Name: Parental Control App - OurPact
Rating: 4.40817 (36644 reviews)

User Reviews for Parental Control App - OurPact

4.41 out of 5

36.6K Ratings

1 year ago, TexasMama6

Great App.

I have used OurPact Premium for over 8 years on three of my boys devices. My oldest son sure hated it. I was able to prevent him from having access to Snapchat and TikTok till he graduated high school. If he could find a way around the controls, I’m sure he would have but he couldn’t change anything. I also use OurPact with Apples family security. Not sure if I need too but I like using both. I have praised OurPact for years and tell anyone that needs a service like this to get it. But…. The reason for not giving 5 stars is the current Log in issue and being signed out. I homeschool my two pre-teens so they are home with me all day and I like to give access but take some apps away at different times of the time. We have schedules set but if they finish work early before say our 3pm “School” schedule turns off, I can’t just quickly log onto the app and grant them an hour. Or when they have lunch, I want to grant 30 min. I have to log in EVERY time. This has been going on for a month now. I have sent customer service an email and they apologized and said it’s being worked on. They suggested I save my log in info so I don’t have to type it in but for whatever reason, it doesn’t save my log in info. Face recognition would be nice to log in for something quick. If it doesn’t get fixed soon, I sadly will have to leave and find another app to use.

6 years ago, Unhappyemojiplayer

So far so good!

We tried for almost a year to get our teen to regulate her own phone usage to no avail. After many fights and having to remove the actual phone at bedtime we heard of this app. I am in no way thinking the fights are over but at least now we don’t have to watch the clock and ask her to turn it off and then argue with her. It will simply stop working. We are only using the basic version for now, but will definitely consider the paid version if needed so we can turn the phone off during school. Our teen’s school does not seem to fight phone use in class and instead sets aside class time for “tech time” so sadly any regulation will need to be done by us. My only complaint so far is that the app you put on your kids phone will rearrange their home screen and all their apps every time their phone is blocked and unblocked. Not a crisis but if this didn’t happen that would be great. One less thing for the kids to complain about 😏 Oh and if you are a parent go read the reviews for the kid version of the app Our Pact Jr😆 The reviewers are almost all the kids and reading them made me even more confident that this was the way to go! I laughed until I cried at the kids arguments against this app and how it ruined their lives. Their advice to other kids was to not “allow” your parents to install this on your phone😆 Such an entitled bunch of kids these days!

6 years ago, 666Toro666

Challenging to start, yet it’s the best out there right now

The concepts are great, but it’s not easy getting started and implementing the app. Once implemented, the premium app is well worth it. It is very expensive, yet the addictive properties of cell phones demand accompanying education in self-control, and this app is the best out there for now. The website has videos pulling your heartstrings about your relationship with your kids. Unfortunately the website is not so friendly when it comes to finding the instructions for using the app. One needs to bumble around until one runs into them at the bottom of the home webpage, because they’re not even labeled. App support responds quickly, but they send you generic instructions about the topic you’re inquiring about. With a little persistence they may write back with an actual answer, but such effort shouldn’t be necessary for something that will cost upward of $500 to cover one child’s teen years with the premium app monthly charges. Alas, until something else comes along, this seems to be the best app for parental control, so I’m recommending it.

2 years ago, KatieYeager

It works

My son has autism and I also split time with his dad- so we wanted a way for him to have a phone and be able to communicate with us at any time, but also didn’t want the phone to be a distraction at school. We also wanted to have control over the apps that he had access to, especially the internet. That was 6 years ago- and we’ve been using Ourpact ever since. His younger sister also has it on her phone now. I didn’t have any issues downloading the apps or upgrading. It is annoying that it jumbled their apps, but the kids don’t really seem to care. I also like that it can take screenshots periodically, so I can monitor them without being right on top of them all the time. Their phones are available, but not a distraction at school or when we’re at events, etc. Timers turn off apps well before bedtime and during the school day, and we can determine how much time they get to play games and when. Also comes in handy when kids are throwing attitude or not listening and I can turn their apps off real quick :) I recommend this app to everyone, especially parents with kids who are about to get their first phone or parents who are having issues with their kids sneaking or using their phone inappropriately or excessively.

7 years ago, mrfilmmkr

Almost Perfect!

I went ahead and gave it 5 stars anyway. I am an iOS developer myself, and I know the incredible amount of thought and work that goes into creating something like this. I have read some of the other reviews and I have to say that most of the negative reviews are just silly. Of course you need an internet connection. How else is the device going to receive commands. Of course the installation is involved. Honestly though, the installation took me less than 5 minutes - and wasn’t difficult at all. I can understand that some people may get confused - but honestly - you must realize what the developers at Our Pact have created is no easy feat. We have tried just about every parental control app available all to our dissatisfaction. Our Pact accomplishes 95% of what we were looking for. Having said that, the reason this review is entitled “Almost Perfect” is because there is one thing this app is missing. That is the monitoring of which web sites the child goes to as well as the monitoring of text messages and whatnot. However, the reason I gave this app 5 stars is due to the fact that this app’s purpose isn’t to monitor, but rather to teach children good device habits and accountability as well as personal responsibility. Well done! Thank you for all of your effort and hard work!

6 years ago, SHubbard385

Works great!

I absolutely love this app! I have been using it since 2016. Some apps never add new features but the developers keep coming up with more things that make my life easier and give me peace of mind. I love the new geofencing feature. My daughter tends to become a bit obsessed with her electronics and it’s helpful to eliminate the distracting apps during times that she needs to do homework or access to apps that can help her in daily activities. Maybe you can develop an adult version that I can use so I won’t get distracted by my phone too. :) I suppose I could add my own phone to the managed devices. My daughter has some complaints though. You may not be able to do anything about this. She was was wondering if you could make an exception for apps that use time for the time allowance. She loves to listen to music but it uses her allowance. She also gets very upset when she forgets to pause her time for her allowance and she runs out of time. I’m just passing these on. She has other options for music when she’s at home. The rest just involves being willing to communicate her needs and wants in an appropriate way to me to get more time. She’s still figuring this one out. Thanks for developing a great app! I look forward to seeing all of the features you will come up with in the future.

