Hydrow vs WaveSleep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hydrow
Access over 5,000 on-and-off rower workouts led by elite athletes filmed in beautiful locations. Track performance, connect with a community, and share achievements. Compatible with Concept2 PM5 rowers for integrated metrics and leaderboards.
- 5,000+ on-and-off rower workouts
- Elite athlete instructors
- Global scenic filming locations
- Performance tracking
- Rowing community features
- Strava and Apple Health integration
- Concept2 PM5 rower compatibility
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Hydrow offers more than just a full-body workout – access over 5,000 on-and-off rower workouts led by elite athletes and filmed in stunning locations around the globe. Feature overview: • Track your performance and stay connected to a passionate rowing community: cheer on fellow rowers, form racing teams, and review racing stats • Share your achievements on Strava • Apple Health integration for further personalization • Now compatible with Concept2 PM5 rowers, Hydrow offers serious rowers the variety they seek, allowing you to pair your iPhone or iPad for in-workout rowing metrics and participate in competitive leaderboards Whether you aim to build strength, improve endurance, or perfect your technique, Hydrow delivers the benefits of rowing wherever you are.
WaveSleep
Create personalized soundscapes for sleep with a tactile interface. Mix and shape ambient sounds, nature recordings, and white noise generators. Integrates with Apple Health for sleep tracking insights.
- Single dial interface for volume and timer
- Infinite playback with customizable timer
- Mix up to six sounds with individual shaping
- Red-orange interface for low light visibility
- Real-time generated and recorded sounds
- Apple Health integration for sleep stage tracking
- Apple Watch app and widgets
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A sound machine, with the knob still on it. Eighteen sounds made for sleeping through, and one dial you can turn in the dark. ONE DIAL The whole app runs from a single machined ring with haptic detents. Turn it for volume, hold it for the timer, tap a layer to shape it. Big targets, warm light, nothing to read — built for one thumb at 3am. SOUND THAT DOESN'T WEAR OUT Five noise colours, a fan, an air conditioner, an airplane cabin and four struck-bronze tones are generated in real time, sample by sample, for as long as you play them. There is no file underneath, so they never settle into the short, obvious loop you eventually can't un-hear. THE NATURE IS RECORDED Waves on rocks, ocean, gentle rain, night crickets, morning birds, a dawn chorus — real field recordings, because nothing generated sounds like actual water on actual rock. All mastered to the same loudness as the generators, so a mix never lurches. IT IS STILL PLAYING AT 4AM Infinite playback is the default, not a setting you have to find. A stop timer is there when you want one (30m to 8h, or your own), and it fades out over 30 seconds instead of cutting. Playback survives calls, headphone changes and AirPlay handoffs. BUILD A MIX, THEN SHAPE IT Stack up to six sounds. Tap any one to set its volume, tone and swell live while the rest keep playing; hold it to solo it. Auditioning in the library never disturbs the mix you already have. RED LIGHT, ON PURPOSE The interface is red-orange on true black because long-wavelength light is the kind your eyes recover from fastest in the dark — the same reason classic car dashboards glowed red. Three other themes ship free: Ember, Moonlight and Forest. A REAL ALARM, NOT A FADE-IN Pick a wake sound and the time arms an alarm through AlarmKit. It rings whether or not WaveSleep is running, breaks through silent mode and Focus, and carries its own Stop and Snooze. Then the app crossfades the full sound in over your sleep mix, at its own volume — an alarm at sleeping volume is not an alarm. It relays to a paired Apple Watch. A MORNING THAT TAKES TWO TAPS Rate the night on a four-point scale and get on with your day. After a week there is enough signal to name the mix you actually sleep best with, and the card says so in one line — never as a score. WHAT HEALTH MEASURED Connect Apple Health and Insights gains the other half of the night: how long you actually slept, drawn as sleep stages — REM, core, deep — in your theme's own light. And because WaveSleep also knows what you were listening to, it can say things no tracker can: which mix you drift off fastest with, how much longer your well-rated nights actually run. Facts with enough nights behind them — and no score, ever. Read-only, and none of it leaves your device. Works with anything that writes sleep to Apple Health. EVERYWHERE YOU ALREADY ARE Apple Watch app with Digital Crown control and complications. Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets. Live Activity with the timer counting down. Siri and Shortcuts. Lock Screen and Control Center transport. AirPlay. WHAT'S FREE, PLAINLY Free, and not a trial: the original seven sound generators, Gentle Rain, the wake alarm, the full timer, six-layer mixes, one saved mix, all four themes, and the morning check-in. That is a whole sound machine, and it does not expire. WaveSleep Plus adds every recorded sound (the nature library), five more generators (Grey, Deep Drone, Singing Bowl, Temple Bell, Chimes), unlimited mixes, Insights with Apple Health, a custom theme hue — and new sounds as they land. $29.99/year · $4.99/month · $1.99/week, and nothing else. Every price is visible before you tap anything. "Maybe later" is a real button, the same size as the one that takes money. PRIVACY No account. No sign-in. Everything works offline, and the audio is generated on your device. We collect anonymous usage analytics and crash reports, and nothing that identifies you. WaveSleep Custom EULA - https://wavesleep.netlify.app/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Hydrow at 3.6K against WaveSleep's 1. Hydrow also leads on iOS requirement (18.6 vs 26.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Hydrow sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $29.99 per month and WaveSleep sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
WaveSleep holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hydrow has 3.6K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Hydrow ships an update every 3 weeks, WaveSleep every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hydrow | WaveSleep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (3.6K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 59.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3.6K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 187 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hydrow, Inc. | AlphaOriginal |
Customer experience
Hydrow
WaveSleep
Bugs and requests
Hydrow
Reported bugs
3 issues- App crashes during workouts
- Difficulty logging in or syncing account
- Inconsistent video/audio quality
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to search/filter workouts
- More data analytics and tracking
- Integration with other fitness devices/apps
- Ability to manage account on app/website
WaveSleep
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Hydrow
- Digital Basic1 Month trial$29.991 Month
WaveSleep
- WaveSleep Plus$1.997 Days
- Wave Sleep Plus$4.991 Month
- WaveSleep Plus$29.991 Year









