Oxylabs: The Competition

There’s no shortage of rivals to Oxylabs. The main competitors we’d like to highlight are Bright Data, Decodo, and SOAX.

Bright Data is excellent for residential, mobile, static ISP, and datacenter proxies. It also offers Web Scraping APIs, a Web Unlocker, and structured Datasets like Oxylabs. The difference is that Bright Data operates an enormous 400 million+ IP pool and offers more customizability, though it carries higher enterprise starting costs.

Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) is another reliable proxy server provider, with its datacenter and residential proxies supporting the SOCKS5 protocol just like Oxylabs. It features a pool of 115 million+ residential IPs, alongside an AI Parser and scraping APIs, though Oxylabs maintains a larger IP pool of 175 million+ proxy addresses.

SOAX provides an extensive proxy IP pool (155 million+ residential addresses) as well, and has web scraping APIs and a Web Unblocker like Oxylabs. Nevertheless, it appeals to mid-market users with flexible subscription structures and user-friendly dashboard controls.

Oxylabs: Final verdict

Oxylabs thoroughly earns its rating as a top-tier proxy provider that is slowly morphing into a web data intelligence platform. A rather sizable pool of over 175 million residential IPs, 2 million datacenter proxies, and 20 million mobile nodes plays a major role in delivering exceptional global reach, paired with target precision down to individual ASNs and ZIP codes.

Beyond raw proxy infrastructure, Oxylabs follows up with several useful tools, featuring an AI-driven Web Unblocker, developer-centric Scraper APIs, cloud headless browsers, an entire suite of AI apps, and ready-to-use Datasets. Its premium pricing may reflect its enterprise focus, but there’s no doubt that Oxylabs is accessible to teams of all sizes.

We've also highlighted the best proxy and best VPN

A comprehensive, user-friendly cloud backup and cloud storage service, iDrive can back up all of your PCs, Macs, mobiles, and tablets from the convenience of a single account.

Personal plans come in 5TB and 10TB forms, and Team plans are available for anywhere between five and 100 users, offering 1TB per person. Larger companies will benefit from the Business plan, offering as little as 250GB or as much as 50TB per person, with unlimited users.

The flexible and tailored pricing strategy makes iDrive a very reasonable proposition, although the cost goes up for those who need the business features—such as server backup. At the higher tiers, it becomes a more expensive solution than Google Drive and Dropbox, though it does offer a more comprehensive set of features to justify the higher price tag.

iDrive: Plans & pricing

The iDrive cloud storage service offers up to 10GB of free cloud storage, one of the best free offerings among cloud services. Only Google Drive does better than this at 15GB of free storage. iDrive’s free 10GB of storage is much more generous than the likes of Dropbox or Proton Drive, which offer only 2GB and 5GB of free storage, respectively.

The paid plans offer plenty of options to choose from. If you're an individual, you have two choices: the Mini plan or the Personal plan. The Mini plan is meant for a single user, whereas the Personal plan allows you to use your storage across multiple computers.

You can get started for as little as $0.25/month with the 100GB Mini plan. There's also a 500GB storage option for $0.83/month. This makes iDrive one of the most affordable cloud storage services available.

(Image credit: IDrive)

The Personal plan gives you five storage options to choose from: 5TB at $6.99/month, 10TB at $10.49/month, 20TB at $17.49/month, 50TB at $34.99/month, and 100TB at $69.99/month. This is by far one of the largest selections of plans we have seen across the industry, especially in the personal category.

If you're multiple people, you have two plans to choose from: Teams and Business. The Teams plan starts with 5TB of storage for five computers and five users, priced at $6.99/month. This scales all the way up to 500 computers and 500 users, offering 500TB of storage for $699.99/month. There are several tiers in between, including plans for 10, 25, 45, 100, and 200 users.

Lastly, there's the Business plan for enterprise-grade organizations, offering 500GB of storage for $13.99/month. This plan lets you add unlimited users, as well as multiple servers and computers. It scales all the way up to 100TB, which costs $1,621.66/month.

All of these plans are billed monthly. While we understand that having so many options can be confusing, it's better to have them than not. You can simply choose the plan that best suits your needs while ignoring the others.

iDrive: Features

iDrive doesn't skimp on features. For example, there's an Express service that lets you put your data on hard drives and actually post them off, as well as the ability to create full disk images in case you need to rebuild a computer from scratch.

iDrive also supports snapshots and versioning. Unlike other platforms, which retain versions only for a specified period, iDrive allows you to restore up to 30 previous versions. The Snapshot feature comes in handy for point-in-time recovery.

If your data becomes corrupted or you fall victim to a ransomware attack, you can simply select the desired date and time, and iDrive Snapshot will restore your drive to its state at that point. From there, you can choose the files you want to recover.

(Image credit: iDrive)

All paid users get access to these physical backups via a temporary storage device, which is especially handy for those with poor Internet connectivity. This is capped at once per year for Personal customers and three times a year for Team and Business subscribers, though subsequent requests are always available at the cost of $59.95.

Then there's also some less obvious functions, including that iDrive only uploads modified parts of files to reduce bandwidth usage, the way data gets retained until you specifically delete it, or the extensive set of activity logs and reports you can access. For team managers, there are multiple user management and remote backup services.

As expected, iDrive focuses heavily on backup functionality, which is why it has also introduced cloud-to-cloud and SaaS backup capabilities. You can now back up your entire Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox, Salesforce, and Box data to iDrive. Each of these services is available as a separate add-on that can be bundled with any plan you choose.

(Image credit: iDrive)

Cloud-to-cloud backup comes in really handy for businesses that rely on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to manage their emails, files, documents, and other business data. While these platforms already offer robust data protection measures, you’re never too far away from accidental deletions, ransomware attacks, or client-side errors. Backing up critical business data with iDrive ensures longer retention and more granular recovery options than those offered by the native platforms.

While the editing and collaboration ecosystem in iDrive is not particularly advanced, it does offer basic functionality. You can create, edit, collaborate on, and manage Microsoft Office and PDF files stored in your iDrive cloud storage. This allows you to open Microsoft Office files directly from your cloud drive without switching tabs, and any changes you make are automatically synced to the original file.

(Image credit: iDrive)

This is all on top of the core functionality, which backs up an unlimited number of various devices – computers, mobile phones, servers – to a single account. If necessary, it can also back up data from mapped drives on a network. Meanwhile, the iDrive web portal makes short work for managing all of these devices together in one place. While it is filled with function, the basic and frankly uninspiring user interface does leave users feeling somewhat shortchanged.

In addition to the standard features that will appeal to everyone, there are several aimed at organizations with larger, more complex requirements (including server cloud backups covering Linux, Oracle, Sharepoint, MS SQL, Exchange Server and more). iDrive includes bare-metal disaster recovery, which is the business-grade solution to ransomware. Help with new data standards can be found as well, via encryption and date stamping for those in the medical, accounting, and legal professions.

iDrive: Interface

(Image credit: iDrive)

Cloud storage can be accessed through the browser portal, but for the full experience including device backup, the relevant program or application should be installed. Handily, iDrive supports all major device types, though the desktop clients are more impressive than the mobile apps in terms of polish and features.

You can have iDrive backup your entire hard drive (or mobile device) or just specific files and folders, and run backups manually or on a schedule. The goal here is very much ‘set and forget’ – get everything set up the way you like, and then let it work quietly away in the background.

iDrive’s web portal has also expanded, particularly for business users. Admins can now track storage quotas, team roles, and active devices from a centralized dashboard, while also setting custom policies for functions such as backups and restores.

(Image credit: iDrive)

Another useful feature is folder syncing, for keeping certain files consistent across all of your devices. There are intuitive menus and settings screens that make it clear how to create the configurations you need. It’s also great that it is simple to use, so you don't need to have an IT degree or to even consult the help pages to figure out how to do the vast majority of tasks.

The iDrive programs have a ton of settings as well, though iOS versions are less impressive. While the Android client is able to back up things like your SMS messages, iPhones and iPads are limited to contact, calendar, photos and videos (however this is more of a limitation set out by Apple than iDrive). The desktop client allows granular adjustments for bandwidth throttling, file and folder exclusion, data verification, and more. You can even pause a backup if the battery level on your laptop or your phone drops below a certain level.

Uploading and backing up files is just as quick as big players in the cloud storage game, such as Google Drive. That said, initial uploads and backups are notably slow. In our testing, a 1GB test file took around two hours to upload during the initial seed phase. This is probably due to iDrive’s commitment to deduplication and block-level indexing. As such, it’s unlikely that iDrive will be the bottleneck here, and the primary restriction will come from your ISP’s upload speeds which, in most cases, is slower than the download speeds.

It's worth noting that browser downloads redirect to a new tab, and the process of opening the new location can be slow. In the case of our 1GB test file, opening the new tab took up to six times longer than the actual download process, which can prove both time consuming and rather annoying. The entire download process isn’t quite as slick, and took several minutes more than Google Drive for our 1GB file. Fortunately, this is less of a problem when using the desktop client.

One feature we are particularly impressed with is that the account password is required to delete any file, helping to prevent any accidental deletes as the user unconsciously navigates the portal on autopilot.

Due to the nature of the service, iDrive is intended more as a backup drive than a cloud space from which to work, so editing documents online is a no go. This means downloading and reuploading your files as and when necessary, so it’s crucial that you take into account the somewhat convoluted downloading process mentioned above before committing.

Having reached out to iDrive, it is confirmed that there is no maximum file size limit, which is great news to teams and businesses working on large projects such as video editing.

iDrive: Security

On top of two-factor authentication, iDrive provides end-to-end encryption for your data. Be cautioned that this requires a private key known only to you, so don’t you forget it, or you can't get anything back. It also means that you won't be able to share files and folders with other people, as this will break the end-to-end encryption protocols.

Another option is standard encryption, which isn't quite as secure, but will still protect your data against most potential breaches. In this scenario, iDrive stores the encryption key, and can help you restore your data if needed as well as potentially hand over your files if compelled to by law enforcement. The other advantage is that you get to use the file and folder sharing features with this setting.

(Image credit: iDrive)

Besides this, iDrive has also achieved SOC 2 Type II certification, underlining its commitment to safeguarding customer data and account information. It also holds ISO 27001:2022 certification, highlighting iDrive’s systematic approach to managing sensitive customer information while ensuring integrity, availability, and confidentiality. These certifications add another layer of credibility to iDrive’s security practices.

iDrive: Our tests

We performed three tests on iDrive using a Windows 11 virtual machine running the desktop client. The virtual machine was connected to the internet through fiber broadband and a VPN server, demonstrating an average upload speed of 2300 Mbps. The tests assessed the sync speed, file recovery, and versioning.

• Test 1: Sync speed

I used the iDrive desktop client to upload a test folder with 228 files spread across seven folders to the iDrive cloud. The total size of the files was 589MB. I was pleased to see that the app displayed the number of files remaining and the progress of the upload.

The app confirmed that all files had been successfully uploaded in just 16 seconds. You read that correctly: iDrive uploaded 589MB in 16 seconds.

(Image credit: Future)

• Test 2: File recovery

After uploading our test folder to the iDrive cloud, we accessed the web portal and selected “Delete” to remove it from the cloud. Before doing so, we were asked to enter our account password. Upon opening the Trash, we immediately saw the folder's contents; each file could be restored by clicking “Restore.” Unfortunately, we could not find a way to fix the entire folder in one easy step.

Files in Trash are automatically deleted after 30 days, or you can delete them manually. This process did not offer a one-click solution.

(Image credit: Future)

• Test 3: Versioning

During our final test, we wanted to determine if iDrive would allow us to review and restore previous versions of the same file. We uploaded a simple Microsoft Word document to iDrive using the desktop client, then made some edits on our end and uploaded it again using the desktop client.

When we clicked "Restore," we could locate the modified file and view a list of versions. This enabled us to restore any version of the file that we wanted.

(Image credit: Future)iDrive: Alternatives

iDrive is one of the most complete cloud storage platforms, with a heavy focus on data backup and recovery. That said, there are a few alternatives worth considering.

For instance, if real-time collaboration is your main priority, you could opt for a service like Google Drive. In addition to offering 15GB of free cloud storage, it integrates seamlessly with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, allowing remote teams to collaborate on projects in real time, with changes reflected almost instantly. That said, Google Drive can be a little more expensive, with its 100GB plan costing $19.99/year, compared to iDrive’s $0.25/month.

If you are a large business looking for a lifetime plan, you could consider options such as IceDrive or pCloud. While IceDrive offers lifetime plans starting at $199 for 100GB of storage, pCloud offers 500GB of storage for the same price.

If you’re looking for a bundled product rather than just cloud storage, you could consider Proton Drive, which includes secure Proton Mail, Proton Pass, and a high-quality VPN alongside end-to-end encrypted cloud storage. That said, Proton is a bit more expensive.

iDrive: Verdict

iDrive gets high scores for the sheer breadth of services offered – from backing up the photos on your smartphone and files on your computer to backing up a company's databses and servers.

For those who have many devices with data that needs to be secured at reasonable prices, iDrive could well be the service for you. Its great feature set covers a lot of ground, with enough security protection and extra features such as folder sync and bandwidth controls to satisfy the majority of users.

Its cloud-to-cloud backup service is particularly useful for businesses that want to maintain secure backups of critical business data stored in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. The free 10GB plan only makes sense for users looking to store documents in the cloud, as space is too limited to perform major backups of computers, phones, and tablets.

The best thing about iDrive is its extensive selection of plans, which caters to both personal and business users. You can choose anywhere from 100GB of storage to as much as 500TB, depending on your needs.

• You can sign up for IDrive here

Not long into Marvel's Wolverine, protagonist James "Logan" Howlett is joined by fellow mutant and Team X member Mystique. The blue-skinned shapeshifter is eager to share a shocking discovery with him: a sinister secret hidden behind a closed door. But I ignore her request, instead continuing down the hall to soak in the game's stunning visuals.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5 Pro
Available on: PS5
Release date: September 15, 2026

It's the natural-looking rain streaming down a window that initially catches my attention. But beyond the pelting precipitation, I also spy equally impressive smoke, flames, and burning embers spewing from a fiery explosion – the apparent fallout of Wolverine's enemy-eviscerating entrance.

The destruction below is contrasted by beautiful moonlight above, which is occasionally punctuated by eye-pleasing flashes of lightning.

Production values as sharp as Wolverine's claws

(Image credit: Sony)

Of course, if you've played any recent first-party PlayStation game, these realism-rivaling effects probably won't come as a huge surprise. As expected, Insomniac Games' latest superhero romp is obscenely pretty, polished, and packing the sort of production values that've come to define Sony's single-player, story-driven output.

Best bit

(Image credit: Sony)

Nearly invincible with indestructible claws to match, Wolverine begins the campaign as a feral, vengeance-fueled force of nature. But he somehow becomes even more powerful, leading to combo-fueled combat encounters that encourage you to creatively chain together a growing arsenal of epic, blood-spewing specials. From turning Logan's claws into a spinning tornado to spiraling him through enemies like a human drill, there's no shortage of ways to deal death with style – and entrails – to spare.

This level of quality extends to Wolverine's characters and storytelling as well. Supported by incredibly layered, emotional performances (Liam McIntyre and Troy Baker especially stand out as Logan and Nathaniel Essex, respectively), the former features unmatched facial details and visual fidelity.

And while the game's narrative doesn't quite achieve the extreme highs of its technical and artistic excellence, it works surprisingly well, spinning an engaging tale that'll please Marvel enthusiasts while also welcoming complete newcomers into this potentially complex universe.

There's a ton of familiar characters, both friends and foes, that fans will love spending time with. But the game's pre-X-Men tale also does a great job introducing these favorites without boring the established audience or relying on exposition dumps.

