The Best Period Tracking Apps to Stay on Top of Your Cycle

Best Overall: Eve by Glow

Key Specs

• Price: $30 monthly for three months; $5 a month with annual subscription; $80 lifetime subscription
• Free Version?: Yes
• Platforms: Android, iOS
  

Why We Chose It

Eve is chocked full of features to help you get in touch not just with your cycle, but many aspects of your sex life.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Free to use
  
• Fun, easy interface
  
• Additional features for tracking you sex life and sexual health
  
• Symptom predictions
  

Cons

• Some features only available with paid version
  
• Some users annoyed by nudges to join community forum
  

Overview

This one earned the title of best overall because it’s so much more than just a period tracker. Eve is an app that also lets you keep tabs on your sexual health, all in an unexpectedly fun emoji format. In addition to monitoring your cycle, it can keep track of your sexual encounters, whether or not you used protection, your sex drive, moods, period symptoms, and when you are ovulating.

It has an extremely easy-to-use interface that is visually driven and makes it simple to record your past periods to determine patterns and help you time your next one. It also has a nifty Forecast feature that predicts the likelihood of common period symptoms you might experience each day, from cramps and constipation to breast tenderness.

The app is free to download, but there are also monthly, annual, and lifetime subscription options that give you access to comparative insights from other women (for all your "is this normal?" musings), private messaging, and additional informational content. 

Best for Trying to Get Pregnant: Ovia

Key Specs

• Price: Free
• Free Version?: Yes
• Platforms: Android, iOS

Why We Chose It

Ovia has been used by millions of women to track their fertility and, if they successfully conceive, the progress of their fetus and pregnancy.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Free
  
• May be covered by insurance
  
• Offers insights into period and ovulation timing
  
• Lots of educational information and guides
  

Cons

• May not be suited to people not trying to conceive
  
• Some data privacy concerns
  

Overview

When you’re ready to have a baby, it’s not always as simple as it would seem to get pregnant. Many women have to try for months or even years before they can become pregnant.

For those women, there’s Ovia: a fertility tracking app that keeps track of your period in addition to exactly when you are ovulating, cervical fluid, cervical position, basal body temperature, and other key factors that can affect fertility. It helps pinpoint the times when you are most fertile and can help you track data to bring with you to your doctor if you find you are having problems conceiving.

It also has tons of informative articles, important stats, facts, and helpful tips to guide you on your journey to pregnancy. If you’re looking to have a baby or just thinking about it, Ovia is a great (and free) app because it allows you to keep tabs on your period until you’re ready to start trying. Plus, it also lets you seamlessly switch over to fertility tracking by keeping all of your info in one app. And, if you do conceive, Ovia Health also has a pregnancy app to track your baby's growth.

Best for Irregular Periods: MyFLO

Key Specs

• Price: $2
• Free version?: No
• Platform: iOS, Android
  

Why We Chose It

Get in-depth insights and ideas for managing your symptoms from first period to pre-menopause with this affordable app.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Low one-time fee to use
  
• Includes information for those with common conditions like PCOS
  
• Suggestions for managing period symptoms
  
• Suitable for all ages
  

Cons

• Some users complain of technical issues
  
• May be features that unexpectedly require in-app purchase
  

Overview

If your period is late, happening too frequently, or not appearing at all, it can be stressful because you don’t really know what’s going on. “Is this normal?” is always running through your head and you can find yourself wondering everything from “am I pregnant?” to “am I starting menopause?”

For a one-time fee of around $2, MyFLO helps you track and identify those random symptoms and analyzes the health implications. Instead of going down the WebMD rabbit hole, MyFlo will explain what those weird cravings mean and why you might be experiencing them, plus possible lifestyle and health changes you can make to manage them. It also gives you a thorough look into what is happening to your body at each stage of your cycle.

If you have PCOS, fibroids, or endometriosis, or if you are going through perimenopause, MyFLO is one of the only apps that addresses these conditions and provides comprehensive information to help you better manage your symptoms. It also offers “functional medicine programs” with diet, exercise, and supplement suggestions to aid you in managing and decreasing the symptoms you are suffering from in each phase of your cycle.

Best for First-Timers: Period Tracker Period Calendar

Key Specs

• Price: $40
• Free version?: Yes
• Platform: iOS
  

Why We Chose It

Period Tracker Period Calendar is a perfect tool for girls who are about to get their first period or have recently started menstruating. It's easy to use, and makes a great supplement to sex-ed.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Easy to use
  
• Educational
  
• Free version includes most essential functions
  
• Birth control reminders
  

Cons

• Costs $40 to access all features
  
• May not be suited to older users
  
• Some find ads overwhelming
  

Overview

Getting your period for the first time can be a very confusing, sometimes scary experience. Sex education does not prepare you for what it’s actually like to experience that milestone.