6 years ago, John 747478484

OK at 1st then issues started

Started out with the free account but ran out of free uses (they limit how many times you can shut off your child’s applications). So, I upgraded to Ourpact Plus so I could manually shut off my sons account. Everything worked great until I started to notice issues. First, when you click the button to disable applications you trust that the action was completed. I would wake up the next morning and log back in just to find that it was never shut off and my son could have been up all night. Second, there were two instances when I had to reinstall the application on my sons phone (repair) because it would freeze and leave me unable to control my sons application. Finally, I lost all faith in ourpact when our son was grounded for a week (kept his phone but had no apps). Looked over his shoulder and saw him on Snapchat—how? Long story short, if you google how to get around ourpact there is a step by step guide for kids to disable certain features of ourpact (making your parents think it works but it really doesn’t). Support is via email only. They only send generic messages that are very scripted. Though scripted the response does come quickly. Ourpact will definitely work for younger kids but not older kids that know their way around devices. To be honest, all they need to do is go into settings and you can disable the entire ourpact system with one click. I think the application is great if it works but there are a ton of back doors to fix.

2 years ago, Cassiopeia829

Getting OurPact on my kids’ phone is frustrating

When I first got this app for my kids’ phones, it was fairly easy for me to install. I started paying for the premium account because it assured me more control over their apps. A while back, in an attempt to get more people to use their native apps, Apple made it more difficult to use OurPact, and I feel like OurPact hasn’t really recovered from that. While I still recommend this app to friends, I now do so with caveats since I actually have come to dislike using it. I bought a new phone for one of my kids and I dreaded getting it on there. Also, when I removed that child’s old device from the OurPact account, I wasn’t able to reset that phone because OurPact is still working on it somehow. Also, the fact that my kids’ apps still get scrambled every time the apps close and reopen is confusing. I feel annoyed if I have to search for an app; if I had to do it every single time I used my phone, I’d probably get rid of it. I want to help my kid learn to manage their time on their phones, not frustrate them every time they want to use their device. I’m giving it 2 stars because, although it technically does what it says it does, it’s a hassle to deal with. I’ll be doing some research… there has to be another app by now that does mostly what this does without all the hassle.

2 months ago, Gdjdksldlslfjf

Bad!

I can’t even explain how much I dislike this app. It deleted all of my other apps and erased streaks I had on previous apps. I feel bad because someone obviously spent time working for this app to be good but it’s just not working for me and has deleted all of my apps and I can’t get them back somebody please help as soon as possible actually no right now somebody help me right now I’m not waiting, this is the most obnoxious app. I really hope that no one downloads and reads this review and realizes that. it’s really bad. I’m very sorry to whoever made this app you tried trying you fail. OK just help right now within 24 hours and figure out how to report apps and I’m gonna report it for a scam if somebody I mean right now because it is scamming me, six years ago it worked well but right now it’s not working. I looked back at the reviews and it worked six years ago but it’s not working now. I’ve spent like three hours trying to figure out how to fix it so I literally just need somebody to help me right now not later right now. I need help and I’ve been working on it forever. It’s been working, just been trying to work on it so somebody help right now 24 hours please within 24 hours I need to response. I have posted three of these reviews so within those reviews hopefully somebody responds within 24 hours if you if you are reading this and are helping me, thank you so much OK bye.

6 years ago, B.Corujo

Premium install was a nightmare

A friend of mine suggested this app and after a quick search I found the reviews over were good so I thought I’d try it out. The free version scrambled my kids phone and caused a huge argument. The premium version said it would eliminate that and gave all the benefits I was looking for so I decided to upgrade. The price seems steep at 6.99 a month but I figured this would still be money well spent. I tried for two days to install the premium version and ran across multiple issues. I could not find basic answers in the FAQ section which is odd because so many of these reviews state having issues and questions installing the Premium version you would think there would be some “canned” troubleshooting tips. I reached out to support via email (I couldn’t find a phone number) and got a generic response saying please provide ya more information. I provided additional information of my problem but I haven’t heard back from them yet so I deleted the app. It’s unfortunate. Reading through the reviews here it looks like overwhelmingly people struggle to install the premium app but once it’s done the results seem good. For an app that I’m paying for, especially that much, the install should be easier OR support/directions or trouble shooting should be easier to access especially since the problems seem to be common and known. Too bad

6 years ago, BamatamRN

Premium permanently ruined ability to connect to iTunes on my computer

I used the basic version for a short time then upgraded to premium. I STILL have not even been able to try the features to see IF they work, because the Premium version will not install on my phone nor my daughters. It requires you to download the software on your computer via iTunes. Once I did this, neither my phone or my daughters phone will connect to iTunes on my computer at all. After MANY generic email responses from OurPact (because there is no phone interaction at all- email is the only customer service choice you have), they tried to claim it was a problem on Apple’s end; this is ridiculous to even suggest, since I had just completed an update on the phones via the same iTunes an hour before the problem. The ONLY difference is this installation. So I called Apple Support and spent close to two HOURS troubleshooting with an upper level tech, who ultimately determined that OurPact had caused the issue and there was nothing they could do on their end. Even after uninstalling the software and apps completely from my computer and phones, the problem is still there. I would highly encourage you to look elsewhere. If this had worked as it was supposed to, it seems to be a great app system. But not only did it NOT work, it has caused damage to my iTunes connection that even Apple can’t fix. Download at your own risk.

7 years ago, E7plus3

FALSE ADVERTISING

I initially gave this app a 5-star review, because it theoretically does everything I wanted. What they don't make at all clear anywhere on their website or in app descriptions or in their terms of service is that YOU HAVE TO HAVE A CONSTANT INTERNET CONNECTION for any of it to work. I can't create a schedule at home, set it for my kids' iPads, and then let them go to school and have the schedule still work. Which seems like how you would expect this to work, just by common sense. But no, every single change in block/grant status requires an ongoing connection to the internet. My kids have an hour ride to school each way. I want to give them access to their games during that time, but only during that time. I don't understand why this is so hard to do, but so far I've yet to figure out a way to make it possible. If this app just let the previously created schedule run as planned on the iPad without a wifi connection, it would be perfect and I'd give it 5 stars and pay even more than $5 a month for it. I do have to add one more thing: all of the people giving this bad reviews saying it is controlling or destroys trust with your kids (maybe most kids writing those reviews?) have this wrong. My children and I installed this app together and are in agreement with our family rules. They understand why they need them and accept that. This isn't about control, it's about helping kids have good habits.

