While pregnancy is a beautiful time in your life, it can also be one of the most stressful. One of the most intimidating things about being pregnant is that you have to prepare for a whole new life. It’s like raising another person—without even knowing what kind of person they will be.
So how do you prepare? Well, luckily we are living in the digital age, where every problem has an app to help solve it. There are apps to help track your symptoms, apps to help you plan your hospital stay, and even apps that can tell you if this week is safe to have sex (if you’re so inclined).
Here are five of the best apps for pregnancy planning:
Best Apps For Pregnancy Planning
Trying to conceive? There’s an app for that. In fact, the fertility app space has never been, well, more fertile. Check out these 10 fertility, period and ovulation trackers that could help you get pregnant.
By Melissa Willets
ADVERTISEMENT
Pin
FB
More
woman on iphone
CREDIT: MANUEL BREVA COLMEIRO/GETTY IMAGES
We have an app for everything now, including baby-making. If you’re TTC—that’s “trying to conceive” for the newbies—and eager to get pregnant as efficiently as possible (and let’s face it, in the age of Google Calendar, isn’t that all of us?), these apps can help you with pretty much everything you need to conceive quickly, except for, ahem, doing the deed itself. That’s on you.
So tap that App Store icon … get ready, get set, conceive!
Period and Ovulation Trackers:
Fertility Friend
What it does: Hopeful moms-to-be observe and record fertility signs, which Fertility Friend uses to predict the best days for baby-making or taking a pregnancy test.
Cost: The basic app is free, but a $45-a-year premium membership gives you VIP access to message boards and advanced features like an intercourse timing analyzer and detailed analysis of your fertility signals, including those that may point to a potential pregnancy.
What makes it different: With 15-plus years of experience and 650,000 pregnancies and counting, Fertility Friend pioneered the concept of online fertility charting.
Glow
What it does: Glow pinpoints a woman’s fertility cycle using personalized data to help them conceive faster.
Cost: Free with the option of signing up for a premium option ($48 per year or $60 for a lifetime membership) with charts, guided meditation for when things get stressful, and the ability to compare your symptoms to others going through the same process.
What makes it different: Glow is brought to you, oddly enough, by the co-founder of PayPal, Max Levchin. The app also engages men to take charge of their fertility, with new support just for them. Like the gals, men log data about their health, which is intended to reveal potential stumbling blocks to conceiving. A super cool feature is that a man’s data can be linked to his partner’s, to produce a full picture of your fertility as a couple.
Clue
What it does: Plugging your data into an algorithm that calculates and predicts your own unique cycle, Clue tracks cramps, emotions, skin, hair, sleep, sex, pain, moods, cervical fluid and more.
Cost: Free
What makes it different: Clue improves your predictions with every tracked piece of your data (through cute emoji indicators), and is even optimized for Apple Watch.
Period Tracker
What it does: Period Tracker takes the guess work out of when to expect a visit from your monthly friend and makes it easier to figure out when you are most fertile using simple data entry and charting.
Cost: Free
What makes it different: Its tracking of ovulation, period, and PMS symptoms go uber micro, including dividing cravings into salty and sweet and showing levels of acne.
Ovia
What it does: Ovia incorporates multiple fertility and key health indicators, like eating and sleeping habits, to predict ovulation and claims it can get users pregnant up to 3 times faster than the national average. Just ask its Harvard-educated CEO, who developed the app’s proprietary algorithms to help him and his wife conceive.
Cost: Free
What makes it different: The company says its algorithm is based on data collected from millions of women who are pregnant or trying to conceive, which it says is “the largest data set that’s ever been collected on this population.”
Fertility Trackers:
Kindara
What it does: In addition to tracking your period and ovulation through charts, Kindara can monitor basal body temperature and cervical fluidto learn about hormone levels in your body and tell you the best time to conceive.
Cost: Free
What makes it different: Kindara works alongside an oral thermometer called Wink, which retails for $129 and syncs automatically to the app.
OvaGraph
What it does: The app uses data from a hand-held monitor, OvaCue, which measures saliva and cervical mucus to predict ovulation up to 7 days in advance. Because peeing on an ovulation strip is so 2014!
Cost: The OvaCue fertility monitor costs $299
What makes it different: OvaGraph is teaming up with author Toni Weschler to become the official charting tool and community for her book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Weschler’s Fertility Awareness Method, which is used in the charting logic, has helped millions of women conceive.
