Aura vs Bark: Pricing Compared

Pricing is where Bark vs Aura starts to make sense fast. Aura costs more because it is built to protect your whole family’s identity and devices, while Bark keeps the focus on kids and parental controls. If you’re looking up bark app cost or asking how much is Bark per month, it really comes down to this: Bark is cheaper because it is doing a narrower job, and Aura is pricier because it is covering a wider set of risks. Both offer free trials, which is still the easiest way to see what fits your household.

Best Value: Head-to-Head

Entry-Level Plans: Bark Premium vs Bark Jr and Aura Individual

If you want the simplest answer on bark app cost, Bark Jr is the low-cost starting point. At $5 per month, it covers the basics most parents begin with: web content filtering and screen time management across unlimited devices. For younger kids, that might just be enough, but if your child is moving into group chats, social apps, or anything you might worry about day-to-day, Bark Jr is intentionally limited, and that is where Bark Premium comes in.

Aura Individual at $12 per month, in my opinion, is a different type of product. It gives you identity monitoring plus the security stack (antivirus, VPN, password manager), but it’s not trying to compete with Bark on comprehenive child monitoring. If you’re reading this as an Aura parental control review, think of Aura Individual as adult and family security first, with lighter parental controls compared to a specialist tool.

It is also worth noting that Aura does include parental control features at the Family tier, such as web content filtering, screen time scheduling, app blocking, and Safe Gaming monitoring for in-game chat, so it is not purely an identity protection product.

If your main concern is keeping younger children safe online through filtering and screen limits, Bark Jr usually wins on value. If you want identity protection for yourself alongside broader device security, Aura Individual makes more sense.

If you are unsure where to start, the trials make this easy. Aura offers a 14 day trial without a card, and Bark’s free trial gives you 7 days to see how it works with your child’s real devices.

Winner: Bark for child-focused families, Aura for comprehensive adult protection.

Mid-Tier Plans: The Real Bark vs Aura Comparison

This is the tier most families end up comparing. Aura Family is around $32 per month and covers identity protection for five adults plus unlimited kids, includes $5 million identity theft insurance, and bundles device security. Bark Premium is around $14 per month and focuses on child safety monitoring across 30+ platforms, aiming to surface the stuff busy parents (like myself) can unintentionally miss, like bullying, explicit content, predatory contact, and other risky patterns in messages and social apps.

The cleanest way to decide is by identifying your personal biggest concern. If identity theft and financial fraud is your biggest fear, Aura’s protection can justify the higher price because that is exactly what it is built for. If your worry is what happens inside social apps, DMs, and messages, Aura’s parental controls can feel too light for the price when Bark’s monitoring is cheaper and built specifically for that job.

Aura focuses its parental control tools more on content filtering, screen time management, device usage, and gaming chat safety, whereas Bark goes deeper into message and social media monitoring.

For me personally, my girls are still young, so web content filtering, screen time management, and location tracking matter to me more day-to-day than deep social media monitoring. But thinking longer term, as they move into group chats, gaming communities, and wider online spaces, a tool like Bark that is built specifically for child safety monitoring feels like the stronger long-term fit.

If you want a deeper look beyond this Bark vs Aura comparison, we break down Aura’s feature set in our full Aura review and Bark’s monitoring approach in our full Bark review.

Winner: Depends entirely on your family’s primary concern.

Premium Plans: What You Actually Get

Aura’s Family plan is easiest to understand if you view it as a bundle. If you’re already paying separately for a VPN, antivirus, password manager, and some form of identity monitoring, Aura can replace multiple subscriptions and keep it all in one place.

Bark Premium is the opposite. It is not a bundle, it is a specialist. You are paying for monitoring that is designed to understand context, not just scan for keywords.

Winner: Both deliver strong value within their areas of expertise.

Overall Cost Efficiency

If you’re still asking how much is Bark per month, the short answer is that it ranges by plan, but Bark Premium sits around $14 per month and Bark Jr sits around $5 per month. Aura Family is around $32 per month, and Aura Individual is around $12 per month. The better value depends on what you are trying to protect.

Aura replaces multiple security subscriptions while adding identity protection. Bark replaces monitoring tools that either do not work properly or feel too invasive, as we break down in our guide on choosing the right parental control app for your parenting style.

If you’re torn, use the free trials to make it real. Aura will quickly show you what is exposed around identity and accounts, while Bark’s 7 day free trial will show what kind of child safety alerts it produces for your own family.

Value Winner: Both justify their costs, but start with whichever risk feels most real in your family today.

Aura vs Bark Features: Head-to-Head

Comparing Aura vs Bark is less about which app is ‘best’, and more about which risks you actually want covered. Most parents are looking for the basics done well, web content filtering, screen time management, gaming monitoring, location tracking, and message monitoring. This table keeps the comparison focused on those parental control categories, while still showing where Aura stands out on identity and device security.

