Inspecting the Best Router for Parental Controls? [10 Parental Control Routers Reviewed]

The Internet has become the second world for children today. From online classes, watching videos, playing, to watching movies, social networking, chats, and a lot more is performed by them online. However, not every content available online is meant for your kid. In such a case, parental control routers come into play.

Routers with parental controls allow parents to have complete hold of internet usage and online content for their children. These routers come with features like content filtering, restricting access to inadequate content, filter harmful apps and websites, and more.

Understanding the requirements of concerned parents, we have shortlisted the best router for parental controls. These routers are integrated with advanced technologies and are proven to deliver best parental control support.

We have also mentioned all necessary details about parental control routers. So, check our post and pick a suitable parental control router to establish the strongest defense system for your kids from online threats.

1. Google Nest Wi-Fi – Best Overall

Why is it Unique

This Wi-Fi router can be connected to your existing network. It maintains fast connection in every room. It offers more coverage and adds Wi-Fi points to the system. In addition to easy management of network usage for kids, the router offers a rich streaming experience. You can stream videos in a single room and make video calls from another without lags.

You never have to worry about your online security with this router as it offers security a step ahead. It automatically updates itself with advanced security chips that keep your Wi-Fi network sound and safe. It builds a strong foundation of a network for your entire house, making everything work better and faster.

Buyer’s Experience

For most of the buyers, the router was very convenient to install. It offers great coverage, speed, and overall sound performance without interruptions or lags. It comes with advanced features and makes it very easy to manage internet usage for their kids.

Ideal For

It is a perfect router for those who want incomparable strength, performance, and coverage in their house. The router comes with advanced parental controls, and hence, offers complete network control and management to the users. For more options of routers compatible with Google WiFi we have our latest article Best Modem for Google WiFi. It might be useful for you.

2. GRYPHON GUARDIAN AC1200 – Mesh Wi-Fi Security

Along with great parental controls, this router holds a smart mesh Wi-Fi expandable system that lets user’s stream content, download files, play games online, browse the web and perform all online activities with ease. It is integrated with Beamforming and MU-MIMO technologies along with dual bandwidth, which offers expanded coverage throughout your house.

Why is it Unique

This router offers 24 x 7 security protection from malware and hackers as it is inbuilt with an intelligent intrusion detection, which actively protects every connected device within your house Wi-Fi network. The automatic software security updates along with malware updates offer most updated protection from the home network.

Personal data protection is guaranteed with this router as it comes with the Gryphon homebound functionality. It offers internet security anywhere your family moves. The patented Gryphon extension app offers advanced internet protection and parental controls. The best thing is its rich mesh Wi-Fi technology that conveniently combines two or more Gryphon routers to offer safe expanded high speed coverage for multi-level or bigger homes.

Buyer’s Experience

For most of the buyers, it is one of the best router with parental controls available in the market. They liked its premium-grade quality, robust configuration, and advanced features, which makes it a great router for every home. Though the router is quite more expensive than the other routers, it is worth every penny.

Ideal For

It is a technologically advanced router that offers great protection for all the connected devices. It protects your entire data from online thefts. The router comes with most of the parental controls, which makes it a great buy for those who want enhanced safety and complete control over their network.

3. NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home TriBand – Unparalleled Coverage and Power

Why is it Unique

This Orbi router comes with a robust Mesh Wi-Fi6 system that seamlessly connects devices as you move outside and inside your home with a simple network name. With 1 Gbps Ethernet WAN support it aggregates 2 ports to gain 2.5 Gbps speed. It holds great compatibility with fiber or cable modem supporting the Multi-Gig internet speed.

Its latest generation Wi-Fi 6 offers 4 times more capacity than other routers offering faster speed to the increasing number of devices. The Orbi directly connects to the existing cable modem using an Ethernet cable. It comes with Orbi app support, which can conveniently establish Wi-Fi in minutes.

Buyer’s Experience

In addition to great parental control support, this router is very easy to set up. It offered users with unmatched coverage and enhanced security with its inbuilt Netgear Armor multi-layer safety that protects all connected devices with anti-malware, anti-virus, and data thefts. Using this router enabled users to gain a seamless everywhere roaming experience.

Ideal For

It is a great choice for those who want impeccable network coverage in their entire house. It offers smooth speed and comes with robust parental controls and safety features, which makes it a great pick for small to big families.