In Wolverine's universe, for example, Logan and Jean Grey meet for the first time, challenging its writers to not only introduce these well-known characters to each other, but to a potential new audience. The task is handled elegantly, however, in an early mission at Team X's HQ that sees the pair naturally sharing personal details while searching for drawings a mischievous mutant child has hidden for them.

Snikt!-fueled style over substance

(Image credit: Sony)

Similar sentiments can be applied to Wolverine's non-combat content as well. You'll spend most of your time in this globetrotting adventure painting cities and towns – across Canada, Japan, Madripoor, and more – plasma-red, but when not shish kebab-ing baddies, you'll retract your claws for some less violent activities.

In addition to the excellent story interludes, Logan does some investigating, chases fleeing enemies – on foot and while straddling a motorcycle – and a surprising amount of platforming.

None of these tasks are optional and, while they don't offer anything particularly special, they do deliver the occasional fun distraction. The bike chases, for example, are practically on rails, but it still never gets old slashing a pursuing vehicle's tires with your claws.

The platforming sections, meanwhile, generally get the job done, but sometimes kill the immersion when the mutant – who can often scurry up trees like a cat – suddenly can't scale a fence, crate, or wall.

(Image credit: Sony)

Wolverine makes no apologies for being a linear, scripted action-adventure, a quality that often works to its benefit. But it can also be a detriment, like during those fickle platforming moments. This heavily directed approach does afford players some freedom, encouraging them to sniff out collectible bottles of whiskey and timed challenges accessed in Logan's creepy "Nightmare Cabin." These mini-games, unfolding in his haunted memories, also shed a bit of light on his dark, foggy past.

Whether hunting for booze or conquering these timed tasks, you'll collect DNA strand-altering "Adaptation" points, a currency that feeds another character progression path. But these passive perks don't feel all that meaningful among Logan's already considerable arsenal. Toss in the fact that these cabin-diving diversions have you partaking in the same gameplay you're already doing on the critical path – only against a clock – and they feel like an undercooked attempt at optional content.

Suit crafting feels similarly half-baked. The game contains 30-plus costumes and accompanying claws, a fantastic, fan-pleasing inclusion. But the suits are purely cosmetic, and accessed by investing the same "materials" hidden around the world.

Donning Logan with a cowboy hat or dropping him in this hyper-realistic world as his anime-inspired Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls persona is awesome, as is the permanent health bump you receive as you buy more suits. But with just the same single resource used and no gameplay effects added, calling it "crafting" is a stretch.

(Image credit: Sony)

As a linear, single-player action-adventure, Wolverine works brilliantly, delivering a visually striking, cinematic blockbuster supported by engaging characters and emotional storytelling. It's also brimming with stylish, blood-soaked combat that kept a smile stretched across my face until the credits rolled.

When it strays from its heavily scripted path, however, attempting to layer strategic depth into its arcade-y encounters – as well as engaging, optional activities into its carefully crafted world – it does reveal some undeniable cracks in its adamantium armor.

Should you play Marvel's Wolverine?Play it if...

You've always wondered what it would be like to unleash Wolverine's claws
An action game at its core, Wolverine's focus – first and foremost – is ensuring every slice, dice, hack, and slash feels rewarding as hell. Varied, violent, and soaked in enough viscera to rival a slasher movie, combat encounters are a thumb-blistering blast that puts you behind the mutant's unique skills like no game before it.

You're a fan of linear, single-player, story-driven games
If you're tired of open-worlds or overwhelmed by all the freedom RPGs offer you, Wolverine is just what the mad scientist ordered. Linear, scripted, filled with set pieces and incredibly cinematic, it paves an engrossing, action-packed story path – and guarantees you never stray from it.

You're a Marvel enthusiast craving a fresh take on the fan-favorite X-Men member
Wolverine is largely an original, standalone story set before Logan was a member of the X-Men. It's an accessible tale for newcomers, but it's also packed with plenty of familiar characters – friends and foes – as well as settings and story beats that existing fans will enjoy. It also includes a ton of cool call-outs, deep-cut references, and Easter eggs Marvel enthusiasts will eat up.

Don't play it if...

You're expecting an experience similar to Sony's Spider-Man games
While Wolverine is the latest superhero collaboration between Sony Interactive Entertainment and Insomniac Games, it is not another Spider-Man game reskinned with adamantium. Where the Spidey games were open-world romps packed with a ton of combat and traversal options – as well as massive maps brimming with optional activities – Wolverine is a linear, heavily scripted story experience with more straightforward hack-and-slash action and far less to do.

Accessibility features

Marvel's Wolverine includes an impressive suite of accessibility assists, beginning with plenty of options to tailor the blood, gore, violence, and profanity to any player's comfort level.

Beyond that, there are various difficulty settings, as well as ample gameplay assists to further tweak and tailor the challenge within those defaults. In addition to the expected inclusions for customizing subtitles, UI, and HUD elements, a huge selection of audio and visual assists are also available.

While a variety of high-contrast modes and color customizations are included, dedicated protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia selections seem to be absent.

How I reviewed Marvel's Wolverine

I spent just over 25 hours with Wolverine, completing its campaign before replaying many missions to seek out collectibles and attempt optional time trial challenges.

I played the game on my PS5 Pro using my budget TCL 4K 65" TV, with HDR enabled. For audio, I tested with both the display's onboard stereo speakers and Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset.

First reviewed September 2026

The best parental control apps, like Bark, are becoming increasingly popular as the web gets increasingly dangerous for young people – and with features like screen time management, website and app blocking and location tracking available, it’s no wonder.

Bark was founded by Brian Bason, the current CEO, in 2015. It’s grown to become one of the biggest names in the parental control space, with 7.5 million children covered by its services – and, admirably, it’s detected millions of potential self-harm and bullying situations alongside loads of other threats.

Should you consider Bark for your parental control needs, though, or should you look elsewhere? Let’s find out.

Plans and pricing

Bark’s core service, its monitoring app, is available with two different plans. The more affordable plan, Bark Jr, costs $5 per month or $49 per year and allows parents to control screen time, filter websites and apps and monitor for appropriate content. It also offers location tracking and check-in features.

The more expensive plan, Bark Premium, costs $14 per month or $99 for a year and adds social media, email, and YouTube monitoring on phones, tablets, and computers. That pricier product also includes advice and tips from child psychologists and web search monitoring.

Bear in mind that right now the app only works in the US, Guam, South Africa and Australia. Bark’s size and popularity mean that the company has branched out beyond the app, too.

The Bark Phone integrates many of the app’s features into a kid-friendly smartphone with automatic monitoring capabilities. The Starter Plan costs $29 per month and doesn’t allow apps, social media or browsing, so it’s ideal for younger children. The Advanced Plan costs $39 per month and adds those features – with parental controls – for older children.

The Bark Watch monitors texts, tracks locations, manages contacts, and includes an emergency SOS button. It costs $15 per month and includes a Bark Premium subscription.

Finally, there’s Bark Home, which is a small device that connects to your home internet to monitor screen time, content and apps for every device in your home. It costs $6 per month.

Features

We’re here to discuss the Bark app, though, and there’s no denying that there’s plenty to talk about.

Firstly, it’s essential to note that, like many parental control tools, Bark can monitor various services and apps on both Android and iOS devices. While there are still differences between the features available on both platforms, Bark is still better than the likes of Boomerang when it comes to iOS functionality.

On Android, Bark currently monitors 30 different apps. The list includes big social media names, like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and TikTok, alongside messaging services like WhatsApp, Kik, Slack and Discord. It covers cloud storage services like OneDrive and Google Drive, apps like ChatGPT, Spotify and Steam, and gaming platforms like Roblox.

(Image credit: Bark)

Beyond that, Bark on Android monitors Google Chrome, Firefox, and the device's default browsers, email clients including Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Comcast, and iCloud, and the device’s texts, photos, and videos.

On iOS, add Yahoo Mail to the list. On Apple’s platform, Bark only includes complete monitoring for 16 apps, and that list does not include TikTok, Snapchat, Skype or Discord. That said, Bark can still monitor some social media apps like WhatsApp, X, and Reddit on iOS.

When a potential event is detected, the parent gets a real-time alert to intervene, and different alerting methods are available, including texts, emails, or push notifications.

(Image credit: Bark)

Bark also offers comprehensive features to limit children’s online time, including blocking websites and controlling screen time with a range of granular options. Bark allows you to set up your child’s schedule throughout the week, choosing from options like School, Free Time, and Bedtime.

For instance, you can block games and social media apps from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. while still allowing your child to access educational apps. You can also set time limits for specific apps with Bark (however, this is a Bark Phone-exclusive feature and is not available in the app).

A particularly handy feature is the ability to pause internet access on your child’s device with the click of a button. This automatically cuts off access to apps that require an internet connection to work (provided they do not find an alternative, such as public Wi-Fi). As with any other parental control application, you can also block certain websites or apps that you deem inappropriate for your child.

What we liked about Bark is that it includes predefined content categories such as gaming, sexual content, social media, and streaming services. You can simply toggle a button to block all websites within a category instead of blocking each website manually.

You can also require safe search on browsers such as Google and Bing while blocking all other search engines that do not support the feature. It's worth noting that a complete website history is not available. Bark will only update you if it’s flagged for your chosen topics.

(Image credit: Bark)

But, with Bark, that’s the idea. It’s not a keylogger or a tracker, and relies on a certain level of trust between parent and child – so you get alerting and reporting, but not a complete picture.

A similar approach is deployed for Bark’s location tracking. You get alerts when your children are at specific locations, rather than 24/7 tracking. If they drive, you get a summary of their travel and top speed.

You can also choose to lock your child's phone while they are driving to help them stay focused on the road. Parents can also request in-app check-ins to confirm that their child has reached a destination safely.

(Image credit: Bark)

Unlike Net Nanny, Bark allows you to drop pins on a map and set a radius of up to 200 meters (0.12 miles) to create a predefined geographical boundary. Every time your child enters or leaves this boundary, you’ll receive an instant alert. However, the radius is a bit too small. Competitors like Norton Family allow you to set a two-mile radius, which is a much more practical approach to geofencing.

Despite offering such a wide range of parental control and monitoring features, Bark stays true to its philosophy of being non-intrusive. This is why you cannot read your child’s conversations in real time. Instead, Bark notifies you only when its algorithms detect a potential issue.

Bark can detect instances of anxiety, bullying, depression, drug- or alcohol-related conversations, hate speech, profanity, sexual content, violence, and weapon-related conversations.

Another handy feature is that Bark alerts you if your child attempts to create an alternative account to circumvent its monitoring. This helps prevent them from creating secret accounts to hide their online activity.

Bark’s machine learning is great at catching the latest trends and slang words, and it can spot if your child is using VPNs. To play into the trust involved here, children can uninstall Bark – albeit with a warning. If they try to install risky apps, parents will get a warning and parents can block, but that’s not automatic.

Interface and in-use

Setting up Bark is straightforward and takes around 10 minutes per device to connect your child’s phone with your own. Simply follow the setup checklist presented when you first log in.

One thing we liked about Bark is its "alerts, not logs" philosophy. Since Bark uses AI to filter your child’s activity, parents are not bombarded with endless notifications and are alerted only when there is a genuine concern.

(Image credit: Bark)

Each alert is detailed, providing information about the platform where the incident occurred, the time it was detected, and even suggestions on what your next steps could be. Parents can review each alert and take the appropriate action, either dismissing it as a false positive or escalating it for further review.

Bark’s apps and desktop interfaces are excellent: clear, straightforward, and attractive. A dashboard provides a summary of the rules you’ve set for your children and their activity over the last seven days, and parents get a weekly report via email too.

Support

Bark offers email and live chat support, online guides and forums, and an AI assistant can provide easy access to articles and triage basic issues.

On the Bark website you’ll find how-to videos that explain the app’s key features, and plenty of support articles.

There isn’t any phone support, though, which may be a dealbreaker for parents who want quick responses while talking to a real person.

The competition

Bark faces plenty of competition as one of the larger names in the sector. Qustodio is one of the other big names, and it suffers from some of the same issues: it’s far more powerful on Android than on iOS, for starters.

One of Qustodio’s biggest advantages is its pricing, which is much more affordable than Bark’s. The basic Qustodio plan is priced at around $5/month, the same as Bark Jr., but it also includes the ability to pause internet access. Qustodio’s complete plan costs around $9.16/month, roughly $5 less than Bark, while offering similar features alongside AI-powered search and messaging alerts.

Elsewhere, Google Family Link is free, even if it’s a bit more basic than Bark, and Mobicip is a good alternative if you want real-time activity monitoring and location tracking.

Mobicip is also more affordable than Bark, with plans starting at just $2.99/month and supporting up to five devices. Even on this budget plan, you get similar features such as screen time limits, schedule management, activity reports, and app blocking.

Bark: Final verdict

Bark has adopted a modern approach to parental controls, promising to remain non-intrusive. This philosophy is clearly reflected in its feature set, which gives children a greater degree of freedom and privacy. Parents cannot read their children’s text messages directly. Instead, they are notified only when something suspicious or inappropriate is flagged by Bark’s algorithms.

In addition to the essentials, such as website blocking, app blocking, and location tracking, Bark offers several additional utilities that add value to its parental control suite. You can receive alerts whenever your child attempts to create a second account to circumvent Bark’s controls. Additionally, Bark offers pre-built content categories, allowing a single toggle to block all websites within a selected category, saving you a lot of manual setup time.

That said, Bark is a bit on the expensive side, costing around $14/month for its full feature set. If you’re looking for cheaper alternatives, apps like Qustodio, Mobicip, and Norton Family are all worthy options.

• We've picked out the best free parental control software

The internet is littered with hundreds of parental control apps that claim to give you complete visibility into your child’s online activities. However, in doing so, many of these apps invade your children’s private space and blur the lines into surveillance.

This is where HeyPolo stands out. Launched by the team behind Surfshark VPN, HeyPolo is a separate product that takes a consent-based approach to location sharing. It allows you to see the approximate or real-time location of your loved ones at any point.

The best part is that users can control who they share their information with, what information they share, and for how long. HeyPolo also says it will never sell, monetize or exploit users' location data, with location data encrypted while in transit.

If you’re looking for a lightweight, easy-to-use, and inclusive location-tracking application, HeyPolo might just be the right pick. Read on as we explore its various features and pricing, and compare it with the best parental control apps so that you can make an informed decision.

HeyPolo review: Plans and pricing

HeyPolo offers one of the simplest parental control pricing plans we've seen. The monthly plan costs $5.99/month, while the annual one is just $1.99/month. The only difference between the two plans is the duration of the subscription. Everything else is the same, meaning both plans come with everything HeyPolo has to offer.

One good thing is that a single plan covers your entire family, with unlimited devices and no per-person pricing. Exactly what Surfshark VPN is known for, too. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee, which means that if you don't like how HeyPolo works, you can get a refund.

Next, although HeyPolo’s website says that it doesn't offer any free trial, that's not entirely true. Sure, if you purchase through the website, you don't get a free trial. But if you download the app on your iOS or Android device and purchase a subscription through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you do get the option of a 3-day or 7-day free trial.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)HeyPolo review: Features

First up, there’s real-time location sharing, where you can view your contacts’ location details, which are updated every five seconds. Users can choose whether to share their exact location or a general area, giving them better privacy control.

Location sharing can either be left on indefinitely or for a specific time period. Users can also set arrival and departure alerts for specific places, such as school, work, or home.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

There’s also an SOS emergency alert, where any family member can send an instant SOS alert that notifies the recipient of their real-time location. This could come in handy for elderly people living alone, children travelling solo at night, a car breakdown, or any other emergency situation.

You can also set up low-battery alerts, alongside location and emergency alerts, so you can know when a family member's phone is running low on power.

