The best pregnancy apps for tracking, symptoms and baby’s growth

The minute that test turns positive, most of us do the same thing: we download a pregnancy app. Suddenly your baby is the size of a poppy seed, then a blueberry, then a lime, and you have a little daily ritual of checking in on someone you can’t see yet.

Pregnancy apps can be genuinely lovely. They help you understand what’s happening in your body, keep track of appointments and symptoms, and make you feel a little less alone at 3 a.m. But they’re not all equal. Some are packed with ads, some lean heavily on community forums that can spike your anxiety, and some have a rocky history with your most personal health data.

This guide walks through the most popular pregnancy apps, the free expert-backed tools we think every expecting mom should know about, what the research actually says about app quality, and how to protect your privacy. We don’t earn anything from any app or link on this page.

The short answer

• 📅
  Week by weekPick one main tracker

  What to Expect and BabyCenter are free, popular and cover pregnancy through baby’s first year.

• 💙
  Free and expert-backedAdd two nonprofit tools

  Count the Kicks for third-trimester movement tracking and MotherToBaby for medication questions.

• 🔒
  PrivacyRead before you log

  Most pregnancy apps aren’t covered by HIPAA. Share only what you’re comfortable sharing.

• 📞
  Most importantCall, don’t scroll

  If something feels off, call your provider or 911. An app is never a substitute.

What a pregnancy app can (and can’t) do

Most pregnancy apps share a core set of features. Knowing what they are makes it easier to pick the one that fits you.

• Week-by-week development. The classic feature: how big your baby is, what’s developing and what’s changing in your body. Size comparisons and 3D images are estimates based on averages, not measurements of your baby.
• Symptom and mood logs. A place to note nausea, sleep, headaches, swelling or mood. This can be useful to bring to appointments, especially if you jot down when something started and how it changed.
• Appointment and to-do tools. Reminders, question lists for your provider, hospital bag checklists and birth preference templates.
• Kick counters. Tools for tracking your baby’s movements in the third trimester.
• Contraction timers. Helpful in early labor. Follow your provider’s instructions about when to call or head in.
• Community. Forums and birth clubs with other parents due the same month.
• Partner sharing. Many apps let a partner, grandparent or friend follow along.

What apps can’t do: examine you, check your blood pressure, listen to your baby, interpret your symptoms in context or decide whether something is urgent. Even the best app is a notebook and a library, not a clinician.

A note on weight tracking: many apps include a weight log. Weight gain in pregnancy is something your provider will talk with you about, and it looks different for everyone. If logging numbers feels stressful or triggering, it’s completely fine to turn that feature off and let your provider handle it.

How we chose

We looked at the pregnancy apps parents use most, read their app store listings and privacy information, and checked recent research on app quality and privacy. We focused on four things:

1. Trustworthy content. Does the app explain where its medical information comes from?
2. Useful tools. Does it help with real tasks, like tracking symptoms, preparing questions or counting kicks?
3. Cost and ads. What’s free, what’s behind a paywall and how heavy is the advertising?
4. Privacy. What has the company said and done about your data?

Features change often, so check each app’s current listing before you download.

At a glance

Costs and features as listed at the time of writing. Check current app store listings before you download.

The apps

1. 📅All-in-one

   What to Expect

   Best free all-in-one tracker

   The app version of the famous book series. It offers week-by-week development updates with size comparisons and 3D videos, daily tips, symptom information and a very active community organized by birth month and interests. It continues after birth with baby tracking, which makes it an easy app to stick with.

   Good to know: It’s free and ad-supported. The forums are a big draw, but remember that community answers aren’t medical advice.

   See it in the App Store
2. 🎬Daily tips

   BabyCenter

   Best for daily updates and birth clubs

   BabyCenter is known for deep content: daily updates, fetal development images and videos, a free online birth class, a registry checklist and Birth Clubs where you can connect with parents due the same month. It also continues through your baby’s first year with tools like a growth tracker and sleep and feeding guides.

   Good to know: It’s free with ads and product recommendations. BabyCenter and What to Expect are both published by Everyday Health, so you may notice similar features.

   See it in the App Store
3. 📊Health tracking

   Ovia

   Best for detailed health tracking

   Ovia, owned by Labcorp since 2021, covers cycles, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause. Its pregnancy app includes week-by-week content, symptom and health tracking with feedback, an expert article library, partner sharing, an optional PIN lock and Apple Health integration. Many employers and health plans offer an expanded version, Ovia+, with health programs and in-app support from coaches and nurses.

   Good to know: If you use it through an employer or health plan, read how your data is handled. Reporting has noted that aggregated data may be shared with employers.

   See it in the App Store
4. 👶3D visuals

   Pregnancy+

   Best for 3D visuals

   Made by Philips, Pregnancy+ is known for interactive 3D models of your baby’s development week by week, along with daily articles, guides, a bump photo diary, a due date calculator and a kick counter. The company says it has been downloaded more than 80 million times. A follow-on app, Baby+, picks up after birth.

