Reviews for Circle 1st generation

← Back to Circle 1st generation

20 reviews

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) May 9, 2019

The app should automatically refresh every time it’s opened, or at least have a “refresh” button on the home screen. We have multiple adults in the house using the app, but when anyone opens it, the status of the devices shown on the home screen might not be accurate. I paid over $450 for my […]

Review by Lauren Elkins
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) April 6, 2021

I have a paid subscription. The app took a very long time to open today. It would just spin and spin. After about 5 minutes, it finally opened. I have issues with “pausing” devices, though. I set up a profile for my son with the Family PC on it. When I pause it, it doesn’t […]

Review by Phil Green
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) August 3, 2020

Mediocre at best. I work in IT so its important I have all my devices mapped so setup was a breeze for isolating the devices I wanted in a group to regulate. They have the right idea with this. However, after subscribing to the premium and testing further I notice that time limits and bedtime […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) October 28, 2018

It would be better if you could set time limits within certain time frames of certain days. For instance 9am to Noon-up to 1 hour, then Noon to 5pm-up to 2 hours, then OFF 5pm to 6:30, or whatever. I wish the little circles indicated more clearly what the device is, not just 1 ltter. […]

Review by Gustavo Esdras
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) April 26, 2021

Who controls who? It asks you to create a username, email, telephone and then it says it is a paid app, with very limited free features. But worst thing is that it does not recognize most of my devices, so it is useless. After I uninstalled it, all my devices kept being blocked, so I […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) February 10, 2019

This app can’t get any worse. Issues since I used the app. I set a sleep time for only three devices under one user, but when the sleep time comes, the internet cut off from all the devices at home. The only way to get the internet back was to restart the router, and there […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) August 26, 2019

For an average home user, it’s definitely subpar. The interface is unreliable and hard to fine tune, especially when it comes to easily identifying devices. With that said, If you are willing to fiddle with it, you can find workarounds to most issues, provided you have time. There isn’t much choice out there for this […]

Review by Jacki Cassida
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) January 8, 2021

I am having consistent problems with this app, ever since my free trial ended and now that I paid for it. $50 /year to not have it functioning is not acceptable. My phone says it is unable to connect to Circle, yet my wifi is working just fine and my phone is connected. Then it […]

Review by Ryan Huntley
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) April 3, 2022

This is terrible, it gives so little information on the devices that you can’t tell what is what. All Nintendo products are listed as “Nintendo device” and there’s no way to tell them apart, so if you want to assign rules to one, but not another it’s a guessing game. Then to make matters worse […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) September 28, 2018

Circle came free with our new router so we are trying it out. It has some great features, such as providing me with a tool to pause our family internet by device or as a whole house. I signed up for the 30 day free trial of their premium service and I don’t think I […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) April 12, 2019

Netgear has lost my business with the switch to the Circle app. Now I get to pay for features that were free yesterday. Awesome. Never again Netgear. To be honest the free app wasn’t great either, but the “free” part was good enough. this is ridiculous, and I’m on my way to Amazon to find […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜† (2/5) February 27, 2019

The Circle app is not very intuitive, and not very effective. It takes an enormous amount of work to identify all of the devices attached to your network, then you can only control access per device by assigning each device to a user. There is no option to set limits or block sites for a […]

Review by Chris Tatman
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) June 17, 2024

Like others are reporting, when you switch to a new phone, you will no longer be able to log into the app. It will say it is sending you a code, but you will not get it. Now, I am locked out of the app with no way to admin all the devices I have […]

Review by Scott Jensen
β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜† (2/5) July 16, 2020

App was a little glitchy, but seemed to do the job. Time by app usually doesn’t work. I have the paid subscription (till 2/21) but since late June/early July the subscription states that I don’t have one and would I like to buy another one. This is the third time since I installed it that […]

Review by A Google user
β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜† (2/5) February 21, 2019

We have Circle on Netgear. We love the idea of this app. UNFORTUNATELY, we daily get the error “Can’t Connect to Circle” making the app non-efficient, time consuming & frustrating. This means we are unable to pause or unpause devices. Another issue is if you set time limits on devices and things are running in […]

Review by John Ferguson
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) February 5, 2021

Avoid if at all possible. I’ve been a subscriber for over a year trying to make this thing work and I’m at the end of my rope. Chrome devices frequently can’t connect even when they are properly configured in Circle. Filtering is random, it can’t be trusted. My subscription seems to have vanished from the […]

Review by Blessed Mama
β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† (3/5) June 26, 2024

Overall, I’ve appreciated the app. However, it will periodically be “unable to find circle” and that issue is becoming more frequent! I’ve taken time to reboot my wifi… restart my phone… check for updates… swap from my 2g wifi to the 5g wifi (or vice versa). One of my children has a new device and […]

Review by Theresa P
β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜† (2/5) July 10, 2025

When it works, it’s fine. When anything happens, like you need to sign in again and it doesn’t send the code to your phone number, or you accidentally press the pause button on all the devices (which includes your own that has the app) it’s super annoying to not have a way to sign into […]

Review by Hope
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) August 28, 2025

update 8/26/25: subscribed to be able to limit the time spent online. I open the app today and it’s past 9 am and my child’s computer is connected. there is no history or usage information. Zero. Nothing. And I know that he’s been on today. Unsubscribing. It doesn’t even work for paid subscriptions. (face palm) […]

Review by Ras A.
β˜…β˜†β˜†β˜†β˜† (1/5) September 11, 2025

Simply doesn’t work. It can’t find my router. I know the router is compatible. I’ve logged into the router and enabled it, and it directed me to this app. I’ve restarted my phone, I’ve restarted the router, I’ve turned everything except wi-fi off on my phone, etc… Nothing works. This is app is broken and […]