Comparison

Family Link is free, until your kid turns 18.

Google Family Link gets bypassed by changing the device clock, uninstalling through Settings, or factory resetting the device. Family Link also ends automatically when your kid turns 18. Anchor uses server-truth time, blocks uninstall via Device Admin hardening, and stays enforced at any age.

Google's free parental control supervises through your child's Google Account until they turn 18, when supervision ends automatically per Google policy. Anchor enforces parental rules at the device level with no age threshold. Two products with different end conditions and different architectures.

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Family Link is Google's free parental control product for Android and ChromeOS, integrated with Google account supervision. Family Link works through account-level supervision rather than device-level Device Admin enforcement, which creates a different architectural model than third-party parental control apps. Per current Google policy, supervised account holders aged 13 to 17 require parental approval to stop supervision, and supervision ends automatically when the supervised account holder turns 18. Anchor is an independent paid parental control product that enforces rules at the device level through a four-layer moat: a continuous permission watchdog on a Device Admin foundation, server-truth time that defeats device clock manipulation, parent-side encrypted pair persistence, and an offline tamper queue that preserves original event timestamps. Anchor does not unlock at any age threshold. The two products serve different needs: Family Link for parents comfortable with Google-integrated supervision that ends at age 18, and Anchor for parents who want enforcement that does not depend on a fixed age cutoff.

Side by side

Family Link and Anchor, capability by capability.

Each row reflects the documented behavior of each product. Where a category is the primary value of one product and not the other, the comparison says so.

Capability Family Link Anchor
Primary function Free account-level supervision via Google account Bypass-resistant rule enforcement via Device Admin foundation
Works after child turns 18 No, supervision ends automatically per Google policy Yes, no age threshold
Blocks uninstall on supervised accounts Yes via Google account supervision while account remains supervised Yes via Device Admin with continuous watchdog backstop
Survives device clock manipulation No documented countermeasure; time limits read device clock Yes, server-truth time
Survives factory reset No documented countermeasure Partial; re-pairing requires parent six-digit code
Independent of Google account ecosystem No, requires a supervised Google Account Yes, fully independent
Handles permission revocation No documented continuous re-prompt mechanism Continuous watchdog, immediate re-prompt, parent tamper alert
Pricing Free $9.99 per month Family Pro, lifetime free for first 100 founders

Family Link and Anchor address different parental needs and operate on different architectures. Family Link supervises Google accounts and ends automatically at age 18. Anchor enforces device-level rules with no age cutoff.

Drill down

What changes as your kid grows.

The 18-year-old supervision question

Family Link

Family Link is built on account-level supervision through Google accounts. Per current Google policy, when the supervised account holder turns 13 they can choose to update their Google Account to a supervised teen account, but supervision continues. Teens aged 13 to 17 require parental approval to stop supervision through Google account settings. Supervision ends automatically when the supervised account holder turns 18. For parents wanting enforcement that continues past 18 regardless of the automatic age-out, Family Link's architecture does not support that case.

Anchor

Anchor is independent of Google's account supervision system. There is no age threshold at which Anchor's enforcement softens or unlocks. The four-layer moat applies to a 17-year-old the same as it applies to a 10-year-old, and the same at 18 or 19 if the parent keeps the pairing active. Whether to keep using Anchor as a child ages is a parental decision, not a software policy cutoff.

How each app handles uninstall attempts

Family Link

On supervised accounts under 13, Family Link blocks uninstall of the supervised app through Google account supervision. The architecture is account-supervision-dependent rather than Device Admin-dependent in the same way third-party parental control apps use Device Admin. For supervised teen accounts aged 13 to 17, account-level controls continue with parental approval required to change supervision state.

Anchor

Device Admin enrollment on the child device with a continuous permission watchdog on top. Uninstall is refused at the OS level by Android regardless of account age. Revocation attempts on the permissions Anchor relies on are detected within seconds, the child is re-prompted to restore, and the parent gets a tamper event.

