WebWatcher Review 2020 – Is it Legit?

Thanks to the diversity of the internet, your kids can access various services, including education, entertainment, and other informative categories. However, this doesn’t limit them from viewing and interacting with what I’ll call malicious, illegal, or unauthorized content on the internet as well.

As a parent, you also want to ensure that you have parental control on everything your kids want to access. And if you can’t always control them, then you need an ultimate tool that can enable you to monitor their daily internet activities.

In this review, I aim to give all that you need to know about WebWatcher. The best part – the app spy is also compatible with all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

 

What is WebWatcher?

WebWatcher is a popular parental control tool for monitoring kid’s devices. The app captures every bit of data from the integrated device [kid’s] and relays it to a secure web-based account – this way, you can access it remotely anytime at your convenience.

WebWatcher has more than a decade of work experience in the industry – a big plus against its competitors. The app was created and is managed by Awareness Technologies. Furthermore, since its introduction, WebWatcher has seen several advancements and is currently available for PC, Android, Mac, and iOS products. The monitoring app also sports several features that can allow you to monitor SMSs, social media messaging, call logs, browsing history, GPS locations, and more. Ideally, WebWatcher gives you a means to protect your kids’ online activity as they browse, stream, play games, and interact with their internet friends. However, we’ll look at how down the line. Please read on!

What are the pros and cons of using WebWatcher?

What features does WebWatcher provide?

Record Emails

You can monitor every email sent and received on all popular software like webmail. You can also easily see the body text, subject, recipients, and more.

Keystrokes

You can also choose to record every keystroke even when the content is deleted. Thankfully, the feature also presents you with a free readable version of the captured keystrokes. You can also view every the whole keystroking history as well. On the downside, this feature is only available on the PC version.

Instant Messages

The feature allows you to view both sent and received messages from across all significant chatting apps, including Facebook Messenger, Viber, Kik, Tinder, traditional SMSs. However, bear in mind that if one of your kids is using an Android device, then WebWatcher can only show you notifications of new messages – not the actual message content – of some apps like Tinder and Snapchat.

Website History

Monitor almost every browsing activity done over the internet. You can also view searches via the Safari browser on an iOS device. Thanks to the feature, you can know everything your kids are up to online.

Social Media

You can also track every social media activity that your kids undertake. Whether it’s on Tinder, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook, the feature records screenshots of all the sessions spent online.

Website Searches

View what your kids are searching on the web on all search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Alert Word Screenshots

This feature capture instantaneous screenshots every time alert-words (drugs, porn, and other illegal words) are keyed on a website.

Continuous Screenshots

With this feature, you can have a video-playback of screenshots for a series of apps and sites you’ve pre-selected. For instance, you can choose to record screenshots of emails and learning sites visited for a day – the program can record up to 1000 shots.

Alert Word Highlights

The feature highlights all pre-selected word-alerts across all recorded information. For instance, you can choose words like ‘alcohol’ as an alert, and it’ll be highlighted across all apps and programs visited.

Program Blocking

You can also choose to block several apps that you deem unfit for your kids. You can either block them at a scheduled time or permanently.

How much does WebWatcher cost?

Notably, WebWatcher gives you a risk-free-trial period, but the overall rates are somewhat pricy. Bear in mind that the pricing also relies on the period of subscription but provides the same features. Presently, WebWatcher sells up to three subscription packages, and here’s how they compare.

• The 1-Month Plan goes for $39.95 per month – currently the most expensive package. This is a different monthly rate to the flat $10.83 per month, which only applies to the annual package. However, if you want to use the service for a short period (less than a month), you can try it.
• The 3-Months Plan goes for $59.95, billed every three months.
• Finally, the Annual Plan, goes for $129.95 for every 12 months. This is the most preferred package, considering it’ll save you up to

However, there’s a catch. The spy app includes additional charges when you use the service. They include:

• You’ll pay up to $25 to get the necessary unlimited updates.
• You’ll pay $29.95 for an E-Notify feature that sends you email alerts to your inbox. This is because WebWatcher deletes all the records after every 15 days – recording them is necessary.
• WebWatcher automatically assigns up to 1000 screenshots every time you subscribe. However, you’ll be required to pay an extra $17 for 1000 more shots slots if you want to continue enjoying the feature.
• WebWatcher also provides you with a White Glove feature that lets you install the spy app remotely on any of your kid’s device, but there’s a catch – you’ll have to pay $19.95 to get it.
• Lastly, you can also monitor several devices concurrently, but that also needs you to buy a license for every gadget.

Note: The additional service charges above are optional. If you’re not too bothered, you can choose to use the WebWatcher spy app without the extra priced features. Luckily, WebWatcher doesn’t have any other hidden additional cost out of the listed above.