4. ASUS AC2900 Dual Band RT-AC86U – Best Gaming Router

Why is it Unique

This router is a sharing hub that comes with 4 Gigabit LAN ports, USB 2,0 port, and USB 3.0 port. You can easily connect and share data between your game consoles, Smart TV, NAS storage devices, and others thereby gaining a digital house hub. Managing parental controls is very easy with this device as it is supported with the robust and intuitive ASUSWRT and ASUS router app.

It comes with an easy to use interface that offers convenient access to the simple web-based installation process and a range of powerful advanced functions. Moreover, you can gain an enhanced gaming experience by prioritizing maximum bandwidth for your games with its Adaptive QoS technology. Using this, you can easily prioritize gaming activities and packets.

Buyer’s Experience

The buyers find it an excellent router for gaming. It comes with efficient parental controls. The device served them with great coverage and lag-free streaming and gaming. The only drawback they find is its weak warranty support.

Ideal For

It is an excellent router for high-end gamers who want great speed along with efficient parental controls. The router is supported with the latest technologies and offers top combined speed to let you have a centrally managed parental control and smooth gaming time both at once.

5. Amazon Eero Pro Mesh Wi-Fi System

Why is it Unique

It is powerful and compact and can be plugged into a wall outlet. It is equipped with an LED nightlight along with automatic dimmer and an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness depending on the time of the day. Also, the router comes with Eero app support, which allows managing the home network from a central location.

It comes with great parental controls like content filtering, pause the internet that allows creating profiles to set schedules and disconnects the internet on your children’s devices. The device adheres to the finest network security standards and issues a one-time password. It is WPA2 compatible and safeguards your devices from online thefts.

Buyer’s Experience

Along with easy control over their children’s internet usage, this router gave buyers a splendid entertainment experience. They can game, stream, play, and work from every corner of their house, including the backyard. The setup is simple with app guidance and the router offers a wireless mesh network.

Ideal For

It is a compact design with robust functionalities. The router is perfect for those who want a great device with decent parental controls, easy setup, and access to advanced features. It offers great convenience to everyday lifestyle.

6. NETGEAR Nighthawk R7000P – AC2300Mbps – Performance with Security

Why is it Unique

It is an impeccable performer designed for serious streaming. It delivers speed up to 2300Mbps ensuring your entire demanding activities like online gaming and streaming are fulfilled. It seamlessly connects up to 35 devices at once by wisely selecting between dual bands. As a result, you get maximum speed and reduced interference for all your smart devices.

It is one of the best parental control routers because it is incorporated with the reliable and advanced circle smart parental control methodology. With the circle app support, you can conveniently manage device screen time, internet content access, and device schedules and set usage time limits, filter websites as well as turn off Wi-Fi completely in your home. Moreover, it offers multilayer security to your home network as it features Netgear Armor security software. This protects all your smart devices, computers, and smartphones from viruses, malware, and data theft.

Buyer’s Experience

Most of the buyers are happy with their purchase of the Netgear router. This router offered most of the parental controls they required along with excellent coverage and performance, which helped them maintain a highly secured network in their entire house.  

Ideal For

This is a perfect choice for buyers who want excellent performance, security and access to numerous advanced controls with their router. It is slightly expensive but is worth the price.

7. Synology RT2600ac – Mesh Wi-Fi with Extended Coverage

The powerful traffic monitoring tool of the router allows establishing bandwidth prioritization so that you get enough speed for smart TV or gaming console without lags or stutter. It is simple to keep your children from watching inadequate content online as you can easily block thousands of harmful websites with a few clicks. Also, it is possible to create customizable profiles for distinct employees or family members.

Why is it Unique

The router incorporates multimedia add-ons and can be altered into your central entertainment server. The play and browse multimedia content established on the Synology Router through DLNA home devices. You can conveniently stream files situated on SD cards or USB linked storage to devices.

The VPN enables the router to function as a robust VPN server and offers convenient setup, smooth connections, and secure access. For the remote workforce of the company, you can seamlessly establish a virtual office, which adapts to their work styles and flexible schedules.

Buyer’s Experience

The buyers loved the advanced security tools offered with this router, such as denial-of-service protection, intrusion prevention, firewall management, and are periodically updated to protect the system and your network from the advanced attacks and threats. It alters into a private cloud server with the advanced filed management functionality. You can synchronize files across devices as well as easily share files with the friends and family.

Ideal For

This is an excellent router with advanced parental controls and offers extended network coverage. It comes with intuitive setup and allows convenient management and seamless connectivity, which makes it a perfect choice for every home.

