Comparison

Cafactor vs CaffeineX

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

Head to head
About

Cafactor

This app models your body's real-time caffeine levels using a scientific pharmacokinetic approach. It helps you understand your caffeine absorption, decay, and personal sleep thresholds, adapting to your unique biology and activity. Connect with health data for an even smarter metabolic coaching experience.

Highlights
  • Real-time caffeine curve modeling
  • Personalized physiological parameters
  • HealthKit integration for adaptive coaching
  • Exercise and sleep-adaptive thresholds
  • HRV & Recovery integration
  • Progressive calibration of half-life
  • Offline, private tracking
Features
Read full description

Caffeine Hourglass is now Cafactor — rebuilt from the ground up. What began as a simple caffeine timer has evolved into a full physiological model that adapts to your biology in real time. Version 2.0 isn't an update. It's a new category of health tool. Know your caffeine. Protect your sleep. Log a drink in seconds. Cafactor computes your real-time caffeine curve using a peer-reviewed pharmacokinetic model — complete with a realistic absorption phase, first-order decay, and your personal biological parameters. See whether you can safely have one more coffee, and exactly when your levels will drop below your personal sleep threshold. Personalised to your body Set your sex, height, weight, and age. Cafactor applies the Boer (1984) lean-body-mass formula to calculate how caffeine distributes in your specific body. Add smoking status, hormonal medication, or pregnancy for a half-life that's truly yours. Your tolerance to caffeine — derived automatically from 7-day history — rounds out the picture. HealthKit: exponentially smarter Connect Apple Health and Cafactor transforms from a tracker into an adaptive metabolic coach: • Exercise modifier — Recent vigorous workouts temporarily speed up your metabolism. Cafactor detects this from HealthKit and adjusts your decay curve automatically. • Sleep-adaptive threshold — Last night's poor sleep tightens your safe window today. Great sleep? More room for your morning ritual. • HRV & Recovery (Apple Watch) — Daily heart-rate variability fuses with sleep quality to create a PhysiologicalState score, shifting your optimal intake windows and adjusting thresholds by up to 40%. • Progressive calibration — Recency-weighted regression over 30 days of sleep and HRV feedback automatically refines your personal half-life, growing from Preliminary to Reliable confidence as data accumulates. Pro features Unlimited history · Trend, sleep quality and scatter charts · Last safe caffeine time · Four smart notifications (morning window, safe window, withdrawal, recovery) · Shareable weekly report · Siri shortcuts · Unlimited custom drinks Free, forever, offline Core tracking is always free. No account. No internet. No data leaves your device — ever.

About

CaffeineX

Features
Read full description

CaffeineX helps you understand how coffee, tea, energy drinks, and espresso may affect the rest of your day. Instead of only counting cups, CaffeineX estimates your current caffeine level, shows a clear 24-hour curve, and gives a simple sleep reference so you can decide whether another drink still makes sense. What you can do with CaffeineX: - Log common caffeinated drinks quickly - Estimate remaining caffeine based on your entries - See when your level may move closer to your sleep reference - Check today's total intake and personal limit - Review recent caffeine patterns over time - Add custom drinks when presets are not enough - Sync caffeine intake with Apple Health if you choose - Use widgets for a quick glance at your status CaffeineX is built for people who like coffee but do not want caffeine to quietly take over their evening. It keeps the interface calm, focused, and easy to read, so the answer is visible fast: how much caffeine is likely still active, whether it may affect sleep, and when it may be better to pause. Caffeine estimates are for everyday wellness reference only and are not medical advice.

Screenshots

Cafactor4 screens
CaffeineX3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: CaffeineX at none against Cafactor's 1. CaffeineX also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). 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. Cafactor sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. CaffeineX asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cafactor ships an update weekly, CaffeineX every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Cafactor versus CaffeineX: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCafactorCaffeineX
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNan Yu来 徐

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Cafactor

One-time1
  • Cafactor Pro$3.99
None

CaffeineX

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cafactor free?
Cafactor is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is CaffeineX free?
CaffeineX is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cafactor or CaffeineX have ads?
Neither Cafactor nor CaffeineX shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cafactor or CaffeineX?
Cafactor ships an update weekly, and CaffeineX every 3 days. Most recently, Cafactor was updated on September 25, 2026 and CaffeineX on October 7, 2026.

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