Similarly, there’s group location sharing, which allows users to share their location with several people at once within specific groups or circles.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

What stands out is that while most location-sharing apps only allow the person who created the group to control it, HeyPolo gives every member a certain degree of control over what they share. Each plan comes with unlimited groups, and everyone can join for free. One person can belong to multiple groups simultaneously, each with different sharing settings.

You can choose between three different levels of location sharing: Exact Location, which shows your live location; General Area, which shows the neighborhood you're in; and Private Mode, which turns off location sharing completely. You can also choose to share your location for a one-time period or during repeating periods, rather than having it constantly enabled.

So, you’ll get a notification every time your child reaches school or leaves it. The same goes for workplaces too. You can also share trips with people in your group. This shows where you travelled, when you travelled, your route on a map, and the length of the trip.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

Lastly, HeyPolo saves detailed location history, allowing you to check where you or any member of your group has been, including past routes. However, this history is stored for only seven days, after which it is automatically deleted.

HeyPolo review: Interface and in-use

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

HeyPolo is very easy to install. Simply download the application from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store, and you’re good to go. You only need to set up a profile, purchase a subscription, and then invite the family members or friends whose locations you want to track.

People can be invited either by sharing a link or using the short code displayed on the screen. Note that only one person in the group needs an active subscription; everyone else can join for free.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

An important caveat worth mentioning is that you won’t be able to move ahead with the app until you opt for a free trial or purchase a subscription, which means there is no demo mode offered by HeyPolo.

However, once you’re inside, you’ll see an interface with a live map showing everyone in your group as icons. Each icon is labelled with a status such as “Active”, “Arrived Home”, “In Private Mode”, or “Left Work”. People who are on the move will have a tag such as “On the Move (47 mph)”, showing their current speed.

We also like how the reviews for the HeyPolo apps have been overwhelmingly positive. The app is rated 4.35 stars on Google Play and a whopping 4.9 on the App Store. Most users describe the setup as uncomplicated, and the application itself is minimal and low-clutter, which is consistent with HeyPolo’s positioning as a lightweight, consent-first alternative to surveillance-heavy family trackers.

HeyPolo review: Support

HeyPolo has one of the fastest support services we've seen across the industry. There are two ways to reach customer support: email and live chat.

We tried out the live chat function by clicking on the small chat icon at the bottom right of the screen. To our surprise, it wasn’t an automated AI chatbot where you have to fight through several menus before getting an answer.

A live human agent was there to help us almost immediately, and resolving any queries was as easy as typing them out and asking whatever we needed. Overall, the chat was very swift, and we got straightforward, to-the-point answers to our questions.

Just keep in mind that live chat support is available from 9am to 5pm CDT. But there’s a good collection of FAQs, blogs, and articles on the website should you need help with common queries outside these hours.

HeyPolo review: The competition

HeyPolo is very good at what it does – tracking the real-time location of your family members. However, it's pretty limited in functionality and does not extend to other parental control features. If that’s what you’re looking for, here are a few alternatives you can consider.

mSpy is one of the best keyloggers in the industry, offering extensive insights into your child’s device and allowing you to see every word they type on their devices.

It also comes with robust location tracking, just like HeyPolo. You can monitor various social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and even TikTok, and block certain apps on your child’s phone that you do not approve of. There’s also a screen-recording function that captures the child’s phone activity at set intervals.

That said, mSpy is a bit intrusive and does not follow the same consent philosophy as HeyPolo. Not to mention, it can also be pretty expensive, costing $11.19 per month on the annual plan.

(Image credit: HeyPolo)

Life360 is perhaps the closest substitute to HeyPolo, offering similar location-sharing features. However, it comes with better ancillary features than HeyPolo, such as 24/7 roadside assistance, crash detection, emergency dispatch, and free towing for up to 50 miles.

You also get $1 million in reimbursement for stolen funds, medical assistance, stolen phone protection, and more, depending on the plan you choose.

Life360 also offers a 7-day free trial, allowing you to check out the application and see if it suits your needs. That said, it's again a bit expensive, with its Silver plan priced at $9.99 per month.

HeyPolo review: Final verdict

HeyPolo is a straightforward, no-nonsense location-tracking application that helps you know the exact location of your loved ones at any moment.

It's ideal for families that believe in complete transparency. HeyPolo allows members to choose what data they share, with whom, and for how long, giving them greater control over their privacy. Users can see real-time locations updated every five seconds, as well as location history going back up to seven days.

You also get a 3-day or 7-day free trial when you purchase a subscription on the mobile apps. Along with this, the subscription is very affordable, at just $1.99/month.

That said, HeyPolo isn’t a full-fledged child monitoring app and is limited to location tracking. If you need other features like social media tracking or screen-time management, mSpy can be a good alternative.

• We've also featured the best parental control software

If you’re looking for a comprehensive online security suite for your family that also includes parental controls, Bitdefender is one of the best options right now. It's a well-known security provider offering an award-winning antivirus program, along with a password manager, VPN, and identity theft protection.

But does its parental control offering, which is bundled with its Family plans and not available via a standalone subscription or even a dedicated app, compete against the best parental control apps?

Read on as we dissect the various parental control features it offers, what they cost, how easy the dashboard is to use every day, and what the top competitors offer.

Bitdefender parental control review: Plans and pricing

Bitdefender no longer offers its parental control features as a standalone subscription. You’d have to get one of its four family plans. But note that its entire suite of parental control features is available with each of these four plans.

The Total Security Family plan starts at $79.99 for the first year and covers up to 25 devices across five family members. At this price, the cost boils down to around $16 per member per year, which is more affordable than many other parental control applications. Not to forget that, for the price, you also get 24/7 real-time antivirus protection for up to 25 devices, as well as a password manager.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

Next is the Premium Security Plan, which costs $99.99 for the first year and also comes with scam protection, AI-based scam protection, and a VPN with 4,000+ servers in 50+ countries. The Ultimate Security Family Plan and the Ultimate Security Plus Family Plan cost $119.99 and $199.99 for the first year, respectively.

The former comes with dark web monitoring and identity theft protection features such as an identity protection score and real-time breach notifications, while the latter also includes $2 million in identity theft insurance, three-bureau credit monitoring, and other bank, credit card, and investment alerts.

Bitdefender parental control review: Features

One of the standout Bitdefender parental control features is the ability to set screen-time schedules for your children, who would only be able to access their devices during the allowed time intervals.

Along with this, Bitdefender also offers several preset routines: Focus Time, Family Time, and Bedtime, which you can customize as per your child’s daily activity and schedule.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

There’s also a pretty handy internet time management feature, which allows you to control how much time your child spends on the internet during a day. A nice addition is the ability to reward extra screen time for your children for responsible online use.

In addition to internet scheduling, parents can also choose to cut off internet access directly on their child’s device using Bitdefender’s Stop Internet feature.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

Bitdefender also offers predefined age-appropriate filtering categories to help you filter out inappropriate content such as porn, betting, or online gaming for your children. As with screen time, you can also fine-tune these filters to better suit your child’s day-to-day use.

Apart from category-level filtering, parents can also allowlist or blocklist specific URLs individually, in case you want to go beyond the category selection.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

Parents can set up to five child profiles, each with the child’s name, photo, and birth date. Bitdefender automatically applies age-appropriate filtering as soon as the profile is created, which parents can then edit as per their needs.

Along with this, there’s also location tracking, which helps you know where your child is on an interactive map at all times.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

Lastly, there’s Safe Search, which lets you remove explicit and harmful results from search engines, as well as YouTube restrictions, which ensure your child only views age-appropriate videos on the platform.

However, note that content filtering and safe browsing require an active VPN connection to function, as per Bitdefender’s listing on the Google Play Store.

Bitdefender parental control review: Interface and in-use

Bitdefender parental control works across Android, Windows, iOS, and macOS. That said, Windows and Android get full, unrestricted enforcement of every feature, whereas macOS and iOS are noticeably more limited, largely due to Apple’s own platform restrictions.

For instance, iOS content filtering runs through Apple’s Screen Time and not Bitdefender’s own engine. Parents have to create a child account through Apple ID, then Bitdefender’s app hooks into Apple’s Screen Time restrictions rather than doing its own independent content filtering.

However, the setup is pretty simple. You just have to download the app on your child’s own device. Unlike other parental control applications, you can’t download the app on your child’s phone remotely – you’ll need physical access to the device to do so.

One thing worth noticing is that, after the 2025 overhaul, parental control is no longer configured within the Bitdefender Central mobile app, but from the Bitdefender Central web dashboard, which can still be accessed through the mobile application.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

Once you’re on this dashboard, day-to-day use is genuinely easy. Bitdefender’s Activity Dashboard is filled with several graphs and charts, which allow you to check your child’s phone activity at just a glance.

For example, there’s a bar chart showing their daily internet time over the past few days, as well as a pie chart showing their current day’s internet usage along with their remaining time. The dashboard also gives parents visibility into what’s actually being blocked and when.

(Image credit: Bitdefender)

The Prevented Content Access panel is a running log of every link blocked on the child’s device over the past 7 or 30 days. This allows you to see whether your filtering settings are actually able to catch anything, or whether your child is repeatedly trying to search for restricted websites on their device.

Bitdefender parental control review: Support

Bitdefender offers one of the most extensive support options we’ve seen across the industry. For starters, there are hundreds of articles, blogs, and how-to explainers on its website, neatly categorized based on different products.

If that doesn’t solve your problem, you can contact Bitdefender support using 24/7 live chat, phone, or email. However, to do so, you’ll first have to go through a few selections, such as the exact help you need, the type of issue you’re facing, and the product you need help with.

The support section features various phone numbers for different regions. The email support requires you to enter your own email address along with the problem you’re facing and doesn’t hand out direct email addresses to the consumer.

Beyond all this, Bitdefender also has an active expert community where you can get answers and solutions from other users across the world. Overall, Bitdefender’s support infrastructure is pretty solid, and you’ll never be left wanting for answers.

Bitdefender parental control review: The competition

Bitdefender is billed as a complete security suite and not a standalone parental control app, which is why it does lack a few advanced, dedicated parental control features.

For instance, Parentaler offers social media monitoring, allowing you to view your child’s WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok accounts, and see what they’re posting or with whom they’re chatting.

There’s also text and call monitoring with Parentaler, allowing you to read your child’s incoming and outgoing texts, including deleted messages. We also like its keyword alert function, where you can get instant notifications if your child uses certain controversial words or slang in their conversations.

Another notable feature missing from Bitdefender is geofencing. While it allows you to check your child’s location, it doesn’t offer alerts based on allowed or restricted zones on a map.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive all-in-one package, Aura is another strong option. It combines parental controls with identity protection, antivirus, VPN, and a password manager, making it more of a complete digital security solution than a standalone parental control app.

If you still need a standalone parental control app but need something more affordable, try Google Family Link, which is entirely free to use and offers comparable features such as screen-time management and content filtering.

Or, you could try FamilyTime, starting at just $2.41 per single device per month. In addition to screen-time scheduling and internet schedules, you can also block apps or games on a child’s device that you don’t approve of.

It also comes with an SOS panic button that your child can use during an emergency. It’s also a great choice for households with several children, thanks to its affordable family plans that can cover up to five devices.

Bitdefender parental control review: Final verdict

Bitdefender’s family packages are ideal for parents looking for all-round security protection for their children rather than a dedicated, comprehensive parental control app.

But there’s still lots to like. You get robust screen-time management and internet-time management features, along with predefined age-appropriate filtering categories and location tracking. That’s all in combination with an antivirus with real-time protection, a password manager, an unlimited VPN, and identity theft protection, depending on the plan you choose.

The pricing is pretty affordable too, with the monthly cost working out to around $1.33 per member on the entry-level plan. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features, such as social media monitoring, keyword alerts, or geofencing, options like Parentaler or mSpy are more suitable.

• We've also featured the best parental control software

Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro: two-minute review

In August 2026, Tineco launched its most advanced floor washer to date — the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum. With a suction power of up to 25,000 Pa, it’s one of the most powerful wet-dry vacuums on the market, picking up fine materials like flour in a single pass and large materials like 8-12 leaves in less than a minute. With the lie flat design, you can reach further under furniture. Side edge cleaning doesn’t get better than this. You can clean along the front of the vacuum up to about one-half to one-eighth of an inch. With a battery that lasts 65-75 minutes on Auto mode and up to 100 minutes on Quiet mode, you can clean most houses in a single go.

Thanks to four cleaning modes, including a dirt detect mode, the Tineco Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum soared through our various cleaning tests from dry debris to wet messes and stubborn stains. A HydroBurst sprayer that can spray solution on tough stains is a great addition, but kind of unnecessary since the mopping power is exceptionally good. Not only does the wet-dry vacuum use hot water to clean (and continuously washes the brushroll as it mops), but the brushroll presses against the floor for a deeper clean and utilizes a streak-free scraper when the wet-dry vacuum goes in reverse. This helps to remove tough messes and prevent streaks or water stains.

(Image credit: Future)

The most notable upgrade, however, is the Smart Refresh Station. Tineco clearly took inspiration from robot vacuum bases and created a base that automatically refills the wet-dry vacuum with cleaning solution and clean water from a 5-liter water tank. This reduces the maintenance required, which is already impressive considering the base uses hot water and hot air to clean the brushroll. Maybe soon enough Tineco will surprise us with a base that removes dirty water and debris too.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to this wet-dry vacuum is the price. It’s one of the highest on the market. If you’re willing to do a little more maintenance, the Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Pro cleans just as well. Still, I can’t deny that the Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum might do better with larger debris and is a great investment for those with larger homes who want to clean their space on a single charge.

Keep reading for my full review of the Tineco Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum and see why it’s currently my favorite on the market.

Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro: price and availability

• List price: $1,199 (about £880 / AU$1,660)
• Launch date: August 2026
• Availability: US

The Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum launched in the US in August 2026 at a list price of $1,199 (about £880 / AU$1,660), making it Tineco’s most expensive wet-dry vacuum and a premium-priced wet-dry vacuum on the wider market. It’s sold through Tineco, as well as third-party retailers like Amazon and Walmart.

The price is not surprising, considering it may be the first wet-dry vacuum to offer a base station that auto refills the unit with water and solution. I’ve been testing wet-dry vacuums for years, and though this isn’t new technology (in that we see it utilized with wet-dry robot vacuums), it is new for wet-dry vacuum bases. Add in the exceptional battery life, solution sprayer, and streak-free scraper technology, and this price makes sense.

Perhaps during the holidays, the Tineco Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro will be discounted. For now, you could go with the equally exceptional Tineco Floor One S9 Artist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum if you’re willing to refill the water tank by hand. It’s usually $849, but it’s discounted to $599, and I can say firsthand that it has a similar cleaning prowess as the S9 Scientist Pro.

• Value score: 4 out of 5

Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro: specs

Max suction

25,000 Pa

Dimensions:

9.5 x 10.25 x 43 inches (the unit), 12 x 11.25 x 17 inches (base only)

Water tank volumes

0.85 L on the unit, 5L on the base (clean) / 0.72 L (dirty)

Filter

HEPA filter

Max runtime

Up to 100 mins

Recharge time

Approx 3-4 hours

Tools

Brush to clean dirty water tank

Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro: design

• 180-degree lie-flat design for hard-to-reach places
• Four cleaning modes and a solution sprayer for tough stains
• Self-cleaning and clean water auto-refilling base

It took minutes to put the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum together. All I had to do was remove it from the packaging, slot the handle into the unit, and put it to charge on the base. A bottle of cleaning solution, extra brushroll, and a cleaning brush were provided in the packaging.

The first few things I noticed about the design were the thickness of the vacuum head and the sleek rectangular box design of the body. It looks almost robotic-like, and as I delved further into the design, it makes a lot more sense why the vacuum looks the way it does.