The spy app also gives you a refund guarantee that you can benefit from if you don’t like their service. However, I noticed that they don’t have a refund policy for purchases made on unsupported devices and platforms.

Ease of use

Usually, WebWatcher works by recording every information and activity on the target device and uploads it to a secure online account. Nonetheless, to access it, you’ll need to install the parental monitoring tool on your phone or PC as well.

Here’s how you can install it on your Android device:

• Sign Up – On the official website, tap on your target device [Android] and purchase your subscription. You’ll be redirected to download the apk file and install it.
• Record data – Once you’ve installed the app, WebWatcher will automatically start to collect all data from the target kid’s phone, and post it your secure online account.
• View later – You can easily log in to your online dashboard and access the collected information from your kid’s phone. WebWatcher organizes all the data, making it easy to navigate.

If you own an iPhone, here’s how to setup WebWatcher on iOS devices:

• Register – Open the WebWatcher login page and use your kid’s iCloud account details (Apple ID and password) to install the WebWatcher app. It would be best if you also remembered to disable the iCloud back-up option on your iPhone and enable the two-step authentication feature.
• Collecting data – Once, the backup process on the target iPhone’s iCloud is done, the information and activity logs will be recorded to a secure WebWatcher online account.
• Observe later – Log in to your WebWatcher account to view all the activities that your kid is doing.

Tip: Once again, the WebWatcher’s risk-free trial period lasts for up to 7 days. After that, your paid subscription will be activated. Luckily if you end up not liking the service, then you can enjoy WebWatcher’s refund policy. And while the policy doesn’t have a catch, most users are likely to forget to cancel on time – something you need to take caution.

WebWatcher’s Customer Feedback

WebWatcher has recently been awarded the winner of the National Parenting Product for the year 2019. The spy app has also received over 2200 reviews on Google Play Store (4.5 stars total) and up to 311 reviews on Trustpilot (4 stars overall). And even though the Better Business Bureau doesn’t yet accredit the spy app, their rating on the popular review sites is impressive.

Sadly, however, I noticed that most users complained about the refund policy. One user said that they [WebWatcher] didn’t give him his refund. On a long-short, it could be that the user did not meet the policy regulations. Otherwise, this is not a good look for the folks at WebWatcher.

Overly, otherwise, the reviews were positive with a little to none negative criticism.

WebWatcher’s Customer Service

I also tried their customer support service, and their response was admirable. Notably, there is a live chat service that is somewhat hidden – but you can find it at the footer of the official website. The live chat tool is a bit odd, if not dated, but the response from the agent was great. I managed to chat with them, and they were patient, polite and very knowledgeable – something most chat agents lack.

Our Verdict

WebWatcher is an excellent tool if you wish to monitor almost everything your kids are up to on the internet. The spy app can observe quite a list, including photos, texts, call logs, emails, websites, and even instant messages.

The spy app also offers a stealth mode option that gives you transcripts of messages your children are sending and receiving on social media. However, note that it can be challenging to use if you’re a novice. Otherwise, WebWatcher is a great tool.

FAQs

Is it a must to jailbreak/ root the target device?

No – WebWatcher doesn’t require you to “jailbreak” nor “root” the target device. Either process (jailbreaking or rooting) isn’t only complicated, but it also automatically nullifies the phone’s warranty. Furthermore, if the device is upgraded to a higher version in the future, then the jailbreak/root settings will be removed. Bear in mind that in some instances, if you attempt an upgrade on an already rooted device, they could shut down forever. With WebWatcher, you only require your kid’s device, a USB cable, and a PC to get started. Don’t heed the recommendations of some competitors who’ll need you to jailbreak/root.

What devices does WebWatcher support?

For Android devices, WebWatcher supports a long list, starting from Android version 2.1 going up. WebWatcher is also compatible with iOS 8.0 and above. WebWatcher is also continuously striving to support more device versions, but there are zero guarantees they’ll support upcoming platform versions. Also, bear in mind that their refund policy doesn’t apply if your target device uses an unsupported operating system.

Does it take long before I can view the recorded data?

The recorded information will start showing up in your WebWatcher online account in near real-time. Ideally, the moment you finish setting up the client on the target device, collected data begins displaying as the phone is used.

Can WebWatcher Alert Me?

YES – You can enable notifications to alert any time of day whenever the pre-set keywords or websites are picked up on the screen. I also advise you to consider getting the E-Notify add-on. The feature lets you receive all recorded information sent to your email on a daily or weekly basis.

Is it a must to access the target device?

YES – You’ll need to access the target device – but only once – when integrating the WebWatcher client.