How each app handles time-based rules

Family Link

Family Link's bedtime and screen time limits read the device's local clock. Clock manipulation on the device defeats the limits until the device syncs with Google's servers, which can take hours. No documented server-truth time enforcement.

Anchor

Server-truth time. The backend determines whether a time-based rule is active. Device clock manipulation has no effect on enforcement. Clock changes surface as tamper events in the parent feed.

What each app does that the other does not

Family Link uniquely does

Free pricing, deep Google account and Android ecosystem integration, automatic enrollment for supervised Google accounts, Google-managed account controls, Chrome web filtering on supervised accounts, Google Play app approval flows, location tracking, and no separate app installation required for supervision setup on Google services.

Anchor uniquely does

Bypass-resistant device-level enforcement via the four-layer moat. No age-based unlock. Independence from Google's account ecosystem, which matters for families that do not exclusively use Google accounts for their children. Clock manipulation defeated by server-truth time. Permission revocation defeated by continuous watchdog.

Where Family Link wins

What Family Link does well.

Family Link is a credible product for parents with children using Google accounts in cooperative supervised relationships. The free pricing is genuinely free with no upsell tier. The Google account integration is seamless if the family is already in the Google ecosystem. Time limits, app limits, schedules, Chrome web filtering, and Google Play approval flows are all built in. For parents whose primary concern is younger-child supervision through the natural age-out at 18, Family Link works well within its documented architecture.

Why this matters

Different parental philosophies, expressed in software.

Family Link reflects Google's view on parental supervision: it should be a default-on supervision through age 17, with supervision ending automatically at 18 when the supervised user reaches Google's standard adult-account threshold. That view is defensible policy. It is also a specific policy choice that not every parent shares.

Anchor reflects a different view: parental rules are a parental decision, including how long they apply. Anchor does not auto-end based on the child's age because Anchor's product position is that the parent makes the call on what rules apply and when they end, not the child, not the child's age, and not a software policy cutoff.

Neither view is universally correct. They are different parental philosophies expressed in software. The right choice depends on how the parent wants the supervision relationship to evolve as the child ages, and whether the automatic end-at-18 fits the family's circumstances.

See Anchor pricing Join the Founders Offer

Compare other apps

Side-by-side coverage of how Anchor stacks up against the other major Android parental control products.

Bark vs Anchor

Content surveillance vs bypass-resistant enforcement.

Qustodio vs Anchor

Engagement reports vs enforcement that holds.

Mobicip vs Anchor

Content filtering vs bypass resistance.

The Bypass Test

Anchor's documented methodology for the four bypass routes kids actually use.

How Anchor holds

Per-route deep dives on the specific bypass attempts Anchor was engineered to close.

Uninstall block

How Anchor refuses uninstall at the OS level via Device Admin.

Clock change defense

Server-truth time in detail.

Factory reset countermeasures

Why re-pairing requires the parent code.
FAQ

About Family Link and Anchor.

Per current Google policy, supervision ends automatically when the supervised account holder turns 18. The parent loses Family Link's enforcement on that account at the age-out. Before 18, teens aged 13 to 17 require parental approval to stop supervision, so supervision continues through the teen years unless the parent ends it. Anchor is not subject to this policy because Anchor is not part of Google's account supervision system and does not have an age-based end condition.
Cost reflects what the product does. Family Link is free because Google's product position is account supervision through age 17 with automatic age-out at 18. Anchor's $9.99 per month or lifetime free Founders Offer reflects the four-layer enforcement moat that closes the bypass routes Family Link does not defend, and the lack of any automatic age-based end.
Yes, the two are architecturally independent. Family Link supervises the Google account; Anchor enforces device-level rules. They can coexist. The practical question is whether both add value or one duplicates the other for the specific family's needs.
Family Link's web filtering applies to Google Chrome on the supervised account. Anchor does not currently include a web content filter as a primary feature. For parents whose primary concern is content filtering of websites, Family Link or a dedicated content filter product handles that need. Anchor handles enforcement of the time and app rules around device use.