The Tineco Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum is 30lbs, so it’s not lightweight, but thanks to a self-propel system, it doesn’t feel heavy. I liked that vacuum head and the body are flexible and twist and turn easily. The wet-dry vacuum can also lie 180-degree flat making it easy to reach under beds and sofas to clean. This is possible because the dirty water tank is on the back of the vacuum body and the clean water tank is on the top of the vacuum head — hence why the vacuum head is so bulky.

(Image credit: Future)

A streak-free scraper under the vacuum head lifts when you push the vacuum forward and drops when you pull it backwards, so that it can scrape excess water and tough stains. This results in a completely clean floor free of water stains and streaks. A white headlight helps to illuminate dark spaces, while a comb and scraper near the brushroll prevents the tangling of hair and other debris.

A small LED screen is placed on the handle with three buttons. The power button turns the unit on and off, while the change mode button lets you move between the four cleaning modes — Auto, Max, Quiet, and Suction. The mode in use and battery life appear on the LED screen. A HydroBurst button causes cleaning solution to spray from the front of the vacuum head onto tough stains.

Tineco has done something a bit different with the Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum in terms of the Auto Mode (or the dirt detect system). When using Auto Mode, a light blue digital ring on the front of the unit’s body appears. Parts of the ring turn red to notify you how dirty the floor is. The more red the ring is, the dirtier the floor.

(Image credit: Future)

While this digital display is intuitive, there are seven status displays in total that appear on the front of the vacuum’s body and not all of them are easy to remember. The seven displays are Dirt Level, Battery, HydroBurst, Self-Cleaning, Drying Mode, Malfunction, and Water Filling Indicators. Each one has a different shape and a different color indicator. This is probably the biggest design drawback for me, as I think Tineco could’ve displayed such indicators in an easier-to-understand method. With the voice commands, you’ll understand what each indicator means, but if you turn off the voice commands, you might find yourself slightly confused.

There is also a self-cleaning button on the top of the handle. It’s to be pressed when the wet-dry vacuum is on the base. Three buttons appear on top of the vacuum body when it’s on the base. The 'Hot Water Refill' button refills the wet-dry vacuum with hot water, while the 'Silent' button results in a longer brushroll drying period. The brushroll dries in five minutes if you press the 'Flash' button.

(Image credit: Future)

The base may be large, but consider this: it charges the wet-dry vacuum, self-cleans it with hot water and air, and auto refills the wet-dry vacuum’s clean water tank with water and cleaning solution. At the back of the base there is a cleaning solution compartment that can hold an entire bottle of Tineco cleaning solution. A 5-liter tank of clean water is then placed on top the cleaning solution compartment, so that when the wet-dry vacuum is on the base, the base can move hot water into the wet-dry vacuum hands-free.

While the design outshines other wet-dry vacuums on the market, I see some room for slight improvements in the future.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro: performance

• Phenomenal cleaning capabilities with great edge cleaning
• Does a outstanding job suctioning liquids and large debris like leaves
• Front edge cleaning varies between ½ and 1/8th of an inch from the wall

From the get-go, I really liked how the handle of the the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum twisted and turned so easily. This especially helped when I laid the wet-dry vacuum flat to clean under my bed. I was able to reach around the legs of my bedframe easily.

The dirt detection system was fantastic, recognizing even the smallest amounts of dust. My home is very dusty because it’s historic, and I was glad to see that the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum suctioned up the dust rather than spreading it about or pushing it back into the air. The headlight illuminated dust and debris in dark spaces, though I would’ve preferred a green rather than a white headlight as green lights make dust and debris more visible. At least, I could trust the Auto Mode to 'see' hidden stains or dirt that I couldn’t see under the white headlight or with the naked eye.

(Image credit: Future)

The suctioning capabilities of the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum are beyond impressive, which isn’t surprising considering it has a suction power of 25,000 Pa. (Trust me, that’s massive.) I used the wet-dry vacuum to pick up a lot of dried leaves that had fallen around one of my plants. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wet-dry vacuum accomplish such a task in such a short time. Most struggle to suction one or two leaves, much less 10. Even the reverse cleaning was better than most wet-dry vacuums.

One of the first things I tested was the edge cleaning. There was no space between the wall and the side edge of the vacuum head. However, I noticed that there was about half an inch along the front edge of the vacuum head and the wall. That was a bit disappointing, until I realized that with certain things, like my really tall thresholds, the space shortened to about 1/8th of an inch. After some experimenting, I realized that if I approached the wall slowly with the front of the vacuum head, the front edge cleaning improved and I could clean closer to objects or walls.

Because the wet-dry vacuum’s head is so bulky, I couldn’t reach under cabinet overhangs. This has been my biggest gripe with wet-dry vacuums since they started putting the clean water tank on the top of the vacuum head because it means I have to go back through the house with a vacuum to clean those spaces.

The clean water tank lasted about 30 minutes (which is quite long), while the dirty water tank had to be emptied at about 40 minutes. These results are well above average.

While most people may use a robot vacuum or vacuum to clean daily, the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum is a really great wet-dry vacuum to have on hand for weekly deep home cleanings and stubborn stains.

Cleaning tests

I ran several cleaning tests to see how well the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner cleans on Auto mode and was impressed with the results. I sprinkled flour, coffee, and crunchy oats on my laminate flooring, and spilled a variety of liquids like water, soy sauce, and barbeque sauce. I also place an egg on the ground and sprayed some chocolate sauce and siracha sauce and let them both dry slightly.

The Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner picked up all the fine and large materials in a single pass, though some flour got stuck on the wheels when I reversed over the flour. The Suction mode did a fantastic job suctioning up the water. I used the Auto mode for the barbecue and soy sauces just to ensure the floor wasn’t sticky afterwards. It cleaned both sauces in a single go without any remaining residue.

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While the wet-dry vacuum picked up the slightly dry siracha sauce in a single pass, it took about four passes to pick up the driest and thickest parts of chocolate sauce on auto mode. The thinner areas of the chocolate sauce only took a single pass.

I test a lot of wet-dry vacuums throughout the year, and Tineco consistently beats every other brand in cleaning capabilities. The Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner didn’t disappoint, and proves that this wet-dry vacuum cleans the most consistently and effectively (and with less effort!) compared to others on the market.

FutureFutureFutureMaintenance

The Tineco Floor One Station Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum stands out among all wet-dry vacuums because of its base which is outfitted with a 5-liter water tank and a solution bay (that can hold a single solution bottle). The base automatically refills the wet-dry vacuum’s clean water tank in less than 30 seconds – and it’s pretty amazing to watch.

After each cleaning session, I placed the wet-dry vacuum on the base and ran the self-cleaning system which uses hot water to clean the brushroll. This hot water process is quite effective as the brushroll comes out super clean. I only found a very small amount of dust under the vacuum head when I removed the brushroll — far less than I have found with other wet-dry vacuums that I’ve tested.

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The base dries the brushroll and filter with hot air that’s 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Flash dry takes five minutes to dry the brushroll, while silent dry results in a quiet (40 dB sound rating) drying process. I wish I could say that the brushroll was completely dry when using either of these settings, but there was a very slight amount of dampness. On the flash dry setting, the brushroll was 95% dry, while the silent dry mode made the brushroll about 98% dry.

The only thing the base can’t do is empty the dirty water tank – so you have to do it by hand. A brush is provided by Tineco to remove debris. The debris catcher design could be better, but it catches a decent amount.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Tineco Floor ONE Station S9 Scientist Pro: battery life

The battery life of the Tineco Floor One Station Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum is more than adequate for most homes. I was able to clean my 1,600-square-foot home in 30 minutes on Auto mode, and still have 50% of the battery life left.

Overall, the battery lasted between 65-73 minutes on Auto mode, which is in-line with Tineco’s predictions that the battery, on Auto mode, can last up to 75 minutes. Remember on Auto mode, the vacuum automatically increases the suction and cleaning power depending on how dirty the floors are. It could use more power and thus more battery life if your floors are especially dirty.

Battery score: 5 out of 5

Should you buy the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro?

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value for money

This wet-dry vacuum is a luxury buy, but it offers some high-tech features and an auto refill base that is one of the first of its kind on the market.

4/5

Design

A sleek unit that lies flat and is outfitted with an intuitive scraper. The new indicator system – lights and shapes on the vacuum’s body – notes dirty floors, low battery, or other features/settings.

4/5

Performance

Exceeds all expectations when it comes to vacuuming and mopping hard floors. Side and front edge cleaning are solid.

4.5/5

Battery

With 65-100 minutes of battery life, this wet-dry vacuum can clean small to large homes on a single charge.

5/5

Buy it if

You want something that can pick up tough stains and dirt and dust in hard-to-reach spaces

The dirt detect technology automatically increases the suction and mopping power when the vacuum recognizes a dirty floor. If need be, there is a HydroBurst function that sprays solution on sticky or tough stains to break them down more easily. Plus, with the vacuum’s ability to lie flat and a 25,000 Pa suction, you can reach far under your bedframe or sofas to clean dust, dirt, and small and large debris.

You have a medium-to-large house

When using the Auto Dirt Detect function, this vacuum can last between 65-75 minutes. Quiet mode results in up to 100 minutes of clean time. No matter which mode you use, you can likely clean your medium or large home on a single charge.

You like doing very little maintenance

You don’t have to fill this vacuum with clean water or cleaning solution because the base does that for you. It even cleans the brushroll with hot water and dries the filter and brushroll with hot air.

Don't buy it if

Your home has a lot of carpets

Some wet-dry vacuums can clean carpets or rugs, but not this one. It’s a better choice for those with hardwood, laminate, stone, or tiled floors.

You’re limited on space.

This wet-dry vacuum has one of the larger bases that I’ve seen, so it may not be ideal for those who are limited in space or don’t find the bulkiness conducive to their dwelling aesthetic. There are plenty of wet-dry vacuums that are better suited for those who live in an apartment or small home.

You’re on a budget

This is one of the most expensive wet-dry vacuums on the market, and while it does a fantastic job, you can find plenty others — even from Tineco — that clean just as well for half the cost.

How I tested the Tineco Floor One Station S9 Scientist Pro

Testing the Tineco Floor One Station Scientist Pro Wet Dry Vacuum occurred over multiple weeks during a Texas summer in my 106-year-old house that produces a lot of dust and has multiple high traffic areas with dirt and debris.

My 1,600-square-foot house is a mix of laminate and historic hardwood flooring, making it a great testing space. I ran a variety of cleaning tests with various liquids, barbeque sauce, eggs, flour, coffee, and dried chocolate sauce, making sure to utilize different cleaning modes and taking notes on things like edge cleaning, battery life, and maintenance requirements. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed September 2026

Parental control applications help you keep tabs on and manage screen time for your children effectively. However, the market is flooded with thousands of applications, and picking the best parental control app for your specific needs can be quite a challenge.

This is why we’ve dug deep and conducted a comprehensive review of Parentaler – one of the most popular child monitoring applications today.

Along with extensive social media monitoring, the application allows parents to monitor their child’s texts across various platforms, track their location using GPS, and filter the kind of content they can view online.

But is Parentaler the right choice for your? Read on as we analyze its best features, pricing, and user experience, while also comparing it with the best in the industry.

Parentaler review: Plans and pricing

We’re not a fan of how Parentaler’s pricing isn’t prominently displayed on its website. You’ll have to answer a series of questions before you can find out how much it costs.

We’ve done some digging to find out that its monthly plan costs $42.69, whereas the quarterly plan comes at $24.40 per month. However, its most affordable plan is the annual package, costing $10.17 per month, billed annually at $121.99.

(Image credit: Parentaler)

The good thing is that there aren’t any plans to choose from, other than the subscription length. All the three packages offer the same set of features, which is everything Parentaler has to offer. This is the kind of simplicity we also lauded in HeyPolo – Surfshark VPN’s own parental control app.

What we also didn’t quite like about Parentaler is that it doesn’t offer a free trial or even a demo, which means you’ll have to buy a plan to see how it works for you. That said, the company does provide a 14-day refund policy, so if the app doesn’t meet your expectations, you can claim a full refund.

Parentaler review: Features

Parentaler offers three main categories of functions with its child monitoring app: text and call monitoring, location monitoring, and content filtering. Let’s dive into each of them.

Parentaler allows you to monitor various platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, Viber, Kik, and TikTok. Parents can also view messages their child sends and receives, calls made, links shared, and any media they might have sent or received.

Besides this, Parentaler also lets you keep an eye on the kind of content your children are sharing on a particular social media platform, say Instagram or TikTok, and this includes keeping you aware of their posts, stories, and more.

Its SMS and text monitoring is also pretty robust and works with iMessage on iPhone, allowing you to see both incoming and outgoing texts, including deleted messages. Of course, you can also monitor call logs on both platforms, including a list of contacts.

(Image credit: Parentaler)

Text monitoring also covers all major social media platforms. One caveat worth noting is that instant-message tracking, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype, along with Gmail and Wi-Fi network monitoring only works on Android if it’s rooted. That’s a bit of a bummer, in our opinion.

Next up is its GPS tracking technology, which allows you to check your child’s location right from the app’s dashboard on your device. You can even view detailed information such as the address, timestamps, and coordinates.

(Image credit: Parentaler)

Parents can also mark allowed and restricted zones on a map directly from the Parentaler app and get instant alerts if their child enters or leaves these geofenced areas. You can also set screen-time limits with Parentaler, designating time limits for certain apps such as social media or games.

On the flip side, you can also schedule downtime, during which your child can only use certain apps. For instance, you can set up downtime during school hours where only learning apps might be accessible to your kids.

Along with this, there’s a dedicated Focus Mode on Android, which can pause distracting apps at preset times. You can also view detailed time reports to see where your child is spending most of their time.

Parentaler also offers handy content-filtering options, allowing you to block content relating to specific topics such as adult websites, social media, or any other objectionable content you don’t want your child to access.

(Image credit: Parentaler)

The app allows you to view your child’s detailed browser history, helping you understand the kind of content they’re viewing online.

Additionally, parents can set up various keyword alerts, which might include commonly used slang or objectionable words. If your child ends up using them in their conversations, you’ll be able to view the alerts on the application’s dashboard.

Parentaler review: Interface and in-use

Parentaler works for Android, iPhone, and iPad, all of which come with a central dashboard accessible from any device or browser.

Parentaler’s compatibility policy page says that you don’t need physical access to the iPhone device to install the application if you already have the iCloud credentials and two-factor authentication hasn’t been activated.

However, if two-factor authentication is enabled or iCloud backup is disabled, you’ll need physical access to install the app on the target device. With Android, you’ll compulsorily need physical access for app installation.

Once the application is up and running, you’re greeted with an intuitive dashboard that lays out everything from call logs, social media monitoring, text messages, web history, and your child’s location on a single page. You can access various settings from the same dashboard and fine-tune them according to your requirements.

Overall, the platform is indeed very easy to use, with no major quirks or learning curve. That is, once you’ve successfully gotten past the installation hurdle.

Parentaler review: Support

Parentaler’s support options were honestly disappointing. We could only locate a “Contact Us” form on its website, where you need to enter your name, email, question, and message, and then wait for a response from Parentaler’s team.

Noticeably, the company’s marketing copy says that a 24/7 live chat option is available in various languages. However, we couldn’t locate any live chat button while navigating through its website.

It might be possible that you get a live chat option after you’ve purchased a plan, but the lack of proper support before committing to a purchase could be a major drawback for some parents. There’s no phone or dedicated email support either.

Parentaler review: The competition

While Parentaler is a solid parental monitoring and parental control app, there are a few features it lacks.

For instance, mSpy offers features like an anti-installation alert, where if your child uninstalls the parental monitoring app, you’ll get an instant notification. mSpy also offers remote camera and microphone access, allowing you to micromanage your child’s phone usage.