Daysy
What it does: Daysy is a fertility monitor synced to an app, which learns from and tracks your menstrual cycle. Using daily oral temperature readings and data entry, Daysy claims to show if you are fertile or not with an accuracy of 99.3 percent.
Cost: $422.50
What makes it different: The app makes it easy to share your fertility data with your mate. Hubba, hubba.
What’s the most accurate fertility app?
The bottom line is that a lot of these apps do similar functions. But when you’re trying to get pregnant, more information is good. Dr. Nathaniel G. DeNicola, chair of Telehealth for the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, says there’s clinically proven evidence that tracking your cycle improves your chances of getting pregnant. But he warns against putting too much stock in app companies’ claims that they’ll get you pregnant so much faster than another app (or pen on a paper calendar). There’s not a lot of data collected on accuracy that’s not done by the apps themselves.
“I wouldn’t want a patient to see an app company promise them some stellar result that hasn’t yet really been proven,” DeNicola said. “Tracking basal body temperature, tracking cervical mucus thickness, those kinds of things can make the fertility tracking and timing of ovulation more accurate. The app connected to a vaginal thermometer, I can’t really say we have a demonstrated benefit there.”
But again, more information when trying to get pregnant is usually good. So pick the app with the interface that best suits your style and get tracking!
Fit Pregnancy
best fertility app 2020
Considering the number of TV show plotlines involving accidental pregnancies, any couple could be forgiven for thinking a baby is made pretty much the first time you have unprotected sex. Real life, though, is a bit more complicated. Women have a reproductive window of about six days every menstrual cycle, which means that getting pregnant on purpose involves some preparation.1
How do you know when this magical window of fertility is? You start by tracking your menstrual cycles (i.e. keeping a record of your period and a few other monthly changes). With a little know-how, you can begin to understand how long your cycles are, when you typically ovulate, and when you’re most likely to get pregnant.
You can do this work on paper, but let’s face it: Having an app at your fingertips is much easier (plus, it can do all the fertility math for you). If you’re ready to get pregnant—or are even just thinking about it—here are the best fertility apps to download ASAP.
The 7 Best Fertility Apps of 2022
Best Overall: Clue
Best Budget: Ovia
Best Flexibility: Glow
Best Symptom Management: Period Tracker by GP Apps
Best for Birth Control: Natural Cycles
Best Data: Kindara
Best for Irregular Periods: Flo
Best Fertility Apps of 2022
Clue
Ovia
Glow
Period Tracker By GP Apps
Natural Cycles
Kindara
Flo
Final Verdict
Compare Providers
FAQs
Methodology
BEST OVERALL
Clue
Clue
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Basic version is free. Clue plus is about $5 per month or roughly $30 annually.
Features: Comprehensive symptom tracker.
Why We Chose It: We chose Clue because it’s super intuitive and expertly tracks what your body’s doing with respect to your cycle.
PROS
Clear interface
Science-driven algorithms
Comprehensive tracker
Free to download
CONS
Need an account to use
Reminders don’t always work
App can crash
With a clear interface and science-driven algorithms, the Clue app makes it ridiculously easy to track your periods each month—but that’s only the start of what the app can offer. It’s so comprehensive: It’s like having a mini OB/GYN in your pocket.
Every day, you log into Clue and tell the app what’s up: how you’re feeling (cravings, mood swings, energy levels), if you’re bleeding or spotting, if you noticed a bunch of discharge in your underwear this morning, and more. Clue takes all this info, analyzes it, and lets you know exactly what to expect, from cycle patterns and any upcoming fertile windows to your next three months’ worth of periods and notifications about PMS symptoms.
You name it, and Clue will tell you about it. The app is free to download and use on a basic level, with some extras offered via the paid Clue Plus, like monthly fertility summaries delivered by email. You’ll thank us the first time you get a reminder that your period is due (and again several months later, when you’ve become such an expert on your fertility you barely even need the reminder anymore).
BEST BUDGET
Ovia
Ovia
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Free
Features: Period and symptom charts
Why We Chose It: Ovia is an inexpensive app that helps women nail their most fertile days of the month.
PROS
Fertility window predictions
Excels at charting symptoms indicative of fertility
Charts period
CONS
App defaults to info for trying to concieve; if you don’t want that, you have to select “tracking my period” option and turn off fertility content
Most of the apps featured here are free to download for tracking data, with additional features offered for paid memberships. What makes Ovia stand out is that it’s actually 100% free, with everything available to you just by downloading it.