   Good to know: Some tools are part of a premium upgrade, so check what’s included before you pay.

   See it in the App Store
5. 🎁Planning

   The Bump

   Best for planning and registry

   A free app with week-by-week content, 3D development visuals, articles and tools for planning your registry and nursery. It’s a nice fit if you want your pregnancy tracking and baby shopping plans in one place.

   Good to know: Expect a strong shopping and registry focus.

   Visit The Bump

What about Flo? Flo is one of the most downloaded cycle-tracking apps, and it has a pregnancy mode. It also has a history worth knowing before you share data with it, which we cover in the privacy section.

The free expert tools we wish every mom knew about

Some of the most useful pregnancy apps aren’t the flashy trackers. They’re free tools from nonprofits whose whole mission is getting you accurate information.

1. 🦶Movement

   Count the Kicks

   Free kick-counting app from a nonprofit

   Created by Healthy Birth Day, Inc., a nonprofit founded by five Iowa women who had lost babies to stillbirth or infant death, Count the Kicks helps you learn your baby’s normal movement pattern in the third trimester. The app is free and available in more than 20 languages. More on kick counting below.

   Visit Count the Kicks
2. 💊Medications

   MotherToBaby

   Free answers about medications and exposures

   Wondering about a medication, a vaccine, a supplement or something you were exposed to at work? MotherToBaby, a service of the nonprofit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists, offers free, confidential, evidence-based information by phone (866-626-6847), text (855-999-3525), email and chat, plus fact sheets on hundreds of exposures.

   Visit MotherToBaby
3. 🍼Breastfeeding

   LactRx

   Free app for medications while breastfeeding

   Also from MotherToBaby, LactRx gives you easy access to LactMed, the National Library of Medicine’s database on medications, vaccines and other substances during breastfeeding. It’s a great one to download before the baby arrives.

   Learn about LactRx

These tools don’t replace your provider either, but they’re a far better place to start than a late-night search engine spiral.

A closer look at kick counting

Getting to know your baby’s movements is one of the most meaningful things you can track in the third trimester. A change in your baby’s usual pattern can be an early sign that something needs attention.

Count the Kicks encourages expectant parents to track movement daily in the third trimester, ideally at the same time each day, and to time how long it takes to feel 10 movements. The goal is learning what’s normal for your baby, so you notice if something changes. Count the Kicks says research published in BJOG found Iowa’s stillbirth rate dropped by more than 30% in the first 10 years of its campaign, and a study of app users found they were more likely to contact their provider with concerns in the third trimester.

It’s also fair to say the medical guidance here is still evolving. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not currently recommend routine formal kick counting for every pregnancy, and some researchers are pushing for that guidance to change. Ask your provider what they recommend for you, especially if you’re high risk or pregnant with multiples, who may be advised to start earlier.

Your privacy: what to know before you log

Pregnancy apps collect some of the most personal information you’ll ever share: your due date, symptoms, sexual activity, medications, mood, location and sometimes your loss history. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most of these apps aren’t covered by HIPAA, the federal law that protects information held by your doctor and insurer. That means privacy depends on each company’s policies and practices.

What investigations have found

• Mozilla’s review. In 2022, Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included team reviewed 25 period and pregnancy tracking apps and devices and gave 18 of them a privacy warning label. Researchers said many policies were vague about sharing data with law enforcement. Apps flagged included Flo, Glow, Ovia, BabyCenter and The Bump, and one pregnancy app, Sprout, had no privacy policy at all. Only one app, Euki, earned Mozilla’s “Best Of” badge, in part because it stores data on your phone rather than company servers.
• Flo and the FTC. In 2021, Flo settled with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it shared users’ health data with analytics and marketing companies, including Facebook and Google, and agreed to get users’ affirmative consent before sharing health data.
• The 2025 jury verdict. In a class action over the same practices, a federal jury in California found in August 2025 that Meta had violated California privacy law by collecting Flo users’ reproductive health data. Flo and Google settled before the verdict.

None of this means you can’t use a pregnancy app. It means you get to decide what you share.

Simple ways to protect yourself

1. Read the privacy summary. Both app stores show a privacy label. Look for whether data is linked to you or used for tracking.
2. Log only what you need. You don’t have to fill in every field. Skip anything you wouldn’t want shared.
3. Turn off ad tracking. On iPhone, ask apps not to track you. On Android, review ad settings and app permissions.
4. Skip social logins. Sign up with an email instead of a Facebook or Google account.
5. Add a PIN or passcode if the app offers one.
6. Check employer versions carefully. If an app comes through your job or health plan, read what (if anything) is shared with them.
7. Delete your data when you’re done. Many apps let you delete your account and data. It’s worth doing after you switch to a baby app or stop using it.

What the research says about pregnancy apps

Pregnancy apps are hugely popular. Studies estimate that more than half of pregnant women use them, and an Australian survey published in 2024 found that 94% of respondents used apps during pregnancy and nearly two in three considered them trustworthy. The same survey found that medical practitioners were still people’s main source of pregnancy information, with apps coming third.