That means mSpy is great for anyone who needs a higher degree of control over what their child uses their devices for. It’s also one of the few parental control apps to offer extensive keylogging features, allowing you to see every word typed on your child’s device.

Another major shortcoming with Parentaler is that it doesn’t offer family plans. Even its annual plan, which costs around $121.99 per year, covers only a single device. This means that if you have more than one child to cover, you’ll have to buy separate subscriptions, which can quickly become expensive.

In comparison, Bitdefender offers value-for-money family plans, which start at just $79.99 for the first year, covering five accounts and 25 devices. Along with parental control features such as content filtering, internet time limits, GPS location tracking, and activity reports, you also get extra online protection tools, such as an award-winning antivirus, password manager, VPN, and decent identity protection features.

Parentaler review: Final verdict

Overall, we found Parentaler to be a decent parental control app for monitoring your children. It covers all the major bases when it comes to features, along with comprehensive text and call monitoring across various social media apps. You can also view extensive call logs and contact details on your child’s phone.

Its GPS tracking is also pretty well done, allowing you to set predefined geofencing limits. There are robust content-filtering options, so parents can keep a check on what their child views online.

That said, Parentaler doesn’t offer any family plans. While its annual plan is very reasonable at $121.99, this can quickly become expensive for households with multiple children.

It also misses out on certain features, such as remote camera or microphone access. Additionally, it doesn’t offer great support options, with only a Contact Us form available on its website. If you’re looking for more affordable or multi-device plans, Bitdefender and Mobicip can be good alternatives.

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Companies that make the best parental control apps need to make a philosophical choice when producing software: do you want to assume trust and give children some leeway about their behavior, or is it better to try and protect kids by tracking everything?

The developers behind mSpy have clearly opted for the latter approach, with a slate of features that monitors keystrokes, locations, chats, calls, pictures and more.

This parental control method won’t work for everyone, especially for parents who want to maintain trust in their familial relationships. But if you are keen to take a closer look at your kids’ online behavior, is this the app for you? Read on to find out.

mSpy review: Plans and pricing

If you’re a parent who wants to figure out how much mSpy actually costs, good luck: the app’s website makes it quite difficult to actually find this information.

The most affordable option is mSpy Premium. At the time of writing, it costs $11.67 per month on Android and iOS if you pay for an annual package. The 3-month plan costs $28/month, whereas the 1-month plan costs $48.99/month. Notably, there’s no feature variation between the three options – just the difference in subscription period.

(Image credit: mSpy)

That price gives you support for one child device and a broad array of features, although some of those only work on Android and some require users to root or jailbreak phones to get them working.

Then there’s the mSpy Extreme plan, meant for Android devices, costing $23.99 if you opt for the annual plan. The 3-month plan costs $45 per month, whereas the 6-month plan costs $33.99 per month.

This is the highest level of subscription available with mSpy and unlocks several features otherwise not available in the Premium plan, including remote camera access to the target device, ambient recording through the microphone, a screen recorder, and GPS location tracking.

However, one of the biggest advantages of Extreme is that you won’t need to root the target Android device to get the most out of it.

(Image credit: mSpy)

That said, we noticed several internal inconsistencies within mSpy’s support documentation that hint at the possibility that users might still need to root their devices to access advanced features such as keylogging, geofencing, and social media monitoring.

Even mSpy’s own page on its Extreme product offers paid support specifically for rooting the device.

Lastly, the Family Kit offers support for three devices and delivers all of the features available in mSpy Premium. However, the exact price isn’t actually listed on mSpy’s website, at the time of writing.

The pricing available on mSpy feels deliberately obscured, then, and those prices are also extremely high. Other parental apps don’t offer the keylogging and sheer detail of mSpy, but they offer lots of conventional parental access features at a fraction of the price. Plus, it’s worth noting that mSpy doesn’t offer any free trial, only a demo of its platform.

mSpy review: Features

So, what can you actually do with mSpy? Unsurprisingly, many of the app’s features revolve around information gleaned from keylogging.

Parents can see text messages, images sent and received over SMS, and Facebook Messenger activity – alongside chats from apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Kik, Telegram, Tinder, Viber, Instagram, iMessage and more.

You’ll be able to get information about who has texted your children and who they’re texting, including contact numbers and names. Unsurprisingly, mSpy’s logging and reporting is always comprehensive – access the parent app and you’ll be confronted with a fearsome amount of information.

Parents can rely on mSpy’s keylogger to see every stroke that’s typed on the phone – so you can check deleted messages, URLs and more. It’s also possible to get alerts if your children type specific words.

(Image credit: mSpy)

And because much of this functionality runs in the background, hidden on the target device, your children may not even know they’re being monitored – or, at least, they won’t find it so intrusive. In case your child does end up finding the app and deleting it, mSpy will send you a notification on your dashboard so that you can take appropriate action.

On the same dashboard, you can also see your child’s device’s battery levels. So, if they say they couldn’t text or call you because of low battery, you’d know right away if they're telling you the truth.

The app allows parents to monitor call logs and emails, including attachments and the ability to see emails they’ve sent and received. Parents can see browser histories, see data about how often sites are visited, filter based on categories and check their bookmarks – and even see what Wi-Fi networks children are using.

(Image credit: mSpy)

mSpy has also introduced AI chatbot monitoring, which keeps an eye on two of the most popular apps: ChatGPT and Gemini. Gone are the days when children used search engines like Google to enquire about their curiosities. A large chunk of this ‘search activity’ has now moved to AI chatbots.

However, since most parental control applications didn’t (still doesn't) include chatbot monitoring, it created a blind spot for parents. However, mSpy has this covered as well. It's, in fact, the only child monitoring app we know that offers this feature.

That’s not all: mSpy allows parents to block apps, see what apps are installed, and view photos and videos stored on the device. A screen-recording feature is also available so parents can get visual snapshots of child phone activity, even with disappearing message features that are now popular on many apps.

(Image credit: mSpy)

Parents can view their children’s current location using mSpy’s GPS-based functionality, and also use geofencing to get alerts when children enter or leave places where you want them to visit – or want them to avoid.

And if you pay for the Extreme version, you can also access their camera and microphone, record calls, and anonymously view Instagram.

(Image credit: mSpy)

It has a comprehensive set of keylogger-based features, but bear in mind that mSpy’s Android app is far more powerful than the iOS app. If you want to monitor an Apple device, you’ll need to do some jailbreaking to access mSpy’s whole range of features.

Rooting and jailbreaking is particularly concerning because it can, potentially, void your device warranty, prevent access to other apps and make devices more vulnerable to cybercrime.

However, mSpy's screen time management is basic, without the detail or granularity found in many other apps, and there’s no category-based website blocking or filtering – this is another area where the functionality is underwhelming. Other apps also offer more in terms of location-based features, including the option to track children’s driving habits.

mSpy review: Interface and in-use

Unsurprisingly, mSpy’s interface provides a comprehensive and in-depth look at your children’s device behavior. You can see everything, from message content and phone call logs to web histories and even the events in their calendar.

There are separate sections for browsing photos and videos, setting up keyword alerts, delving into the keylogger and viewing what apps your children have installed. The interface is clean, well-organized and easy to use, with straightforward menus and good organization. Once you’re set up, it’s easy to get started.

It’s a great interface if you want to delve into the data, but other apps make things a little easier to see summaries of daily and weekly activity – mSpy keeps things granular and specific rather than providing top-level reports.

(Image credit: mSpy)

There are three ways you could install mSpy on an iOS device. The first is iCloud Sync, which works on all iOS versions, for which you’ll need your child’s iCloud login details. However, if there’s no iCloud backup activated or two-step verification enabled, you’ll need physical access to the target device.

Secondly, there’s Wi-Fi Sync (iOS 13-16), where you’ll need to physically plug the target device into a Mac or PC for the initial sync. After that, updates will happen automatically when the phone is on the same Wi-Fi network as the computer.

Lastly, there’s the much-feared jailbroken method, where you’ll need a jailbroken device to install mSpy.

However, an important caveat worth noting is that non-jailbroken installation methods largely restrict which features work on the device and are limited to WhatsApp, SMS, call logs, browser history, calendar events, notes, Wi-Fi network history, and new app installation alerts.

Noticeably, you won’t be able to access features like keylogging, one of mSpy’s strongest selling points, screen recording, or camera and microphone access. In addition, tracking platforms like Telegram, Instagram, and Snapchat also isn’t possible with non-jailbroken iOS installations.

Keep in mind that even if you opt for non-jailbroken methods such as iCloud Sync or Wi-Fi Sync, you’ll still need physical access to the target device for a few minutes.

On Android, you’ll need to disable Google Play Protection to install the app and use most of its features, and parents need to root the phone to get access to every feature.

We’re pleased to see that mSpy provides installation guides for both platforms, but you get far more information if you pay extra for the Ultimate plan – a frustrating choice that feels particularly cynical.

There’s also an option to pay even more to get remote assistance with installation. But no matter what route you choose, mSpy setup is likely to be complicated, frustrating and potentially expensive.

mSpy review: Support

We found mSpy’s support options to be adequate for a parental monitoring application. First, there's a handy chatbot named Sparkle, which you can access by clicking the small chatbot icon at the bottom right of your screen and asking any questions you might have.

Additionally, there are several toll-free numbers listed across the website for various regions. Lastly, there’s also email support for non-urgent queries.

On top of this, mSpy also has a decent FAQ section on the website that answers several questions, although some answers can be a little underwhelming and might not really solve the issue at hand.

There’s also a dedicated mAssistant add-on, which you can opt for when subscribing to mSpy. It’ll come in handy if you face any issues installing mSpy on the target device. However, it's priced at a whopping $53.99, which is more than the cost of the core subscription itself.

mSpy review: The competition

mSpy faces tough competition from parental control apps that concentrate on conventional features rather than surveillance and keylogging.

Mobicip, for instance, is far more affordable than mSpy, with prices starting at just $2.99 per month, allowing you to manage up to five devices. Plus, Mobicip also offers a free basic plan for managing two devices, along with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, none of which are offered by mSpy.

One of Mobicip's most notable features is its ability to manage your children’s access to specific categories of websites. Mobicip offers more than 20 categories, including adult websites, cryptocurrencies, and so on.

If you want a more consensual approach towards parental monitoring, you can opt for an app like Bark. It doesn’t include features such as a keylogger, screen recorder, or camera or microphone access, and doesn’t even work stealthily in the background, but it adopts a more transparent approach.

You get comprehensive screen-time and app and website monitoring capabilities, including pre-built content categories to filter. There’s also real-time location tracking and geofencing.

Bark also sells its own hardware, called the Bark Phone – a tamper-proof locked-down device for children – and Bark Home – a router-connected box that extends screen-time monitoring and content filtering to every device on the home network.

mSpy review: Final verdict

If you’re not concerned with ethical or moral questions around keylogging, then there’s no doubt that mSpy does a great job here – on Android, at least, it can monitor virtually everything that your child does using their device.

It comes with one of the best keyloggers we’ve seen across parental control applications and covers a wide range of platforms, such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Tinder, and Discord. It even includes AI chatbot monitoring for ChatGPT and Gemini.

mSpy runs invisibly on the child’s device and comes with features like screen recording, camera access, and microphone access.

But for all of its keylogging prowess, it falls short in many of the more conventional areas of parental control such as screen-time management and content filtering and is also pretty expensive when compared to peers.

If you need something more affordable, Mobicip can be a good choice. Or, if you want to adopt a more transparent approach with your children while monitoring them, Bark can be an excellent choice.

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Whether it’s helping your kids improve their cyber hygiene, restricting internet access for discipline or productivity purposes, or simply keeping a watchful eye on their internet activities, a parental control app has become a much-needed defense against today’s worsening digital threat landscape.

FamilyTime is one such popular child monitoring application that gives you a granular view of the applications and websites your child visits and allows you to manage their screen time with active limits.

In this review, we’ve taken a deep dive into FamilyTime Premium’s best features, plans, user experience, and customer support to help you decide if it’s the right choice for you. Read till the end because we also compare it with some of the best in the business.

FamilyTime review: Plans and pricing

FamilyTime Premium offers a pretty straightforward pricing structure. There are three plans for you to choose from: My Family, My Family 3, and My Family 5. While the first plan covers only one device, the other two cover three and five devices, respectively.

The single-device plan costs $2.41 per month, billed at $29 annually. My Family 3 costs $4.08 per month, billed at $49 annually, while My Family 5 costs $5.75 per month, billed at $69 annually.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

The good news is that there are no feature differences between the three plans – the only difference is the number of devices they cover. This means you get everything FamilyTime Premium has to offer, even with the basic $2.41 plan.

Before you commit to a paid plan, you can try FamilyTime Premium’s 3-day free trial, where you can test various features to see how they work.

However, note that the free trial isn’t particularly extensive and lacks certain features, especially social media monitoring on platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and Signal. Similarly, you can’t read your child’s text messages or view their calls during the free trial.

That said, it’s still one of the most comprehensive free trials we’ve seen, even if it’s for a very limited time. That makes it worth trying if you’re considering FamilyTime and want to explore its features to understand whether it’s right for you.

FamilyTime review: Features

FamilyTime Premium offers a slew of features to help you manage your child’s screen time and phone usage. One of the best is its Balance feature, which gives parents a great degree of control over how much time their child spends on their device.

For starters, parents can define daily usage limits along with individual app limits. There’s also Screen Schedule, which lets you schedule limited screen time for your child during different parts of the day.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

Next, the Scheduled Internet feature offers a finer level of control, letting you block internet access on your child’s device for a specific period. They’ll still be able to use non-internet apps.

What we liked the most, though, is its Time Bank function, which allows a child to carry forward their unused daily allowance. For instance, if you’ve allowed five hours of screen time during weekdays and your child uses their phone for only three hours on a particular day, they can carry the remaining two hours forward for later use.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

Lastly, there’s Family Pause, which can immediately lock your child’s device in case of an emergency. In addition to extensive screen-time controls, FamilyTime also offers several safety features. For example, you can outright block apps or games that you don’t approve of on your child’s device, or block inappropriate and age-sensitive websites.

On the flip side, you can choose to allow your child to access only approved applications and games and enable search filters to block explicit websites, videos, and images.

There’s also a handy SOS Panic Button that your child can use during an emergency. When they activate it, parents receive an immediate SOS alert notifying them that their child needs help.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

FamilyTime also offers a pretty nifty PickMeUp Request feature, which sends real-time reminders and lets you plan your child’s pickup on a day-to-day basis.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

On top of this, FamilyTime offers several visibility features, giving you granular insights into your child’s phone activity. For instance, you can view all the contacts on your child’s device, read their text messages, and access their call logs.

Moreover, you can check the list of installed apps, view your child’s web history, and even monitor their social media activity on platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and Signal.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

Lastly, there are location-tracking features as well, which can help you locate all your family members on a live map at a glance. You can also define specific areas on the map and receive instant alerts whenever your child enters or leaves a designated zone.

FamilyTime review: Interface and in-use

FamilyTime works on both Android and iOS. Unlike some other apps that claim they can be installed remotely using iCloud credentials, FamilyTime Premium makes no such claim.

Parents will need physical access to their child’s device to download the FamilyTime Junior app, while installing the FamilyTime Dashboard app on their own device. Once that’s done, the two applications are linked by scanning a QR code.

On Android, parents will need to grant several permissions, such as overlay access and device administrator rights, and allow installations from unknown sources for all the application’s features to work.

Parents will also need to set a four-digit PIN during installation to prevent the child from removing or disabling the FamilyTime Junior app.

A good thing about the platform is that it gives children greater visibility into their own limits, allowing them to check their remaining screen time, send SOS alerts, review their Time Bank balance, and see which applications are blocked.

(Image credit: FamilyTime)

The dashboard itself is very intuitive and easy to use. The layout is clean and simple, and parents can quickly navigate through the various features with just a few clicks. You’ll also appreciate that the setup tutorial is very detailed. That said, the installation process won’t take more than a few minutes.