When you input your fertility data into Ovia, it creates fertile window predictions and a daily fertility score, so you can see at a glance how likely you are to conceive. You can track tons of other metrics as well, like exercise, sleep, mood, and meals. You can get support from both the app and the Ovia community for all your PMS and period questions.
What’s more, Ovia really shines when it comes to syncing data: Not only do you get cycle summaries every month, you can export your data and share it with your partner, too.
Again, all of this is available to you free of charge—making it our top choice for a budget pick. We would say Ovia gives you the best bang for your buck, but does that apply if your “buck” is free?
BEST FLEXIBILITY
Glow
Glow
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Basic version is free. Glow Premium is about $60 per year or roughly $80 for lifetime subscription.
Features: Suite of cycle apps.
Why We Chose It: Glow offers a versatile suite of apps that help women track their cycles at every stage of life.
PROS
Tracks multiple stages of women’s cycles
Compares your stats with other users
More customized cycle and symptom predictions
Free to download
CONS
Can be information overload
Have to download multiple apps to track different things
Let’s do some math: if you get your first period when you’re about 13 and finish menopause around 56, that’s a whopping 43 years of fertility. Those numbers are only averages, but still: A woman’s reproductive life is long.
And it changes, too, often beginning with that first period and cycling through sex, pregnancy, and breastfeeding before finally hitting the brakes. Thankfully, the creators behind Glow understand that fertility needs evolve throughout a woman’s life, so her fertility apps should, too.
While Glow can compete with the best of them when it comes to achieving pregnancy, the company also offers apps for tracking pregnancy and baby milestones, plus an app specially designed to help you manage your period and sex life. Literally wherever you are in your fertility journey—or whatever your fertility goals may be—Glow has got you covered.
All of the Glow apps, including Fertility, are free to download and offer in-app purchases for more features. With the free, basic membership, you’ll still be able to do everything you need to track your ovulation and better plan for pregnancy; signing up for a premium membership lets you access private messaging with community members within the app, plus, you can obtain personal support and more in-depth resource articles.
BEST SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT
Period Tracker by GP Apps
Period Tracker
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Basic version is free. Premium is around $10 per month
Features: Comprehensive symptom tracker.
Why We Chose It: Period Tracker by GP Apps is an easy to navigate period-tracking app that takes the guesswork out of your monthly flow.
PROS
Tracks PMS symptoms
Pill reminders
Helps predict fertile days
Free
Simple interface
CONS
A bit basic
When you’re PMS-ing, how much acne do you get? What about constipation? And do you crave salty pretzels or sweet milk chocolate? If you’ve never asked yourself these questions, you’re missing out on a key metric for decoding your periods—and figuring it all out could make you feel better every month when good ol’ Aunt Flo comes to town.
Enter GP Apps’ Period Tracker, which admittedly has a super nondescript name but is not so generic once you download it and get to work. In addition to all of your random PMS symptoms, the tracker is adept at analyzing your daily temperatures and signs of fertility to send you customized info about your next period, fertile days, and upcoming PMS symptoms. The platform itself is simple and easy to navigate, making it a good fit for women who don’t want a lot of bells and whistles with their fertility info.
You can upgrade to a premium membership, but there doesn’t seem to be much benefit: You get all this good stuff right from Period Tracker’s free download. It’s a solid, user-friendly option for anyone wanting to track their fertility and know what’s coming next, reproductively speaking.
BEST FOR BIRTH CONTROL
Natural Cycles
Natural Cycles
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Around $90 per year (includes thermometer) or roughly $10 per month (thermometer is $15 extra)
Features: Basal thermometer.
Why We Chose It: Natural Cycles is a helpful birth control tool for women who’d rather go au naturel.
PROS
Intuitive period tracker
Basal body thermometer with subscription
Levitt’s class gets right to what helps anxiety
Fertile/not fertile days clearly noted
CONS
Need a subscription
A bit expensive
Sick of worrying about the side effects of hormonal birth control and stressing about the effectiveness of barrier methods like condoms?2 The Natural Cycles app is a real win-win, serving as an all-natural form of birth control that puts you right in the driver’s seat of your fertility: You’ll have all the info you need to know when you’re fertile and when you’re not.
