Apps Like Life360 But with More Features [2023]

Life360 touts itself as a family safety app that allows families to stay connected through location sharing. Close to 33M people use the app to track their kids’ locations, a vehicle’s speed and send SOS signals in an emergency. However, Life360 has been on both ends of the friend and foe spectrum, with users loving and hating it equally.

Privacy issues plague Life360 after it was caught selling precise location data to dozens of data brokers in 2021. This was the tip of the iceberg, as people have reported the app does not work in emergencies when they need to be notified. Hence, it makes sense to want an alternative for the Life360 family locator.

At HeyLocate, we understand the need to preserve your privacy and work with apps that deliver on their promises. We’ve researched the best Life360 alternatives for improved location tracking and utmost privacy. This is because numerous locating-tracking apps collect location-tracking data painting a grim picture of the online advertising world.

Thus, having a reliable tracking app is essential, which we’ll discuss in this article.

Comparison Table of Apps like Life360

Services Reviewed – 21

Services Selected – 8

We took some resources from the top reviews of the best, and almost all of them were awful. So trust only verified sources of information or blogs of specialized services related to telecommunications. For example, like our HeyLocate blog.

Why Life360 is Called Bad

Life360 location tracking app was caught selling precise location data to data brokers, who sell the information to anyone who wants to buy the data. In a shocking reveal by the Markup newsroom, it was discovered that Life360 sells location data of adults, children, and families.

The information is backed by two former life360 employees and two individuals who worked at Cuebiq and X-Mode. According to the report, Life360 is one of the largest data sources for the data brokerage industry. It also mentions Life360’s data is valuable due to its large volume and precision, due to having over 40M users in 140 countries.

Life360 argued that they sell the data to offer Life360 services for free. Life360 announced that it would stop selling location data to multiple data brokers and will sell precise location tracking data to Arity and aggregated location data to PlaceAI. This means your location data is still out there, and the company it sells to may or may not sell to third-party data brokers.

A former Cuebiq employee noted that their company could not conduct its marketing campaigns without Life360’s location tracking data. It shows how much Life360’s precise location data goes into conducting marketing and online advertising.

Besides Cuebiq, X-Mode, and Arity, it’s confirmed that Life360 also sells data to Safegraph. Thus, there are more companies to which the company has sold your location tracking data.

In a quest to protect users’ privacy while providing resources for children tracking, researching the best app for this purpose is imperative. Read on to find out why you can trust the apps we have reviewed on this list.

Review of Life360 Alternatives

The good news is that there are really good alternatives for Life360. Let’s review them, but first look at the infographic about how to choose the best family tracker and parental control app.

uMobix

uMobix can monitor everything on a child’s phone and can monitor over 20 social media apps. With a 4.47-star rating on Sitejabber, uMobix is one of the most used phone monitoring apps.

Life360 Vs. uMobix:

uMobix tracks everything, including social media apps, while Life360 only accesses the location features on the target device.

Compatibility:

• all iOS;
• Android 4+.

Price:

• $49.99/mo;
• $27.99/ 3-month plan;
• $11.66/mo 12-month plan.

User Experience:

I found uMobix to be better since it operates in stealth mode, unlike Life360, when kids easily uninstall the app. uMobix showed the target’s precise location on Google Maps. I also accessed a 30-day location history instead of only two days on Life360.

uMobix allowed me to set up geofences, and I got alerts when my kid entered and left these zones without limitations. On Life360, I could only set up two zones.

uMobix is unlike other family locator apps, since it monitors social media apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I used it to see screenshots of all the apps accessed on the target device. As a parental control app, uMobix showed me the browser history, Wi-Fi connected to, and even the media files saved on the device.

The best thing about uMobix is that it only stores the data it collects for 180 days. Moreover, its privacy policy states that it will not share users’ data with third-party agencies for advertising.

You can read the full uMobix review on the HeyLocate blog:

Try uMobix

Find My Kids

Find My Kids is one of the most popular location tracker apps. It has 28,000 followers on Facebook, 4.8 stars rating on the Apple store, and 4.6 stars on the Google Play Store.