As with any child monitoring application, users might encounter occasional inconsistencies in FamilyTime’s performance, especially on iOS devices, which operate within a more closed ecosystem. That said, both applications generally work well and don’t come with a steep learning curve.

FamilyTime review: Support

FamilyTime Premium has done well when it comes to customer support. For starters, you can access 24/7 live chat through the website even before making a purchase. That lets you iron out any concerns or queries you might have. This was, in fact, one of our gripes with Parentaler, which didn’t offer live chat, at least not before purchasing a plan.

Once you’ve subscribed to a FamilyTime plan, you also get access to 24/7 Premium in-app live chat as well as 24/7 email support, which should be more than enough for most queries or issues you might have.

There’s also a rich collection of how-to articles and FAQs that provide answers to commonly asked questions. We also like that there’s a detailed collection of step-by-step installation guides and walkthrough articles covering various core functionalities of the platform.

FamilyTime review: The competition

mSpy offers more advanced features, such as keylogging, which helps you view every keystroke your child types on their device, including deleted messages and typed URLs. There’s also a keyword alerts function that can notify you whenever specific keywords are typed, which isn’t typically possible with a standard keylogger.

Furthermore, mSpy offers broader monitoring coverage across several social media platforms, including Snapchat, Tinder, Facebook Messenger, and Viber. There’s also AI chatbot monitoring, which lets you see what your child types into chatbots such as Gemini or ChatGPT.

That said, mSpy is pretty costly, starting at $11.67 per month per device on the annual plan. This can become very expensive very fast if you have a household with multiple children.

Qustodio is another strong alternative, particularly if you want a more traditional parental control app with extensive monitoring and filtering tools. It offers screen-time limits, app and website blocking, location tracking, and social media monitoring, while also supporting a wide range of platforms including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Chromebook, and Kindle.

If you'd like alternatives that, like FamilyTime, take a more inclusive approach, you can check out applications like Bark or HeyPolo.

Bark, for example, explicitly addresses children during setup to explain that the goal is safety, not spying. It also uses an AI alert system to flag genuine risks such as predators, cyberbullying, or self-harm, rather than handing parents a full transcript of everyday conversations for them to go through.

FamilyTime review: Final verdict

We’d recommend FamilyTime Premium for several very good reasons. For starters, it’s one of the most inexpensive parental control applications out there, with plans starting as low as $2.41 per month for a single device. Even its multi-device plans are pretty affordable, starting at just $4.08 per month.

Next, the platform offers a relatively transparent Junior app for your child’s device, where they can view their own screen time, check blocked apps, and send SOS alerts when needed. This is in stark contrast to the closed monitoring environment offered by apps such as mSpy.

You also get 30-day activity reports, location tracking and geofencing, social media monitoring, and a free trial with nearly all the available features. However, if you need even more features, such as keylogging, keyword alerts, or remote camera access, consider splurging on mSpy.

• We've also featured the best parental control software

It’s impossible to avoid Microsoft if you’ve got a family full of tech - with laptops, PCs, smartphones and games consoles full of Redmond’s software, they’re everywhere.

But while that might sound all-encompassing, it might not be a bad idea if you need a parental control app. With features that smoothly integrate with your existing tech and a free price, Microsoft Family Safety could be the parental control app that your family needs.

In this article, we’ve broken down this free parental control app's key features, described its user experience and installation experience, and compared it with a few other alternatives, including paid ones, to help you make an informed choice.

• Interested in Microsoft Family Safety? Check out the website here

Microsoft Family Safety: Plans and pricing

There’s not much to say here, because Microsoft Family Safety is free. You don’t have to fork out any cash, you don’t need to investigate different product tiers and their varying features, and you don’t have to mess around hunting for deals or registering for free trials.

When we say free, we don’t mean that it comes free with a Microsoft subscription. In fact, you only need a Microsoft account to use Microsoft Family Safety. No subscription is required.

Microsoft Family Safety: Features

Family Safety runs on Windows, Xbox, Android, and Apple devices, and parents can also use Mac OS computers to access the web dashboard and monitor their children. Bear in mind, though, that you can’t install Family Safety on Mac OS devices used by your children - on Apple’s desktop and laptop OS, it’s a one-way street.

It’s easy to get started with Family Safety - more on that later - and once you’re up and running, the app has a decent set of core parental control features, at least on paper.

Take web filtering, for instance: while this is a core component of any good parental control app and rivals like Qustodio do a tremendous job, on Microsoft Family Safety you’re only able to filter the Microsoft Edge browser.

That might work for Microsoft, which wants to keep people using its own software, but that’s not practical in families where people want to use Chrome, Safari or other browsers. Many alternative browsers are just blocked by the app instead, and it’s possible for parents to block individual websites - and allow favored ones, too.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Frustratingly, Microsoft Family Safety doesn’t let parents see the categories of content it blocks, and users report frequent issues with unsafe websites not being blocked and not being flagged on the parent dashboard.

Family Safety’s screen time functionality is one of its strongest selling points. You can set schedules for your children’s devices, save them easily, and customize them for different days. On Android, parents can set limits on a per-app basis, too.

Even when the allotted screen time for the day is over, your child could request an extension, and you’ll receive a notification about the request. However, mobile screen time only applies to Android devices and isn’t available on iOS.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Family Safety also offers a spending limits feature where you can add money to your child’s Microsoft account, which acts as their allowance or balance for Microsoft Store and Xbox purchases.

However, this doesn’t mean that your child can spend the money unchecked. Every purchase above the balance will require parental approval. Optionally, you can also toggle on the Require approval for every purchase setting, so that everything goes through you regardless of the account balance.

When you turn on spending notifications, you get alerts about the purchases your child makes, money added to the account, or purchase requests approved by other family members.

Elsewhere, app blocking and whitelisting are supported and parents can allow children app access if kids send a request from their phones.

However, a deeper dive by intrepid users online suggests that device screen time limits don’t work particularly well on Android - some reports suggest that children could continue using their devices even when contravening their scheduled limits.

Family Safety used to offer location tracking features along with a Drive Safety mode. However, these functions have now been discontinued.

What’s missing from Family Safety? Sadly, quite a lot. Outside of its web filtering, there’s no social media, messaging app or text message monitoring, and none of the camera and audio features that you’ll find in some more forward-thinking tools.

Microsoft Family Safety: Interface and in-use

Family Safety is very easy to use: install the app, grant some basic permissions and build a family group using people’s Outlook addresses, phone numbers or alternative emails and you’re good to go.

In a nod towards transparency, children can see the restrictions they’re under on their app’s dashboard. On Windows devices, functionality is similar - you just make your children a new account on the device rather than using their phone number.

Once you’re all set up, Family Safety is exceedingly easy to use. The interface is clean and spacious with familiar Microsoft green accents, and everything is laid out well - all of the key options are in obvious places.

(Image credit: Microsoft Family Safety)

One of Microsoft Family Safety’s standout features is its detailed activity reports. When toggled on, you can view various metrics such as which games and apps your family members have been using and for how long.

You can also view which websites your child has been visiting or the terms they’ve been searching. Along with this, you can see detailed daily and weekly details about a child’s screen time.

If you don’t have the time to constantly check the Family Safety app to get updates on your child’s phone usage, you can also opt in to receive weekly emails about your family members’ activities, giving you all the information from the week at a glance.

(Image credit: Microsoft Family Safety)

However, note that Microsoft has also added a consent mechanism when it comes to activity reporting. Kids who are 13 or older have the ability to opt out of sharing usage data with family members. Once they do so, you can’t simply toggle on the setting and would need to regain their consent before doing so.

Microsoft Family Safety: Support

Microsoft Family Safety’s website includes setup guides, FAQs and troubleshooting tips that should solve most common issues, and Microsoft’s busy forum is also available for more specific queries.

In-app support and reporting is available on Android and iOS, and the central Microsoft support website is available if you need to get in touch with Microsoft – although that does mean delving into the support functionality of one of the world’s biggest companies, and that means a likely slow response.

Microsoft Family Safety: The competition

Users may pin down Microsoft Family Safety’s lack of features due to its free nature. However, even free applications like Google Family Link offer a few additional features.

For instance, Google offers real-time location tracking, where you can see your child’s live location at all times using Google’s mapping prowess. Besides this, you can even monitor your child’s device battery status.

Google also allows parents to whitelist calls or texts and approve or block specific numbers. This isn’t a feature category that Microsoft touches at all.

If you’re looking for something premium, you can choose mSpy, which offers some of the most advanced features in the parental control category. There’s extensive keylogging, which captures every keystroke your child types on their devices, including deleted messages.

Next, it comes with social media monitoring, which allows you to see your child’s interactions on platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Instagram, and so on. mSpy also offers extensive call log monitoring, call recording, remote camera, and microphone access.

Unlike Microsoft Family Safety, mSpy comes with geofencing alerts, where you can get notifications whenever your child arrives at or leaves a specific marked location on a map. But if mSpy's $11.67/month pricing is a deal breaker, you can consider more affordable options like Parentaler, HeyPolo, or Bitdefender.

If you’re looking for a more comprehensive security package, Aura is another strong option. It combines parental controls with an antivirus, VPN, password manager, and identity protection, making it a more complete digital security solution for the whole family.

Microsoft Family Safety: Final verdict

There are certainly some areas where Microsoft Family Safety fights back. It’s free, for starters, and is easier to use for families that already use the Microsoft ecosystem through PCs, laptops or games consoles alongside smartphones.

It’s easy to use, too, and has accessible and moderately effective filtering, location-tracking, app management and screen time features. The platform did offer location tracking a while back. However, this has now been discontinued, which doesn’t bode well for the platform when compared to peers.

Plus, the iOS app is more limited than the Android version, and its rivals, while not free, are far more capable in every key area. So, if you want basic parental control without spending any money, Family Safety is a great choice.

However, if you’re at all serious about parental control and need features like social media monitoring or location tracking, you’ll have to consider alternatives like mSpy or Parentaler.

FAQsDo I need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use Family Safety?

No, you don’t need a Microsoft 365 subscription to use Family Safety, as it’s entirely free. However, you will need a Microsoft account to sign in to be able to use Family Safety.

How can I view my child’s activity report?

You can view your child’s activity reports either through the Family Safety app or opt in to receive weekly emails detailing your family members’ activities. The activity reports are pretty detailed, showing you which apps or websites your kid spends the most time on, along with detailed daily and weekly screen-time information.

Can I track my child’s location and driving data through Microsoft Family Safety?

Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued its location tracking and Drive Safety features on November 29, 2024, which means you can no longer see where your child is or receive detailed data about their driving routes and metrics.

• We've also featured the best free parental control software

When you look up the best free parental control app, you’re bound to run into apps that either don’t work or hide premium features behind paywalls. However, that’s not the case with Google Family Link. Most importantly, since the tool comes from Google itself, you can be rest assured that it isn’t a scam.

Unsurprisingly, this tool works well with Google’s own apps, like Search, Chrome and YouTube, and comes with several nifty features such as screen-time controls and location tracking.

But a deeper dive into its features reveals some missing capabilities when compared to the best parental control apps. We’ve done a detailed review of Google Family Link, discussing its best features and interface, and we’ve also compared it with a few other options, so you can decide for yourself if it’s the right tool for you.

• Want to try Google Family Link? Check out the website here

Google Family Link: Features

We’ve skipped our usual “Plans and pricing” section because there’s nothing to say beyond the fact that this app is free.

Family Link allows users to set screen time controls, including downtime and app-specific time limits. Parents can also manage app, website, and extension permissions and downloads through the control software. You can always see your child’s location thanks to Google’s mapping prowess, too.

Delve into many of these features, though, and you’ll discover that they’re relatively basic.

(Image credit: Google Family Link)

You can set device usage limits and restricted times for your children, with support for 15-minute increments, so they won’t be browsing their phones during school hours or bedtime, for instance.

In February 2025, Google added a dedicated “School Time” mode – you only need to toggle a button within the app settings to enable it. You can also add a school-time break to allow your kids a small window of phone access during school recess or breaks.

(Image credit: Google)

Device locking is supported, and you can also give your children always-on access to certain apps. But when compared to other tools, like Bark or Qustodio, Google’s Family Link is pretty basic here.

The filtering is relatively rudimentary, too. While there’s no doubt that Google’s SafeSearch filtering works very well by blocking or blurring unsuitable text and images, other apps offer dozens of categories to choose from if you want to block specific topics, and you can’t go any further than SafeSearch here.

You can block certain sites and allow others, but you’ll have more control elsewhere. And while Family Link filters YouTube, too, the options here are still fairly basic. More impressive is Family Link’s app capability. You can see exactly which apps your children have installed and either block or limit their usage individually.

Content restrictions are available for Google Play, and you can prevent your children from making purchases as well – handy if you want them to stop spending a lot of money on addictive games. You can also prevent app installation from unknown sources and stop your children from adding or removing users from their devices or delving into the Developer options.

Unsurprisingly, Google’s location tracking is very accurate, and you can set up geofenced locations with decent radius limits – although other apps are even wider here.

You’ll get notified if children leave the area. One smart addition is the ability to view your child’s battery status, allowing you to spot if they’re about to run out of charge, too. One notable omission here, though, is location history – it’s simply not available.

(Image credit: Google Family Link)

Elsewhere, Family Link doesn’t include text or call monitoring, and across basically every part of the app you don’t get the granular control you’ll find on other tools. That said, Google did add the ability for parents to whitelist calls or texts – approve or block specific numbers.

Other apps also offer more comprehensive activity monitoring, including email and social media monitoring. And when your kids are 13, they can opt out of the monitoring if they wish.

However, unlike before, kids below 18 will now require their parent’s approval to opt out. This means they can’t simply delete the app from their devices until their parents approve it.

Google Family Link: Interface and in-use

Before you get started, it’s worth checking Family Link’s device compatibility, too. For kids, Family Link is compatible with Android devices running version 7.0 (Nougat) or higher. However, only certain settings will function on devices using Android 5.0 or 6.0. There’s no kids app for iOS.

For parents, the control app runs on Android devices running Android 7.0 or higher or iOS devices running iOS 16 or higher. This means parents can use their iOS devices to monitor their kids’ Android devices as well.

However, the “other way round” isn’t possible. This means if your kids use an iOS device, Google Family Link might not be for you.

Family Link also works on Chromebooks with Chrome OS 71 or higher. However, location tracking doesn’t work on Chromebooks.

(Image credit: Google Family Link)

As you’d expect from a Google app, Family Link is a sleek and minimalist piece of software that looks clean and uncluttered. It’s easy for parents and kids to navigate most of the settings available, which means setup is quick.

That’s great if you want an app that doesn’t overwhelm you with information, but it also means that some crucial bits of info can be hard to find. You’ll need to use different screens to check children’s app and YouTube usage, for instance, and you'll also have to delve into various menus to view their web history.

Many competitors make it easier to access this information, offering more centralized access to reports, alerts, and details. Lastly, setup is quite easy. Because this is an official Google product, you don’t have to deal with the sideloading that's sometimes required elsewhere.

Google Family Link: Support

Unsurprisingly, from a computing behemoth like Google, Family Link’s support is a little sporadic and impersonal.

If you need help you’ll need to go through Google’s official channels, and you’ll probably not get a fast response.

Thankfully, there are plenty of good knowledge base articles in the help center, but that’s it. If you want more extensive or faster support, a dedicated app will be far better.

Google Family Link: The competition

While Google Family Link is a free application and does a decent job of providing basic parental control features, it does lack a lot of functions, which is why you might consider alternatives.

For starters, a provider like Parentaler offers more comprehensive social media content monitoring, which is entirely absent from Google Family Link. With this, you can view the content your kids post on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok.

