Migraine Buddy is the biggest migraine tracker there is — it claims 4 million users, holds roughly 42,000 US ratings at 4.8 stars, and its doctor exports are the reason many neurologists know it by name. For people who want the most complete data set possible on their condition, it is genuinely good. But it is also a lot: an account before you log anything, a customisable attack record that can run to many screens, a community, a news feed, questionnaires, and a subscription for the features people most often arrive wanting. If you are looking for a Migraine Buddy alternative, here is what Migraine Buddy actually costs, when it is worth keeping, and five apps worth switching to — starting with the simplest, MigrainePal, the one-tap tracker we make.
Is Migraine Buddy free? What MBplus costs and when it's worth it
Two questions land on this page more than any other, so here are the straight answers.
Is Migraine Buddy free? Yes, for the diary. Recording attacks, symptoms, triggers and medication, the diary and MIR exports for your doctor, the community and automatic sleep recording are all in the free app. What is not free is the layer on top: Migraine Buddy's own MBplus page lists weather tracking and forecast, AI end-of-attack prediction, advanced reporting and the coaching programs as features of MBplus, its premium tier. Migraine Buddy's own site lists MBplus at $24.99 for two months or $89.99 a year at the time of writing, auto-renewing, cancelled through your app store's subscription screen. If you subscribed inside the app, deleting the app does not cancel it.
Is it worth keeping? If you are working closely with a specialist and the MIR export is part of that relationship, yes — nothing below replicates it exactly. If your attacks are weather-linked and you want the forecast, that is the MBplus question, and it is worth checking first whether pressure is really your trigger; our free weather migraine test runs the four-box check against your own diary. And if what you actually noticed is that you stopped logging attacks because logging was too much work mid-attack, the problem is not the price. That is the case for an alternative, and which one depends on what you were using Migraine Buddy for.
1. MigrainePal — the one-tap diary with no account
If Migraine Buddy felt like a clinical questionnaire, MigrainePal is the opposite end of the spectrum. When an attack starts you tap once; the app opens an episode with the start time and you put the phone face-down. Pain level, aura, triggers, medication and notes get added later, when you can look at a screen again. The calendar shows the month as marked days rather than a wall of text, the trigger tracker surfaces what actually correlates over weeks, the medication log flags when you are drifting toward overuse territory, and the insights — frequency, average pain, aura percentage, common triggers, medication response — are written in plain language you can show a doctor on screen. Dark Mode, which matters more in this category than any other, is built in. No account, no community, no news. Everything stays on the device, with Apple-encrypted iCloud sync between your own devices if you want it. Free, with an optional upgrade.
Skip it if your neurologist wants a formal MIR export. MigrainePal shows you the insights; it does not generate a specialist's report.
2. MiG — the free tracker with MIDAS and a pressure forecast
If the specific thing driving you away is that Migraine Buddy put the weather behind MBplus, MiG (Migraine Tracker & Diary) is the most direct swap. It logs frequency, duration, severity, triggers, symptoms and aura, charts them, includes the MIDAS score to measure how much migraine is costing your life, and shows a pressure-variation forecast alongside your own sensitivity to pressure shifts. It exports a diary report for any period, has Home and Lock Screen widgets for fast logging, and holds roughly 2,900 US ratings at 4.8 stars. Its own site says it is free and does not collect data. Whether every feature stays free long-term is its call, but today it is the closest thing to Migraine Buddy's full feature set without the subscription.
Skip it if you wanted less to fill in. MiG is customisable and thorough, which is the thing you may have been leaving.
3. Bearable — when migraine is one of several things you track
If migraine is one condition among several — fatigue, IBS, PoTS, chronic pain, mood, a cycle — a dedicated migraine app will always be a partial picture, and Bearable is built for exactly that. It tracks unlimited custom symptoms, medication, sleep, diet, exercise and habits in one place and then does the thing Migraine Buddy's questionnaires only gesture at: it correlates them, so you can see whether attacks follow the short nights or the skipped meals or the new medication. Its free tier is genuinely usable — unlimited custom symptom tracking, by its own FAQ — with an optional subscription its site lists at $34.99 a year, often discounted, with a free trial. Roughly 6,300 US ratings at 4.8 stars, on iOS and Android.
Skip it if migraine is your only condition. The breadth becomes noise, and the one-tap apps above are faster mid-attack.
4. N1-Headache — the 90-day research diary
If what you valued in Migraine Buddy was the rigour, N1-Headache takes it further than Migraine Buddy does. The model is a daily diary — about five minutes, on days with and without headache — for 90 days, after which it separates factors into likely triggers, likely protectors, and things that are probably not associated with your migraine at all. That third category is the one no other app on this list gives you, and it is the one that stops you cutting chocolate for nothing. The output is a PDF Personal Analytical Report built for a healthcare provider, plus a MIDAS score and medication tracking. One honest caveat: at the time of writing, its most recent iOS release was from January 2023. It works, but it is not being actively developed the way the others are.
Skip it if you will not do five minutes every day for three months. The analysis depends on the non-headache days, and it is the days you will forget.