Life360 Vs. Find My Kids:

While Life360 is just a location tracker app, Find My Kids can also listen to the child’s surroundings.

Compatibility:

• Android 4.4+;
• iOS 13.0+.

Price:

• $2.99/month – License for 1 device;
• $16.99/year – Family license for 3 devices;
• $25.99 – Unlimited access for up to 3 devices.

User Experience:

Find My Kids proved to be a helpful location-sharing app. While it does not operate in stealth mode, it has a good set of parental control features that I liked. First, it showed me the daily location history and my child’s location. I could also opt to follow their route on Google Maps. I liked that I could create multiple safe zones even in locations that are not accessible by GPS, unlike Life360.

Furthermore, if my kid did not answer their phone, I could activate their phone’s camera to see their surroundings. Not to mention the ability to send SOS alerts and text with my kid on the app. Furthermore, Find My Kids can ping mobile devices to find lost or stolen phones.

Find My Kids does not share or sell user data with third-party data brokers. It states that protecting users’ data takes legal, administrative, technical, organizational, and physical measures.

Try Find My Kids

FamiSafe

FamisSafe is a parental control app with decent location tracking and monitoring features. The app is well-received around the web, with users rating it 4.2 stars on the Apple store and 4.1 stars on Trustpilot. It has over 160,000 followers on Facebook.

Life360 Vs. FamiSafe:

FamiSafe tracks kids according to their age, while Life360 does not have specific age-tracking features.

Compatibility:

• Android 4.4 – 10;
• iOS 9 – 15.

Price:

• $10.99/mo;
• $20.99/quarter;
• $60.99/year.

User Experience:

FamiSafe is ideal for parental control, besides being a family locator app. I used to track my child’s live location and create geofences where it sent alerts whenever my kid entered and left those zones. It’s a much better app than Life360 since it went beyond basic location sharing to show me each app’s usage, and I could block inappropriate games and apps.

Besides, the FamiSafe parental control app could set controls on YouTube and Tiktok. During my test, it detected suspicious photos, and I could block those too. Life360 does not have these features, despite being pricier than FamiSafe.

FamiSafe does not sell user data to third parties without express consent. It maintains a strict privacy policy to protect all its users.

Try FamiSafe

Parentaler

Parentaler is a new parental control app for monitoring a kid’s online activity. It sends custom alerts if it observes suspicious activity on the kid’s phone.

Life360 Vs Parentaler:

While Life360 offers live location tracking as its main feature, Parentaler goes beyond by monitoring all online activities on a kid’s phone in real-time.

Compatibility:

• all iOS;
• Android 4+.

Price:

• $42.69/mo;
• $24.40/mo 3-month plan;
• $10.17/mo 12-month plan.

User Experience:

I checked out various tracking features, starting with the location. I liked that Parentaler showed my kid’s phone’s precise live location and time stamp. Thus, I could tell where they were at a particular time. Parentaler updated the location every five minutes, allowing for live location tracking.

Parentaler has a geofence feature that I used to designate safe, and danger zones over an area. The app sent notifications to my mobile device when my child entered and left these zones. In addition, I could see their phone’s last pinned location, which could help to recover a lost or stolen phone. Furthermore, it gave me a detailed report of the most visited places, including the times and addresses.

During my experimenting with it, Parentaler tracked calls and texts on social media apps. It also restricted browsers, content, apps, and games. The best is that Parentaler only collects usage information data and uses it to improve your experience when using its services.

Try Parentaler

Find My Phone – Family Locator

Find My Phone Family Locator is a location-sharing app for family members. It has over 10M downloads on the Google Play Store and a rating of 4.1 stars.

Life360 Vs Find My Phone – Family Locator:

Family Locator can find family members using augmented reality, while Life360 can only get to a person by directing you to where they are.

Compatibility:

• Android 5+;
• iOS 13+.

Price:

• lifetime – $14.99;
• quarterly Premium Subscription – $49.99;
• yearly – $13.99;
• location History Monthly – $2.99.

User Experience:

Find My Phone offered many impressive features since I created my private family group on the app. I used the location-sharing feature to track my kids on their way to and from school. It also allowed me to see their location history for the last seven days instead of just two days.