Similarly, Parentaler can also show incoming and outgoing texts and even allow parents to view deleted ones. Parentaler also has a very nifty keyword alert feature, which can inform parents whenever specific objectionable keywords show up in their conversations.

That said, Parentaler isn’t free and can cost as high as $10.17 per month when you purchase the annual plan. If you’re looking for something more affordable, you can consider FamilyTime Premium. Its plans start as low as $2.41 per month, while also offering family plans starting at just $4.08.

FamilyTime offers granular screen-time control, allowing parents to schedule allowed screen time. We also liked its Time Bank function, which can allow a child to carry forward their unused daily allowance of time. It also has an SOS alert for emergency situations, just like HeyPolo, another affordable child location tracking app.

Google Family Link: Final verdict

Google Family Link’s biggest advantage is that it’s free, and elsewhere its key strength comes from its granular, powerful app controls and its decent screen time and scheduling options. Since it’s an in-house Google product, its location tracking tends to be more reliable than some other competitors.

Go beyond this, though, and Google Family Link is lacking. For instance, it doesn’t offer social media monitoring at all or keyword alerts. Plus, parents can’t read their children’s incoming and outgoing texts or monitor their calls. You may have to pay for rivals like mSpy, but they have far more extensive filtering and device management options and work on a broader array of devices.

Overall, Google Family Link is ideal if you want to use it alongside other parental control apps, perhaps to control Google Play usage or double up on filtering to have an extra safety net. But it’s just not powerful enough to function as your primary parental control tool.

FAQsCan my teenager delete Family Link from their phone?

No, your child won’t be able to delete Family Link from their phone without your approval. Google says that children above 13 years of age may delete Google Family Link on their devices. However, a policy update now requires explicit parental approval for children to be able to do so.

Can I use Family Link if my child has an iPhone?

No, Google Family Link doesn’t offer an app for iOS devices, which means if you want to monitor your child who uses an iOS device, Family Link isn’t ideal. That said, the company does offer the parent app for iOS. So, if you’re using an iOS device, you’ll still be able to monitor your child’s Android devices.

Does Family Link work on Chromebook?

Yes. Chromebooks running Chrome OS 71 or higher can be supervised using Google Family Link. Features such as screen time and website restrictions can be used freely. However, location reporting isn’t available for Chromebooks, even though it works on Android phones.

Does my child need to be connected to Wi-Fi or data for parental controls to work?

Location tracking specifically requires the device to be powered on, recently active, and connected to the internet, either through mobile data or Wi-Fi. If it’s offline, you won’t get any updates on its current location. Other controls, such as app blocking or screen time, are enforced locally on the device and don’t require an active internet connection.

• We've picked out the best free parental control software

Insta360 Luna Pro: Two-minute review

I'll be honest: my first reaction to the Insta360 Luna Pro wasn't really about the camera itself — more its price tag. At $599.99/£599.99/AU$859.99, it sits close enough to the flagship Luna Ultra model (at least in the USA and UK) that I've been wondering whether Insta360 has left itself room for a proper budget option in this range. The Pro doesn't offer a significant saving over the Ultra, which I suspect will drive many buyers into opting for the latter simply because it features a second lens for a similar price.

That's not a knock on the Luna Pro itself, though, because it handles its actual job — smooth, hands-free footage you don't have to think about — with real aplomb. Popping the touchscreen module free from the body and using it as a standalone remote is a neat trick, and it's just as handy here as it was on the Ultra. Tracking is another standout feature for me: click the joystick once, or tap a subject on screen, and the Luna Pro locks on and stays locked on, whether I was walking, gesturing or just generally being difficult to follow. But all that is also available on the Luna Ultra.

With just a single lens, the Pro misses out on the second 3x telephoto camera that the flagship Luna Ultra has (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

I did come away with a couple of gripes concerning the Pro (both of which, incidently, one could also level at the Ultra). The little wire tripod tucked into the handle is more fiddly than useful once you're off a flat surface. Battery life also isn't quite what Insta360 claims — you can expect closer to 90 minutes than the quoted 240 (for 1080p) if you're shooting 8K with the screen switched on.

Photos are also an afterthought here — they're soft and low on contrast, and in most cases a smartphone will do a better job. Video is a much stronger story, particularly once you dip below the headline 8K resolution into the more practical 4K modes, and vertical shooters will get unexpected bragging rights over owners of the Ultra thanks to the Pro's sharper 9:16 footage. The fact that the Pro has just the one lens does affect things, of course: push the digital zoom past 2x and the drop-off in detail becomes obvious immediately.

So where does that leave the Luna Pro? As a piece of hardware, it's a likeable and very capable little camera that does almost everything I wanted it to. As a purchase decision, it's a trickier sell than Insta360 probably intended, sitting just a little too close to its more versatile sibling for comfort.

Insta360 Luna Pro: Price and release date

• Launched on September 10, 2026, priced at $599.99 / £599.99 / AU$859.99
• Only one bundle available at launch
• Costs $170 / £50 / AU$370 less than the flagship Luna Ultra

The Luna Pro comes with a few accessories, but at present there appears to be no Creator Bundle available. (Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

At $599.99 / £599.99 / AU$859.99, the Luna Pro undercuts Insta360's flagship Luna Ultra ($769.99 / £649 / AU$1,229.99) by a relatively modest margin, especially in the UK, where the difference works out to less than £50, or $170 in the US. That's a narrower gap than I was expecting, given the Pro features only one lens while the Ultra has two, and it puts the newer camera in a slightly awkward position; it's not quite the budget-friendly alternative you might expect a single-lens model to be (like the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 is).

Insta360 Luna Pro specsInsta360 Luna Pro specs:

Type:

Compact video camera

Lens:

20mm, f/1.8 (35mm equivalent)

Sensors:

1-inch CMOS

Video:

8K up to 30p / 4K up to 120p / FHD up to 240p

Photo:

9MP JPEG & RAW / 37MP UltraPhoto mode / panorama

LCD:

2-inch OLED, detachable

Memory:

47GB internal, 1x micro SD (up to 2TB)

Battery

1,550mAh, rated up to 4 hours of 1080p

Dimensions

2.08 x 6.13 x 1.51in / 52.78 x 155.7 x 38.47mm

Weight:

7.6oz / 215g (Cosmic Black), 7.7oz / 218g (Stellar White)

Insta360 Luna Pro: Design

• Effectively a single-lens version of the Luna Ultra
• Clever detachable touchscreen module, complete with its own built-in mic
• A rubber cap replaces the Ultra's bulky protective case

Strip away the second lens and the Luna Pro is basically the Luna Ultra all over again. The dimensions and weight between the two cameras are barely different (the Pro is about half an inch shorter and 20g lighter than its dual-lens sibling), so if you've read my colleague Tim Coleman's take on the Ultra's design, most of the same applies here too: the Pro, like the Ultra, has a stick-like, gimbal-topped body that sits comfortably in the hand, with the option to extend the included handle for a more secure grip.

Its signature design feature is unchanged, too: the entire touchscreen-and-controls module pops free, working as a standalone remote with a 20m range and its own built-in microphone. It's just as useful here for solo shooting as it is on the Ultra.

Future | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam Kieldsen

One design compromise that did stand out to me during my time with the camera is the thin wire tripod that extends from the handle base — another thing carried over from the Ultra. On a genuinely flat surface, like a tabletop, it holds the Luna Pro upright well enough, but it offers little stability on uneven ground, and it's fiddly to pull out in the first place. Thankfully there's a standard tripod thread on the base too, so a proper mini tripod is only ever a few twists away.

The included protective case is also more basic than the Ultra's: it's just a rubber cap over the lens and gimbal, which trades some protection for a slimmer profile and much easier removal and replacement.

Insta360 Luna Pro: Performance

• Dual-chip setup (4nm flagship chip plus dedicated imaging chip)
• Sticky, reliable subject tracking, and smooth stabilization whether shooting horizon-level or FPV-style
• Video up to 8K 30fps or 4K 120fps in 16:9 mode, 4K 30fps in 9:16

The Insta360 Luna Pro pairs the same 1-inch sensor and 20mm-equivalent f/1.8 lens found on the Ultra's main camera with a leaner dual-chip setup — a 4nm flagship chip and a dedicated imaging chip. The Ultra has three chips.

On paper that sounds like a step down, but in practice I rarely found the Luna Pro underpowered or sluggish. Subject tracking is a particular highlight: a single joystick click will pick out people and animals automatically, or you can tap a subject on the touchscreen and even adjust its position within the frame, which is useful if you don't want it to be dead center. It's sticky and dependable throughout. Stabilization is equally impressive, delivering smooth, level footage on the move, with the option to switch to a more dynamic FPV-style movement if you want it.

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

Insta360 rates the 1,550mAh battery at 240 minutes, but that figure is sneakily based on 1080p 24fps recording with the screen and Wi-Fi both switched off, which isn't how most people will use this camera. Shooting 8K at 30fps with the screen active, a much more realistic scenario, drained the battery in around 90 minutes during testing. That's still a respectable battery life in my book, so I'm not sure why Insta360 saw fit to base its claims on an underpowered setting.

The camera runs a little warm under sustained use of its more demanding modes like 4K120fps and 8K30fps in particular, but during my testing, it took more than 75 minutes of continuous 8K recording before it shut itself down. What I'd consider normal use never triggered any overheating issues.

The four microphones (three on the main body, one on the detachable module) handle audio reasonably well, and 32-bit recording is on offer for anyone editing seriously. Still, anyone prioritizing audio quality should consider buying an Insta360 Mic Air or Mic Pro, both of which pair directly and add proper wind protection and noise cancellation.

Future | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam KieldsenFuture | Sam Kieldsen

Moving on to image quality, and photos are the camera's weak point: detail and contrast are both underwhelming, and it's not a device worth buying for stills alone. Frankly, in most cases you'd be better off using your smartphone for snaps than pulling out the Pro.

Video is a different story: footage looks clean and sharp in good lighting, across Standard, Dolby Vision and I-Log color profiles, though the 120Mbps maximum bitrate (shared with the Ultra) seems quite modest. 8K is the headline spec, of course, but I think 4K is a much more practical everyday choice thanks to its smaller files, greater range of frame rate options (up to 120fps), and the fact it still offers plenty of detail.

Slow motion goes up to 4x at 4K (120fps) or 8x in 1080p (240fps) and, surprisingly, vertical shooters get a genuine edge over the Ultra here: 4K30fps in 9:16 (built from 6K oversampling) versus the Ultra's ceiling of just 3K. One thing to note about vertical footage though: while the Ultra can hit 60fps in that mode, the Pro tops out at 30fps.

The digital zoom is the clearest trade-off for losing that second lens, and the Pro lacks the reach of its pricier cousin. Up to 2x magnification, Insta360's "lossless zoom" claim holds up in practice, but push it further and the digital crop shows, with softer detail and muddier edges.

Should I buy the Insta360 Luna Pro?Buy it if...

You want excellent tracking and stabilization
Whether it's a single joystick click or tapping a subject on the touchscreen, the Luna Pro locks onto people and pets reliably, and its gimbal keeps footage impressively smooth in both horizon-level and FPV-style modes.

You shoot a lot of vertical content
Its 4K30fps 9:16 mode, built from 6K oversampling, is sharper than anything the pricier Luna Ultra can manage in that orientation.

Don't buy it if...

You can stretch to the Luna Ultra
With a relatively small amount separating the two, the Ultra's second lens and true 6x lossless zoom could be worth the step up.

You need all-day battery life
Insta360's four-hour battery claims are based on using 1080p at 24fps, so if you're an 8K or 4K shooter, the real-world figure is a lot less.

Insta360 Luna Pro: also consider

DJI Osmo Pocket 4

If you're not tied to the Insta360 ecosystem, DJI's Osmo Pocket 4 remains the benchmark single-lens compact vlogging camera. It lacks the Luna Pro's detachable touchscreen module (though there is an optional controller available), but its tracking and color science have been refined over several generations, and it's a joy to use.

Read our in-depth DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review

Insta360 Luna Ultra

Insta360's flagship costs a little more than the Luna Pro, but justifies it with a second, 60mm-equivalent telephoto lens offering 6x lossless zoom, and a third processing chip for extra power. It's a little larger and heavier, and caps vertical video at a lower 3K, but I think the added versatility makes it worth the modest premium for many creators.

Read our in-depth Insta360 Luna Ultra review

How I tested the Insta360 Luna Pro

(Image credit: Future | Sam Kieldsen)

• Insta360 sent me the Luna Pro's basic box bundle ahead of launch
• I shot footage and photos at all available resolutions, and tested the slow motion and PureVideo special shooting modes
• I tested battery life and thermal management by running the camera continuously

I was sent a Luna Pro sample ahead of the launch day, allowing me time to test the Luna Pro over a few days. I shot a mix of horizontal, vertical and slow motion video across its available resolutions and color profiles, and put its subject tracking and stabilization through everyday use. I also took photos in and outdoors, in both JPEG and DNG format. I ran the camera's battery down twice to test its battery life, and tested its thermal performance too, to see how real-world use compares to Insta360's claims.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read more about how we test

Asus Zenbook 14 (2026): Two-minute review

The new Asus Zenbook 14 is designed to be an ultra portable device with a mid-range price that doesn’t compromise on performance.

True to other models in the line, the finish of the Zenbook 14 is different to the usual fare at this kind of price point, with its soft texture and uncommon colorways that are far more vibrant than many.

More impressive, though, is the Zenbook 14’s build, which blends strength and lightness in a way very few can match. Compared to other 14-inch laptops, this has to be one of the best laptop constructions around in terms of portability.

However, it’s not quite as thin as you might expect, and the thick feet underneath only add to the bulk. What’s more, although most of the unit is remarkably sturdy, the keyboard has a tendency to flex while typing on it, which is a little disconcerting.

(Image credit: Future)

As you might expect for a laptop this portable, the Zenbook 14 isn’t loaded with interfaces, but those included are wisely chosen. You get one USB-A and two USB-C ports — the latter of which support power delivery and display signals — as well as an HDMI output and a headset jack.

The Zenbook 14 performs competently at everyday tasks. It can handle basic productivity and browsing, as well as 4K streaming. It struggles with even light gaming, but that isn’t too surprising given its lack of a dedicated GPU.

Fortunately, the Zenbook 14 remains composed even when undertaking heavy workloads. The fans are audible in such circumstances, but they’re certainly more hushed than many other examples. Temperatures also remain impressively cool, with only a few hotspots appearing — and mercifully these steer clear of commonly touchable surfaces.

The 1920 x 1200p resolution is sharp enough for its 14-inch real estate, while the OLED technology provides the vividness and contrast you’d expect. Reflections are visible at times, but the maximum brightness level should keep them from disrupting your viewing experience too much.

One of the main drawbacks of the Zenbook 14, though, is its battery life. It lasted just over 12 hours when I played a movie on a loop, which is short compared to many of its competitors. In fact, the Zenbook A14, a similar machine to the 14 in many ways, more than doubled this time when I ran the same test.

What’s more, the A14 is similarly priced to the 14, so all things considered it offers the better value. The 14 is the better the choice if you want a slightly more solid body, but in all other regards, the A14 would be the better choice.

(Image credit: Future)Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Price & availability

• Starts from £799.99 (about $1,080 / AU$1,500)
• Preorders open now (ships September)
• Some rivals offer better value

The Zenbook 14 starts from £799.99 (about $1,080 / AU$1,500) and is available to preorder now, with shipments expected early to late September. Availability in the US and Australia is yet to be confirmed, but we'll update this section once it has.

The base model gets a Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 50Wh battery. More powerful AMD Ryzen AI 7 and Intel Core Ultra 9 models, both with 70Wh batteries, can also be preordered for £1,399.99 and £1,499.99 respectively. These two also get backlit keyboards, but the Snapdragon model doesn’t. Each model has three colorways to choose from: Zabriskie Beige, Arctic Blue, and Komodo Coral.

