Comparison

Empirical Health vs Patterns

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

Head to head
About

Empirical Health

Optimize your heart health by combining Apple Watch data with advanced blood test biomarkers. Receive daily health reports, detailed plans to reduce heart disease risk, and access to real medical care. Track nutrition with AI analysis.

Highlights
  • Apple Watch health reports
  • Advanced blood test analysis
  • Personalized heart disease risk reduction plans
  • AI nutrition tracking via photo upload
  • Access to real medical care
  • Heart rate and sleep tracking
  • Care plans for various health conditions
Features
Read full description

80% of heart disease is in your control. Empirical combines dozens of biomarkers from your Apple Watch and an advanced blood test to help you optimize your heart health. We summarize all Apple Watch vitals--the heart rate monitor, sleep, VO2 max (cardio fitness), ECGs (electro cardiogram), mental health, HRV, oxygen, blood pressure alerts, and more--into a daily health reports. Our advanced heart health blood test measures ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP (inflammation), eGFR, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and more. Then, use your data to create a detailed plan to reduce your risk of heart disease: * Cut cholesterol and blood pressure * Boost VO2 max (Apple Watch cardio fitness) * Track nutrition, including calories. Here are the major features of Empirical Health. METRICS: APPLE WATCH HEALTH REPORTS Summarize your Apple Watch vitals into an instant health report. Metrics summarizes 40+ biomarkers into one health score, including resting heart rate, heart rate recovery (cardio recovery), ECGs (electro cardiograms), irregular rhythm notifications, heart attack risk (based on the American College of Cardiology's heart attack risk calculator), HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, ApoB, LP(a), sleep duration, sleep onset, deep sleep, REM sleep, sleep apnea risk, breathing disturbances, oxygen saturation (SpO2), respiratory rate, and VO2 Max (cardio fitness), HRV, temperature, depression, and anxiety. Keep a pulse on your health! REAL MEDICAL CARE FROM REAL DOCTORS Get real medical care from real doctors. Medical care is available in 30+ US states. Our doctors can order labs (e.g., blood tests), imaging, and prescriptions if medically necessary. HEART RATE MONITOR & PULSE TRACKER Track your heart rate (pulse), sleep stages, workouts, and journal your symptoms. Use Empirical as a POTS tracker, overall health monitor, and heart analyzer. The today screen gives you a high resolution heart rate (cardiogram), daily deep/REM sleep, and a customized symptom tracker with tags. AI NUTRITION TRACKER Just upload a photo of your meal, and we'll analyze it for fiber, saturated fat, potassium, sodium, calories, macros, and more. Use us as a cal AI alternative. CARE PLANS for HEART HEALTH, SLEEP APNEA, BLOOD PRESSURE, CHOLESTEROL,, MENTAL HEALTH, and MORE Manage hypertension (high blood pressure), lower cholesterol, and take ECGs (electro cardiograms). CHOP protocol. ABOUT EMPIRICAL HEALTH Empirical Health's mission is to prevent one million heart attacks. We're founded by a doctor and an engineer who previously worked at UC San Francisco, Google, Kaiser, Cardiogram, the HealthCare.gov rescue team, and more. COMPATIBLE APPS & APPLE WATCH SENSORS We're compatible with Apple Watch, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra, and can also import and analyze data from third party sleep, health, and fitness apps such as Autosleep, Athlytic, Bright, Cardiogram (HeartIQ / MigraineHQ), SleepWatch, Tachymon, Welltory, Sleep++, Cal AI, Function, Visible, and other heart rate & HRV monitors. Empirical works with all Apple Watch / iwatch health sensors: heart rate monitor (pulse), ECG (electro cardiogram), HRV, blood oxygen saturation, activity, deep sleep, REM sleep, sleep stages, afib history, vo2 max (cardio fitness), heart rate recovery (cardio recovery), temperature, depression and anxiety risk, sleep apnea alerts, breathing disturbances, and more. We also work with blood pressure cuffs that connect with the Apple Health app. Please always check with a doctor in addition to using the app and before making medical decisions. You can talk with a doctor directly in the app in most US states.

About

Patterns

Easily log daily symptoms, habits, and other factors with a few taps. Discover personalized insights into what triggers your migraines, pain, mood, and more. Visualize your health patterns over time and gain a better understanding of your well-being.

Highlights
  • Log symptoms with colored bubbles
  • Track anything: symptoms, food, meds, habits
  • Discover trigger correlations
  • Visualize patterns over months
  • Log from Home Screen widget
  • Add notes or photos to days
  • Export data as spreadsheet
Features
Read full description

Find what triggers your flares. Patterns is a simple symptom tracker that finds what affects your migraines, gut, pain, mood, sleep and energy. Tap what happened today. Patterns does the rest. LOG YOUR DAY IN A FEW TAPS • Every tracker is a colored bubble: tap the ones that happened, then save the day • Watch your day fill with color as the bubbles fly into the calendar • Track anything your way: symptoms, foods, meds, habits, or 1–5 ratings like pain or anxiety • Drag bubbles wherever you like • Log from the Home Screen widget without opening the app • Add a note or photo to any day DISCOVER YOUR TRIGGERS • "Bloating is more likely the day after dairy." • Patterns looks at all of your days at once: effects that show up days or weeks later, triggers that build up, and triggers that only matter together • It learns your cycle, too: what shows up before your period, and what makes it late • A heads-up when something that usually leads to a symptom just happened • Every insight shows the numbers and the exact days behind it SEE WHAT IT'S STILL CHECKING • Patterns tells you how sure it is about every insight • It notices links that are still forming, and says how many more days would confirm or rule them out SEE PATTERNS OVER MONTHS • Every logged day becomes a ring of colors • Switch between month and year to see your seasons at a glance • A recap at the end of each month PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no sign-in • Everything stays on your iPhone • No ads, no tracking • Export your data as a spreadsheet anytime Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://patternsios.netlify.app/support#privacy Patterns shows correlations in your own logs. It isn't a medical device and doesn't give medical advice.

Screenshots

Empirical Health4 screens
Patterns4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Patterns at 5.0 against Empirical Health's 4.4. Patterns also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). Empirical Health's advantage is ratings volume (603 vs 1). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Empirical Health sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Patterns asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Patterns holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Empirical Health has 603 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Empirical Health ships an update fortnightly, Patterns every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Empirical Health versus Patterns: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEmpirical HealthPatterns
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (603 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews35.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings603 — better1
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size138 MB2 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperEmpirical Health, Inc.Anna Xu

Customer experience

Empirical Health

All ratings602 ratings
Positive85.0%
Neutral4.5%
Negative10.5%
Written reviews34 reviews
Positive35.3%
Neutral8.8%
Negative55.9%

Patterns

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Empirical Health

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Apple Watch not fully functional
  • Sleep data inaccurate compared to other apps
  • Scrolling issues
  • App freezes when scrolling
  • Page freezes when trying to scroll
Show 4 more
  • App is laggy and unresponsive
  • Claimed HRV is incorrect
  • Does not sync with Apple Health for some data
  • Downloading leads to payment, not onboarding

Requested features

8 requests
  • Family share option
  • Low and high heart rate alarms
  • Better Shortcuts app capabilities for logging
  • Symptom tracker
  • Ability to customize base pace and heart rate zones
Show 3 more
  • Option to download reports easily
  • More explanations for notices
  • Focus on fewer features and make them good

Patterns

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Empirical Health

Subscriptions10
  • Empirical Pro7 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Empirical Subscription$9.001 Month
  • Empirical Pro (monthly)7 Days trial$9.001 Month
Show 7 more
  • Text Based Care$20.001 Month
  • Empirical Pro - $24.99 / year7 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Empirical Pro7 Days trial$25.003 Months
  • Empirical Pro - Six Months7 Days trial$54.006 Months
  • Empirical Pro - Annual7 Days trial$56.001 Year
  • Empirical Pro7 Days trial$84.001 Year
  • Empirical Pro w/ doctor visits7 Days trial$124.996 Months
None

Patterns

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Empirical Health free?
Empirical Health is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Patterns free?
Patterns is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Empirical Health or Patterns?
Patterns is rated higher. Empirical Health averages 4.4 out of 5 from 603 ratings, while Patterns averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Empirical Health or Patterns have ads?
Neither Empirical Health nor Patterns shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Empirical Health or Patterns?
Empirical Health ships an update fortnightly, and Patterns every 4 days. Most recently, Empirical Health was updated on November 3, 2026 and Patterns on November 1, 2026.

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