Comparison

TUO Life vs HRV4Biofeedback

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

TUO Life

This app helps improve sleep, energy, focus, and mood by controlling smart circadian lights. It uses patented technology to influence your body's natural rhythms, syncing your biological schedule with your daily activities for better health and well-being.

Highlights
  • Regulates circadian rhythm
  • Improves sleep quality
  • Boosts energy levels
  • Enhances focus and mood
  • Customizable schedules
  • Automatic light mode changes
Features
Read full description

Begin your journey to better sleep, more energized days, sharper focus and improved mood with TUO Circadian Smart Lighting. TUO is partnered with the University of Washington, one of the world's top research centers for vision and neuroscience. Scientists there have recently discovered amacrine cells in the eye. These highly light-sensitive cells are the cells that TUO's patented, industry-leading technology affects to influence your circadian rhythm. TUO is more effective than anything else on the market and is the only circadian light therapy product that works at normal brightness levels and reasonable distance. Put TUO bulbs in your bedroom to get exposure when first waking. Put TUO bulbs in your bathroom to get exposure during your normal morning routine. Put TUO bulbs in your kitchen, and make your family breakfast while getting exposure. Put TUO bulbs on your desk, and check email while taking in light. With TUO, you need to stay within six feet of your light during the majority of your Wake mode. After that, you don't need to worry. Just continue your daily routine, and get the light that you need. Artificial lighting isn't healthy. Our bodies receive signals from the lighting around us. These signals set our internal clocks and regulate when we naturally sleep and wake. When we're exposed to general home and work lighting, we don't get the signals that we need to keep our biological schedule synchronized with our daily schedule. Circadian rhythm disorders are problems that occur when your body's internal clock is out of sync with your environment. Symptoms include excessive sleepiness, insomnia, reduced alertness, impaired decision making, poor school/work performance, elevated stress, inability to meet social obligations, changes in appetite and gastrointestinal function, reduced cardiovascular performance, reduced libido, substance abuse, weight gain, high blood pressure and depression. Prolonged misalignment between your biological schedule and your daily schedule puts you at higher risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, neurodegenerative disorders including dementia, skin issues and more. TUO Circadian Smart Products synchronize your biological schedule to your daily schedule by providing the light signals your mind and body need throughout the day. The TUO Life App sets a customized schedule based on your age, chronotype and general wake and sleep times so that you can set it and forget it. TUO Circadian Smart Bulbs change to the right mode at the right time automatically and can be used in any room. Our morning WAKE mode will give you a boost of energy to kickstart your day. Our all-day ACTIVE mode will keep your focus sharp throughout the day. Our evening CALM mode will help you wind down and fall asleep naturally. GETTING STARTED Launch our app and click sign up to get started. Follow the instructions on the screen to walk through initial setup and add your bulbs. You'll be asked to allow the app permissions throughout the setup process. Make sure you allow all permissions as we won't be able to setup your bulbs without them. Add your family members so that they can benefit from TUO as well. When you add family members, our app generates a customized circadian schedule for them. You can give them app login rights or control bulbs on their behalf. You can also assign them rooms so that those rooms always run on their schedule. Add on/off schedules to fully automate your TUO experience. On/off schedules let your bulbs automatically come on and turn off throughout the day. These can be configured for individual rooms and can be different for different days of the week. This allows your lights to automatically come on when you want them to. Use the app to turn rooms and individual devices on and off. Change your light brightness and color temperature to match your preferences. Override your circadian modes at any time. How you use TUO is solely up to you.

About

HRV4Biofeedback

This app uses your phone's camera to measure heart rate variability and provide biofeedback. It guides you through deep breathing exercises to improve self-regulation and manage stress. Track your progress and explore correlations with your daily experiences.

