The best Natural Cycles alternatives, compared

Why people look for a Natural Cycles alternative

The price

The US listing charges $21.99 a month or $149.99 a year, and core features need a plan (App Store). The annual plan includes an NC° Band. If you aren't using it as contraception, that's a lot to pay for a calendar.

A reading every morning

Natural Cycles works from your temperature and other biomarkers, from a thermometer, its own band, or a wearable such as Oura, Garmin, WHOOP or Apple Watch Series 8 or newer (naturalcycles.com). Some people want to log a period and a few symptoms and stop there.

Trying for a baby, or something else

Natural Cycles has modes for planning and following a pregnancy, postpartum and perimenopause. If what you want is help reading ovulation tests, or one app for periods, sleep and mood, the apps below do that for less.

How we picked

We didn't score or star anything. For each app we read the US App Store listing and the company's own pages, and compared what someone leaving Natural Cycles would ask:

• Birth control or not. Whether it's cleared for contraception, or says it shouldn't be used that way.
• What it reads. Temperature from a thermometer or watch, ovulation tests, cervical mucus.
• The real cost. What's free and what sits behind a subscription.
• Your data. The App Store privacy label and where the data is kept.

We didn't install the apps or buy paid plans. Privacy labels are written by each developer, and Apple doesn't check them.

The six apps, one by one

Her Good Days: the best Natural Cycles alternative for tracking

Best for: anyone who tracks to understand their cycle or to get pregnant, and wants one free app that stays with them into pregnancy and after.

Her Good Days covers every stage, from first periods to after menopause, free with no paid plan and no third-party ads, on iPhone and Android. Private mode lets you use it with no account, so your logs stay on the phone in an encrypted database.

• A period calendar, a chart of your cycle lengths, and a ring on Today with your cycle day and your next period as a range
• Tell it you're trying and it adds ovulation tests, with the result and the time, and estimated fertile days from your past cycles, each labeled Not birth control
• Prenatal vitamins and other supplements on a daily list you tick off
• When you're pregnant: your week from your due date, last period or IVF transfer, your baby this week, appointments, a kick counter and a contraction timer
• A doctor report PDF for the dates you pick

It reads no temperature, and it isn't a contraceptive. In teen mode there are no fertile days or ovulation tests. More on the trying to conceive page, or try the ovulation calculator.

Apple Health Cycle Tracking: already on your iPhone

Best for: anyone with an iPhone, and especially an Apple Watch Series 8 or later.

Cycle Tracking lives in the Health app. You log periods, symptoms, spotting, basal temperature and ovulation tests, and a positive test can move the fertile window estimate (Apple support). With a recent Apple Watch worn to sleep for about 2 cycles, it uses wrist temperature to estimate when you ovulated, after the fact (Apple support). With two-factor authentication on, health data in iCloud is end-to-end encrypted.

Apple is direct about the limit: "Cycle Tracking should not be used as a form of birth control." There's no Android version.

drip: the symptothermal method, on your phone only

Best for: people who chart temperature and cervical mucus themselves and want nothing stored on a server.

• Free and open source, from the non-profit Heart of Code (App Store)
• Combines basal temperature with cervical mucus or cervix readings, and shows fertile days only once it has enough data (drip FAQ)
• Data stays on your phone by default, with a CSV export; the App Store label reads "Data Not Collected"
• iPhone, Android and F-Droid

Its App Store page has only 59 ratings, and its site makes no birth control claim. Expect a plain app with no articles.

Clue: fertile window estimates in a full cycle app

Best for: trying to conceive with a well-known tracker you can keep afterward.

Clue predicts the fertile window and ovulation, and its Conceive mode is listed as a medical device feature "as an aid for conception". It reads temperature, sleep and heart rate from Apple Watch, Oura, WHOOP, Withings and Fitbit. The listing also says plainly: "Clue should not be used as a contraceptive" (App Store).

Pricing: free, with Clue Plus at $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Limit: its privacy label lists identifiers as used to track you.

Flo: logging tests and temperature in the biggest app

Best for: people who want ovulation test logs, temperature and pregnancy tools in one place.

Flo estimates the fertile window from your logged periods, and lets you log LH test strips and basal temperature (App Store). It has an Apple Watch app and about 2 million ratings. In the listing's words, it "is not a method of birth control or conception aid".

Pricing: core tools are free; in-app purchases run from $1.99 to $59.99, with an ovulation add-on at $9.99. Limit: the privacy label lists purchases, location, identifiers and usage data as used to track you. Our Flo alternatives page covers its privacy record.

Premom: an ovulation test reader

Best for: anyone testing LH every day while trying to get pregnant.

• Photograph a test and the app reads it, puts a number on the LH line and calls the day low, high or peak (App Store)
• Charts basal temperature from a smart thermometer, and swaps temperature data with Apple Health
• Free to download; extras such as cycle analysis reports cost $12.99 to $37.99 in-app
• iPhone and Android, made by Easy Healthcare (premom.com)

Its listing makes no contraception claim and it holds no FDA clearance as birth control. Data is linked to you for advertising and marketing, according to its label.

Which Natural Cycles alternative is best for you?

• You want one free app for your cycle, trying to conceive and pregnancy: Her Good Days.
• You want hormone-free birth control: stay with Natural Cycles, or ask your doctor about other methods.
• You have an iPhone and an Apple Watch: Apple Health.
• You chart by hand and want no server at all: drip.
• You test LH every morning: Premom.
• You want a big app with a conceive mode: Clue or Flo.