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SpyX is low-key spyware being advertised as a parental control app, and in our experience, it doesn’t work as promised. Good parental control software includes the ability to set screen time limits, filter content online based on age or genre, send cyberbullying or sexual predator alerts to parents, and to recognize when a child isn’t in the intended geo-location.
SpyX doesn't offer parental control features or foster a safe online environment for children. Instead, it allows anyone with dashboard access to see the contents of your device in real time. SpyX — and other similar spy apps like uMobix and mSpy — enable an extreme level of privacy invasion that we wouldn’t recommend for parents or even employers looking to monitor their company devices.
If you’re a parent looking to strike a healthy balance between monitoring your children’s devices for their safety while respecting their privacy, consider some of the best parental control software we’ve tested. Real parental control apps can help you teach your child responsibility rather than break down their trust.
| Price | $11.66-$49.98/mo |
| Free trial | No |
| Number of kids supported | 1 device |
| Content filtering | No |
| Conversation monitoring | ChatGPT, Gemini, Messenger, Snapchat, WeChat, WhatsApp, LINE, Teams, Telegram, Instagram, FaceTime, iOS and Android texts, and email |
| Screen time management | No |
| Location tracking | Yes |
| Activity reports | No |
| Remote lock | No |
| Supported devices | Android, iOS |
Can quickly install on Android or iOS devices
Our team has conducted hands-on testing on 10+ parental control apps over several years using a consistent process. We install each app on multiple devices and create both parent and child accounts, evaluating the experience from both perspectives. We also deliberately attempt to bypass restrictions to ensure the apps actually work.
Then, we evaluate each product across eight areas:
We retest all parental control apps at least once a year. To learn more about how we test, read our full parental control testing methodology here.
SpyX received a low star rating of 2.4 due to its invasive monitoring software and expensive pricing. Our experience score is low because it's not suited for parental control software.
SpyX does have some parental control features, like web search monitoring and location tracking, and it has 24/7 live chat support.
| Decision factor | Weight | Verdict |
| Our experience | 33% | 1.0 |
| Value | 5% | 1.0 |
| Features | 52% | 3.75 |
| Compatibility | 5% | 4.0 |
| Customer service | 5% | 4.0 |
Parental controls app that builds a social persona for your kid based on their messaging habits and flags behavioral shifts
Screens for cyberbullying and in-game harassment across apps like Discord and Fortnite without reading DMs
Lets you set per-app time limits for 100+ apps and pause all internet access instantly from the dashboard
We didn’t have a smooth or easy experience with any aspect of SpyX. First, our credit cards flagged it as fraud and refused to let us buy it, even after we confirmed we were trying to purchase this product. Since SpyX doesn’t offer payment with services like PayPal, we had to use a debit card. (However, we never suggest purchasing anything online with a debit card. Use a credit card when possible to ensure fraud protection.)
After we paid our nearly $50 fee, we entered our Apple ID into the web-based portal and used the two-factor authentication code on our iPhone screen to connect to the service. It prompted us to allow for even deeper monitoring, served up a second 2FA code, and then told us it would take about an hour to populate. By the next day, we still only saw our Contacts, Reminders, and Calendar apps.
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Even though we configured everything correctly on our phone, SpyX never delivered on its promise to show us all of the device’s content.
The three categories that did populate were definitely invasive, and we were uncomfortable with how much it showed. After a bit of digging, we found that SpyX suffered a data breach in June 2024, revealing the sensitive data of 2 million customers to hackers. Since SpyX has direct access to the phone holder’s account via their ID, we think this hack could’ve been devastating for victims.
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SpyX doesn’t do much to create a safe online environment for children. Parental control apps should offer tools like content filtering, screen time management, and more to help parents guide their children toward healthy internet use. Below are some of our tested parental control favorites for iOS and Android.
| Service |  Qustodio |
 Aura Parental Controls |
 Bark |
| Best for | Best for location tracking | Best for teens | Best for social media monitoring |
| Star rating | |||
| Starting price | Free or $4.99/mo | $8.25/mo | $8.25/mo |
| Max # of people covered | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Screen time management | |||
| Content filtering | |||
| Conversation monitoring | |||
| Location tracking | |||
| Details | Get Qustodio | Get Aura | Get Bark |
We were surprised at how expensive SpyX’s prices are, which range from $11.66-$49.98/mo. If you purchase SpyX month to month, it’s the highest-priced service we’ve encountered in our testing. The annual plan is the better deal, but you’re stuck with it for a full year if you don’t like the software.
SpyX has only one plan, which costs the same regardless of the device operating system, and you can link it to only one device at a time. If you want more devices, you have to purchase additional subscriptions.
| Features | iOS Spy | Android Spy |
| Price | $11.66-$49.98/mo | $11.66-$49.98/mo |
| Number of devices | 1 | 1 |
| 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 |
On iPhone, the checkout price isn't the full cost.
Toggle SpyX's feature list to iOS during checkout, and a third label appears: EX, which SpyX defines as an EXTREME feature. Nearly everything parents would buy monitoring software for carries that label. Text messages, iMessages, deleted texts, calls, voicemail, FaceTime, installed apps, browser history, and all 11 social apps on the list are EXTREME features on iOS, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, and Telegram.
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What isn't labeled is a much shorter list: photos, videos, contacts, calendar, notes, reminders, email, and GPS location.
That split lines up with our testing. We paid for SpyX, connected an iPhone, and the only categories that ever populated were contacts, reminders, and calendar. All three fall outside the EXTREME group.
SpyX doesn't say anywhere on its pricing page what an EXTREME feature costs or how you unlock one, and its plan summary claims all features are available. Trustpilot reviewers describe something else. Across 2026, multiple reviewers say they were asked to pay more after checkout to see the data they thought they'd purchased, with several putting the extra cost at roughly double the advertised price. We weren't asked for an upcharge during our own testing, so we can't confirm the amount.