This is a reasonable price considering its spec. However, the already available Asus Zenbook A14 is slightly cheaper, yet has superior battery life and a marginally lighter build. Then there’s the HP OmniBook 7, which we’ve seen in recent sales with a similar price, and is a fantastic all-rounder that’s hard to beat at this point in the market.

Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Specs

Base configuration

Mid configuration

Max configuration

Price

£799.99 (about $1,080 / AU$1,500)

£1,399.99 (about $1,900 / AU$2,600)

£1,499.99 (about $2,030 / AU$2,800)

CPU

Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) (up to 2.97GHz, 8 Cores)

AMD Ryzen AI 7 345 (up to 4.6GHz, 6 Cores)

Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 386H (up to 4.9GHz, 16 cores)

GPU

Qualcomm Adreno (integrated)

AMD Radeon (integrated)

Intel Graphics (integrated)

RAM

16GB LPDDR5X

16GB LPDDR5X

16GB LPDDR5X

Storage

512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD

512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD

512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD

Display

14-inch WUXGA 3K (1920 x 1200) OLED, 16:10, 60Hz

14-inch WUXGA 3K (1920 x 1200) OLED, 16:10, 60Hz

14-inch WUXGA 3K (1920 x 1200) OLED, 16:10, 60Hz

Ports and Connectivity

2x USB-C (3.2 Gen 2, display / power delivery support, 10Gbps) 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen 2, 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3

2x USB-C (1x 4.0 Gen 3 40Gbps, 1x 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps, display / power delivery support) 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen 2, 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4

2x USB-C (1x 4.0 Gen 3 40Gbps, 1x 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps, display / power delivery support) 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen 2, 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack; Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4

Battery

50Wh

70Wh

70Wh

Dimensions

12.3 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches / 311 x 216 x 17mm

12.3 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches / 311 x 216 x 17mm

12.3 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches / 311 x 216 x 17mm

Weight

2.43lbs / 1.10kg

2.65lbs / 1.20kg

2.65lbs / 1.20kg

(Image credit: Future)Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Design

• Light and strong body
• Unique finish
• Reasonable port selection

The unique Ceraluminum body certainly sets the Zenbook 14 apart, as do the bright colorways. The beige finish of my review unit was more interesting than the usual monochromatic shades we’ve grown accustomed to, looking softer and more inviting as a result. This was further aided by the rounded corners and the odd texture of the material, which has a slight graininess that’s comfortable in the hand.

One of the major selling points of the Zenbook 14’s construction is its lightness. It weighs around 2.5 pounds (just over a kilogram), which is impressive for a 14-inch laptop. However, it’s not quite as thin as you might expect, with a bit more unexpected bulk at the rear. The two long bars that run underneath, acting as feet, don’t help matters, either.

(Image credit: Future)

However, some may view this a worthy sacrifice for the unit’s surprising solidity. Both the base and the lid have very little flex to them. It feels slightly sturdier than the A14 I reviewed previously, although that model is slightly lighter at 2.16 lbs / 0.98kg.

There is, though, one weak point to the Zenbook 14’s build, and unfortunately that’s the keyboard. Hammering away on the keys often depresses the whole board, which can be quite annoying and doesn't inspire much confidence. There’s also no backlighting, which is an omission I always lament.

On the plus side, there are a reasonable number of ports on the Zenbook 14. There’s one USB-A port on the right-hand side of the unit, which is the only port on this side. On the left, you’ll find two USB-C ports (both of which support external display signals and power delivery), an HDMI port, and a headset jack.

(Image credit: Future)Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Performance

• Fast everyday performance
• Vivid but reflective display
• Good for typing

Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) benchmarks

3DMark: Night Raid: 16,506; Fire Strike: 3,644; Steel Nomad: 224; Solar Bay: 6,135; Solar Bay Unlimited: 6,132; Solar Bay Extreme: 624; Solar Bay Extreme Unlimited: 625
Geekbench 6.5: Multicore: 10,701; Single-core: 2,145
Cinebench R23: Multi Core: 7,403; Cinebench R24: Single Core: 58; Multi Core: 435
Crossmark: Overall: 1,118; Productivity: 1,047; Creativity: 1,188; Responsiveness: 1,132
Passmark Overall: 2,989.3; CPU: 12,886; 2D Graphics: 330.3; 3D Graphics: 1,848.8; Memory: 2,338.2; Disk: 37,339.4
BlackMagicDisk: Read: 3,832MB/s; Write: 2,810MB/s
HandBrake 4K to 1080p: 37.6fps
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 12 hours and 15 minutes

For everyday tasking, the Zenbook 14 is a solid performer. The Snapdragon X1 chip in my review unit was fast and smooth when conducting basic productivity workloads such as word processing. It also handled multi-tab browsing and 4K streaming with plenty of composure as well.

Sadly, but somewhat expectedly, the Zenbook 14 isn't ideal for a spot of light gaming. It struggled to run Cyberpunk 2077 even on the lowest preset, blighted by rough visuals and debilitating slow downs during chaotic scenes. The A14 I tested previously, equipped with a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, was able to handle low presets better, although it still wasn’t a flawlessly smooth experience.

Some fan noise is evident when the Zenbook 14 is under stress, but this isn’t too distracting. For such a compact laptop, the Zenbook 14 also does well to keep temperatures from soaring. I only noticed portions above the keyboard and underneath getting hot, while the commonly touchable surfaces, such as the keyboard, only became lukewarm at most.

(Image credit: Future)

The 1200p OLED display is crisp and sharp, with plenty of contrast and vividness. It can show reflections a little too readily, especially when deep blacks are displayed. Mostly, though, the high brightness levels do well to keep reflections at bay.

Despite that aforementioned flexing of the keyboard, the Zenbook 14 is still good for typing. It may feel a little harsh due to the lack of dampening, but the keycaps are comfortable and well spaced, while their low profile and short travel make them feel snappy and easy to glide over.

Complementing the keyboard is the super smooth touchpad that allows for easy swipes and gesturing. It’s not very large, but it maximizes its real estate commendably by extending from almost the bottom edge of the unit to the bottom of the space bar, which makes navigation less of a chore than it otherwise would be.

(Image credit: Future)Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Battery life

• Middling longevity compared to rivals
• Zenbook A14 massively outlasts it
• Quick to charge

The battery life of the Zenbook 14 isn’t particularly impressive. When I played a movie on a continuous loop unplugged, its 50Wh battery lasted 12 hours and 15 minutes. While this is quite long, it falls short of quite a few of its rivals.

For context, the A14 has a 70Wh battery, and the difference shows, as that laptop lasted over 28 hours in the same test, one of the best results we’ve seen. And if you’re looking for another enduring 14-inch laptop, the HP OmniBook 7 posted a time of 26 hours. Fortunately, the Zenbook 14 is at least quick to charge, just around two hours to fully top up.

Should I buy the Asus Zenbook 14 (2026)?Scorecard

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Value

Similarly priced rivals are better all-round propositions.

3 / 5

Design

The construction is unique, super light, and high in quality, but the flexing keyboard is a small shame.

4.5 / 5

Performance

Great for everyday tasking, but don't expect more beyond that. It remains remarkably cool and quiet at all times, though.

4 / 5

Battery Life

The Zenbook 14 can last a while, but it’s disappointingly short lived compared to rivals. It’s quick to charge, though.

3.5 / 5

Final Score

The Zenbook 14 is a capable and highly portable laptop, but when rivals occupying same price point are better all-rounders, they might make more sense.

3.5 / 5

Buy it if…

You want something portable
You won’t find many 14-inch laptops more portable than the Zenbook 14, thanks to its compact dimensions and light footprint.

You want a unique design
You won’t find many constructions like this, either: it’s solid with a soft-touch finish and has some interesting colorways to boot.

Don't buy it if…

You want a stable keyboard
While the 14 is great to type with, the keyboard flexing as you do so might irk some users.

You want the best battery life
The Zenbook 14’s battery life isn’t anything special, while the A14’s is.

Asus Zenbook 14 (2026) review: Also consider

Asus Zenbook A14
The A14 is very closely matched to the 14, but it has a much better battery life — the best in class, in fact — and despite having a very similar Ceraluminum construction, it’s ever so slightly lighter (0.98KG as opposed to 1.10KG). It’s similarly priced, too, so might be the better pick of the two. Read our full Asus Zenbook A14 review.

HP OmniBook 7
The OmniBook 7 is a terrific laptop across the board. Its battery life is much longer than Zenbook 14’s, although it can’t quite match the endurance of the aforementioned A14. Its list price is quite steep, but we’ve seen it with significant discounts, bringing it more in line with the Zenbook 14. Read our full HP OmniBook 7 review.

(Image credit: Future)How I tested the Asus Zenbook 14 (2026)

• Tested for a few days
• Used for a variety of tasks and benchmarks
• Extensive laptop reviewing experience

I tested the Zenbook 14 for a few days, during which time I used it for all manner of tasks, from basic productivity and general browsing to 4K streaming and gaming.

I also ran our series of benchmark tests for laptops, designed to assess every aspect of performance. I ran a movie on a loop to test the battery life, too.

I’ve been using laptops for decades, and have reviewed a large number of them, ranging from small budget offerings to large gaming monsters.

• First reviewed: September 2026
• Read more about how we test

The Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 positions itself as an affordable, high-capacity, and portable power station that operates as a standalone unit. As the name suggests, this power station is pitched at adventurous users with durability in mind, although it works just as well in a home setting – as I found out.

Now, I admit that my motivation to test this power bank wasn’t entirely professional. Despite living in a country with a supposedly strong infrastructure, I’ve found power cuts to be increasingly common over the past few years, which I suppose is a side effect of ‘living in the sticks’.

Anything from a brisk wind or heavy rainfall to a few days of strong sun, and my power will fairly predictably fail for anything from 30 minutes to 12+ hours. A fair inconvenience for someone who works from home.

I’d already spent hours researching power stations and had actually added a few of Jackery’s units to the basket when the request to review the Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 portable power station came in – so I jumped at the chance.

Jackery Explorer 2000 V2: Specifications

Specifications are easy enough to come by. But what do they actually mean for you?

Specification

What does it mean?

2,042 Wh capacity

You could run a standard laptop and wifi router for around 20 hours, a small electric camping fridge for around two full days or a high-velocity industrial fan for around 14 hours.

2200W output

It outputs enough power to run almost any household or job site appliance, including microwaves, coffee makers, or electric saws. But you may not be able to run two heat-producing appliances like an air fryer and a hot plate at the same time.

36.6lbs/17.5kg

It’s around 30% lighter than units with comparable 2 kWh capacity units; most adults can easily carry it short distances, but you wouldn’t want it in your backpack when climbing a mountain.

13.2 × 10.4 × 11.5 in (33.5 × 26.4 × 29.2 cm)

Easily fits in the trunk of a car or a campervan cabinet with room to spare.

4000 cycles to 70%+ capacity

It will last over 10 years of daily use before the battery capacity degrades by 30%. This is much better than similar, older units.

100W USB-C PD port, 30W USB-C + 18W USB-A Ports, 12V / 10A car port and 2 AC output ports, 230V ~ 50Hz, 10A max, 2200W rated, 4400W surge peak

You can plug practically any common item into the power station without the need for an adaptor.

220-240V ~ 50Hz, 10A max input

It will charge from empty to around 80% in just over an hour.

400W max solar input

You can fully charge it in around 6 hours with compatible solar panels when used in direct sunlight.

Jackery Explorer 2000 v2: Hands-on experience

I’ve had the Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 portable power station for just over a month now and have already made good use of it.

Unboxing

(Image credit: Future)

It turns up in premium packaging, including several boxes and a soft cloth bag, all of which took me a surprising amount of time to get through.

The amount of packaging actually made me question just how rugged the power station truly is, although once I had peeled back the layers and had time to play with it, it became clear that this unit can withstand a fair amount of handling.

The Explorer 2000 has passed the rigorous IEC60068-3-3 seismic test, proving its durability even in earthquakes up to a magnitude 9. Luckily, I’ve had no need to test it to this extent, but it has stood up well to some rough handling and falling out of the boot of my car.

The box also labels the product as a ‘Solar Generator’, although that is only referencing its compatibility; if you want to charge it via solar panels, you’ll need to buy those separately.

Usage

So, I got it unpacked, put it on to charge, and forgot about it for a while. But it didn’t take long for an opportunity to use it to come up. Apparently, a long period of dry weather had led to a tree falling on the power lines near my house, so we had a power cut right in the middle of the day.

I carried the power station into my office, turned it on, and plugged in my laptop. Nothing happened. About 30 seconds of wiggling the plug and pressing some buttons later, my laptop lit up. Turns out you need to select the power source you want to use for it to work. Yes, I should have read the instructions first, but it was a good test of how intuitive it is to use.

Three hours of work later, our electricity came back on. Compared to power cuts pre-Explorer 2000, where I would spend a few hours trying to work from my phone and panicking that the battery was going to die, this one was pretty seamless.

About a week later, another opportunity arose. This time, to test it out in the field. I took my son camping, and given the ridiculously hot weather, I took a large fan along to keep us a little more comfortable in the tent.

We parked about 300 meters from our camping spot, and carrying the power station over was pretty easy; I put the sweat down to the heat rather than the weight of the unit. It sat comfortably in the porch of our tent without getting in the way, and when the evening came, it easily ran all night, powering the fan and charging my phone via its USB-C port.

The last opportunity arose with another untimely power cut. This time when I was halfway through cooking our dinner. As anyone with an energetic five-year-old knows, any delay to food counts as a small domestic emergency. So, I grabbed the power station and plugged our air fryer in.

It only dropped by about 20% whilst running the air fryer for the last 25 minutes. The dinner and my sanity were both saved.

Jackery App

(Image credit: Future)

The Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 is compatible with the Jackery app, giving you an easier way to control how you use your power station. After the usual sign-up process, you turn your power station on, follow the simple instructions on the screen, and you are ready to go.

The home screen gives some simple insights and controls. You can view the charge level, temperature, current input, and output. You can also turn on/off the DC and AC outputs, switch light settings, and select how long the screen stays on.

Dig a little deeper into the settings, and you can select emergency charging, battery-saving modes, energy-saving modes, and automatic shut-off times. You can also switch between fast charging and quiet charging - ideal if you're charging near where you are sleeping or working, although I could barely hear it charging in the fast charge setting.

I’m assuming the app is even more useful for Jackery’s interconnected units, but for a standalone unit like the Explorer 2000, it offers some useful, although not essential, tools.

Jackery Explorer 2000 v2: What you need to know

The Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 meets my requirements perfectly. However, it isn’t without its downsides, which may matter more to others with different needs.

Unlike some of Jackery’s other products, the Explorer 2000 isn’t modular. This means you cannot expand capacity or functionality as your needs change. What you buy is what you get. If that isn’t likely to meet your requirements in 6 months, you’ll need to start from scratch.

The unit also comes with a 400W max solar output. This is pretty good for those who want to top up the power station on the go, but it isn’t as good as some competitors if that is going to be your primary method of charging.

Heavy users may also find just two AC inputs, one USB-A port, and two USB-C ports a little limiting. If that's you, you may want to check out the Explorer 3000 v2.

Jackery Explorer 2000 v2: Final verdict

The Explorer 2000 v2 has impressed me for several reasons. Firstly, the build quality and easy setup stand out, limiting setup stress and giving you peace of mind. I also really liked the amount of power you get from such a small and portable unit.

I used it extensively in different scenarios, including working, running home appliances, and during a camping trip, and it never even got close to running out.

It is clearly a capable power station that can handle much more than I've thrown at it. However, heavy users may find it limited due to its lack of modularity and small number of ports.