4 years ago, #Queen Yasss

it’s super controlling

i’ve had this app used on me by my mother. i’m now out of the house and i just want to say this app is extremely controlling. if u are a parent wanting this app why don’t u try just talking to ur kid. u do realize that their entire LIFE if on their phone right ?? them being on the phone has NO affect on U. leave them alone. i promise u if u get this app or a similar app ur kids WILL resent u and in the long run u will regret getting it. trust me when i say that ur kids will start to be more sneaky and they will literally hate u. they may not act like it but deep down they know the second they are able to leave the house they will and they won’t want to visit u. this is because to them u are taking their freedom and basically their life. are u getting this because they are failing class ?? if so why do u care , if doesn’t affect ur future it affects theirs. are they staying up too late ?? then wake them up TIRED. why do parents always want full control over a kids life. parents u shouldn’t be trying to control ur kids u should be allowing them to live their life. grow up and realize we live in a life that uses technology constantly and u need to get used to it. controlling a kids life is not the answer and u will regret it when they never want to see u again. just y’all to them in a calm matter and have a good conversation. i promise u it will work 10x better !

6 years ago, LindaStarGirl

A dream come true!

I have been waiting for a parental control app like this for Lord knows how long. I have probably downloaded in excess of 20 different parental control apps. One of the biggest issues I have had with the apps I previously purchased was the inability to block/control individual apps on the iphone. Other issues experienced were scrambling and unscrambling of the app layout after blocking and unblocking. This app has everything I want: time controls, the ability to control individual apps, and a way to prevent the scrambling of the app layout. The family locator is a bonus! I tend to run late when going to pick up my children from the school bus and having the locator that works in REAL TIME allows me to have an idea of where they are. I LOVE THIS APP! I would pay $20 a month for this app. The only downside I experienced was difficulty setting it up. It took me forever. My child has a 64 GB phone and had over 50 GB free, but I kept getting an error message that there was not enough free space to complete the set up. I ended up having to do a factory reset which was extremely time consuming. However, it was worth it. Thank you so much!

7 years ago, MooseJaw66

Was pretty complex to set up - but it works beautifully

I have two kids and two iPhones to set up, and the process was a good bit more involved than I expected. For the “premium” level with all the controls (which frankly is the service level any responsible parent will want), you have to back each kid’s phone up to iTunes on your (parent) laptop, then erase and reinstall each one with a new OurPact-controlled OS. As luck would have it, both phones decided during the process that they also had to download and install a new OS update, so the process of setting up two kid phones, two parent laptops and two parent iPhones took almost 2 hours. But the step-by-step directions in the installation utility and on the website were extremely thorough and I got through it without any problems - just took a while. (I do have to wonder though about how a less tech-savvy parent might fare..?) With the installation now behind us, we really like the design and function of the app. It gives us a new level of peace of mind by allowing us to limit our kids’ screen time, and to have pinpoint control over their Instagram/Snapchat/texting/Facebook/social media/Safari use.

7 months ago, Jmielynn

Could be great

Although this app takes a little effort to set up, once it’s there, I like it with the exception of a few things. It monitors screen time well (unlike the built in Apple parental controls which don’t work half the time) and shuts off access after time limit is reached. I like that you can control each app independently and have your child ask before downloading new apps (although this can be glitchy and sometimes the request won’t come through). I do not like that kids have to pause their time to keep it from running out while they aren’t using their phones. This leads to issues when they inevitably forget to pause or they are in an area with poor signal and can’t pause. Also, I don’t like that it won’t let them rearrange their apps on their home screens. I’m not understanding how this is a safety feature and is a huge annoyance for my ocd kid who wants her apps in a certain order. When she locks her apps where she wants them, they automatically reset to a random order the next day. OurPact!!! Take away the necessity to pause the time, the inability to arrange apps on the home screen, and improve app request notifications and you’ll have yourself a good product.

4 years ago, musical_flamingo

⚠️⚠️iOS 14⚠️⚠️

I will say the app does it’s job to keep kids from looking at certain things or using certain apps after a certain time. Something that I don’t like is how it doesn’t really work with new features in the iOS update. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this so I decided to check it out myself. Lots of people want to have an aesthetic look on their phone. In order to do so, they customize it with widgets and they put new icons on their apps. However, it doesn’t allow you to put on app icons. The only way you were able to have these icons on your phone with ourpact is when your phone is unblocked. Some parents put controls on that allow their kids to have more time rather than having less. But then it’s also vice versa. This app does it’s job but I personally feel like you should at least add a new update to ourpact and ourpact Junior that allows kids to do the features of iOS 14. If you think about it kids, still want their phone to feel and look normal. A good majority of them are already embarrassed to say that their mom or dad puts restrictions on their phone. If you could at least add an update that works with any new update from this point on I would be very grateful for that. If not, I really don’t think people are getting their moneys worth.

4 months ago, clarissalagosh

Cancelling

We’ve used this for a few years and at first it worked well enough. Now it’s a waste of money. The schedules don’t work. Every day my son would say “can you turn my apps back on” and I’m like what? They should be back on at 10AM? So then I gave up on the schedules and just turned off apps manually every time we needed to. We haven’t used it for a while because he’s gotten older, just have it in case he gets in trouble or on restriction and we need to turn his apps off. I realized he has snap chat and TikTok now because he has emails from them, yet those apps aren’t even listed on his apps on OurPact? OurPact should have notified me when he downloaded these apps. Didn’t. So we took his phone, deleted his account and just re synced it, thinking maybe we just needed to start over. All of his apps are listed now. So that’s great. But they should have always been listed. That was two days ago. I’m looking at OurPact again today, and for some reason there’s no TikTok! So I have to go in manually and shut off his apps, which I shouldn’t have to do anyways if the schedules would work correctly, and I can’t even shut off TikTok. So he could be up on tik tok all night. I’m done with paying monthly for an app that doesn’t work correctly and I am canceling and switching to a different one.

