Circle 1st generation

When I did some research on the ORBI modem/router, I had wasn’t aware of the type of interface that would be a part of it. After downloading Circle, I quickly learned that it offered (virtually) infinite possibilities. I’ve had Circle for close to a year now and I absolutely love it. I can create profiles and add devices just for that person. My children have auto “On/Off” Internet Access that I can control (literally) at my fingertips. The app will advise the person “your internet access is not available because your time has ended”. On the flip side, I can give “rewards” and the access will stay on for whatever the time limit you provide (ex. Normal Off time is 8pm, Reward given until 9:30 pm). There are so many options that it’s impossible to list them all. Just know that it’s a great app and you will NOT be disappointed.

This has been a game changer at our house - No more fighting (although my kids playfully tell their friends that it is awful LOL)! The only limitation is that the history page makes almost no sense (it lists every ad on every page). Otherwise it's very intuitive. And while I don't think that is a substitute for collecting devices (ones they don't have, they can't use), it's a close second. Super easy to use! Just make sure to label each device as you are notified that it was added so that you don't have a ton of unknowns. I recommend this to friends constantly and it only gets a 4 instead of a 5 for offering some options that are not really up to speed (but also aren't really necessary to me - like history when I already have content filters on). Great invention!!

We no longer have a giant pile of devices in our bedroom in the evenings. With Circle it’s easy to enforce bedtimes. Great content filters based on age group. We’d love to see a better History function that is easier to manage. It’s just a big data dump with time stamps. We discovered that our neighbor’s kids were still connecting to our WiFi from their own homes since Circle notifies you of any devices that join your network. It’s easy to deny those devices. No hassle when guests join. They are initially set to unfiltered and not bothered by any of our household WiFi security. Great tool. Hopefully, the monthly service price will keep the developer inspired to grow this product well into the future.

Really appreciate the filters. The bedtimes are great and it’s such peace of mind to be able to see what the kids are doing online. It is also really helpful as parents for keeping some form of control over devices and the floodgate that is the internet! Downsides...could have more options for allowing/disallowing sites and time limits. I wish every app on their phones would be shown on circle. Also, even when the internet is paused (usually because someone is grounded), messages still come through! They can’t respond, but it doesn’t exactly feel like the internet has been taken away! Also, I’ve tried pausing other kids WiFi usage when they’ve come over and it hasn’t don’t anything (once leading to an unpleasant incident because I thought they didn’t have any connectivity 😐). Still so much better than nothing, but lots of room for improvement!

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We have used circle in our home for almost two years. It took a while to get things set up and running for each profile. We had to tweak the rules several times but we eventually got things running smoothly. About a month ago, we had to replace our WiFi router. We shopped for one that was circle compatible. We thought this was a good idea. When everything got set up, all of the features that we knew and loved from circle we now a subscription based feature. It became nothing more than a brick to us at that point. We can no longer set bed times, time limits, or check history. All of our profiles have been deleted. Features that were free now cost $50 per year. We decided to use OpenDNS for our content filtering. It is more user friendly. We don’t have the ability to set time limits but that is something I will have to figure out later.