GardionFree Parental Controls: What Is Already on the Phone
Parental controls can almost always be switched on for free: the settings are already on the phone, and Google, Apple and Microsoft hand out their apps at no charge. Here is what each platform gives away, where free stops, and the point at which a family runs into a paid plan.
Android: settings that are already installed
Every modern Android has Digital Wellbeing: screen time by day, timers for individual apps and a Focus mode that switches chosen apps off for a while. It lives in the system settings and needs no account and no install.
The second free layer is Google’s Family Link. It sets a daily device limit, runs School Time and Downtime schedules, caps individual apps, blocks apps outright and shows your child on a map with arrival and departure alerts. The same place holds restrictions for Chrome, YouTube, Search and Google Play. New app installs are approved by the parent.
Both share one boundary: they live on the child’s phone and inside the child’s Google account. An older child usually arrives at the idea of signing out, installing from another store or booting into safe mode, and the setting stops applying until a parent notices.
iPhone and iPad: Screen Time
Apple keeps the same tools in Screen Time: limits by category and by app, Downtime, purchase restrictions and content ratings by age. Apple charges nothing for any of it.
Family Sharing lets a parent manage all of that from their own iPhone. Make the Screen Time passcode different from the screen passcode, or the limit comes off with the code your child types every day.
The computer: a child account and Family Safety
The first free move on Windows takes a minute: your child needs their own account without administrator rights. While they are an administrator, any program can be removed and any setting undone.
Then comes Microsoft Family Safety, the app for a Microsoft family group. It gives a screen time limit, app and game restrictions by age rating, website and search filtering in Edge, and an activity report. A Microsoft account is enough.
One detail about the filter: it works in Edge. With Chrome or Firefox on the machine, filtering is bypassed by opening the other browser, so families usually close those off in the same pass.
The router: a schedule for the whole flat
A home router can hand out internet on a schedule and cut a list of addresses, and that costs nothing either. One rule covers the phone, the tablet and the TV at once.
It holds until mobile data, a friend’s Wi-Fi or the first VPN. The detailed walkthrough with settings by manufacturer is in the router guide.
Where free stops
Built-in tools cover time and age ratings. What families pay for is usually three things: protection against the controls being removed, one panel for phone and computer together, and detailed per-app reports.
With third-party apps the free tier is usually trimmed by volume: the number of devices and the depth of history. KidLogger, for example, covers five devices free with 18 days of history in 18 MB, while its paid plans run at 29 and 89 dollars a year.
One more line of spending surfaces late: with some services the subscription renews itself automatically. Worth checking before payment.
What is free in Gardion
The Gardion free plan runs with no time limit on one Windows computer: a shared daily limit, and a lock when the time is up. No card is required — an email is enough.
A phone is not part of the free plan. To see how control works on Android and Windows together, you start with 14 days of full access without a card: schedules, per-app limits, tamper protection and one panel for every child. After that the family decides: Family is $39 a year and Premium $59 a year, both single payments with no auto-renewal.
Choosing in one minute
One phone, a younger child and calm relations at home: Family Link covers this for a couple of years.
An iPhone for the child and an iPhone for the parent: Screen Time plus Family Sharing, with nothing to install.
When the computer and games are the main problem, start with a child account and Microsoft Family Safety.
A teenager who has already tried lifting restrictions, several devices, one screen for the whole family: this is where free tools end and paid apps begin. How children usually get around controls is in a separate guide.
In short
Built-in Digital Wellbeing and Google Family Link. Neither costs anything, and together they cover a daily limit, schedules, per-app limits and location.
Yes. Digital Wellbeing in Android settings, Screen Time on iPhone, and on Windows a child account without administrator rights plus a Microsoft family group.
One Windows computer with no time limit: a shared daily limit and a lock when the time is up. A phone is not part of it: for that you get 14 days of full access without a card.
Families pay for three things: protection against the controls being removed, phone and computer in one panel, and detailed per-app reports. Time and age ratings are covered by free tools.
Set limits in 3 minutes
Limits, schedule and anti-bypass protection on Windows and Android. 14 days of full access, no card needed.
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