1 year ago, Fallon3237

Recent Update

This app was almost perfect, the only issues I had with it before the most recent update was the map of my child… it would never truly let me see her location, other than the notifications I would receive letting me know that she had arrived/left home or arrived/left a family members house.. however this recent update has ruined the whole experience for me. It will block (not even during the specific times I set for her phone to turn off) but yet she still has access to her apps. Then other times, it blocks everything just like it’s supposed to. I understand that it’s technology and it’s bound to have glitches, but I’m not going to keep paying for an app that isn’t tracking my daughter or blocking her screen time when it’s supposed to. Just today while at work, I got a notification that my daughter had left home. She’s not supposed to leave this house without telling me so I called her and sure end she was at home, right where she was supposed to be. Scared me to death… I’m giving this app one more chance and if it doesn’t start working right, I’m going to ask for a refund for the months it wasn’t working so that I can find a new app that will track my daughter and work correctly.

4 years ago, RebaAM

Disappointed

I had high hopes for this app but after so many issues and seeing the app fail to deliver on its most basic of premises, I have decided to cancel my premium membership and delete the app altogether. I had so many issues trying to download the premium version onto my sons iPhone, it would never let me install it on his phone. It never gave me a reason why it failed or gave me any clue as to what was the issue, it just gave me an error message and would never work, no matter what I tried. On my other sons phone, it somehow allowed him to download and create an Instagram account, although I had every block specific to Instagram in place on my controls. I should also add that my son didn’t look up how to get around ourpact controls, he didn’t really care either way about Instagram and was just fine deleting it after I found it, the phone just didn’t give him any sort of block when he went to download it. I have basically been paying for nothing - since the most basic control (bedtime limits) is the only thing that worked and I could do that on my own from our family Apple account. I would love to have everything this app promises, it would be a game changer for our family. I hope they figure out all the kinks.

12 months ago, princessxanthumgum

Nightmare to install, limited functionality on free version

Edit: I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the free trial of the premium version. I decided to test out the web filtering feature and I’m currently reading a Rolling Stone magazine article about a lady who makes a living on OnlyFans. on the device that I’m trying to monitor using OurPact. I know that web filtering isn’t always going to be perfect but this should’ve been easy. Poking around search results, I’m able to access TikTok, Reddit and Twitter using the basic web filter. So you will need to explicitly add these sites to your block list to keep your kiddos from accessing these sites. So again, set up is a pain in the behind and you will have to test everything out before handing the device back to your kid. First off, this was a nightmare to install. Had to connect it to a computer to set up the account, log in several times, restart, etc. I finally get everything set up and ready to go only to find out that I need to pay to get even a basic block adult content functionality turned on. So all it does is to set a schedule and brick the device completely when you tell it to. No blocking specific apps, no protecting against adult content, no limiting in-app purchases.

5 years ago, Tysa1755apple

Kids figured out how to disable and help desk is difficult.

I have found this app to be very difficult. We’ve had it for 8 mo. and We just cancelled premium. Before going into other issues the main reason we cancelled is bc my 10 yo has figured out how to unpair her device making this app useless. She set out on a mission (unannounced to me) and pretty sure it only took her a day to successfully unpair. OurPact did send a notification so I knew immediately, but I can’t constantly re-pair devices, especially as long as that process takes. If your kid doesn’t figure out how to unpair, Other problems are... Mainly the lack of ability to speak with someone at help desk. I initially had a good bit of trouble pairing my kids devices and help desk is only though email so the canned responses took weeks to get a resolution for issues they admitted they had been having. After finally getting devices paired they somehow disconnected again after a month or so. After the devices disconnected I had basic access, but I had to go through the process to set up all over again through the same pairing issues that they admitted again were kinks on their end. All could likely be fixed with a more efficient help desk process.

6 years ago, Michellesmac

Lacking support to downloading problems

I heard about this app from a friend and was happy to hear that the parent-child fighting was better in their home because of the app. I decided to give this app a try. After downloading the app to my phone and paying for the premium version, I went to download to my child’s phone, everything seemed good. However, when I tried to use the app all the premium features were not there. I reached out to OurPact via their email address and they told me to re-download the app again. So after doing that it still wasn’t working so I reached out to OurPact again and they told me to re-download the app again. SO I did! Same thing!! By this point I am very frustrated and had other things to do in my day so I left it at that and am still not able to use this app but am being charged for premium each month. I just wish there was a better way to talk to someone from the app that could walk me through the downloading process. I’m sure it is me that is the problem but it would be nice for someone to help me with this!!! Just getting the same email response from OurPact is NOT helpful! I tried it a few weeks later and got the same response from OurPact! NOT HELPFUL! Someone PLEASE help me or I’m going to try a different app all together!

4 years ago, AmandaV83

Don’t do it!!

I have never felt the need to post a review but I am posting a review for this app! This app has been the biggest headache! And customer support is not helpful at all. There is no phone number and can only contact through email which they reply to everything with a very scripted response that does not address your problem at all. I signed up for premium access and after 2 days of trying to connect my sons phone to my account, I was not successful so I deleted the app from his phone and canceled my subscription. Well, I forgot to delete the app from my phone which is the parent account and had set a bedtime for 10pm. Well, I’m sitting here scrolling through Facebook and my app shuts down and suddenly I have no apps on my phone and I can’t open anything but my browser and my settings. Even though I had the parent account, it still shut my phone down. This app is not functional at all and is expensive! They advertise a lot of great things but you can only access the bedtime schedule on the free version, otherwise to access the other features on the description, you have to pay. Also, once the restricted time was lifted, my apps were all kinds of scrambled!! I am not happy with this app at all!

