For parents

Quiet, always-on protection for your child's phone.

Purus is an iPhone browser that blocks explicit content, ads, and unsafe searches, with no account and no off switch inside the app. Try it free for 14 days. Whether your family's values come from faith or simply from care, it's a way to hand over a phone with the web already tidied up.

Download on the App Store
Family plan: $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Covers multiple devices, with every feature included, after your 14-day free trial. See pricing.

Ages 8–12

A first phone, handled gently.

For the parent who wants something simple, set up once, that doesn't need daily attention.

A first phone, a lot to worry about

You're busy, and you want something simple that works without you checking on it every day.

Clunky built-in filters

Controls that are fiddly to set up, or easy for a curious kid to find and undo.

One accidental tap

Most exposure isn't a child looking for something. It's a search or a link that goes somewhere unexpected.

It happens occasionally that a legitimate site gets blocked. Tap 'Report it' on the blocked page and we review it quickly; false positives are usually cleared in the next filter update. You can also send a note through the Feedback page.

Inside Purus there's no toggle for any of the filtering. Safari, though, is a separate app that Purus can't control, so on a child's phone we recommend turning Safari off in Screen Time (steps below). DNS protection, once enabled, also blocks explicit domains in other browsers, but it can be removed in iOS Settings, which is why a Screen Time passcode matters.

Most filtering happens instantly on the device. DNS filtering can add a small delay the first time you visit a new site, similar to a VPN, and it speeds up as results are cached. Most people don't notice a meaningful difference. We haven't published battery measurements and won't quote a number we can't back up.

Ages 13–17

A safety net, not surveillance.

For the parent who wants to be a mentor, and knows their teen may test the limits.

A teen who knows phones better than you

If there is a way around a filter, they may find it. You want fewer ways around.

Mentor, not helicopter

You'd rather build trust than monitor every tap. You want a safety net they don't feel hovering.

Life inside apps

So much of a teen's phone time is in apps, not browsers. You want honest answers about what a browser can and can't cover.

Purus is a browser, and its eight layers run inside Purus. Apple doesn't allow any app to control what happens inside another app. In the Purus browser, TikTok, X, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram are blocked, and YouTube is held to Restricted Mode. To limit or remove those apps on the phone itself, use iOS Screen Time alongside Purus.

Inside Purus, the filtering has no off switch. The ways around it are outside Purus: opening another browser, removing the DNS profile in iOS Settings, or deleting the app. Screen Time can close each of those: turn Safari off, prevent deleting apps, and set a Screen Time passcode your teen doesn't know. No setup is airtight, and we don't claim otherwise.

Many parents find it goes better when it's a conversation first: tell your teen before you install it and explain why. Purus doesn't send you reports or screenshots of what they do, so it works as a quiet safety net rather than surveillance. We're building a parent dashboard with more controls and reporting as a separate tier, for families who want more visibility; it isn't available yet.

Setup

Four steps, then it runs itself.

  1. Install Purus on their phone

    Start your 14-day free trial from the App Store. No account to create.

  2. Turn on DNS protection

    Settings → General → VPN & Device Management → DNS → enable “Purus DNS Filter”. Purus walks you through this on first launch.

  3. Make Purus the default browser

    Settings → Default Browser App → Purus, so links from Messages and Mail open with protection on.

  4. Pair it with Screen Time

    Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Allowed Apps and Features → turn off Safari. Then, under iTunes & App Store Purchases, set Deleting Apps to Don’t Allow, and use a Screen Time passcode your child doesn’t know. Menu names can vary slightly between iOS versions.

Purus significantly reduces exposure to explicit content but cannot guarantee complete filtering of all online content. Learn what each layer does on How It Works.

Start your 14-day free trial.

Download on the App Store