5. Migraine Monitor — when your doctor should see the log
If the reason you tracked at all was your neurologist, Migraine Monitor closes the loop that every export-based app leaves open: it lets your doctor — or its own Headache Navigator — follow your progress between visits directly, rather than receiving a PDF you remember to send. Around that sit the expected pieces: a headache tracker for duration, severity, aura and stress, a medication tracker with effectiveness, a trigger tracker, automatic weather data, shareable reports and an anonymous community. Designed by neurologists, on iOS and Android. The same caveat as N1-Headache applies: its most recent iOS release was from March 2023, and it is the smallest app here by ratings.
Skip it if your doctor is not going to use it. The doctor connection is the whole point, and without it you have a plainer version of the apps above.
How they compare
| Migraine Buddy | MigrainePal | MiG | Bearable | N1-Headache | Migraine Monitor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Complete self-management and clinical reporting | Logging an attack while it is happening | A full free diary with MIDAS and pressure forecast | Correlating many conditions in one log | A 90-day trigger and protector analysis | Sharing progress with a doctor between visits |
| Logging an attack | Customisable multi-screen record | One tap; details later | Widgets for quick entry, detailed form | Daily check-in across symptoms | Five-minute daily diary, every day | Duration, severity, aura, stress |
| Account | Required | None | Site says no data collection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Doctor handoff | Diary and MIR exports | Plain-language insights on screen | Diary report for any period | Reports for appointments | PDF Personal Analytical Report | Doctor follows the log directly |
| Weather | 7-day forecast in MBplus | Log it as a trigger; free four-box test on our site | Pressure-variation forecast, free | Track as a factor | Track as a factor | Automatic weather data |
| Price | Free; MBplus $24.99 per 2 months or $89.99 per year | Free; optional upgrade | Free per its site | Free; optional $34.99 per year | Free to download | Free to download |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android | iPhone and iPad | iPhone | iPhone, Android | iPhone, Android | iPhone, Android |
| Last iOS update | This month | Actively developed | This month | This month | January 2023 | March 2023 |
The bottom line
Keep Migraine Buddy if the MIR export is part of how you and your specialist work, and you either do not need the weather layer or are happy to pay for it. Switch to MiG if you want most of the same feature set — MIDAS, pressure forecast, reports — without a subscription. Switch to Bearable if migraine is one of several conditions and correlation is what you are missing. Pick N1-Headache if you will commit to 90 days and want to know what is not a trigger, or Migraine Monitor if your doctor will actually watch the log. And if the honest reason you are here is that you stopped logging because the form was too long to face with a migraine, the answer is MigrainePal: one tap now, details later, nobody asking you to sign up.
Frequently asked questions
What is the simplest Migraine Buddy alternative?
MigrainePal. Migraine Buddy's attack recording is customisable but long, and it wants an account before you log anything. MigrainePal starts an attack with one tap and lets you add pain level, aura, triggers and medication later, when you can look at a screen again. There is no account, no community, no news feed, and everything stays on your device with optional iCloud sync. If you tried Migraine Buddy and found yourself not logging attacks because logging was too much, that is the shape to switch to.
Is there a free Migraine Buddy alternative?
Several, and Migraine Buddy itself is free for the core diary — its MBplus page lists weather tracking and forecast, attack-end prediction, advanced reports and coaching as the parts behind the subscription. Among the alternatives, MiG says on its own site that it is free and does not collect data, and includes the MIDAS score and a pressure-variation forecast at no charge. Bearable's free tier covers unlimited custom symptoms with an optional subscription its site lists at $34.99 a year. MigrainePal is free with an optional upgrade and needs no account. If the reason you are leaving is specifically the MBplus paywall on weather, MiG is the most direct swap.
Is there a Migraine Buddy alternative without an account?
Yes. MigrainePal requires no account at all — your attack log, triggers and medication history live on the phone, with Apple-encrypted iCloud sync between your own devices if you turn it on, and no data collection. MiG's site also states it does not collect data. Migraine Buddy, N1-Headache and Migraine Monitor are all account-based by design, because sharing with a specialist, a research program or a doctor is the point of those apps. If privacy is the deciding factor, start with the two that never ask you to sign up.
Which Migraine Buddy alternative is best for doctor reports?
Honestly, this is the one job where Migraine Buddy is hardest to replace — its diary and MIR exports were built for that conversation. Of the alternatives, N1-Headache produces a PDF Personal Analytical Report designed for a healthcare provider and separates likely triggers from protective factors, and Migraine Monitor lets a doctor follow your progress between visits directly. MiG exports a diary report for any period. MigrainePal takes a different approach: plain-language insights — frequency, average pain, aura percentage, common triggers, medication response — shown on screen for you to walk through at the appointment rather than a formal export.
One tap. Details later.
A migraine diary you can actually use mid-attack. Calendar, triggers, medication log and plain-language insights — no account, no data collection, Dark Mode built in.
Download MigrainePal on the App Store →Want the head-to-head instead? Read MigrainePal vs Migraine Buddy, the wider roundup in The Best Migraine Tracker Apps, or find out whether pressure is really your trigger in How to Track Barometric Pressure Migraines. Questions? Email us.