Highlights
  • Camera-based HRV measurement
  • Real-time heart rate feedback
  • Resonant frequency analysis
  • Biofeedback score
  • Subjective annotations
  • HealthKit integration
  • Bluetooth sensor support
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Improve self-regulation and better cope with stress using HRV4Biofeedback, the camera-based Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback app APP FEATURES: > camera-based biofeedback measurement showing real-time heart rate > spot check measurements at rest > frequency power spectrum > biofeedback score to quantify the effectiveness of the practice in terms of deep breathing and duration > resonant frequency analysis to determine the optimal breathing rate for your sessions > semi-real time HRV analysis > alternative manual breathing rate configuration between 4.5 and 8.5 breaths / minute > subjective annotations, including up to 5 personalized questions > current streak > explore correlations between subjective annotations and biofeedback data > Integration with HealthKit (you can write heart rate, HRV and Mindful minutes) > weekly and monthly summaries > support for Bluetooth sensors > background nature sounds > vibration to guide you through the practice WHAT'S BIOFEEDBACK? Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Biofeedback is a technique that can directly affect physiological and psychological factors through deep breathing exercises and is an ideal strategy to help us self-regulate and better cope with stressful situations​ Practically speaking, HRV Biofeedback consists of providing an individual with real-time feedback on instantaneous heart rate and respiration changes while being instructed to breathe at low frequencies You can learn more about the psychological and physiological benefits of deep breathing and HRV Biofeedback, at HRV4Biofeedback.com HOW CAN I BENEFIT FROM BIOFEEDBACK? Life can be demanding, from both a physical and psychological point of view ​Our health and performance can be affected by how we are able to effectively cope with stressful situations and deal with anxiety, or in broader terms, our ability to emotionally self-regulate is key The goal of HRV Biofeedback is to improve self-regulation, therefore impacting positively our health and performance LEARN MORE: - App features: https://www.hrv4biofeedback.com/faq.html - An introduction to biofeedback: https://www.hrv4biofeedback.com/blog/a-primer-on-heart-rate-variability-biofeedback - How to use the camera measurement: https://www.hrv4biofeedback.com/blog/guidelines-and-best-practices-for-camera-based-measurements Supported devices for the camera measurement: iPhones 8 and onwards HRV4Biofeedback requires to register an account with your email address, so that your data can be backed up safely and retrieved in case anything happens (app issue, changing phone, etc.) The validation of the camera-based heart rate measurement is available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315059917_Comparison_of_Heart_Rate_Variability_Recording_With_Smart_Phone_Photoplethysmographic_Polar_H7_Chest_Strap_and_Electrocardiogram_Methods

Screenshots

TUO Life4 screens
HRV4Biofeedback4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: TUO Life at Free against HRV4Biofeedback's $9.99. TUO Life also leads on rating (3.9 vs 3.4) and ratings volume (161 vs 29). HRV4Biofeedback's advantage is review sentiment (53% vs 35%) and chart position (#167 vs unranked). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

TUO Life is free to download; HRV4Biofeedback costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TUO Life holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: TUO Life has 161 ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 35% of TUO Life's written reviews are positive against 53% of HRV4Biofeedback's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TUO Life ships an update every 3 months, HRV4Biofeedback every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 12, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
TUO Life versus HRV4Biofeedback: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTUO LifeHRV4Biofeedback
PriceFree — better$9.99
Rating3.9 (161 ratings) — better3.4 (29 ratings)
Positive reviews35.3% of reviews53.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings161 — better29
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank—#167 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.6
Further details — not scored
Size31 MB138 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVERGEOPS, LLCA.S.M.A. B.V.