Here’s the deal: When you use this app, you basically use the fertility awareness method of birth control, which requires you to get familiar with your body’s signs of fertility, like daily temperature and cervical mucus.3 (When you sign up for Natural Cycles, part of the expense includes a basal body thermometer to give you a super accurate temperature reading). You input your temperature and any other key fertility signs, and the app works its magic to tell you if today is a “green” day or “red” day (i.e. if you’re possibly fertile or not and if you should use protection if you have sex).
Since Natural Cycles works as birth control and includes a basal body temperature, it’s not free. It is, however, cheaper than a lot of OTC and prescription forms of birth control at roughly $90 per year (with the thermometer included) or about $10 per month (with a one-time charge of around $15 for the thermometer).
BEST DATA
Kindara
Kindara
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Basic version is free. Premium is about $5 per month or roughly $50 per year.
Features: Lots of data-driven charts
Why We Chose It: Kindara offers in-depth information on all the details surrounding your cycle and fertility.
PROS
Lots of detailed information provided
In-depth symptom tracker
Good for dealing with fertility issues
Customized information
Free to download
CONS
Information can be hard to decipher
Not for those looking for a simple experience
If you love tracking your fertility and crunching numbers, then Kindara is the app for you. Kindara specializes in taking your raw numbers and giving you back painstakingly detailed charts that will help you work with your healthcare provider to treat any number of fertility-related issues, from irregular periods and anovulation to perimenopause.
By tracking your basal body temp plus your cervical changes, you can see your fertility represented in all kinds of color-coded visuals and receive truly customized information about your menstrual cycle. You can also import your data from an Apple Watch, share your charts with your partner or physician, and connect with fellow users to analyze each other’s charts to your heart’s content.
Kindara is free to download and its best features are included at no charge; there is a premium option, which includes more complex tracking options, like vaginal sensation and mood, along with the option to sync your cycle to the lunar calendar. If you’re willing to shell out for Kindara’s Wink digital thermometer, you can link it to the app and let it upload your daily temperature without having to manually input your data.
BEST FOR IRREGULAR PERIODS
Flo
Flo
Learn More
Key Specs:
Cost: Basic version is free. Flo Premium and Pregnancy Assistant are $50 per year.
Features: AI tracker.
Why We Chose It: Flo uses AI technology to make it easier for women with irregular periods to track their cycle and fertility if desired.
PROS
Tracks cycle symptoms
Pregnancy tracker
AI plays fertility detective
Has useful data and graphs
Good for women with irregular periods
CONS
Sometimes reminders stop working
Premium/pregnancy assistant are a bit pricey
At first glance, Flo works like every other fertility tracker, taking your data and turning it into info you can use to predict your periods and fertile windows. But instead of using a fixed algorithm to determine your fertility, Flo uses artificial intelligence to get to know you, playing fertility detective with all the symptoms you track every month.
It’s a big difference: For women with irregular cycles, it can be tricky to rely on an app to paint an accurate picture of your fertility. Most will use the data you input to calculate the average length of your cycles (or use the average length of most other women’s cycles), and then calculate all your future fertility data based on that. If your cycles are longer than 32 days or—especially—if they vary in length, an app’s fixed algorithm may not be able to customize its predictions for you.
That’s not the case with Flo. Its makers claim that all women can use the app to better understand and predict their fertility, including women with irregular periods. You should still be extra careful relying on an app to tell you about your fertility if you have irregular ones, but at least you can count on Flo to take that into consideration. Plus, the app does it all for free.
Final Verdict
A fertility app is a great way to keep your fertility at top of mind when you’re busily going about your life. It’s far more efficient to keep your period and symptom charting all in one digital place, especially when that place is so well-designed that it can predict when you’ll be most likely to conceive.
While all these apps do some version of this, we found Clue to do it the most intuitively. It’s science-backed algorithm is hard to beat, and it’s simple interface makes it almost second nature to use. The more you tell Clue about how you’re feeling, the better it can help predict your cycle and most fertile days. Plus, since it’s free to download, you can gain a ton of insider knowledge without dropping a dime.
Compare Providers
Best Fertility Apps Cost Features
Clue Best Overall Basic version is free. Clue Plus is $5 per month or $30 annually. Science-driven algorithms
Ovia Best Budget Free Period and symptom charts
Glow Best Flexibility Basic version is free. Glow Premium is $60 per year or $80 for lifetime subscription Suite of cycle apps
Period Tracker by GP Apps Best Symptom Management Free or $10 per month for additional features Comprehensive symptom tracker
Natural Cycles Best for Birth Control $90 per year (includes thermometer) or $10 a month (thermometer is $15 extra) Basal thermometer
Kindara Best Data Basic version is free. Premium is $5 per month or $50 per year. Lots of data-driven charts
Flo Best for Irregular Periods Basic version is free. Flo Premium and Pregnancy Assistant are $50 per year. AI tracker
FAQs
What Are Fertility Apps?
