OurPact GPS Tracking Review

OurPact Parental Control and Family Locator is a clear winner if you're looking for a parental control app that can do just about everything: 

• GPS tracking
• App and website blocking
• Screen time monitoring
• Live views of what your child is viewing on their device

OurPact isn’t perfect, though. The app has some glitches, and it takes a while to set up. We also didn’t like it for a kid tracker because it just tracks the device, not the kid. So if the device is set down, it does little to find the child.

Overall, though, we were impressed with how easy it is to use OurPact and how customizable it can be to parenting styles.

OurPact is free to download, but you will need a subscription plan to get more than just a few features. It has three plans to choose from: Free, Premium, and Premium+.

The Free package offers very little. You can add only one device, create one schedule, and block five websites or apps. Then, there’s a huge jump between the Free package and the Ourpact Premium package features.

For $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year you can add up to 20 devices and have unlimited access to all OurPact features except one. What you don’t get with Premium is live looks at your child’s screen. For around $3 more per month, you get access to this feature with the Premium+ package.

Installation and setup are a headache and we didn’t like it. To show you what we mean, here’s everything you have to do to get started:

1. Download the OurPact app on the Apple Store or Google Play app store on the parent’s phone.
2. Download the OurPact Jr. app on the Apple Store or Google Play app store.
3. Create an account using the app on the adult’s phone. Make sure the password is strong so your kid won’t figure it out.
4. Go to the OurPact website and log in.
5. Download the OurPact app to your computer.
6. Follow around 10 steps on your child’s device to prep it for OurPact. (Steps vary depending on whether the device is an iPhone or Android.)
7. Plug your child’s device into your computer using a USB cable.
8. Follow the steps to pair the phone to the computer.
9. Set up the tracking and parental control settings in the OurPact app on your phone.

All of this could easily take over an hour, depending on your Wi-Fi’s download speed, the number of devices you need to set up, and how comfortable you are with the tech. The process isn’t very complicated, but there are so many steps that it made us sigh very loudly.

OurPact really shines when it comes to blocking apps and websites and scheduling screen time. The GPS tracker works, but has some problems.

We really wish you could just use the app to sync devices. If you don’t have a computer, OurPact is useless.

Once you set it up, OurPact is, thankfully, very easy to use. You can either use the website dashboard or the parental control app on your phone to access the parental dashboard.

The glitches we found were common complaints by other OurPact users. It will randomly reorder the apps on your child's device and will minimize whatever screen your child is looking at when you take a live view screenshot. (More on screenshots in a bit). This seems to be an ongoing problem that OurPact hasn’t figured out how to fix yet.

Also, some iPhone and Android users have reported the app deleting apps or wiping their phones. Though this doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue, it’s concerning.

We're impressed with the GPS tracker's accuracy, but the fact that it's not a wearable is a huge drawback.

We gave this monitoring app’s GPS tracking feature “Family Locator” a try and were pleasantly surprised. The map showed exactly where our child’s device was. If your kids are anything like ours, they lose their devices on the regular. With the GPS feature, you can see if they left their phone at the library or the playground.

Family Locator isn’t really a great way to track your kid, though. Unlike wearable GPS trackers, a phone or tablet can be easily set down and forgotten when your child gets the urge to wander or is in a kidnapping situation. So we like it to keep track of devices, but not your kids.

You can’t monitor text messages with OurPact like you can with Qustodio or Bark, but you can block messaging apps if you want a wholesale texting binge. Blocking messaging apps can be particularly useful for grounding purposes. It can also protect your child from some of the iffier messaging apps that can be targeted by predators. Your kids will hate it.

You can also use OurPact to protect your child online by blocking other apps and websites you don’t want your child to access—like dating sites, adult sites, and social media. There’s the option to completely block specific apps or choose specific times when an app is available too.

What parent doesn’t worry about how much time their kiddo spends on their devices? OurPact makes it easy to schedule screen time. You can plan out exactly when your child can access the fun stuff on their phone, like movies, social media, and games. 

We set up a bedtime routine for our child’s device. At bedtime each night, all of the apps became inaccessible. You could still make phone calls, but that was it.

Does your kiddo like to listen to soothing music while drifting off to sleep? No problem. You can make certain apps accessible on your child’s device even when screen time is over. We especially like this option for kids that are insatiable readers and need their Kindle app available 24/7.

We love that you can turn off the schedule with the toggle of a switch, just in case you decide to let your little one stay up past bedtime or get a nibblet of more screen time as a treat. When the special time is over, just toggle the schedule back on. No need to start from scratch.

Sometimes kids are sneaky. They say they’re watching SpongeBob on YouTube, but are they really? If you want to take a peek, OurPact has a feature that will take a screenshot of what your child is looking at on their phone. You can see it, and all of your other screenshots, on the parental dashboard. The app will send you screenshots regularly, if you choose, or you can take a look whenever you want.

If you choose to have screenshots taken on a regular basis, you can easily search through them for potentially harmful things instead of sifting through each one. OurPact automatically searches for violence, sexual content, profanity, violence, and substance abuse and then labels the screenshots.

You can also set up other things to screen for in the screenshots, like a particular person’s name. This could help track if your child’s bully is contacting them on social media.

We weren’t impressed with OurPact’s customer service. While they have a robust, easy-to-navigate support page, you can only contact customer service by email. Users have reported that the email service is less than helpful.

The tedious setup had us worried that OurPact would be a dud, but we were pleasantly surprised. We wouldn’t recommend it for keeping track of your child’s location, but it is super helpful in limiting your child’s screen time and protecting them from potentially harmful sites and apps. For all it does, we think $9.99 per month is a fair price too.

Not sure about OurPact? Take a look at all of our favorite parental control apps.

In our OurPact review, we ran it through hands-on testing alongside scouring hundreds of user reviews and research from other testers. We tried it from both the child’s perspective and the adults. We tried to hack it to see if we could disable OurPact on the child’s phone, tried all of the features, and we even used it to track our wayward test child.

We also used our many years as parents and decades of tech expertise to weigh just how helpful OurPact would really be for real-life situations.

For more on how we review products, take a look at our methodology page.

• Guide to Parental Controls
• How to Keep Your Teen (or Tween) Safe Online
• 6 Ways You Can Help Your Kids Stay Safe at School
• What to Do When Your Child Goes Missing
• Smart Gadgets and Resources for Children with Autism