Customer experience

TUO Life

All ratings161 ratings
Positive70.8%
Neutral5.0%
Negative24.2%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive35.3%
Neutral7.8%
Negative56.9%

HRV4Biofeedback

All ratings29 ratings
Positive51.7%
Neutral20.7%
Negative27.6%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive53.1%
Neutral15.6%
Negative31.3%

Bugs and requests

TUO Life

Reported bugs

59 issues
  • App glitches too often, requires restart
  • Lamp doesn’t turn on automatically
  • App loses connection to bulb, requires reset
  • App crashes
  • Bulbs are buggy
Show 54 more
  • App is clunky, functionally limited
  • Requires repeated logins
  • App functions a little slowly
  • Little glitches sometimes, light doesn't turn off when toggled
  • Default calm set to 25% always comes on at 100%
  • On/off schedules are buggy and don’t always work
  • App is not intuitive to use
  • Often does not sync or turn on bulbs after programming
  • App seems a little glitchy, requires going through steps twice
  • Bedroom room setup disappears from app
  • App looks like a template, complicated and limited customization
  • Doesn’t adjust to daylight savings automatically
  • Kelvin values don’t go below 2300
  • App menu pushes into phone status bar
  • Cannot delete a room once added
  • Cannot remove and re-add a bulb
  • Bulb becomes an expensive unscanable paperweight if account deleted
  • App not functioning, only allows turning light off
  • Interface does not properly fit on display size
  • Half the functions listed are not functional
  • Unable to set up profiles
  • Schedule is not working
  • Bulb turns on in the middle of the night
  • Bulb will not connect
  • Doesn’t keep any dimmed settings
  • Scheduling works but fade on/off does not
  • Light goes from 0 to 100 watts immediately instead of fading
  • App has issues connecting
  • App is very clunky and frustrating to use
  • Transitions between lighting modes are mostly pre-programmed
  • App has a mode for setting sleep and wake times but doesn’t track sunrise
  • Default settings do not work
  • Occasionally, light turns on full brightness out of nowhere
  • App is generally super glitchy and hard to use
  • Setup is a massive headache, requires 2.5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
  • App/bulbs don't remember default color temp and brightness
  • App menu pushes into phone status bar, tricky to hit icons
  • Cannot delete a room once added
  • Cannot remove and re-add a bulb
  • Bulb becomes an expensive unscanable paperweight if account deleted
  • App not functioning, only allows turning light off
  • Interface does not properly fit on display size
  • Half the functions listed are not functional
  • Unable to set up profiles
  • Schedule is not working
  • Bulb turns on in the middle of the night
  • Bulb will not connect
  • Doesn’t keep any dimmed settings
  • Scheduling works but fade on/off does not
  • Light goes from 0 to 100 watts immediately instead of fading
  • App has issues connecting
  • App is very clunky and frustrating to use
  • Transitions between lighting modes are mostly pre-programmed
  • App has a mode for setting sleep and wake times but doesn’t track sunrise

Requested features

14 requests
  • Allow customization of wake-up light duration
  • Enable automatic adjustment to daylight savings
  • Redesign the app with a simpler interface
  • Allow saving and defaulting custom colors for specific times
  • Customize colors for 'calm' mode
Show 9 more
  • Add red light function for night use
  • Allow Kelvin values below 2300
  • Track sunrise/sunset for wake-up times
  • Integrate with HomeKit
  • Allow manual adjustment of color temperature and illumination intensity to be saved
  • Add option for user-set programmed gradual decrease/increase in color temperature and intensity
  • Make app accessible via Bluetooth alone
  • Allow users to delete rooms and re-add bulbs easily
  • Improve app to prevent bulbs from becoming paperweights

HRV4Biofeedback

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

TUO Life

No in-app purchases

None

HRV4Biofeedback

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is TUO Life free?
TUO Life is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HRV4Biofeedback free?
HRV4Biofeedback costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, TUO Life or HRV4Biofeedback?
TUO Life is rated higher. TUO Life averages 3.9 out of 5 from 161 ratings, while HRV4Biofeedback averages 3.4 from 29 ratings.
Do TUO Life or HRV4Biofeedback have ads?
Neither TUO Life nor HRV4Biofeedback shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TUO Life or HRV4Biofeedback?
TUO Life ships an update every 3 months, and HRV4Biofeedback every 2 months. Most recently, TUO Life was updated on September 12, 2026 and HRV4Biofeedback on September 25, 2026.

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