In practice, Aura is the better fit when you want strong everyday controls, web filtering, screen time schedules, app blocking, and an extra layer of protection in gaming environments through Safe Gaming. Bark is the stronger option when your priority is understanding what is happening across messages and social apps, adding location tracking, and getting alerts that highlight real issues without you reading every conversation.

Best for Web Content Filtering: Tie

Web content filtering is one of the first things most parents set up, and in a Bark vs Aura comparison, both tools cover the basics well. You can block categories of sites, restrict adult content, and stop the obvious stuff from popping up when kids are browsing or searching.

The difference is how that filtering sits inside the product. Bark is built around parental monitoring from the start, so filtering is part of a larger system that also focuses on alerts, safety categories, and what kids are doing across apps. Aura’s filtering sits inside a broader family security bundle, which can make it feel like a bonus feature rather than the main event.

Winner: Tie. Both work, the better fit depends on whether you want a parental monitoring tool first, or a family security bundle that also includes parental controls.

Best for Screen Time Management: Tie

Screen time management is where most families live day to day. Limits, schedules, bedtime downtime, blocking certain apps during homework, these are the routines that help avoid constant battles.

In practice, both Aura and Bark give you the core controls most parents need. Bark tends to feel more parenting-workflow focused, while Aura’s screen time controls sit alongside device security and identity protection. If your main goal is simply to get screen time under control, either can do the job, and the free trials make it easy to see which one fits your household routines better.

Winner: Tie. Both handle limits and schedules well, so it comes down to the wider feature set you want around those controls.

Best for Gaming Monitoring: Aura Wins

Gaming is where a lot of parents quietly worry, not just about how long kids play, but who they are talking to, and what they are being exposed to in voice and text chat. This is one of the clearest differences in an Aura parental control review compared to Bark.

Aura’s Safe Gaming feature is designed specifically for gaming environments, monitoring in-game voice and text chat across supported PC games and alerting parents to risks like bullying, predatory behaviour, and toxic interactions. Bark can still help with broader monitoring across messages and social platforms, but it is not as gaming-specific in the way Aura is here.

If gaming is a big part of your child’s online life, this is one of the areas where Aura can genuinely earn its place, especially if you also want the identity and device security bundle.

Winner: Aura for gaming-specific monitoring through Safe Gaming.

Best for Location Tracking: Bark Wins

Location tracking is one of those features you don’t really think about until you need it. School runs, after-school clubs, sleepovers, older kids travelling more independently, it can be a practical safety layer for working parents.

Bark includes location tracking features such as location alerts and geo-fencing style arrive and leave notifications. Aura, on the other hand, doesn’t position itself as a dedicated location tracking solution in the same way. So if location safety is a key reason you are considering parental monitoring in the first place, Bark is the clearer fit.

Winner: Bark for location tracking and location-based alerts.

Aura vs Bark: Pros & Cons

Parental Control Alternatives

If Bark vs Aura is not the perfect fit for your family, Net Nanny and FamiSafe are two other parental control tools we recommend and monetise. This table uses the same Quick Wins categories so it is easy to compare.

If your priority is deep message and social monitoring, Bark remains the specialist. If you want parental controls plus identity and device protection in one place, Aura is the outlier. Net Nanny is strongest for content filtering, while FamiSafe stands out for location tracking. Full breakdowns of all four appear in our best parental control apps guide.

Aura vs Bark Verdict: Is Bark or Aura Better?

After testing both tools across real family setups, the outcome is clear. Aura and Bark both deliver on what they promise, but they solve different problems. One protects family identity and devices while offering solid parental control foundations. The other is purpose-built for modern child monitoring once social apps, messaging, and location come into play.

Aura’s parental controls cover the foundations well. Web content filtering, screen time schedules, app blocking, and Safe Gaming for in-game chats are strong for younger children. It then layers identity protection, device security, and fraud monitoring on top, which no other parental control platform offers in one bundle.

Bark is built for the stage most parents find hardest. Message monitoring, social platform analysis, location tracking, and risk-based alerts across 30+ apps. It focuses on surfacing problems without handing over full private conversations, which keeps trust intact as children grow older.

For my own family, younger children mean filtering, screen limits, and gaming safety matter most right now. As they grow into social apps and messaging, Bark becomes the long-term tool I would prioritise.

Choose Aura if: Identity protection and device security sit alongside parental controls on your priority list, and you want filtering, screen time management, app blocking, and gaming monitoring in one family security bundle. Aura’s 14 day free trial lets you test the full experience.

Choose Bark if: Social media, messaging, online friendships, and location tracking are the main concerns, and deeper monitoring with privacy-balanced alerts is the priority. Bark’s 7 day free trial shows exactly how its alerts behave in real use.

My honest opinion: Aura protects your family’s identity and devices. Bark protects your children’s online spaces. They are different layers of modern family safety. Start with the risk that feels most relevant today, then add the other later if needed. Both tools earn their place.