Apple Health vs Balance vs Vindi: which perimenopause app is right for you?
An honest 2026 comparison — including where each one is genuinely better than the others.
Short answer: Use Apple Health for free, ambient tracking that quietly flags possible perimenopause. Use Balance for the best free education and a downloadable health report, especially in the UK. Use Vindi when you need to prove what you're feeling at a US appointment and find out whether your HRT or treatment is actually working — the one thing none of the others measure.
Since Apple added perimenopause features in 2026, "just track your symptoms" became something your phone does for free. So the real question isn't which app logs symptoms — they all do. It's what each one does with that data, and which gap it fills for you. Here's the honest breakdown.
Side-by-side comparison
| Apple Health | Balance | Vindi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detects / flags perimenopause | Yes — ambient, from logged data | Educational — guidance & checklists | Not a diagnosis — a tracking tool to share with your doctor |
| Daily symptom logging | Yes | Yes — broad symptom set | Yes — fast, recognition-based |
| Scored symptom severity index | No | No single 0–100 score | Yes — the Vindi Perimenopause Index (0–100) |
| Doctor-ready one-page report | No — raw charts | Yes — free Health Report | Yes — built for a clinician's 30-second read |
| Treatment-response verdict ("is my HRT working?") | No | No | Yes — before/after Index for every treatment you try |
| Anonymized share for community | No | No | Yes — one-tap hide-your-name share mode |
| Primary market & clinical context | Global, device-bound | UK-leading (NHS context) | US-first, English |
| Sells your health data? | No — on-device | See their policy | No, never — export or delete anytime |
| Price | Free (with iPhone) | Free; premium ~£90/yr | Free; Proof $69/yr; Insight $119/yr |
How to choose, in one line each
Apple Health
Best free, zero-effort baseline. If you have an iPhone, start here — Vindi is designed to build on top of it, not replace it.
Balance
Best free education and the most established UK option. Unbeatable for learning what's happening to your body.
Vindi
Best when you need to be believed at a US appointment and to know whether your treatment is actually working.
Where Vindi is genuinely different
We're not going to claim Vindi out-educates Balance or replaces Apple Health — it doesn't. Vindi does one thing the others don't: it turns months of how you feel into a scored Perimenopause Index, then watches that score across every treatment you try and tells you, in plain language, whether it helped, made things worse, or changed nothing. That treatment-response verdict is the part that's missing everywhere else — and it's exactly what makes a follow-up appointment productive instead of "let's give it more time."
Apple Health can import into Vindi as a starting point. Balance can teach you the questions. Vindi gives you the evidence and the answer to "is this working?"
Start free — see your first Index in minutesNo card, no password. Just a magic link to your inbox.
Common questions
Is Apple Health enough to track perimenopause?
For many people, yes, as a free baseline — and in 2026 it can flag possible perimenopause from your data. What it doesn't do is score symptom severity over time or tell you whether a treatment worked. That's the layer Vindi adds.
What's the difference between Balance and Vindi?
Balance is the strongest free education-and-logging app, with a free downloadable health report and deep UK clinical context. Vindi is US-first and built around a scored Index plus a treatment-response verdict. Balance helps you learn about menopause; Vindi helps you prove what's happening and whether treatment is working.
Which app shows if my HRT is working?
As of 2026, Vindi is the one built around this: it compares your Index before and after you start a treatment and reports improved / worsened / no clear change. Here's how that works →
Do these apps sell your data?
Vindi never sells your health data, and you can export everything or delete your account anytime. Apple keeps Health data on-device. Always check each app's current privacy policy.
Sources & last checked (June 2026): Apple Health — apple.com/ios/health; Balance / Dr Louise Newson — balance-menopause.com. Competitor pricing and features change frequently; figures above were accurate at the time of writing and are approximate where noted (~).