Fertility apps are programs available for download on smartphones and tablets to help you track your menstrual cycles. They are usually centered around a monthly calendar, so you can input key fertility symptoms—basal body temperature, bleeding or spotting, cervical mucus—and receive individualized information about where you are in your menstrual cycle.
Most apps also take fertility tracking one (or several) steps further, inviting you to input things like PMS symptoms and daily wellness info to gain an even clearer picture of your health. In some apps, you’re able to connect with a private online community or receive trusted health advice about your fertility from professionals.
What Is the Purpose of Fertility Apps?
Most women today are more comfortable with digital recordkeeping platforms compared to pen-and-paper ones, so a fertility app can be a more comprehensive and confidential way to chart your menstrual cycle than writing everything down on a calendar.
Many fertility apps also do the calculating legwork for you, helping to predict when you might ovulate or be fertile, when you can expect your next period, or what your constellation of symptoms, cycles, and charts might mean for your overall picture of reproductive health.
Keep in mind, though, that most apps use standard algorithms to predict fertility checkpoints like menstruation and ovulation; if you have irregular or longer-than-average cycles, your data may not align with the app’s calculations.
Who Uses Fertility Apps?
Any woman who menstruates can benefit from using a fertility app, since the majority of them are flexible enough to accommodate whatever data you choose to enter. Commonly, women who use fertility apps want to:
Keep track of their monthly periods
Manage PMS symptoms
Avoid pregnancy (with or without additional forms of birth control)
Achieve a pregnancy (with or without additional fertility measures)
Track signs and symptoms of menopause
Gain a clearer understanding of their overall health as it relates to their menstrual cycle
How Much Do Fertility Apps Cost?
Most fertility apps are free to download and use on a basic level (i.e. inputting calendar data about periods and ovulation). Many remain free even as users access additional features, like message boards, reminders about fertile days, health info, and predictive data. Some options charge for in-app purchases of advanced features and some come with associated expenses (i.e. app-linked thermometers or lifetime memberships).
When Should You Use Fertility Apps?
If you get a period, you should use a fertility app. Reproductive health tells women a lot about their overall wellness, including their hormone and thyroid levels, mental health, and dietary, sleep, and exercise needs.
That said, a fertility app is not a substitute for regular visits to an OB/GYN or reproductive health physician. If you have tried to conceive for more than one year without achieving pregnancy, have extremely painful PMS symptoms or excessive menstrual bleeding, have irregular periods, or think you may be pregnant, make an appointment with a doctor.
Remember, too, that all the technology in the world can’t guarantee the accuracy of a fertility app. If you rely exclusively on an app to avoid or achieve pregnancy, you may not end up with the results you’re expecting. Fertility apps should be a tool used to supplement your knowledge about your reproductive health, not the final word on your fertility.
Methodology
When it comes to using an app to track your health information, you want one that will have your back when you need it most (or in this case, your ovaries). We would love to say we chose apps that guarantee results, but the accuracy of a fertility app will only be as good as the data you input. Plus, fertility can be fluid from month to month, changing with stress, illness, travel, sleep, and a ton of other factors…in other words, it’s not an exact science.
Still, we had some important things in mind as we reviewed the options; here’s how we narrowed them down.
Cost: Other than Natural Cycles (which includes the cost of a basal body thermometer and is intended to be used as a natural form of birth control, not just a period tracker), we didn’t choose any apps that charged upfront for you to input your basic data. Some of the apps have paid, premium-level memberships with additional features, but at the very least, you can track your cycles in these apps for free.
Security: Whatever your reason for wanting to download a fertility app, it’s safe to say you want your health info kept secure (unless you’re specifically choosing to share it with others in the app’s community for advice or support). All of the options we selected promise to keep your private info just that: private.
Empowerment: As we said, you can’t judge an app based on results, but you can judge one based on how well it helps you get to know your reproductive health better. All of the apps we included will get you more intimate with the workings of your own body, which can—fingers crossed—help you achieve the results you want, from avoiding pregnancy to conceiving.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines