Canopy Review 2025: Is It Really the Best Parental App to Stop Sexting?

Overall, we think Canopy is a non-intrusive parental control option that’s well-suited for parents with young children who want to restrict screen time.

While Canopy takes a mostly all-or-nothing approach to content moderation, it does claim to have a robust sext monitoring system to help keep nude and explicit photos from being sent or downloaded. This seems to be the service’s most unique feature, and it has two different content settings for parents to activate.

We were impressed with the quality of customer support but disappointed at how many of the features didn’t work as well on iOS compared to Android. Although there are other top-tested parental control apps, we think Canopy is worthwhile for anyone with young children who wants to try a parental control app for the first time.

Check out our review below to see how we used Canopy.

Canopy review at a glance

Price	$7.99-$9.99/mo (billed annually)
Free trial	Yes
Number of kids supported	Up to 10 devices
Content filtering	Yes
Conversation monitoring	Yes – nudes and partial nudes only
Screen time management	Yes
Location tracking	Yes
Activity reports	Yes
Remote lock	Yes
Supported devices	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Learn more	Get Canopy

We last tested Canopy on March 13th, 2025.

Our experience

Since iPhone and Android phones are entirely different beasts when it comes to parental control monitoring, we tested Canopy on both types of phones (iPhone 15 and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra). While our Android experience was decent, we ran into many issues with our iPhone tests.

iPhone experience

We were able to easily sign up for the service through Canopy’s website, but after that, it got a little confusing. When we tried putting restrictions on the monitored device, none of our settings actually worked. We did get notifications, and the support team was quick and efficient, but overall, we weren’t entirely satisfied with our Canopy experience.

Canopy provided us with a QR code to download its main app, which we scanned with our phone. We also were given the option to use the web-based portal. We did both. Once we had the app downloaded and gained access to the portal, there was an option to send a link to the device we wanted to monitor. In this case, we named it Teen.

The link was easy to send to Teen, but installing the app on the device wasn’t easy at all. The link led us to download the monitoring app rather than the Canopy Shield app. Once we figured out we needed the Shield app instead, we downloaded that.

We had to turn off our anti-theft settings on our iPhone, but the directions to do that were incorrect, so it took us about 20 minutes searching through our Settings app to find where that was (Apple’s support was also giving us the wrong instructions). Once we were able to install the profile and connect it to the app, everything showed up in our main dashboard.

We immediately blocked a few gaming apps, set a geo-fencing alert, and instituted a downtime schedule. Not one of those settings worked. We were still able to use the blocked apps. Weirdly enough, Pinterest and the App Store were not apps we blocked, but Canopy disabled them anyway.

We set a geo-location to ping us if the phone labeled Teen left the address. To test this, we took the phone and walked two blocks away. We didn’t receive any notifications that the device had left the alert area.

Finally, we put the downtime schedule on and waited for the 1 PM start time. That time came and went, and nothing was blocked on the phone. We even restarted the phone, and only the apps we didn’t block were disabled, while the apps we blocked had total functionality.

Once we were done testing the features, we decided to delete the app from the Teen phone. It was effortless to delete it, and we actually did receive several notifications on our phone and via email that the Teen device deleted the app. This was probably the only alert that worked.

One part of the service that was efficient, however, was support. We contacted email support via the chatbot in our browser agent. Within minutes, we’d heard from support. They weren’t able to solve our problem, but they were quick to answer, so that was a definite plus.

We’ve tested plenty of parental control software and know that sometimes it takes a little bit of time for everything to set itself up and work. After several hours, we expected Canopy to be at full functionality, but we still ran into a host of problems.

Android experience

Since our iPhone experience didn’t go that well, we decided to see how it would work on an Android phone. The setup process was much smoother this time. We were sent the right app to download, and all the instructions for setting the permissions were accurate and easy to use.

Once set up, we played around with the protection available to us. We set up downtime and were blocked from using any app as well as accessing the internet. We did receive a notification on our phone letting us know, but the message was a bit buggy and didn’t properly tell us when we would be able to access our phone again.

Even with downtime disabled, each app was checked upon opening to make sure it was safe. If it was on Canopy’s list of blocked apps, we could send a request to our parent account to unblock the app. We were able to unblock TikTok successfully through this request system.

