Apps Our Community Uses

Apps Our Community Uses to Help with Pacing and general Illness Management

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Apps that measure or track heart rate (and usually Heart Rate Variability or HRV)

Visible
(Apple and Android)

Probably the most popular app designed specifically for energy-limiting illnesses. Helps patients monitor and manage their condition.

Tracks your symptoms, fatigue, medication, crashes, and more.
Uses your phone’s camera to measure heart rate (and heart rate variability).
Provides graphical reports and trends over time.
You can contribute your data to global research studies on ME/CFS and Long COVID.
There is a free membership (limited functionality) and a paid membership.
Visible Plus, not available in Canada yet, (they say it’s coming soon), is a combination of a membership and a wearable armband.
- You sign up and they send the Polar Verity Sense armband for continuous heart rate and activity tracking. It streams data in real time, enabling instant pacing notifications.

WatchME
(works on iPhone/App)

An app intended for people with ME/CFS that helps you pace and stay within your energy envelope.

Uses your phone and watch to monitor your daily heart rate, steps and distance.
Does not include Heart Rate Variability (HRV) calculations or tracking.

Welltory
(Apple and Android)

This app focuses on stress and wellness, but is not specifically designed for people with chronic illnesses: “No kidding my “body doesn’t handle stress well!’” said one Long COVID user, who did, however, like the app overall.

This app uses your iPhone’s rear camera or an external heart rate monitor to measure your HRV and provide personalized feedback on your performance, energy, and stress levels. It also integrates with other health and fitness apps to give you a comprehensive overview of your well-being.

Elite HRV
(Apple and Android)

This app is a popular choice for tracking HRV and gaining insights into your health, stress, and nervous system balance. The “coaching and education programs” it offers are, however, geared to healthy individuals and are likely not to apply to an ME or Long-COVID patient.

It uses an external heart rate monitor to measure your HRV and provide live biofeedback, trending, and analytics.

App comparison

Apps that allow you to track symptoms, energy, activity, triggers, mood, sleep and/or medications but do not integrate biometrics

Detailed Comparison Table

App

Good for...

Simple, customizable symptom & mood tracking with trend graphs and correlations.

Holistic health tracker — great for detailed symptoms + meds + appointments + triggers + journaling.

Chronic illness symptom tracking with triggers, foods, meds, weather — broad condition support.

Flexible all-in-one symptom, mood, meds, habits + environment tracking (weather/ pollen integration).

MADE FOR BRAIN FOG and energy limitations!

Simple symptom log & pacing support for energy-limiting conditions.

Made for ME/CFS and Long COVID

Simple daily pacing and symptom tracking (fatigue, activities, sleep, mood) with a calming design.

Free Version

Generous free tier

unlimited tracking (symptoms, mood, meds, sleep, energy)
basic weekly reports, simple graphs
data export

Basic free tier

Basic tracking (symptoms, meds, triggers)
many features prompt paywall (e.g., some notes, extensive analytics)

Fully free forever

Daily symptom logging, meds, treatments, triggers (activity/sleep/stress)
Automatic weather tracking
Visual history export

Fully free (mostly)

Wide tracking across categories
Includes notes, mood, symptoms, meds and environmental data support

Fully Free

Quick daily symptom/energy logs
“Flare mode”
Easy-to-access pattern insights

Free (iOS only)

Daily entries: fatigue, physical/mental symptoms, crashes, mood icons
Simple journal
Basic insights; export to csv (spreadsheet)

Paid Version

Advanced reports
Unlimited goals & experiments
full historic data access, extra notes

Comprehensive analytics and insights, advanced reports
ability to manage complex med schedules
side-effect tracking
care team management

All core features are free

Most functionality is free

Paid: Offers enhanced insights or AI on some platforms

All core features are free

All free (iOS only)

A Comment on Health and Fitness Apps

Apps meant for everyone to track biometrics and health usually focus on increasing exercise, rewarding higher effort, and seeing health improvements.

For people with ME/CFS or Long COVID, these can be helpful apps if used appropriately (to pace and manage your illness). However, because they are designed for healthy people, they are often difficult to apply well and can be disheartening for people with significant energy limits.