10 reviewed · updated 2026
The best accountability and internet filtering software
Of the 10 accountability and filtering apps we reviewed, 3 have a free tier and 7 require payment up front.
Every product here has its own full review on this site. How we review →
Our picks
Best overall
Covenant Eyes
Screenshot-based Screen Accountability rather than URL logging, a real ally relationship, and 25 years behind it. $18/mo, $198/yr, or $950 lifetime.
Best value
Ever Accountable
$14.99/mo or $129/yr, unlimited devices and partners, and ISO 27001 + 27701 certification with annual third-party audits - rare candour in this category.
Best free
Safe Surfer
A genuine free tier covering 60+ blocked categories across desktop, mobile and browser extensions. Only 46 App Store ratings, so a small sample.
Best free alternative
Plucky Filter
Free, and the time-delay mechanism is the cleverest idea here: loosening a setting takes a delay you chose in advance, which beats a password you can talk yourself past.
Best for bypass prevention
Tech Lockdown
Built for people who know how to defeat a filter - DNS filtering plus real bypass prevention and an Apple device config generator.
Best recovery program
The Freedom Fight
A 29-week curriculum with 60+ videos and certified group leaders, not a monitor. $99 one-time, with a free 30-Day Challenge to start.
How to choose
Settle one question before comparing anything: do you want to be reported on or blocked? Accountability software tells a person you have chosen what you did - it does not stop you. Filtering software blocks content before it loads and usually tells nobody. Covenant Eyes ($18/mo), Ever Accountable ($14.99/mo) and Accountable2You are accountability tools. Canopy, Safe Surfer, Plucky Filter and Tech Lockdown are filters. Buying the wrong category is the most common and most expensive mistake here.
For accountability, Covenant Eyes is the strongest overall: screenshot-based monitoring rather than URL logging alone, an ally relationship built into the product, and 25 years in the category. It is also the most expensive at $18/mo or $198/yr, with a $950 lifetime option. Ever Accountable is the better value at $14.99/mo or $129/yr and carries ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certification with annual third-party audits, which is a genuinely unusual disclosure in this space.
For filtering on a budget, Safe Surfer has a real free tier and blocks 60+ categories, and Plucky Filter is free outright with an unusual mechanism: it blocks images and video by default and enforces a *time delay* you set in advance before any setting can be loosened, which defeats impulsive changes in a way a password does not. Tech Lockdown is the pick for someone technically capable enough to defeat an ordinary filter, because bypass prevention is its actual product.
Now the constraint that decides more of these purchases than any feature list: iOS. Apple does not let one app see inside another. So screenshot monitoring on iPhone is generally limited to Safari, and everything else is covered by DNS-level domain detection instead. Covenant Eyes states this plainly in its own documentation. It means an iPhone is meaningfully less monitorable than an Android phone or a desktop, no matter which product you buy, and any vendor implying otherwise is worth distrusting.
Two more things the marketing pages tend to skip. First, uninstallability: a determined adult can remove almost any of these, and the good ones treat that as designed-for rather than hidden, sending an immediate uninstall alert to your partner. Second, private browsing: Covenant Eyes cannot capture incognito content, though it does tell your allies that private browsing happened - which is arguably the more useful signal anyway.
If this is for a child rather than a consenting adult, buy a parental-control product instead - Canopy, Qustodio, Kidslox or Bark. Covenant Eyes describes itself as *not* a parental control app, and it is right to: the whole design assumes someone who has chosen to be accountable.
Finally, on recovery rather than surveillance: The Freedom Fight ($99 one-time for the curriculum) and Relay are programs, not monitors. They do no filtering and no reporting. If the underlying problem is compulsion rather than opportunity, software that only watches will not touch it, and a curriculum with a trained group leader is a better use of the same money.