8. TP-Link AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi Router – Solid and Far-Reaching

Why is it Unique

This router offers unparalleled Wi-Fi coverage across the house with its three high-gain antennas. It comes with strong amplifiers that let parents connect each device from a central location. This is a great parental control router that will allow you to conveniently handle the requirements of every device in your house. It is because of its strong CPU for high-speed processing, powerful hardware complemented with bandwidth prioritization and advanced technology.

The router is backed with WPA/WPA2 wireless encryption, guest access and parental controls, which will always keep your family and devices safe. It offers 3-times faster speed than other routers, thereby offering a rick 4K streaming and smooth gaming experience. The router comes with double bands supporting more number of devices with fewer interruptions.

Buyer’s Experience

The buyers find it as a reliable and affordable router that fits perfectly to their family requirements. It offered them a unified management, smart roaming, and complete parental control to all devices in their homes. It offered them the best out-of-the-box experience.

Ideal For

In addition to advanced parental controls, this router supports Alexa voice control making it very easy to manage the network in your home. It comes with intuitive and simple Tether app support, which makes it easy to setup the router and manage the network remotely.

9. Linksys EA7300 AC1750 – Budget-Friendly

Why is it Unique

This is one of the finest routers that allowed seamless roaming that follows you throughout the house. This way, you can easily connect all devices at once and gain a strong Wi-Fi connectivity for all devices and gadgets. It comes with two dedicated bands offering a combined speed up to 1.7 Gbps. The robust dual core processor of this device offers highly fast data transfer speed.

The router comes with three external antennas for outstanding range. The router offers reliable and robust signals, making it a great solution for small households. Hence, it improves signal strength in difficult to reach areas.

Buyer’s Experience

It is a decent router that offers buyers basic parental controls. It served great external coverage and offered decent speed. It is an adequate choice for them as they got access to basic parental controls at an affordable price.

Ideal For

This router comes with an easy-to-use app and offers a robust suite of Wi-Fi customization tools. It offers real-time information about the home network, send guest Wi-Fi passwords, set easy parental controls, and prioritize devices.

10. KoalaSafe Family Friendly WiFi Router with Parental Controls

Why is it Unique

The best thing about this router is that it is supported with a user-friendly app. It allows parents to manage the entire network in their house from a central location. It comes with multiple parental controls like internet restrictions, time limits, parental controls, and more other capabilities.

Additionally, it comes with numerous specific services that allow scheduling the internet time for the kids. You can even completely block the internet service on all devices. It is possible to block sites without letting your kids know about it.

Buyer’s Experience

The buyers find it one of the finest parental control routers that allowed them complete control over the internet with ease. It is compact yet highly powerful. It is very easy to set up. It offered excellent coverage throughout the home.

Ideal For

This router is perfect for those who want complete control over internet access by their kids. It is compact, powerful, and an affordable choice. It comes with great extended coverage and maintains great network security.

There are a variety of Wi-Fi routers available in the market. However, a parental control router is different from others.

A parental control router targets two main aims. First, it offers features beyond the basic internet filtering, enabling parents to have more knowledge than the list of standard websites. It allows parents to control access by age and category appropriateness. Using such a router, parents can specially monitor as well as block their kid’s connections from online games, apps, and websites.

Furthermore, a parental control router allows setting limits for the internet access based on specific schedules and devices. Parents have complete control over where they want their children to go online. For example, you can completely shut down their internet access during the bedtime. Some premium-grade parent control routers can also allow parents to set a maximum time limit for each device and app.

Parental controls are tools and software that let parents gain complete control on internet usage by their children. With such controls, parents can filter the internet by blocking inadequate content.

There are a range of parental controls available and the simplest one is to configure parental control functions on your wireless router. The presence of parental control in a router is mentioned in the product description or the router’s manual.

Establishing parental controls differ from brand to brand. But the best thing is that this control works properly on all devices connected to the network like tablets, game consoles, smartphones, or computers.

1. Monitoring

This parental control alerts the parents about the activities their kids perform without blocking the internet access. It helps parents to understand their kid’s knowledge. It also helps parents to know the websites their kids have checked. Most importantly, if kids are trying to see any blocked content, it sends warning messages to the parents.

2. Content Filtering

When kids are online, parents are concerned about the kind of content they are viewing. A robust parental control router will allow you to block content as per the age of the child. Parents can choose to permit G rated or R rated content for their children as per their preference.

3. Block Certain Sorts of Traffic

This kind of parental control restricts and prevents kids from sharing personal and private information online or through email. Parents can protect their kids from blackmail and kidnapping or other hacks like online stealing of money from bank accounts.