7 years ago, Brenfitz

One glitch keeps the rating from great

So, we have had OurPact premium for several months and overall I have been very happy with it. I had no problem installing it on my son's iPhone 5s but have not yet been able to install it correctly on the other son's iPod. I haven't spent a lot of time trying so I won't count off for that. I have one major issue that has arisen that really means I will probably cancel. Gamecenter. When apple deleted the gamecenter app that means it is no longer able to be controlled by OurPact and has become restricted completely. So, my son lost all his game progress on multiple games when I blocked them. While my husband says "who cares" I feel like that's a little harsh that I don't mind in his allotted screen time if he plays them and I know I would be really aggravated if I lost things like that. I feel like this may end up being a deal-breaker because if I can't limit games there is little point in having the app. If it wasn't for this issue I would absolutely love the app because I have such great control over his phone even when he's not with me.

6 years ago, Aliwise

Not for everyone (especially older children)

My son (freshman) is able to remove management thru his iOS device and although programmers are working on a fix to prevent such an easy removal, it is taking a long time. Unpairing has also occurred when I had the phone with no explanation or reason for it...not sure what would explain this. I’m going to try our carrier’s version and hope for the best. I might try again when my daughter gets a phone, but not sure I recommend for older kids who understand limits are important but like the ability to overide technology. Also - I paid for the plus subscription for $1.99 the last few months. A few days after this months payment, I decided to upgrade to the premium version for $6.99 hoping for better results. The upgrade was made thru the app, which said I would get a free trial period (win, win - right?!)...no, a couple of days later I was charged $6.99. So I paid for plus AND premium in a weeks time. I wouldn’t mind so much, if the pairing issues were fixed....and support response time was more reasonable (still waiting on response from the last request for help).

7 years ago, AlasItsAlice

Not perfection but.....

I want my child to have a phone on him during the school day - but I don't want him to be preoccupied during that with texts and games and apps that are on it. Regular apple parental controls are picky and this app suits our needs very well. I have the premium service. I will say that installing it was a time sink but very doable. The features are mildly limited but for us they work and suit us just fine for our needs. Downside - 1) the apps get rearranged on his device 2) not having constant internet connectivity can cause hiccups. 3)game center was compromised 4) this is not the "end all be all app" and it has qwirks. We do have some time restrictions on both his phone and ipad - which he can often forget to pause or play - but in the end - we can make it through this inconvenience together. I can manange from my phone or computer and we can adjust at any time. So clearly by reading all of the reviews - this app isn't for everyone. But if your needs are similar to ours - you will appreciate this app.

6 years ago, Lllez

Not so good

My child figured out how to override the App. I sent an email to support, asking for any suggestions and there weren’t any. I eventually discontinued the premium subscription in December, however my child’s phone settings remain blocked by ourpact and I can’t open “parent access” in my child’s phone settings because my email is no longer recognized as a parent account. I’ve emailed ourpact many (at least 5) explaining this issue, requesting assistance. I get an automated response saying someone will respond shortly, but no one ever responds, let alone help resolve the issue involving their product. A bit frustrating. However, I did speak with iTunes recently and consequently received reimbursement for the 3 months we had service. I highly recommend asking for reimbursement if you are unhappy with this App or their customer service. Response to you: The whole point of my review was that ourpact support has NOT responded or offered any solutions, after numerous emails from me, until now. I hope your suggestion works. But you are VERY delinquent in responding and this has cost me a lot of time. At least I got my subscription $ reimbursed and hopefully the hostage situation of ourpact app over my kid’s phone will be over soon.

6 years ago, Wartyb

WILL DELETE YOUR CHILDS GAME PROGRESS!

I downloaded the app and signed up for premium. Unfortunately, their premium services (App control and location services) are currently not available. They would not tell me how long they have been unavailable or when they would be available. There is a problem with the companion app that you have to download to your child’s device. So they are selling a service that is unavailable. What is worse is that their “fix” is to download software from your computer onto the device. When this happens, the apps on your child’s phone gets scrambled and game progress gets deleted. My son had been playing Terraria for a long time and all his progress was wiped. He was crying all day. OurPact took no responsibility and blamed everything on somebody else never addressing that they were the ones that were selling a product that did not exist and that they were the ones who created a “fix” that would wreak havoc on my kids Ipad. They could of warned me beforehand. Apple should not not be selling this product. If you get your kids will hate you, not because for some reason you feel you need to control what they love, but because you will destroy what they have painstakingly created.

6 years ago, Shannon Kawane

Doesn’t work

Downloaded and immediately subscribed for the Premium in order to be able to control access to apps. First of all, the install process is not as easy as they claim. With Premium access in order to control apps you need to install a Utility app on a desktop computer and then go through a bunch of steps involving backing and restoring the phone then installing the companion app. If your kids’ phone doesn’t have enough memory to accommodate the process you end up having to delete stuff off the phone. When blocking apps the order of apps on the phone’s screen gets re-arranged into alphabetical order, so you have to spend more time going in to the companion app to ensure the apps remain sorted the way you want. I tested the Block feature by “blocking until I say so”. The Companion app on my child’s phone thought it was blocking stuff but I was able to open every app, text to/from my child’s phone and surf on Safari with no problems. Even right now my daughter is actively on her phone but the location app is saying she her phone location hasn’t been updated since two days ago. I sent an email to support asking what exactly it means to “block” but haven’t received a response in two days.

5 months ago, Explore83

Does not respond to app issues but continues to take $$

I have been in contact with this app/company/Employees for months now on why I’m getting charged but yet I don’t have access to the premium account which I pay for every month. At first they tried to blame it on Apple saying they couldn’t find my account and then I would actually need to sign up under them, instead of going through Apple to pay, I’ve never had that happen before and I’ve had this on my phone and my children’s phone for years after going back-and-forth with someone they explained that they would escalate the issue and that they would get back to me. That was almost 3 months ago and I’m still being charge for a premium account which I don’t have access to, unacceptable! I have explained to them several times that I have receipts from Apple and my bank where I was charged and yet they still can’t seem to figure it out or give me access to the premium account which I’ve had for years and still continue to get charged for. Update 3/8/24 I have filed a complaint/refund issue with apple since this company will NOT respond to any of my email I keep sending them.