Find My Phone helped me set up safe GPS-based zones, and I could check in with them whenever I needed to see their location. I liked that my privacy was safe with Find My Phone Family Locator, since it only shares driving event data from your mobile phone with a third-party partner to be able to calculate driving events.

As my research showed, it’s not the best option among other reviewed, but it’s a good alternative for Life360.

Try Family Locator

mSpy

Over 4,000 users have reviewed mSpy and rated it 4 stars on Trustpilot and 4.1 stars on Sitejabber. Its comprehensive list of features and ease of use are some of the best attributes of the mSpy family tracking app.

Life360 Vs. mSpy:

Life360 only offers location tracking as its main feature, while mSpy is a wholesome family tracking app, including the capability to block apps and websites.

Compatibility:

• Android 4+;
• iOS 11 – 14.8.

Price:

• monthly – $48.99/mo;
• quarterly – $27.99/mo;
• yearly – $ 11.66/mo.

User Experience:

mSpy allowed me to see the real-time location of the target device, 30-day location history, and set up unlimited geofence zones. I used it as a GPS tracker, and its data was even better than Life360, since I could track the target on Google Maps.

The best thing is that it was not in danger of being uninstalled since it operated in the background. Besides, I saw a private family map instead of seeing everyone’s location. Plus, I used an online dashboard instead of an app on my mobile phone.

mSpy tracked other integral features for parental controls. It monitored social media apps, apps, and allowed web filtering.

mSpy’s data collection is under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition, it adheres to each country’s specific data protection regulations. Thus, you can rest assured that your family’s location and personalized data are safe with mSpy.

You can read the full mSpy review on the HeyLocate blog:

Try mSpy

Family360

Family360 is a GPS live locator app that can track family members in real-time. It has over 1M downloads on the Google Play Store with a 4.4-star rating.

Life360 Vs Family360:

Life360 creates only one circle, and Family360 can create multiple circles.

Compatibility:

• Android 4.1+;
• iOS 12.1+.

Price:

• 21-day free trial;
• $5.49/mo for family pack;
• $44.99/year for family pack;
• $0.99/mo per person.

User Experience:

Family360 proved to be a dependable family location-sharing app. I created multiple circles instead of just one, as you do on Life360. Thus, I added my close friends to a different circle than my family circle. After experimenting with this app, I found it ideal for creating private groups like for company devices, which means you don’t need multiple apps for location tracking.

I used various Family360 features and liked seeing my kids on a map and sharing my location. Moreover, the app gave me real-time traffic updates. Family360 also tracked the vehicle’s speed and alerted me when the vehicle was overspeeding.

Family360 does not share or sell personal and location information, even when you opt for the free version. However, it operates in the foreground, making it easy to uninstall. Nonetheless, it’s cheaper than Life360 but with advanced tracking tools.

Try Family360

Google Family Link

Google Family Link falls in the apps like Life360 but free category. It allows control across a family group to varying degrees on iOS and Android devices. The Google Family Link app has been downloaded over 100M times and has a 4.07-star rating from over 2M reviews on the Google Play Store.

Life360 Vs. Google Family Link:

Life360 is a paid location sharing app, while Google Family Link is entirely free.

Compatibility:

• Android 4.4+ on parents’ device;
• Android 8.1+ on kid’s device;
• iOS 14+.

Price:

Free.

User Experience:

I invited my kids to my account to access the Google Family Link features. It’s pretty similar to Life360, since I sent invitations to them. Both apps operate in the foreground and offer location-sharing features. I could see any child’s location by tapping on their icon.

I set up screen limits on each device as long my child was logged into their Google account on a device. In addition, I could allow or block apps from my account, and the app could be blocked as soon as the child connected to the internet.

Other features I liked on Google Family Link are being able to lock the child’s device remotely and play sound on the highest volume if lost. I got free access to all these features, no matter the number of devices I wanted to monitor. Besides, Google (as promised) does not sell users’ personal information to third parties and will not serve personalized ads to children.

Try Google Family Link

Conclusion

The reviewed Life360 competitors are great options when you want an alternative with more and better features than the Life360 family locator app.