Period Tracker Period Calendar is the perfect app for girls who are about to hit puberty or have just started menstruating. It’s a bit cutesy in design (read: lots of pink and flowers), but it’s extremely user-friendly and informative. It also allows you to keep track of health stats, a great way to teach teens healthy habits without being preachy.

The calendar makes it super-simple to track past and current periods to help better determine when your next one is due. It also lets you log your symptoms, which can be helpful for girls who are just learning what to expect from their period.

And, as a bonus, it will also remind you to take your birth control pill, which is a handy feature for those that are new to the pill. It's also not a bad feature for those of us who have been on it for a while but still manage to forget it every now and then.

The app is free, and you can get unlimited access to all features for $40 per year.

Best for the Newly Birth-Control Free: Clue

Key Specs

• Price: $10 monthly or $40 annually
• Free version?: Yes
• Platform: iOs, Android
  

Why We Chose It

Clue hones in on subtle signs that your period is about to start and teaches you to recognize, which is particularly helpful if you've recently gone off hormonal birth control.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Helps users learn their particular PMS symptoms
  
• Fertility and ovulation tracking
  
• Accurate period predictions
• Free to use period tracker
  

Pros

• Some in-depth insights only available with paid version
  
• Some symptoms may not be available for tracking
  
• Must have subscription to switch to pregnancy tracking
  

Overview

If you’ve decided to ditch birth control—either because you’re looking to get pregnant or you are just sick of being on artificial hormones—it can be a giant pain as your body readjusts to your natural cycle.

With birth control, you know exactly when your period is coming, so you can prepare for it. Once you stop, your body has to readjust, and it takes some time before you get to your new “normal.” Those who were on continuous birth control, which suppresses your period, may suddenly start to experience all of those symptoms that you may have been missing because you were skipping your period (hello period breakouts).

That's where Clue comes in: This app is beloved by gynos and users alike because it trains you to identify the signals your body is giving you that your period is on its way. It tracks pretty much anything and everything that happens during your cycle, from breakouts and migraines to the heaviness of your flow.

It can also help you find patterns in your cycle and predict your next three cycles. Pretty impressive and exceedingly helpful, especially if you’re just starting to reacquaint yourself with Aunt Flo. The app is free, although there is a Clue Plus upgrade with additional features.

Best for Data: Glow

Key Specs

• Price: $60 annually or $100 lifetime subscription
• Free version?: Yes
• Platform: iOS, Android
  

Why We Chose It

Apps don't get much more comprehensive than Glow, which tracks more than 40 indicators of your sexual health and fertility.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Extremely detailed
  
• Personalized predictions
  
• Large user community
  
• Ovulation and fertility predictions
  

Cons

• Expensive premium version
  
• Geared more toward fertility than period tracking
  

Overview

If you want to know everything that’s happening with your period and can’t resist a good chart, then Glow is the app for you. It does pretty much all of the things—tracking your period and ovulation, helping with family planning, monitoring your sexual activity, and logging over 40 different data points including stress levels, sex drive, body aches, insomnia, nausea, hot flashes, and bloating.

The more you use it, the more data it collects and the more accurate it gets with predicting your cycles and what you can expect. It also compares your stats with other Glow users in your age group, allowing you to see where you fall on the index and to note if there is anything unusual going on you need to let your doctor know about.

All that information allows Glow to create more customized predictions, from how likely you are to get pregnant on certain days to when your next three cycles will probably start. Plus, it tells you what kind of symptoms you can expect on which days. It’s information overload in the best possible way.

Get Glow Premium, which includes all of the app's features, for about $60 per year ($5 per month) or purchase a lifetime subscription for $100.

Best for Couples: Cycles

Key Specs

• Price: $30
• Free Version?: Yes
• Platform: iOS
  

Why We Chose It

Want to take your relationship's intimacy and communication to the next level? Cycles offers a unique way to share your cycle and insights into your mood and body with your partner.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Unique capability to sync with your partner
  
• Offers fertility and family planning insights for both partners
  
• Sleek, easy-to-use interface
  
• Can sync with Apple Health app
  

Cons

• May not work as well for people with irregular cycles
  
• Detailed prediction options only available with Premium
  

Overview

This might sound kind of odd—an app that you can link up to and share with a romantic partner—but those types of programs can be exceptionally helpful in creating healthier communication in a relationship.

Including your partner lets them be a part of your reproductive health and to understand better what’s happening with you and your body. Healthy relationships are based on open communication, so why shouldn’t that extend to your cycle?

It’s also a great way to have your partner be more involved with family planning and understanding your fertility in order to be more educated on why certain things are happening and what that means for your pregnancy goals.

Cycles lets you track your ovulation, common symptoms, most fertile days, and general health and well-being, plus it can help predict when your future cycles are so that you can plan accordingly. Also, it’s a ridiculously intuitive app that looks sleek, sophisticated, and modern (no flowers or hot pink hearts here).

The app is free, but the premium version is around $30 per year.