Canopy does display a screen time report, but it was delayed in updating. The results were still outdated even after hitting the “Refresh” button.

We were able to block specific websites and apps on the phone. Canopy will also hide Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest apps on your phone and replace them with browser shortcuts instead, which makes it easier for them to monitor the content.

We set the Sexting Prevention option to Strict, which should stop us from sending swimwear images.

Unfortunately, it didn’t block us from sending a bikini picture through text, so we couldn’t verify how accurate this function is.

We also tested the geo-fencing feature, which is meant to send notifications when the device leaves a certain area. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any location notifications, so we were unable to verify if this was functioning properly. This may have been due to the slow refresh rates, which probably were in place so as not to drain the device battery too quickly. This is typical of most parental control apps.

With our testing done, we went to remove the app from our phone and weren’t able to do so without first enabling it on the parent’s account, which we were happy to see.

Who is Canopy best for?

• Recommended for parents with 1-2 younger children who use Android devices

Since Canopy can monitor up to only 10 devices, we think a family with one or two children would find this most useful. Considering kids can have a phone, computer, and even a tablet, you’d likely run out of room quickly with a large family.

We also think the all-or-nothing approach to content moderation works better for younger children, while teens would benefit from more nuanced content moderation, like setting screen time limits for apps.

Plus, based on our experience testing Canopy on iPhone and Android, we’d recommend this parental control app for Android users only.

Canopy prices and subscriptions

Canopy ranges between $7.99-$9.99/mo (billed annually), and there isn’t much difference between the plans other than how many devices are covered.

You’ll have the opportunity to add compatible devices, set features, and monitor geo-location. The dashboard shows an overview of apps recently used and the location of the device you’re tracking. Each device has its own section, so you can easily see the data.

Features	Individual	Duo	Family
Price	$7.99 (billed annually)	$8.99/mo (billed annually)	$9.99/mo (billed annually)
Number of devices	3	5	10
Website filtering
Social media monitoring
Text message monitoring
Email monitoring
Internet search monitoring
Screen time management
Cyberbullying and online predator alerts
Remote lock
Location tracking
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan

If you purchase Canopy annually, you’ll get decent savings compared to paying month to month for the service. Since you only need to pay for the number of devices you plan on covering, Canopy is reasonably priced compared to its competitors. Many competitors allow for unlimited child monitoring, but Canopy’s approach may be better for parents who need to cover only a few devices.

Canopy features

The internet can be a bad place for kids, so parental control software like Canopy helps moderate what your child is exposed to via their devices. Certain features are more important than others based on your needs, but we tend to think the following are the most important:

• Content monitoring
• Content filtering
• Screen time management
• Location tracking
• Activity reports

Content monitoring

We didn’t feel the content monitoring was very robust. Even though we named our iPhone test Teen, there wasn’t a setting to filter content by age group. We also weren’t able to filter by category in relation to content; just categories like “Audio” or “TV and Streaming” were offered. Most filtering came by way of blacklisting specific apps and websites.

We appreciated the robust nudity filtering that claimed to block nude or suggestive photos from being sent or downloaded. However, even the strictest setting didn’t prevent us from texting a bikini photo via Android.

Social media and phone apps

There was no social media monitoring outside of blocking the apps or platforms entirely. In fact, all app monitoring was app-specific rather than filtering content within the platforms.

For instance, if you want to block all social media, you can do that in the advanced filtering section. If you want to block Snapchat but not Instagram, you’ll have to block the app by itself. This can leave children unsafe on social media.

This can get granular and time-consuming, and setup takes a long time. If you’re installing Canopy on a child’s first phone, it may be easier to moderate due to the slow addition of apps and services. Since we set this up on Teen’s phone, there was a lot of content to work through.

Text messages

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a feature to monitor text messages. The only message monitoring was the nudity filter that would stop the sending and downloading of nude or suggestive photos.

Email

The only email monitoring feature available was the ability to block or allow email programs. If you want to allow email programs, there wasn’t much you could do to filter content within what was sent.

Web browsers

Again, because content monitoring isn’t really available, parents only have the ability to block certain websites but not content. This feels like a big miss, as you have to be proactive about blocking sites rather than using software to control the content that your child can access.

Content filtering

We blocked an app, but Canopy still allowed our Teen to view the app on their iPhone. Canopy did block access to Pinterest even though we didn’t indicate anything that would restrict Pinterest. It also blocked access to the App Store. As far as specific apps already installed, however, it allowed access to those even after we restricted them.

For iOS users, we felt like this feature really missed the mark. While we could easily blacklist apps, sites, and categories like “TV and Streaming,” we know that most parents prefer moderated content rather than blocking it completely. We have better reports from Apple’s proprietary controls, which you can easily set up on iPad or iPhone.

However, on Android, we were able to block TikTok successfully. We also could send a request from our phone to unblock the app, and the parental account received the request with no issues.

Overall, the all-or-nothing approach feels more appropriate for younger children, so this may pose an issue for parents with teens.

Screen time management

We were able to set screen time management in 5-minute increments based on the day of the week. Unfortunately, when we tested this on our iPhone, the downtime we scheduled didn’t happen. We set downtime for 1 PM. When the clock on our iPhone read that time, Canopy never blocked access.

However, we had no issues setting up and using screen time management on our Android device.

We wished there was an easier way to remote lock as well. If you want to restrict use, it has to be set in the downtime schedule and nowhere else. We reached out to support to see if there was another way to remotely lock the device, and they informed us there wasn’t.

Location tracking and geo-fencing

We were initially impressed with the location tracking and geo-fencing features. Canopy claims that not only could we see where the device was, but we could also set alerts for if it moved in or out of geo-fenced areas. We set an alert to notify us if the phone left our home and then took it outside.

Unfortunately, although we went several blocks away, Canopy never alerted us that the phone left the area. This was a huge disappointment because we thought this feature would be useful if kids wandered off or ran away. It would also be useful if they didn’t get to school at the appropriate time or left a trusted place like dance or soccer practice. This was the feature we were most hoping worked as advertised.

Because the location tracking updates didn’t work in real time for iPhone or Android, we can reason that the app just doesn’t update fast enough to catch the location change. Honestly, a lot of parental control apps struggle to update in real time.

Activity reports

The activity reports are relatively sparse. We were able to see recently used apps, and there was a section for requests, but considering the app on Teen’s iPhone was sparse as well, we didn’t see a place for requests to be made. However, we did receive notifications when certain actions were executed, like monitoring photos or when Teen deleted the app.

In competitor’s products, we’ve seen breakdowns of screen time, where it was spent, and even search topics. Canopy felt a little hands off in that regard, and we wished we had more insights. Plus, the report didn’t update quickly, even after we hit “Refresh” on our Android.

Canopy customer support

Support type	Canopy
Email or live chat	Yes: AI-powered chatbot and email help@canopy.us
Phone	Yes: call (888) 820-1918
Online guides or forums	Yes: Canopy Help Center

We were very impressed with the customer support Canopy offers. The AI chatbot is set to answer common questions, but it’ll send you to email support if it can’t help. Email support was swift and answered our question quickly. It was less than an hour between when we asked our question and when we had a complete answer.

We also explored the online guides and forums on Canopy’s site. While there wasn’t much, we found some basic information in the FAQ section helpful. The only type of support we didn’t contact was phone support, but that was because email support was so quick and efficient we didn’t feel like we needed anything else.

Top alternatives

Canopy may be effective for the parents of young children, but older kids and teens may need more granular monitoring capabilities. If you aren’t finding everything you need with Canopy, consider one of these alternatives:

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Canopy a good parental control app?

Canopy is a good parental control app for younger kids and small families who use Android. Due to its all-or-nothing approach, coupled with its 10-device limit, larger families or families of mixed ages might find that they need an alternative. If sexting and sexually explicit content is a concern for you, Canopy claims this as its standout feature.

For anyone with children of multiple ages or who wants more granular control over their child’s content (including detailed reporting features), check out some of the best parental control apps we’ve reviewed. We think Bark is the best app for monitoring your child’s online activities, and it even offers cyberbullying and online predator alerts.