The 5 Best Period Tracking Apps to Try in 2025

Have you noticed some weeks you feel clear and focused, and other weeks you feel foggier, crampier, or more on edge? It is not random, it is a rhythm.

Tracking helps you see your baseline, anticipate shifts, and make better day-to-day choices. At Samphire, we use a brain-first lens. Hormones send messages, the brain decides how to act. For a primer, see How the Brain Controls Hormones and What Your Brain Is Really Doing.

Why you need a Period Tracker

Tracking turns vague feelings into patterns you can work with. Your logs become a map of pain, mood, motivation, and focus across phases. For brain-friendly routines that build resilience, start with Train Your Brain Like a Muscle. If cramps or mood shifts are your main issue, connect hormones and pain to the brain’s response in How Do Hormones Work for Pain.

How we chose

When evaluating a menstrual period tracker app, look for:

• Personalization - the ability to track the symptoms most relevant to you, not the “default” ones necessarily.
• Clinical clarity that explains why symptoms change by phase, not just a calendar
• Actionable accuracy with phase-pattern insights and short practices you can actually do
• Intuitive design that reduces taps and friction
• Privacy and consent you understand at a glance
• Optional brain-first support if you want a hormone-free, drug-free path for pain and mood
• A weekly learning loop that is easy to repeat

Overview of the top 5 period tracking apps of 2025

Our guide reviews Samphire, Bearable, Embody, Clue, and Flo, covering a brain-first app-plus-device pathway (Samphire), correlation-focused logging for chronic conditions (Bearable), a privacy-by-default local-first tracker (Embody), science-led predictions and analysis (Clue), and a mainstream TTC/pregnancy-friendly tracker with Anonymous Mode (Flo).

1. Samphire

Samphire is the only menstrual health platform that takes a brain-first approach to cycle wellness, connecting pain, mood, focus, hormones, and more. It exists to close the research gap with clinically researched technology that meets real-life at home, with less time lost. The app works even without the company’s range of neurotechnology devices. When paired with a device, like Nettle™, it aims to build cycle resilience through brain-based care.

You log your experiences in your own words. The app registers that data, surfaces intuitive phase-pattern graphs, and suggests actionable practices you can follow, based on your current phase of the menstrual cycle. The core idea is to align your experiences with the brain’s responses, by phase.

The app’s main page shows your phase badge, a Daily Practice card, and a calendar where you can log your symptoms, with editable flow intensity for when you’re menstruating. The Activity Centre organizes active practices (breathwork, meditation, visualization, sound) and a knowledge library with phase tags and topics like sleep, anxiety, perimenopause, cycle syncing, nutrition, motherhood, and so on. The setup includes private onboarding and a research consent, a secure HealthKit connection, and an optional integration process with Nettle™ and Lutea™ (only available in the US from Oct ‘25).

The Samphire App offers integration with its cutting-edge neurotechnology device, Nettle™. This clinical-grade headband targets DLPFC (Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex; mood/focus) and M1 (motor cortex/pain) via gentle, non-invasive stimulation. Sessions are 20 minutes a day, 5 days per cycle, at home. The device is hormone-free, drug-free, and medically certified, designed to build cycle resilience over time. There is also integration with the Lutea™ neurotechnology device, available in the US from Oct ‘25.

APP BEST FOR: Women seeking lasting, hormone-free, drug-free relief from pain and mood symptoms, not just data logging.

• Pricing & Membership: The app is free to use a 30 day trial, and then $6.99 a month. Nettle™ device can be purchased for £449 (includes 1-year membership, 90-day return) or rented-to-own.
• Platforms: iOS and Android.

2. Bearable

Bearable is a symptom and health-tracking platform designed first for people managing chronic conditions. Period tracking is an optional module inside the broader app. It focuses on recording cycles for you to correlate your phases with your health outcomes, rather than forecasting fertility. You log menstruation (or manually mark the start of your cycle if you don’t menstruate), and Bearable estimates the phases from your inputs. You can also mark ovulation manually if you track BBT or tests. Irregular-cycle mode removes the estimates entirely for full manual control.

Bearable does not make period or symptom predictions. It shows simple estimated dates based on your stated cycle length, and only switches to a new cycle when you confirm bleeding. The app’s “Impacts” view lets you correlate your cycle phases (including a “Week before period”) with any changes in the symptoms you may notice, to spot patterns in your own data. UI includes a Period section with a phase diagram, a “Cycles + Stats” view for averages/variation, and a dedicated calendar tab.

The data in the app is encrypted. You can delete cycle data (including on servers) from the app at any time and add a passcode lock.