The quality of what’s inside them is more mixed:

• Commercial by design. A 2024 analysis in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth reviewed popular pregnancy apps and found that all of them were commercial, and relatively few mentioned involving medical experts.
• Few cite sources. A 2021 study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found only 28% of the prenatal apps it reviewed cited literature.
• The postpartum gap. Many apps focus on pregnancy and the baby, with less support for mom after birth. One survey reported that 60% of pregnancy app users planned to stop using them right after delivery.

The takeaway isn’t to avoid apps. It’s to treat them like a friendly, well-meaning guide. Favor apps that explain their sources, cross-check anything important with your provider, and lean on trusted organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the CDC and nonprofit services like MotherToBaby.

Apps, forums and anxiety

For many moms, pregnancy apps are comforting. For some, they quietly crank up the worry. A few gentle suggestions:

• Forums are stories, not statistics. People post when something goes wrong far more than when everything is fine. If a thread is making you anxious, close it and call your provider instead.
• Mute what doesn’t serve you. Turn off daily notifications, weight logs or features that make you compare yourself.
• Be gentle after a loss. If you’ve had a loss, check whether your app lets you update your status or turn off pregnancy content. Some apps handle this better than others, and it’s okay to simply delete them.
• Remember the real people. Your partner, friends, family and a community of moms who get it matter far more than any feed.

What no app replaces

The single most important thing to know about pregnancy apps: none of them can tell you whether you’re okay. If something feels wrong, trust yourself and call.

The CDC’s Hear Her campaign lists urgent maternal warning signs during pregnancy and in the year after. Get medical care right away, and call 911 in an emergency, for signs like:

• A headache that won’t go away or gets worse, dizziness or fainting
• Changes in your vision
• A fever of 100.4°F or higher
• Extreme swelling of your hands or face
• Thoughts of harming yourself or your baby
• Trouble breathing, chest pain or a fast-beating heart
• Severe belly pain that doesn’t go away
• Your baby’s movement stopping or slowing during pregnancy
• Vaginal bleeding or fluid leaking during pregnancy
• Severe swelling, redness or pain in your leg or arm
• Overwhelming tiredness

Check the full list on the CDC’s website and save it to your phone. When you call, say that you’re pregnant (or recently gave birth) and describe your symptoms.

A simple app setup

You really don’t need five pregnancy apps. Here’s an example of a simple, low-stress setup. Adjust it to what works for you.

1. One main tracker. Choose the week-by-week app you like best and turn off the notifications you don’t need.
2. Count the Kicks in the third trimester, if your provider recommends tracking movement.
3. MotherToBaby’s number saved in your phone for medication questions, and LactRx downloaded if you plan to breastfeed.
4. Your patient portal. Your provider’s app or portal is where your real records, test results and messages live.
5. A notes list for appointments. Jot down questions as they come up so you don’t forget them in the exam room.
6. Hotline numbers saved under “Support” so they’re easy to find on a hard day.

Want people, not just apps? Our hospital bag checklist and postpartum recovery essentials guides pick up where this one leaves off.

After the baby comes

Many pregnancy apps switch to baby mode after birth, with feeding, sleep and diaper logs, growth charts and milestone content. These can be really helpful in the blur of the newborn weeks, especially for tracking feeds and wet diapers to share with your pediatrician.

What most apps don’t do well is care for you. Your recovery, your mood, your pelvic floor and your relationships matter too. Keep your own postpartum appointments, write down how you’re feeling and reach out early if you’re struggling. And when you’re done with your pregnancy app, consider deleting your account and data.

Myths about pregnancy apps

1. Myth #1
   What you’ve heard

   “The app said my baby is the size of a lime, so they must be.”

   The truth

   Size comparisons are averages. Only your provider’s measurements describe your baby.

2. Myth #2
   What you’ve heard

   “My health app data is protected like my medical records.”

   The truth

   Most pregnancy apps aren’t covered by HIPAA. Privacy depends on each company.

3. Myth #3
   What you’ve heard

   “If the forum says it’s normal, I don’t need to call.”

   The truth

   Forums can’t assess you. When in doubt, call your provider.

4. Myth #4
   What you’ve heard

   “The more I track, the healthier my pregnancy will be.”

   The truth

   Track what helps. More data isn’t better if it adds stress.

5. Myth #5
   What you’ve heard

   “Paid apps are always more accurate.”

   The truth

   Some of the most trustworthy tools are free, from nonprofits.

The bottom line

The best pregnancy app is the one that makes you feel informed and calm, not anxious or watched. For most moms, that’s one main tracker like What to Expect or BabyCenter, plus a couple of free, expert-backed tools like Count the Kicks and MotherToBaby. Share only what you’re comfortable sharing, turn off what stresses you out and keep your provider’s number at the top of your list.

And remember: the most important pregnancy tools aren’t on your phone. They’re your instincts, your care team and the people around you.

• Pregnancy apps
• Pregnancy tracking
• Kick counting
• Health privacy
• New moms