Everything we reviewed, compared
| Name | Type | Rating | Starting price | Free tier | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relay | App | 4.9 | Not published on the official site; App Store lists monthly in-app purchases from $7.99 | No | iOS · macOS (M1 or later) · visionOS · Android · Web |
| The Freedom Fight | App | 4.8 | Free, then $99 one-time or $19.99/mo for 7 months | Yes | Web · iOS |
| LeadMeNot | App | 4.7 | $4.99/mo single device, or $35.99/yr | No | iOS · iPadOS · Android · Mac · Windows |
| Covenant Eyes | App | 4.3 | 30-day money-back guarantee, then $18/mo or $198/yr | No | iOS 15.1+ · Android 11+ · Windows 10+ · Mac 11+ |
| Tech Lockdown | App | 4.3 | $9.99/month, billed annually | No | Apple (iPhone · iPad · Mac) · Android · Windows · Router |
| Ever Accountable | App | 4.1 | 14-day free trial, then $14.99/mo or $129/yr | No | Android · iOS · Windows · macOS · Chromebook · Kindle |
| Safe Surfer | App | 4.0 | Free, then $4.49/mo Pro Surfer | Yes | iOS · Android · Windows · macOS · Router · ISP-level |
| Plucky Filter | App | 3.8 | Free (suggested $2/mo from developed countries) | Yes | Windows · macOS · Linux · Android |
| Canopy | App | 3.7 | $8.33/mo billed annually (7-day trial, no free tier) | No | iOS · macOS · Android · Windows · Chrome OS |
| Accountable2You | App | 3.6 | $11/mo, or $121/yr (10-day free trial, no free tier) | No | Android · iOS · Windows · Mac · Linux · Chromebook |
Apps
Relay
A therapist-designed group programme rather than a filter or a monitor - private same-gender accountability groups, interactive video lessons and live Zoom calls, with nothing anywhere in it that blocks a website.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
The Freedom Fight
Not a filter and not a monitor, but a staged discipleship curriculum that treats compulsive porn use as a formation problem rather than a network problem - and asks for seven months to prove it.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
LeadMeNot
A cross-platform blocker whose distinguishing idea is that switching it off needs somebody else to say yes - priced sensibly, well reviewed by a small number of people, and documented far too thinly.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Covenant Eyes
The oldest name in accountability software, rebuilt around screenshots of what is actually on your screen rather than a list of URLs - with one platform caveat on iOS that decides whether it is right for you.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Tech Lockdown
A web dashboard that combines DNS filtering, device-level configuration profiles and VPN blocking into one locked policy - built for the person who already knows how to defeat an ordinary filter.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Ever Accountable
An accountability-first app that reports what you look at to someone who knows you, rather than trying to lock the internet down - which is either exactly what you want or exactly the wrong tool.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Safe Surfer
A New Zealand charitable-trust DNS filter that gives away the part most vendors charge for - and then declines to tell you what the paid tier costs.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Plucky Filter
A free do-it-yourself filter that blocks every image and video on the internet by default, then makes each exception sit out a waiting period you chose in advance - the most interesting idea in this category, and the hardest to set up.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Canopy
A filter that edits the page instead of shutting the door - AI removes explicit images and video as content loads, leaving the rest of the site working.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Accountable2You
Twenty years of monitoring-only accountability software running on six platforms, Linux and Chromebook included - built on a deliberate refusal to block anything at all.
Accountability & Filtering Apps
Frequently asked questions
What is the best accountability software for Christians?
Covenant Eyes, for most people - it monitors what is actually on the screen rather than only which URLs were visited, and the ally relationship is built into the product rather than bolted on. It is the most expensive option at $18/mo. Ever Accountable is the better value at $14.99/mo and is the one to pick if the price difference matters or if third-party security certification does.
What is the difference between accountability software and an internet filter?
Accountability software reports your activity to a person you nominate and does not block anything. A filter blocks content before it loads and typically reports to nobody. Accountability suits an adult who wants to be known; filtering suits a device that should be safe regardless of who is holding it. Households often need both, which is why several products bundle them - usually less well than the specialists do each half.
Do these apps actually work on iPhone?
Only partially, and every vendor faces the same wall. iOS does not permit an app to see inside other apps, so screenshot monitoring is generally confined to Safari while other apps are covered by DNS-level domain detection. Covenant Eyes documents this openly. An iPhone is therefore meaningfully less monitorable than an Android device or a desktop, regardless of which product you buy.
Is there a free accountability or filtering app?
Safe Surfer has a real free tier covering 60+ blocked categories, and Plucky Filter is free outright. Covenant Eyes offers two free 21-day programs - Strive for men and Arise for women - separate from its paid subscription. Most accountability products are subscription-only because there is genuine ongoing service cost behind them.
How much does Covenant Eyes cost?
$18 per month, $198 per year, or $950 as a one-time lifetime payment, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. All tiers cover unlimited devices for up to 10 individual users on one family account, so the per-person cost falls sharply for a family.
Can the person being monitored just uninstall it?
Usually yes, and the better products are designed around that rather than pretending otherwise - they send an immediate uninstall alert to your accountability partner, which turns removal into a conversation instead of a silent exit. If you need removal to be genuinely hard, look for supervised-device or MDM configuration, which matters far more for a child than for a consenting adult.
Which is best for parents monitoring children?
A parental-control product rather than an accountability one: Canopy, Qustodio, Kidslox or Bark. Covenant Eyes explicitly describes itself as not a parental control app, and that is accurate - its design assumes an adult who has chosen to be accountable, not a child who has not.
Do these block private or incognito browsing?
Not the content itself, in most cases. Covenant Eyes cannot capture incognito browsing, but it does alert your allies that private browsing occurred - which is arguably the more useful signal, since the attempt is the thing worth talking about. DNS-level filters like Safe Surfer and Tech Lockdown are unaffected by incognito mode, because they filter below the browser.
Is accountability software or a recovery program more effective?
They address different problems. Monitoring and filtering reduce opportunity; a program addresses compulsion. The Freedom Fight ($99 one-time, 29 weeks, certified group leaders) and Relay are curricula with human facilitation and no filtering at all. If someone has repeatedly defeated every filter they have installed, more software is unlikely to be the answer.