Comparison

Migraine Help vs Salwa

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

Head to head
About

Migraine Help

This app predicts migraine attacks up to five days in advance by analyzing factors like barometric pressure, sleep, and cycle phase. It automatically identifies potential triggers and generates doctor-ready reports to help you manage and understand your migraines better.

Highlights
  • 5-day migraine forecast
  • Barometric pressure tracking
  • Automatic trigger identification
  • Doctor-ready reports
  • Quick mid-attack logging
  • Adaptable to cycle changes
Features
Read full description

Find what's actually driving your attacks — and get the data to prove it. Attacks blur together. There's no clean baseline to compare against, no obvious culprit, and no way to tell whether the wine, the weather, or the bad night of sleep was the one that did it. Most migraine apps are glorified diaries — you log the attack and the data goes nowhere. Migraine Help is a trigger-finding app first. TRIGGERS DON'T HIT ALONE — THEY STACK Rarely is it one thing. It's a pressure drop on top of short sleep on top of a cycle day. Migraine Help tracks how those loads pile up over time and shows which combinations precede your attacks — with honest confidence levels, so you know what's real and what's still a maybe. THE LIST GETS SHORTER, NOT LONGER Every attack is compared against your own non-attack days. That means suspects get cleared, not just added. Test one variable at a time and let the data confirm or rule it out, instead of cutting things out forever on a hunch. BAROMETRIC PRESSURE THAT ACTUALLY HELPS Pressure is the biggest driver for a lot of people. Migraine Help tracks it hour by hour and flags incoming shifts days ahead — proof your body isn't reacting for no reason. DOCTOR-READY REPORTS IN ONE TAP Headache days, identified triggers with confidence levels, hormonal patterns, medication effectiveness — a clean PDF your neurologist can read in 30 seconds. Useful for appointments, and for the documentation preventive treatments require. BUILT FOR THE MIDDLE OF A MIGRAINE One tap from the lock screen opens straight to a pain slider. Log a checkpoint, mark whether meds helped, done. WORKS WITHOUT A CYCLE Menopause, hysterectomy, pregnancy, postpartum, birth control — when cycle data isn't there, the engine leans harder on sleep, heart rate, and pressure. WHAT MIGRAINE HELP TRACKS Trigger correlation with honest confidence levels Trigger stacking and daily load Barometric pressure forecasts — incoming shifts, not just current readings Cycle phase and hormonal patterns Sleep, heart rate, HRV, and wrist temperature via Apple Health Medication effectiveness over time Payment charged to your Apple ID at confirmation. Subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in App Store account settings. IMPORTANT Migraine Help is for informational use only and is not a medical device. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your doctor for migraine management. Privacy Policy: https://jacksmengel.github.io/migrainehelp-legal/privacy-policy.html Terms of Service: https://jacksmengel.github.io/migrainehelp-legal/terms-of-service.html

About

Salwa

This app guides you through a 90-second practice to train your brain to let go of unresolved thoughts and emotions. It uses a timed breathing exercise and offers options to permanently delete or save your reflections.

Highlights
  • 90-second guided breathing timer
  • Write and release unresolved thoughts
  • Save reflections as 'Moments'
  • Visual 'Pond' to reflect progress
  • Activity tab for emotion tracking
  • End-to-end encryption for privacy
Features
Read full description

Salwa is a 90-second practice for training your brain to let things go, not just feel better for a moment. THE METHOD Write down what you're carrying. Anything unresolved. Anything you keep coming back to. Then sit with it. A breathing timer runs while you stay present with what you wrote. Ninety seconds by default, longer if you want it. Then let it pass through you. When the timer ends, you decide. Release it and it's permanently deleted. Or save it as a Moment and return when you're ready. Letting something go feels different from just forgetting it. That difference is the whole practice. THE POND The pond reflects where you are. Release something and the water settles. Keep showing up and it goes still. Step away for a while and it ripples again. The pond doesn't judge you. It only reflects. YOUR MOMENTS The reflections you save stay with you. Come back when you're ready. Sit with them again. Release them when the time is right. You can hold up to 7 Moments at once. More than that and holding becomes collecting. The constraint asks you to stay honest about what still matters. YOUR ACTIVITY After a few weeks, the Activity tab shows which emotions have been coming up most. It's there when you want to look. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN A widget sits under the same sky the app does. The light moves through the day, and it tells you where your pond stands. Tap it to sit, or to start writing. There is a lock screen version too. PRIVACY Everything you write is encrypted before it leaves your phone. Salwa can't read your reflections and neither can anyone else. When you release something, it's gone for good. WHY SALWA This isn't another motivation app. Motivation fades, usually right when you need it. What Salwa builds instead is the resilience to break the emotion loop, the part of you that keeps replaying something long after it's done anything useful. The memory stays. The loop is what lets go. THERE'S AN OLD ZEN STORY Two monks are traveling together and come to a river, where a young woman stands at the bank, unable to cross. Without a word, the older monk offers his help, picks her up, carries her across, and sets her down on the other side. They walk on. An hour passes. Another. Finally the young novice monk can't hold it in. "How could you carry her? We've taken vows." The older monk says: "I set her down at the river. Why are you still carrying her?" Most of us are the young novice monk. We carry things long after we could have put them down. Not because we have to. Because no one ever taught us how to set them down. That's what Salwa is for. Salwa offers a 14-day free trial with full access to all features, followed by an auto-renewable subscription: $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple ID account settings. Privacy Policy: https://salwaspace.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://salwaspace.com/terms

Screenshots

Migraine Help4 screens
Salwa4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Salwa at 100% against Migraine Help's 57%. Salwa also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and ads (none vs shown). Migraine Help's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (80 vs 2). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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. Migraine Help sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Salwa sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Salwa holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Migraine Help has 80 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Migraine Help's written reviews are positive against 100% of Salwa's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Migraine Help ships an update every 3 days, Salwa every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Migraine Help versus Salwa: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMigraine HelpSalwa
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (80 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings80 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB21 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJack MengelQuan Ho

Customer experience

Migraine Help

All ratings80 ratings
Positive85.0%
Neutral7.5%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative42.9%

Salwa

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Migraine Help

Subscriptions6
  • Weekly Discount Price 2$3.997 Days
  • Weekly Discount Price$4.997 Days
  • Weekly7 Days trial$9.997 Days
Show 3 more
  • Monthly3 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Yearly$29.991 Year
  • Yearly$59.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Membership$149.99
2 purchases

Salwa

Subscriptions2
  • Salwa Monthly$5.991 Month
  • Salwa Annual$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Migraine Help free?
Migraine Help is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Salwa free?
Salwa is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Migraine Help or Salwa?
Salwa is rated higher. Migraine Help averages 4.4 out of 5 from 80 ratings, while Salwa averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Migraine Help or Salwa have ads?
Migraine Help shows ads; Salwa does not.
Which is updated more often, Migraine Help or Salwa?
Migraine Help ships an update every 3 days, and Salwa every 3 months. Most recently, Migraine Help was updated on September 26, 2026 and Salwa on September 13, 2026.

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