6 years ago, Erinmcinnis

New user need help

I love the idea of this app and set it up and paid for premium version. It took me awhile to set it up on my first child’s phone. I’m testing a different one in each of my kids phones (this is only one connected to mine). Tonight almost all my apps disappeared. I knew from reviews, you responded saying it must be the parents getting setup as the child. I don’t even know how that’s possible. My restrictions in my settings were like I was a child with a long list of things blocked. I took other reviewers advice and deleted the app from my settings but now I’m afraid I will have to start all over and don’t want it to apply to my phone. My sons phone is one I connected to iTunes and went through entire process. It shows his iPhone 5s as the one monitored. I don’t have a 5s. I even logged on on a separate phone and tried “grant access” and took away all restrictions and still nothing changed. I can’t risk that. But this was the one I wanted to use the most. Can someone email me? I’ll change my review if I can figure this out snd give it a fair shot. Erin Mcinnis signed up on 2/24 Thank you.

5 years ago, Hollydolly1318

Okay for young kids

I have this on both my teenage son and 10year old daughter iPhones. His is iPhone XR and hers and iPhone 11. It works well, I have the preferred plan that I pay monthly for. I had this for a little while and used it to entice my kids to get their school work and chores done and I didn’t get home until later in the evening and don’t like to come home barking orders. Also, my teenager has a real hard time realizing that bedtime doesn’t mean you just shut off the lights and play on your phone but that you actually go to sleep! This worked for a while until he realized that if you turn your phone off and back on the “block” feature resets on its own to “granted.” I can still make it a mild inconvenience for him to continuously block his apps after restarting his phone but that only works whilst IM awake. Suffice it to say, this doesn’t work for him anymore. I am currently searching for a better app for my defiant teenager since beating him is illegal but will stick with this one for my youngest!

6 years ago, JoshieMom

Upset

I would like to preface this by saying I do like the block and schedule features. Initial installation was simple, and easy to do. That’s what the three stars are for. However, I am quite unhappy that there is no warning about the app scrambling unless you dig through the App Store reviews. When you see an app has a high rating you just don’t expect such a huge flaw. My son has Aspergers, and changes in stuff can really bother him. We discussed this app as a deterrent for making bad choices when it came to games after bed. We were both happy with the way this app said it worked. So flipping his phone back on and discovering his carefully organized folders were gone was terrible. Obviously I should have dug through the reviews more thoroughly before installing and when it comes down to it it’s my fault, but I am disappointed. We will decide tomorrow, after some sleep and time to think, if we will continue to use this app. Frankly the process to upgrade to premium looks intimidating, and we don’t have a pc so I guess, by now reading reviews, actually impossible for us.

6 years ago, ,P13RR3,

From the POV of a teen

Of course, the developers take time and answer every adult’s reviews (read: everyone with a “valid opinion”), and they won’t answer mine or the other teen POV review I’ve seen. Why do you block camera? Why do you block Siri? Also, I saw a review that said it was less about control and more of an agreement between the parent and the child. My parents do not operate like that. They took my phone for a month and when I got it back they had installed OurPact. They leave it blocked all day, every day (except for school, so I can use google classroom and such, but the second I get back home, blocked again). I do not understand why you have to make us pay to select certain apps to block, because I know that if my parents could, they’d let me keep camera, Siri, google classroom, WhatsApp, and apps like that all the time. But since they don’t pay for apps, I’m stuck with “all or nothing” and it’s gets very frustrating than my phone can’t function like a normal phone for 90% of a day. This app has good intentions but you have to pay for all the good features, which makes it seem like that’s how you planned it.

6 years ago, ally the teenage victim

Review from the victim

Hello my name is ally I am 1 of two teenagers in my family and honestly this app is trash. I know some people might read this review and think “oh well 1 less thing to complain about” but in my case it’s the exact opposite. My family is a military family so obviously I move around a lot. It may see, like a common thing because there are a lot of military families in the US. Usually the orders for my family are set to two year but no longer than three. For me it feels like I’m on a time limit at every second of my life and this app only makes it worse. My family uses this app as a punishment which I don’t respect but it does allow ,y phone to turn off at night which I do respect because we all know what a teen is like without their beauty sleep. All I’m saying is that before you decide to use this app confront your child and make a plan like for example a bedtime schedule or self monitoring system and trust them for a while. If that doesn’t work then please by all means get this app but I encourage you to use the system of trust first.

7 years ago, GoodLife71

App diminishes device power over family

Our family loves this app. With four kids in range from 16-6 years old, it’s been difficult to manage all their different device needs for school and entertainment. OurPact saves us from all the power struggles and arguments with our kids. Now everyone in our house has a fair opportunity to be part of making smart choices when it comes to device use, rather than us as parents having to be the managers all the time. We use the schedule feature, and each child has a different schedule based on their developmental level and school needs. I especially love that if the app is glitchy (hey, it’s a fast moving tech world!) I can go online and manipulate the kids’ schedules just the same. Other loves: - locked app home screen on my phone so the Little’s can’t get into it - premium feature that allows us to leave certain apps open all the time. This is most necessary for the older kids and the apps they need open all day for school. - being able to block specific apps entirely- so huge when all our devices are Apple and the kids can airdrop any Family shared apps to their devices without notice to the parent. - online support has been awesome, friendly, helpful! Long story short- what used to be a major point of contention in our house has become a non-issue, thanks to OurPact and the flexibility it offers in managing all our kids’ devices.

4 years ago, WordSmith780811

App stopped working, developer says they’re working on it

I installed the app on both of my kids’ phones and all was well for several weeks. Then the app stopped working completely. It just froze and wouldn’t respond. After uninstalling and reinstalling the app it was okay for approx one day, then the same thing happened again. I emailed the developers and they told me they’re “actively investigating” and “hope to have a fix ASAP,” and that in the meantime I should just log on through a browser. I’m pretty disappointed that I paid for this subscription and it stopped working as advertised almost immediately, and I felt sort of blown off when I contacted the developer. I think I even paid for a full year of a premium subscription up front. As for the service itself, I’ve been happy with it even though I can’t access it conveniently. It allows me to schedule screen time for each phone. I haven’t tried the GPS tracking or anything else as my main need is for my kids to not be able to get up in the middle of the night and play games.

6 years ago, B0NVOYAGE

ONE issue stopped my use

This is definitely the most useful app I have found - for myself! I am an adult, and am absolutely tired of seeing everyone around me wasting time on their phones (you older adults, too!). I wanted to lead by example and unplug. I set the times I wanted to unplug and was so thankful to see all of my distracting apps disappear. I was able to focus on myself, take better care of my mental health, and go to bed earlier without constantly checking my phone or getting distracted. I am absolutely in love with this feature! Unfortunately, the app scrambling that occurs after the break period is over is too overwhelming for me. I got really anxious seeing my apps spread over three pages (I keep them all color-coordinated in folders on the very first page). The premium feature is just not in my budget to combat this issue. However, I must give credit where credit is due. This app gets the job done, even though it is unlikely that I will use it again.

6 years ago, just some child

Just saying

I think it’s a good app and I can agree with parents that want to cut down their child’s device time a lot of my friends spend the entire day of playing video games or on their phone or on the computer so personally I think this app would be really helpful but I want to tell all of the parents here as just a message I’m not complaining. Don’t use this like my mother does she travels a lot and I take live with my grandfather at home so I have to take photos of giving him his pills or any food that he eats for dietary reasons and those are the only times during the day that she’ll unlock my phone when she does she’ll do it for 15 minutes or the minimum time, now I’d be OK if she even only unlocked it for half an hour every day but she has trust issues so I also deal with 15 minutes every single day three times a day so I guess my only point would be don’t do what my mother does because before she got this app I actually had a lot of friends that I like to talk to on my phone and I lost some of my friends because of this app

6 years ago, Rose142

Angry Parent

I went through the hassle of backing up my child’s device, resetting the device (something your company did not let me know would happen) deleting everything which took all night for all the apps to re-download only to find the progress lost on most games and all movies needing to be re-downloaded, uploading your software, and trying over and over again to download OurPact Jr. and OurPact Jr. is not available!!!! I now see this information was emailed to me, but who stops from reading the instructions provided in the app to read an email you don’t know is coming? And it too doesn’t say everything will be deleted from the device when installing the program!!! Now this company sits back and collects our money!!! I need the ability to set more than one timer and I can only do that with the premium, but that’s the only feature I get for $6.99!?!?! You could at least lower the cost of your plans until you fix whatever needs fixing with OurPact Jr. and when I email about my frustration, you say “At this time, it's unlikely OurPact Jr. will be available for installation any time in the immediate future." So frustrated!

7 years ago, Fevinkinch

Not great

I installed to test a solution To a problem I have with my 4year watching her iPad in the middle of the night when she should be sleeping. Upon the first test of the app, it completely rearranged all of the apps on her iPad and deleted any folders used to organize apps. It's a huge mess. As well, many of the apps still seemed to function fine under lockdown mode. I subsequently learned that if you don't want the apps scrambled every time you use OurPact, you need to pay $4.99/month for premium service. This would be fine if any of the other "premium" features were of use to me, and wouldn't even mind paying for the "Plus" service level at $1.99/month, if it would cease to scramble the apps. Honestly, the app scrambling seems like a ploy to get everyone to upgrade to the premium service, as it would be frustrating for a child to try to navigate through an ever changing labyrinth of their apps every day when they initiate use of their device(s). It gave me a pretty poor first impression, and I will definitely continue my search for a similar app that does what I need it to.

3 years ago, Mom-User

Love this app, but have requests

My husband and I love this app! We have used it for years. Our kids use their phones as alarm clocks. And we like for them to have their phones in case of emergency. This app allows us to shut down their devices instead of taking them away. It adds an extra measure of safety as well. We have the premium version. I do have a few update requests for the developers. It would help tremendously if there was an in-app messaging system to OurPact Jr. That way, when our kids’ devices are blocked, we can still message them information. I don’t want them to receive texts from their friends - just me.😆 This would be especially helpful when they’re grounded and their devices are blocked for long periods of time. In a perfect world, an automatically emailed device report would be helpful too! Just a few ideas from a mom-user.🙂

6 years ago, Moofishd

Solid app with some quirks

Overall I like the app for what it does to controlling the devices. Kids love it when they’re zoned in and I block it all! There are some features I’d like to be considered: So iPhone X face recognition.... if it doesn’t catch you right away, say you’re off the app for a minute and go back, it makes you put in the user and password. No way to re-invoke the face recognition. It doesn’t allow for iPhone saved user Id and password key thingy either. Super annoying when you’re used to using the face recognition feature for everything. Ability to set time of day for certain apps... that would be awesome. I don’t want to put music as part of their screen time but I’d also like to be able to shut it down at a certain time of day. Ability to add time. I’d like to quickly say, here’s 30 more minutes or an hour and overrules the time limit and bedtime schedule. Timer sometimes randomly eats all the time away before they’re even awake in the morning. Seems to happen if thy don’t pause it before the bedtime locks the device down. Usage: I’d love a report emailed to me with sites visited. I’d love to see the amount of time spent on a certain app directly in this app. Alerts: let me know when my kid sneaks on my wife’s phone and changes the schedule or allows unlimited time. I’d love to beta test any and all of these features or any others that you’re considering. Thanks!

6 years ago, 😭🖤🔥😭🖤🔥😭🖤🔥

Most Life-Destroying App to Ever Come Through The App Store

Parents, do you love your kids? If the answer is yes, I do not suggest you get this app for your child. It is a totally unreasonable and unfair form of cruelty. This enables parents to shut off kids’ phones, and while that may seem like the golden ticket for parents, it is a living nightmare for kids. Have you ever had late night homework, late night reading, needed to check your grades or the weather, or respond to a text, but you can’t because your phone has been shut off? Yes, I have been through all of those situations. They are not pleasant. Even worse, the app taunts you about it. Even when your phone is shut off, the texts you receive will pop up on the screen, but you can’t respond to them. Then if your phone is locked, basically the only app that is on is the Our Pact Junior, and a message pops up in it saying, “You will have free time tomorrow.” I mean, how much more cruel can you get? I’m hoping this low review will discourage others from installing this horrible app, and I’m wishing upon my lucky star that the developers will wipe this app into oblivion. Sincerely, Rebecca Cetton

7 years ago, Mystery Stone

Great app! Great support!