4. Customizable Profiles

A few routers enable parents to set customizable profiles, which means you can assign each device the network to the designated profile. It implies you don’t have to set up each device, which your kids access with the internet on an individual basis. Such routers are ideal for families where kids use more than one device.

5. VPN Block

Tech savvy kids or older children may work out that a few restrictions can be unlocked using a VPN. But, some routers can detect VPN traffic right away and ban it. It makes it difficult for the kids to get around your parental controls.

6. Pause the Internet

With this feature, it is possible for the parents to disconnect their kid’s devices from a central location whenever they want to. The parents can instantly pause the overall internet network in their home and offer access back when they want to.

7. Limiting Screen Time

It is crucial parental control that allows parents to set the limitation time of how long they want their kids to access the internet. It improves both mental and physical health by limiting the screen time.

To make sure you pick the best or perfect parental control router for your family, here are a few aspects, which you need to consider.

1. Add-Ons VS. Integrated Routers

You can either purchase an entirely new router that features parental control or you can buy an external device, which can be linked to your network to support the current router.

If your existing router performs well, offers good coverage and rich security features, you must not replace it. In this situation, an add-on router with parental control is a great choice. Such routers offer more sophisticated features and can help you get the best in the most affordable way.

Alternatively, if you are not happy with the performance of your existing router, it is best to go for a router integrated with parental control features. It will not only offer you great parental controls, but will also deliver you unmatched performance and coverage.

2. App Filtering

In addition to blocking online content and websites, your parental control router must be capable enough to block and stop access to various unwanted activities done by kids through apps on tablets, gaming consoles, smartphones, and other devices. A good router filters internet access for particular apps as well.

3. Dynamic Filtering

Some of the best parental control internet routers can dynamically block sites based on what is actually displayed on them. This feature adds an additional protection layer against those websites, which might get slipped through cracks.

4. Age Appropriate Functionalities

The parental control router you pick must adequately serve the age and typical online habits of your children. It is because kids of small age have different internet habits than children of older age. If you have kids of varying ages, you must pick a solution that offers age-appropriate filtering categories and not a generic list of kid apps and websites.

5. Managed Settings

For simple controls you don’t require to access the settings of the router often. In this case, a router with a simple web-based interface is sufficient. But there are numerous parental control routers available that offer advanced features, which can be managed from an app on your tablet or smartphone.

Check a router with such managed settings as it can help you limit screen time, schedule controls, and completely manage the internet access by your kids from a central location.

6. Subscription Services

Most of the routers service providers charge a nominal amount of subscription fee for maintaining the list of websites that are blocked and that your kids accessed. Some routers also need an initial fee for startup. So, depending on your requirement and budget, you can decide whether you want such kinds of routers or not. You must check for subscription fees of the router to determine that the features and services they are offering are useful to you or not.

7. Design and Performance

Just like other routers, parental control routers are available in a variety of designs. Each differs in configuration, and hence, deliver varying levels of performance. Before you invest in a router, check for its design and performance. Pick a router that perfectly fits into your home décor and at the same time is proven to deliver great performance and coverage.

8. Coverage

Do check for the maximum coverage supported by a router. It must offer enough coverage that covers your entire home and eliminates all dead spots in your house. Only then you can have complete safety for internet access for your kids.

9. Security Features

Your parental control router must have advanced security features. It means they must have a firewall incorporated to block malware. Also, your router must offer a VPN and guest network access.

10. Price

There are budget-friendly, mid-range, and expensive parental control routers available in the market. To make your search simplified, you must define your budget beforehand. Sure, you can find a parental control router with decent features within your budget.

Most of the routers come up with setup and configuration through a web browser. For accessing the router’s configuration settings, you are required to open the browser window on a computer and enter the address of the router. This address is the IP-address, which is non-routable.

Along with the address, a few routers need connecting to a particular port to access the administrative console. Append the port’s end of the address if needed by using a colon followed by the number of ports.

Once the correct address is entered, you will receive the password and username of the administrator. If you alter it and cannot remember the password, you can reset the router to factory settings to gain access through the default admin login. This is done by pressing a reset button on the routers back depending on the brand of the router.

Keeping your children protected from online thefts and frauds can be a daunting task, but with parental control routers you can get a lot of help in offering them a secured internet access experience. These routers offer effective and strong controls and at the same time are simple to configure and setup.

With a parental control router, you can be reassured that your children stay away from harmful apps, websites, and misleading online content. Just make a wise decision after considering all aspects and features mentioned in our buying guide or pick your preferred router from the abovementioned list to let your kids make the best of their online time.

Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API