Android buyers don't see the EX label at all. Every feature on the Android list appears to be included.
SpyX also holds a 2.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot, with 60% of reviewers giving it one star. The most common complaints are missing features, surprise charges, and refund trouble.
But that tracks with what we found. While reading the terms of use, we discovered that SpyX doesn't guarantee a refund. The company states plainly that refunds may not be offered in all cases. Its refund policy then lists more than a dozen situations that disqualify you, including one that rules out a refund as soon as you've received any data from the target device. SpyX also deducts 9% from any refund it does issue to cover payment processing fees.
Since there’s no free trial, only a demo video, and refunds are at the company’s discretion, we don’t feel SpyX is customer-friendly. Most reputable companies provide either a free trial or a solid refund policy. SpyX offers neither.
Plus, there is a creep factor in its low-key push toward more anonymous payment methods.
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SpyX has almost no features outside of monitoring. There aren’t alerts or reports, which you’d expect from a legitimate parental control app. In fact, we couldn’t find any useful tools that would entice parents to use this software. Mostly, this is just super-invasive surveillance software like uMobix or mSpy, with very little to offer parents.
Plus, there are limitations.
This is almost exclusively what you’ll get with SpyX. Content monitoring is supposed to permeate every nook and cranny of the device, but even that wasn’t what was promised. We installed SpyX on a Thursday morning, and by Friday afternoon, the only content we could monitor was our iPhone’s contacts, reminders, and calendar. We even went in and reconfigured our phone to make sure everything was accessible, but the software couldn’t do what it claimed.
Several social media apps are supposed to be monitored within the SpyX service. Snapchat, Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp were the most notable apps available in our navigation menu, but none populated even after 24 hours of the software being linked to the phone.
SpyX does have a space where text messages are supposed to be monitored. Again, this didn’t end up working. We found in Trustpilot and Reddit reviews that other users had the same experience with the software failing to deliver.
There’s a link to email on the navigation bar. It doesn’t mention specific programs like Outlook or Gmail, but the service never actually worked. We have both Yahoo and Gmail on our phone as well as an iCloud account. SpyX wasn’t able to see any of it.
SpyX doesn’t claim to see a web browser, but it does mention it can view browsing data like history. Since the feature never populated correctly, no matter how much configuration we tried, we could not see any search results.
There really isn’t any filtering when it comes to content. The only feature SpyX really delivers is monitoring, which we found to be lacking. No matter what we did, we couldn't get SpyX to work on our iPhone. Even though our Cloud backup was turned on before we installed SpyX, it still never populated more than basic information.
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There are no screen time management tools. Good parental control software allows you to set times or content limits. On our children’s phones, the products we use disable the phone at bedtime, with exceptions for safety measures like being able to call 911 or a trusted adult. There were no tools like this offered with SpyX.
SpyX advertises email geofencing alerts for Android. You can track location with SpyX on iOS, but it doesn’t offer alerts that let you know when the child enters or leaves specific areas.
Some parental control apps offer that feature, sending a notification when the phone enters a previously designated area. SpyX only shows you where a person is when you check the dashboard.
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Again, good parental control software offers activity reports. In the software we use, we can see how much time our child spends online each day, which apps they use most, screen time for each activity, and even what times of day our child uses their phone or iPad. SpyX offers none of that.
| SpyX | |
| Windows | |
| macOS | |
| Android | |
| iOS | |
| Browser extensions |
SpyX advertises itself as a phone monitoring app, so you won't be able to install SpyX on any computers, browsers, or smart devices.
| Support type | SpyX support |
| Email or live chat | Yes — Email support@spyx.com and live chat |
| Phone | |
| Online guides or forums |
SpyX offers email or live chat support. We reached out to live chat support to ask how to uninstall SpyX from our phone, since there’s no app to delete. Live chat was fast and efficient, and we could connect with a live agent.
We often see a correlation between a product's cost and the support quality. Since SpyX is on the pricier side, we expected to have a good support experience, and it delivered.
The SpyX website lists a 4.8-star rating based on 2,000+ reviews. We became suspicious because of the strange wording of the “review.” So we went to Trustpilot’s site and double-checked.
/images/2025/05/14/spyx_review_fake_review.png)
Sure enough, the real Trustpilot rating for SpyX is an abysmal 2.2, with 60% of reviewers giving SpyX a one-star rating. Trustpilot reviewers call out that the app doesn't work and that they had trouble receiving a refund.
No, SpyX isn’t good. Even if it worked exactly as it promised, SpyX still wouldn’t be good for kids or parents.
Considering that SpyX barely worked, it’s not worth your time or money. We suggest using one of the best parental control apps we’ve tested and loved. They all have features like screen time management, content filtering, geo-tracking, and alerts for inappropriate content and cyberbullying — to keep your kids safe.
SpyX uses your Apple ID and Google account information to discreetly connect to your mobile device and access all its data. Because of this method, there’s no app to install. However, you need physical access to the device to set it up, since it will require two-factor authentication to connect correctly.
The best overall parental monitoring apps — like Bark — have tools for parents, like screen time limits, content filtering, cyberbullying alerts, geo-fencing tools to let parents know a child arrived or left a location, and more. The goals are usually to give parents the tools to protect their children from inappropriate content, as well as teach their children responsible online use. SpyX just monitors the phone and offers no helpful tools for teaching or protection.
No, SpyX doesn’t keep kids safe on the internet because it has no alerting or filtering tools like top parental control apps do. Kids still have free rein to access whatever content they wish. We don’t recommend SpyX.
Can quickly install on Android or iOS devices
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