First thing is- This app IS involved in its installation, especially if you're going to subscribe to premium service like we have. After spending a good chunk of time setting up our family's devices, it's totally worth it. And we didn't stop with the kids' devices, we put it our own devices. Yes, the parental phones! Why? Because it helps us manage distraction ourselves! We can control what apps appear when we want and at what time on ALL our devices. Beyond this, let me tell you about their support! After botching part of the install, I emailed support and got a reply in minutes. This support was the BEST I've seen from an app and program provider in my 25 years of using Apple products! I don't write reviews often, but I wanted to write one for Our Pact. It's a game-changer. It's time for us to take back control of our devices and have them stop controlling us! Great job Our Pact!

4 years ago, Tlwalters

New update works.

I had and issue with 7 version but contacted the help department they fixed it quickly. It seems to work fine now. The app itself is amazing. I use it to block mostly at night or if my kids are having difficulty interacting with the environment around them. If my kids need extra time I extend it. I like how I can block apps that are harmful for them (with premium version). They don’t like being block out. But they’re children and they do NOT need free access to roam the net. Also children who are giving this app a low rating and saying it’s a violation of privacy, no it’s not. If you’re under your parents roof there is no privacy. Parents are to guide kids because their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, their decision making skills are poor. Using this app protects your kids. As a parent that’s your job.

3 years ago, meowmeowarner

Nowhere near as user friendly as the others

I have used a few monitoring apps and this is the least helpful. It doesn’t let you see much of anything. I cannot use the function where I get a screenshot of kid activity on phone. It is also the glitchiest of all three I have tried thus far. I had hoped it would actually work better on iOS than say questudio (btw that app gives so much more actual information/insight on usage) but it does not. Even the overall timers glitch, not just when trying to use very specific settings which never ends well. It’s a no from me. We are about to remove as we are coming to the end of our year subscription and I have no doubt that removal will be a pain. I personally say if you want to actually see anything like what they’re spending their time on or the type of sites blocked (there are settings for adult content blocking but how would you ever know if any is actually being blocked… you won’t it doesn’t show anything like that) you need to keep looking.

4 years ago, Kelli Kleinpeter

Great customer service & quick response to problems

Premium is the way to go because you can have so much more control over your child’s device with individual apps and different schedules. My child thought it would be a good idea to try to delete OurPact jr and try to get the parent app which she failed at miserably. It screwed everything up and basically cancelled my account which gave me the limited access when I had already paid for the current month. Card on file was fine but it kept rejecting. I emailed the scenario and within 1:00 minute I had a new email saying “welcome to Premium”. I then checked my app and everything was back in place! Thank the Lord they have customer service with some sense and quick response! You won’t be disappointed with this app. I promise. From one female teen mom to another. Con: I don’t understand why I constantly have to reinstall the app. My child’s device is no longer paired for quite some time. This is the aggravating part of the whole thing.

7 years ago, OrangeMama22

Don't do it! It broke my iPhone!!

I spent over 3 hours trying to install. You must also use computer to install. Ran into an issue w/ Turning off Find My Phone. Only support they offer is through email thus, not instant support. I Somehow managed to lock my iPHONE!! I'm sure this is due to the very explicit, clear directions to install, uninstall, pair, restore, reinstall, pair again, redownload, etc. I'm being sarcastic, but literally, those are the steps!! Due to only having email support, I freaked and restored my phone from a backup. Of course, lost a ton of info & pics. After restore, my Bluetooth stopped working. Two plus days on the phone with Apple support and my bluetooth has failed. When I asked Apple support if this is from the app, they couldn't say but coincidence of the whole mess is strange! Of course, I haven't heard back from app after requesting to speak to a manager. From reading reviews, the app clearly has some kinks. It's too bad because app had great potential & I was referred by 3 other family's that use it w/out issue. But even if it was my error, any app that can damage hardware is a deal breaker for me.

Description

Use OurPact parental control app to: • View – Capture automated periodic, on-demand or gallery views of your children’s online activity, all encrypted for safety. • App Blocker – Block internet, text messages, and apps at-a-touch • App Rules – Block & allow specific apps • Block/Allow Websites – Prevent access to specific websites, including adult content, for safe internet browsing • Block Texting - Block access or set rules for texting apps • New App Alerts – Receive alerts when new apps are installed on your child’s device • Block Schedules – Automate your family’s daily routine • Screen Time Allowance – Set daily screen time limits for your kids • Geofencing with Places – create GPS geofences around specific locations and receive real-time alerts when their kids leave and arrive at home, school or any set zone • Find My Family – Allows parents to locate any family member using geolocation and geofences. • Find My iPhone & iPad – Family Locator also lets parents find the location of all their individual devices paired to their parent account in case of lost or stolen items. OurPact gives you the power to block apps like social media and games plus gives you peace of mind knowing you can track your kid’s location and have visibility into their online activity. OurPact allows parents to foster healthy habits and manage their child's screen time using screen time allowance, blocking specific apps, blocking texts, and scheduling daily screen time according to a child's daily routine. OurPact is the most comprehensive parental control app and family locator, perfect for families of any size. By pairing your family's iPads, iPhones, iPods or other device platforms to OurPact parental control app, you have the power to manage your entire family's screen time & device locations from one powerful application. Recommendations: • Use OurPact's app blocker and parental control app solution to reinforce spoken or written agreements with your child regarding screen time limits and device use. • Use OurPact parental control app to block social media or games with a single touch, while leaving apps that help your children learn and grow. • Use OurPact’s View function for spot-check monitoring of your child’s online content. • Set daily screen time allowance and teach your children how to budget their screen time effectively. • Set one-time or recurring schedules for your child to manage screen time on-the-go. • Find my family or locate lost or stolen items using Family Locator. OurPact offers a Premium and Premium+ monthly auto-renewing subscriptions charged to your iTunes account. Try free for 1 week. You'll be billed monthly within 24 hours of the end of the current billing period. You may cancel or turn off auto-renewal of your OurPact subscriptions any time by going to the user's Account Settings. To avoid being billed for an additional period, subscriptions must be canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. For more information visit: ourpact.com/privacy ourpact.com/terms If you have any questions or need technical support, do not hesitate to reach us via email: [email protected]