Period tracking in the app is still being rolled out (you may not see it yet). The estimates are basic (date math, not predictions), and Bearable is not a fertility tracker. The ovulation “window” is informational only.

• Availability: iOS and Android.
• APP BEST FOR: People with chronic conditions who want private, optional cycle logging and personal correlations, without fertility predictions.
• Technology Integration: Mobile app; no additional device offered.

3. Embody

Embody is a women-designed menstrual wellness app built around a “privacy by default” philosophy. It is local-first, encrypted on your device, offline, and open-source. You can access the app for free or avail a membership as well.

Embody’s tracking centers on body literacy rather than algorithmic forecasts. You record your experiences across the phases of your cycle and access supportive guidance (the Cycle Support Library) spanning mental health, nutrition, and fitness. Members can unlock Encrypted Cloud Backup (client-side encrypted before leaving your phone), Custom Symptom Tracking, and Dark Mode. The UI emphasizes clarity and simplicity, with an intentionally calm, private space for logging and learning.

Since Embody is local-first, backup/restore (and any cross-device continuity) requires opting into Encrypted Cloud Backup.

• Availability: iOS and Android
• APP BEST FOR: People who want a private community-supported tracker with local encryption and a values-driven, education-forward experience.
• Technology Integration: Mobile app; no additional device offered.
• Pricing: Free core app; Pay-What-You-Can Membership at $5, $10, or $15/month adds the library, encrypted backup, custom symptoms, and Dark Mode.

4. Clue

Clue offers science-led tracking and education. With Clue Plus, you unlock Advanced Cycle Predictions, Analysis views, unlimited custom tags, reminders, cycle sharing, and expert content.

Clue helps you notice deviations from your baseline and supports clinical conversations. Advanced Cycle Predictions let you plan up to 12 future periods directly in the Calendar View. The Analysis tab surfaces typical cycle statistics and an easily referenced history for provider visits. You can track 200+ cycle-related experiences and create unlimited custom tags to capture what matters to you.

Clue emphasizes evidence-based content and states that Clue Plus uses gender-inclusive language and is designed for anyone with a cycle.

Despite being a tracking-and-planning app with advanced features, Clue lacks a regulated, at-home neuromodulation pathway.

• Subscription: Clue Plus is a subscription with premium features.
• Devices: iOS and Android.
• APP BEST FOR: deep logging, analysis, cycle sharing, and expert content.
• Note: No additional neurotechnology devices offered.

5. Natural Cycles

Natural Cycles is the first and currently the only FDA-cleared birth-control app. It uses body-temperature trends plus period data (and optional LH tests) to calculate a daily fertility status. You can measure with a basal thermometer or passively via Apple Watch Series 8+ or Oura Ring; effectiveness rates are the same across devices: 93% typical-use, 98% perfect-use. Subscriptions are offered monthly or annually and are FSA/HSA-eligible in the US. iOS and Android.

APP BEST FOR: People who want hormone-free contraception with TTC and pregnancy modes in one app, and who like the option to sync from wearables instead of taking oral temps.

Pricing & Membership: Subscription (monthly or annual); US users can use FSA/HSA.

Platforms: iOS, Android.

Comparison table

Why Samphire stands out

If you want relief, not only records, Samphire is designed to help you feel better day to day.

• Brain-first care that meets you where you are. Learn how brain networks respond by phase in What Your Brain Is Really Doing and put that understanding to work inside the app
• Short realistic routines. A weekly loop you can stick with that helps you build resilience over time
• Optional at-home support for pain and mood. Nettle™ provides a non-invasive hormone-free drug-free pathway that fits into real life
• Privacy you can understand. Explicit consent and opt-in integrations during onboarding
• Start helping today. The app works on its own. Add the device later if you want a clinical at-home option

For a deeper dive on motivation and mood chemistry, see Is Dopamine Really the Happy Hormone.

Key takeaways

• Samphire is the best pick when you want more than tracking. Its brain-first app plus an at-home, medically certified, non-invasive, hormone-free, drug-free device aims to reduce pain, stabilize mood, and improve focus with short, guided sessions each cycle. The app also works on its own.
• Bearable is for people who want private correlations, especially with chronic conditions. It offers optional period logging, no predictions, an Impacts view to link phases with symptoms, and manual controls (including an irregular-cycle mode).
• Embody is the open-source choice: local-first, on-device encryption, with an optional encrypted backup. It favors body literacy and a calm UI over algorithmic forecasts.
• Clue (Plus) suits planners who want advanced predictions, analysis views, and custom tagging to prepare for upcoming periods and talk clearly with clinicians.
• Flo is a mainstream option for everyday tracking, TTC and pregnancy tools, partner education, and Anonymous Mode for stronger privacy signals.