Bark vs KidsGuard
Learn how the Bark Premium app stacks up against KidsGuard, a spyware app.
Compare the Features
Block specific sites and apps or choose from 19 categories, including adult content, gaming, and streaming sites — all on any browser.
Block online games, websites, and apps.
Set custom rules for school time, bedtime, and free time.
Parents can lock their child’s screen at any time.
Scans online activities like texts, emails, and social media platforms for concerning content.
Receive screenshots of your child’s phone at intervals and investigate for potential issues.
Get email/text notifications for issues in 19+ categories such as cyberbullying, sexual content, predation, and more. Bark’s advanced content monitoring goes beyond keyword matching and analyzes content — helping to give you more insight into their digital world.
You can manually set up sensitive words so that if the child’s device enters or receives them, it will keep a record and parents can receive real-time alerts via email.
Check your child’s location in real time on a map
Receive location alerts when child arrives or leaves pre-set locations
Get your child’s exact location with check-ins
Track kids and view their location history Receive alerts when kids enter or leave geofences.
$99/year for content monitoring, screen time, web filtering, and location tracking for as many kids and devices as your family needs
$109.99/year to track Androids, iPhones, and tablets. Separate plans are required for each device.
Bark only alerts you to potential issues so you can save time and help protect your child while also building trust.
KidsGuard gives you full access to everything on your child’s phone, creating a lot of work while potentially destroying trust.
With Bark, you can:
Monitor content
Get alerts for issues like bullying, predators, sexual content, and more.
Manage screen time
Create custom daily screen time schedules for your child’s device.
Block websites
Block access to specific websites or even whole categories.
Track location
Stay on top of your child’s location with our real-time map, location alerts, and check-ins.
Pricing & Details
- Monitor texts, email, YouTube, and 30+ apps and platforms
- Monitor web searches and saved photos & videos
- Receive parental monitoring alerts for issues like cyberbullying, online predators, suicidal ideation, and more
- Get insights into your child’s digital activities
- Learn how to address issues with child-psychologist advice and tips
- Manage screen time
- Block website and apps
- Keep up with kids with location alerts and check-ins
Ready to get started?
Bark was created by parents, for parents, to offer a better, easier, and more effective way to help families create healthy digital habits.
FAQs
KidsGuard does not offer website blocking, content monitoring and alerts to dangers, or screen time management. That makes Bark the more comprehensive parental control app.
KidsGuard does not offer this. Bark's website blocking feature lets you manage any app or site on your child's device.
Bark strikes the perfect balance between monitoring your child’s phone and giving them privacy to learn about growing up with a digital device. You don’t get unfettered access to everything on their phone, but you will get alerts about potential dangers like online predators, sexting, depression, and more. This way, you can see the concerning message, but you won’t have to wade through hundreds of Fortnite memes or texts about baseball practice.
Bark is $99/year for content monitoring, screen time, web filtering, and location tracking for as many kids and devices as your family needs.
KidsGuard offers fewer features and is billed annually at $109.99.
If your parents ever looked through your pen-and-paper journal growing up or secretly listened to one of your phone calls, you know how spying can breed resentment. And while parents are responsible for their child’s safety — and phones can be extremely dangerous — there’s a happy medium between outright spying and making sure everything’s okay. Spyware programs simply encourage kids to find alternate ways to talk to their friends, which can cause problems in another way.
Bark helps you build trust by allowing your child to learn how to safely use their phone while also giving them a digital safety net that centers you as the go-to person for help.